What is L-Glutamine?
L-glutamine is an essential amino acid that produces antioxidant molecules inside cells. Some report it’s a semi-essential or conditionally essential amino acid, but take it in stride and consider it necessary.
In high doses, L-glutamine helps prevent severe health concerns, such as sickle cell disease, trauma and surgery patients. L-glutamine is also the most abundant and versatile amino acid in your body.
It contributes to producing other amino acids, mainly formed and stored in the skeletal lungs and muscles. It helps support your intestinal health and immune system. As a universal biological antioxidant, it is also a detoxifying agent (x). Those who take L-glutamine capsules with a healthy diet notice substantial positive results.
History of L-Glutamine
Research and isolation of the 20 amino acids started in the 1800s. These individuals made subsequent discoveries of each component by separating and defining each property of the amino acid. That way, they define each component’s role in benefiting the body.
In 1883, two German chemists, Ernst Schulze and E. Bosshard, isolated L-glutamine, an essential amino acid. They used sugar beet juice (x). The isolation of L-glutamine and other amino acids has enabled science to determine the miraculous benefits of taking these as supplements.
L-Glutamine Benefits
L-glutamine, an essential amino acid, is a chemical component that releases into the body, influencing the main metabolic organs. Organs like the liver and muscles produce glutamic acid. The acid then releases into the lungs, brain and muscles. Your muscles consume the most L-glutamine, thanks to them needing the most repair (x).
The amino acid also helps repair the gut after the component metabolizes in the liver. Then, a bulk of L-glutamine maintains gut health, specifically the intestines. It’s essential to support the wholeness of the intestinal wall. That way, L-glutamine can prevent selected toxins from passing into the bloodstream (x).
How the Body Responds to L-Glutamine
Some call L-glutamine an amino acid and others say it’s an essential amino acid or conditional essential amino acid. Such ambiguity occurs because, depending on the body or lifestyle of the individual will influence how L-glutamine synthesizes into the system.
Your body responds accordingly to what you eat, capturing the available nutrients. If you have a healthy diet, most likely your body has enough L-glutamine generating in the system. Or if you have a healthy diet but experience tremendous stress, work out extensively or compete in sports, then you may need to supplement with L-glutamine. Check with your healthcare provider before starting or changing any vitamin regime.
How Dose L-Glutamine Form in the Body?
Some days you eat enough protein; on others, your consumption is low, concentrating more on carbohydrates. Other times you eat a lot of dairy or sugar, cheat days. No matter what you eat, your body responds to these different foods, generating the proper enzymes to capture nutrients in each kind of food.
Your body responds appropriately to your consumption and captures all your nutrients. Then, glutamine can build up in your system because of the enzyme glutamine synthetase. The enzyme builds the amino acid, helping it to process by harnessing nitrogen within the cells. The enzyme speeds up and causes a chemical reaction of glutamate and ammonia to form glutamine (x).
Hence, L-glutamine generates a lot of protein, like glutamine synthetase, while delivering nitrogen atoms to enzymes that boost nitrogen-rich molecules, such as amino acids and DNA bases. Glutamine synthetase performs like a computer, regulating the amounts of nitrogen-rich molecules (x).
Glutamine synthetase is a huge enzyme, and when it correctly functions, the body hums like a well-tuned car. A proper diet will ensure the enzyme keeps your body moving in the right direction.
Here’s a quick outline of the potential benefits of L-Glutamine:
- Increases energy and athletic performance
- Supports gut health
- Reduce sickle cell related pain
- Helps with workout recovery
- Reduces fat and food cravings
- Alternative to Treating Diabetes Mellitus
Decades of research support taking L-glutamine capsules for better health. With that in mind, let’s take a comprehensive look at the benefits of L-glutamine.
Supports Gut Health
What is a leaky gut? Some medical fields consider leaky gut a theory, while others believe it’s a valid health concern, particularly alternative medicine. It’s a situation where your intestines “leak,” so the lining is no longer impenetrable. The theory is the gut lining becomes irritated and leaks because of the overgrowth of bacteria and yeast. Thus, the lining has cracks and holes, allowing toxins, bacteria and partially digested food to permeate underneath the tissues (x).
Stress, alcohol, food allergies, malnutrition and antibiotics are some factors that can cause leaky gut with consuming L-glutamine as the intervention (x).
A leaky gut causes several health issues (x):
- Food Sensitivity
- Skin Conditions
- Digestive Issues
- Weight Gain
- Nausea
- Fatigue
- Nutritional Deficiencies
- Headaches
- Joint Pain
Some studies have supported L-glutamine as a significant nutrient to help maintain intestinal integrity and function in humans and animals. Depleting the essential amino acid can cause the intestines to function poorly, increasing cracks and holes in the lining (x).
Other Gut-Related Issues
L-Glutamine also plays a vital role in digestion, absorption and secretion while being a barrier to help diffuse allergens, toxins and pathogens from the intestine. Thus, amino acid plays a vital role in avoiding inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, celiac disease and inflammation in the digestive tract (x).
Studies with animal models support the L-glutamine positive influence on improving the intestinal area, such as the gut barrier — maintenance and restoration (x).
Total parenteral nutrition (TPN), a form of intravenously feeding food to bypass the intestinal tract, can also adversely affect the digestive tract. Several in vitro (test tube) studies proved that L-glutamine helped to preserve the intestinal barrier during TPN (x).
With all this evidence of L-glutamine supporting the digestive tract, you can understand the importance of ensuring your body has enough of this essential dietary supplement.
Increases Energy and Athletic Performance
Whether you work out regularly or are a competitive athlete, you must ensure adequate nutrition and plenty of fluids to achieve maximum physical performance. Your body uses L-glutamine to produce energy. It’s the primary molecule in the metabolism and production of power (x).
A study with 16 young adult males and females performing unilateral knee extensions took four doses of glutamine over three days. They noticed a reduction in strength loss, accelerated strength recovery and less muscle soreness. These results were more noticeable in the men (x).
Research shows that exercise produces acute inflammation in the body from skeletal muscles. The body also has L-glutamine in the muscles, which helps protein production within the tissue. During training, glutamine declines and thus causes inflammation. Therefore, supplementing with L-glutamine capsules will decrease acute inflammation.
A study of eight men exercising for two hours on a bicycle ergometry received L-glutamine. The results showed during exercise that the supplement prevented the decrease in glutamine from happening (x).
Helps with Workout Recovery
The study mentioned earlier about unilateral knee extensions helped athletic performance also proved that L-glutamine diminished sore muscles after the exercise. The amino acid being more effective for men than women (x).
Louisiana State University published an extensive report on L-glutamine supplementation for exercise recovery. A section in the report confirms that exercise increases and decreases glutamine in the blood, plasma glutamine levels.
After an extensive bout of exercise, like a marathon, the glutamine levels in the blood fall and remain so for about six to nine hours. Also, repeated bouts of strenuous exercise led to long-term recovery time or decreased recovery time. The athlete then becomes over-trained, causing recurrent infections, impaired immune system, fatigued and reduced exercise performance. Therefore, L-glutamine levels become significantly reduced and remain low for several weeks.
The report included a study with twelve men, age 19 to 30, to confirm the amino acid helps speed up recovery time. The twelve men divided into two groups. Each group performed strenuous exercises measured Peak Power, Mean Power and Fatigue Index.
After the extensive exercises one group drank a glutamine plus carbohydrate drink and the other group drank a carbohydrate drink (placebo). Some of the results did not vary, although the glutamine group recovered from exhaustive exercise faster (x).
Another study consisted of seven males who participated in three trials. They received one of three drinks by systematic rotation: glucose drink, a placebo containing eight grams of glutamine or glucose drink with eight grams of glutamine.
The results concluded that glucose and glutamine drink had a shorter recovery time, being that glucose depletion is part of the exhaustive state from exercising. Though glucose alone was not as effective as the combination of glucose and glutamine (x).
Reduces Fat and Food Cravings
Research shows the importance of having protein in your diet. The amino acids in protein create a positive influence on your body’s metabolism. When eating a healthy diet, the amino acids help the body’s metabolism burn more energy, hence calories and fat (x).
L-glutamine can suppress sugar cravings, and such cravings are a common deficiency in the amino acid (x). L-glutamine can also reduce waist circumference in overweight individuals based on a clinical study conducted in Brazil (x)
According to The Journal of Nutrition, researchers fed obese mice L-glutamine, which reduced body weight even when the mice were on a high-fat diet. Likewise, the glutamine lessened the glucose and insulin levels (x).
A comprehensive study on the positive effects of L-glutamine, based on a cumulation of 19 studies from 1482 articles, supports weight loss, among other positive influences (x).
Alternative to Treating Diabetes Mellitus
Diabetes mellitus is when your blood sugar level is too high, leading to health concerns. L-glutamine is a functional food helping your body assimilate and eliminate substances. Eight studies supported increasing the amino acid in the blood to help reduce its sugar levels. The study highlighted fasting blood sugar levels, with four studies reducing glucose levels. The studies also concluded promising effects of the amino acid on oxidative stress, weight changes and inflammation (x).
Reduces Sickle Cell Related Pain
Research has shown that oxidative stress plays a role in sickle cell disease. Oral intake of large dosages of L-glutamine shows a reduction in oxidative stress. Thus, sickle cell disease patients experience less pain if they take the amino acid.
A study with 230 patients divided them into two groups. One group took L-glutamine, and the other took a placebo. Over 48 weeks, the group that took the amino acid experienced fewer pain crises than those who took the placebo (x).
L-Glutamine Food Sources
Considering L-glutamine’s importance, consider consuming foods high in this amino acid. Consuming high-protein food will ensure you have enough L-glutamine and other amino acids in your system.
These foods have high quantities of L-glutamine (x):
- Milk
- Seafood
- Meat
- Protein Drinks
- Cabbage
- Nuts
- Eggs
- Beans
Where to Buy L-Glutamine Capsules
You can purchase pure L-glutamine capsules at BulkSupplements.com. The company is an industry-leading manufacturer and distributor of pure dietary supplements. BulkSupplements.com is not just a consumer brand. It also supplies pure ingredients to other brands that distribute other food and supplement products. All products at BulkSupplements.com are manufactured and tested according to current and proper manufacturing practices.
Are you interested in trying L-glutamine capsules as a dietary supplement to potentially support blood sugar levels, reduce food cravings, increase energy, digestive and immune system health, as well as aid muscle recovery? Contact BulkSupplements.com to place an order today.
Potential Side Effects of L-Glutamine Capsules
Whenever starting a new supplement, check with your healthcare provider for any possible adverse effects of taking the supplement.
Though L-glutamine capsules have caused some side effects in others, the risks of experiencing such reactions are minimal or non-existent. With that in mind, the amino acid may cause the following side effects:
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Dizziness
- Stomach upset
- Heartburn
- Nausea
- Vomiting
Contact a physician immediately if you experience one or more of these severe side effects:
- Difficulty hearing
- Chest pain
- Symptoms of infection (weakness, fever, chills, mouth sores, sore throat, flu symptoms)
Warnings and Concerns
Pregnant or nursing patients should consult their healthcare provider if they supplement with L-glutamine. Currently, there is no data on how the supplement affects pregnancy or excretion in human breast milk after oral consumption (x).
The Bottom Line
Science has known about L-glutamine for over a century. Depending on scientific studies and journals, L-glutamine is an essential amino acid, conditionally essential amino acid or amino acid. The element produces antioxidant molecules inside cells, making it a necessary aspect of your diet.
In extreme doses, L-glutamine helps prevent or lessen severe health problems, such as sickle cell disease, diabetes mellitus, trauma, obesity, and surgery. L-glutamine is also the most abundant, versatile and resourceful amino acid in your body.
It contributes to producing other amino acids, mainly formed and stored in the skeletal lungs and muscles. It helps support your intestinal health and immune system. As a universal biological antioxidant, it is also a detoxifying force. Those who take L-glutamine capsules with a healthy diet notice substantial positive results.
Most food source proteins contain L-glutamine, such as milk, meat, seafood, beans, nuts and eggs. If you doubt whether you consume enough of the amino acid, talk to your healthcare provider and consider taking L-glutamine or a standard amino acid supplement.
Those who work out regularly or are professional athletes usually benefit from taking L-glutamine capsules, as the supplement helps energize the body and build muscles, while minimizing its recovery time.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
