Glutamine 101

Glutamine is the most abundant non-essential amino acid in the human body. This means, during times of being stress free, you do not need to supplement or consume this amino. That being said, it becomes a conditionally essential amino acid in times of stress and many of us who are overly stressed are deficient in glutamine and need to be supplementing with it.

The benefits of having a healthy and thriving glutamine threshold within the body are endless, from gut health, to recovery, to reducing stress and IBS, and acting as an antidepressant, it's an amino that you don't want hindered due to stress levels.

Glutamine Benefits

As mentioned above, being stressed will suppress your body's glutamine production which cause a multitude of issues. Supplementing with glutamine to equalize your body will have positive effects in the following areas:

Gut Health

One study cites: In gut physiology, glutamine promotes enterocyte proliferation, regulates tight junction proteins, suppresses pro-inflammatory signaling pathways, and protects cells against apoptosis and cellular stresses during normal and pathologic conditions. As glutamine stores are depleted during severe metabolic stress including trauma, sepsis, and inflammatory bowel diseases, glutamine supplementation has been examined in patients to improve their clinical outcomes.

Immunity

As we all know, over 70% of your immune system stems for your gut. If that is out of whack, it is almost a guarantee to have a poor immune system. One study states: During catabolic/hypercatabolic situations glutamine can become essential for metabolic function, but its availability may be compromised due to the impairment of homeostasis in the inter-tissue metabolism of amino acids. For this reason, glutamine is currently part of clinical nutrition supplementation protocols and/or recommended for immune suppressed individuals.

IBS

L-glutamine may help with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Tissues in the intestine use this amino acid as a fuel source to function well. L-glutamine also appears to have a role in maintaining proper barriers within the intestine.

IBS is one of the most common intestinal disorders.

Symptoms of IBS may include:

• Bloating
• Constipation
• Cramping
• Diarrhea
• General irregularity
• Chronic stomach upset
• White mucus in stool

L-glutamine may help people who experience these symptoms regularly, or who’ve received an IBS diagnosis. In some instances, it’s believed that IBS itself could be the result of an L-glutamine deficiency.

L-glutamine deficiencies can happen for a number of reasons:

• Shock
• Trauma
• Major infections
• Vigorous exercise
• Radiation treatment
• Chemotherapy
• Significant stress

Source

Anti-depression and Stress

Glutamine supplementation has also been proven to display anti-depression effects in a recent animal study. The study quotes: Expectedly, Gln supplementation showed antidepressant effects against CIS; it increased glutamatergic neurotransmissions with Glu and Gln increment in the mPFC and attenuated depressive behaviors. Additionally, a different study showcases benefits of glutamine supplementation to combat chronic stress.

Prenatal Benefits

In a recent animal study, glutamine supplementation had multiple benefits in late gestation as well as fetal development. You can read more about the study, here.

*As always, when it comes to pregnancy, please consult with your doctor with any and all supplementation.

Daily Dosage and Timing

The recommended serving size is 5g (which ours is). Depending on what you are trying to accomplish with glutamine will determine who many servings you should take per day. For most, it is best to take 1 scoop glutamine intra (during) your workout and 1 scoop before bed (during rest, when it can go to work to fight over-training issues and to help repair muscle fibers). If you find yourself wanting to facilitate progress on several aspects of this list, 3 servings per day, spread out, may be best. The product is tasteless so you can virtually mix it with anything!

Our glutamine is all a 100 serving tub, so if you were to take 3 servings per day, it would last over a month!

EEAs

As many of you know, we pride ourselves on our EAAs (essential amino acids). As glutamine is a conditional non-essential amino, it is not in our EAAs. You can pair glutamine with your EAAs, protein, collagen, etc! 

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