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- If you think L-glutamine is only for athletes, think again. Indeed, L-glutamine powder and supplements have long been promoted in the fitness industry because they help to build healthy and lean bodies. Yet, L-glutamine is possibly one of the most vital but underrated supplements for everyone. This powerful amino acid provides many essential health benefits for gut and brain health, immune function, and more.
So, what are the benefits of L-glutamine? L-glutamine powders and supplements offer a number of health benefits for everyone, not just athletes. These include, but are not limited to:
- Promotes a healthy gut
- Boosts the immune system
- Stabilises blood sugar
- Reduces the symptoms of stress
- Boosts muscle recovery
Top 5 Benefits of L-Glutamine
L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid found in muscle tissue and a significant building block of protein. Your body requires a lot of L-glutamine, therefore, supplementing with L-glutamine powder is an excellent way to ensure that your body gets enough to provide the following benefits.
1. L-glutamine Promotes a Healthy Gut
Hippocrates declared over 2000 years ago that “all disease begins in the gut”. Today we know even more about the gut-health connection and how your gut impacts your health in many ways.
L-glutamine is the primary fuel source for the intestinal mucosa, making it a fantastic supplement to support the intestinal lining’s health and integrity. It also helps to seal and maintain the gut lining. Decreasing intestinal permeability helps heal leaky gut, a condition that can cause autoimmune diseases and other serious health issues.
Because L-glutamine supports gastrointestinal health, it’s also known to relieve excess bloating and could help you banish that post-cheat day bloat!
L-glutamine is crucial for a healthy gut; it’s my top go-to supplement for any gut repair protocol. I recommend the HPH GI Regenerate Powder as an all-around supplement to support and improve your gut health.
2. L-glutamine Boosts the Immune System
L-glutamine plays a vital role in gut health. It also directly benefits the immune system since about 60 to 80% of the immune system lives in the gut.
Intense training sessions, illness and general lack of wellbeing places the body under a great deal of stress that naturally suppresses the immune system. However, supplementing with L-glutamine powder provides the body’s immune system with an immediate fuel source to keep functioning optimally.
3. L-glutamine Helps to Stabilise Blood Sugar
When you experience a craving for carbohydrates, your brain usually wants sugar or glucose. L-glutamine works as a healthy alternative to sugar as it fuels similar brain receptors.
L-glutamine helps suppress insulin levels and stabilise blood glucose benefits, which benefits people with diabetes and those with sugar and carb cravings. Lowering cravings for sugar and processed carbs, and by extension, eating less of them helps control blood sugars and inflammation that would slow down your recovery.
So if you find yourself reaching for a late-night cookie when you know you shouldn’t, consider taking L-glutamine instead, and the sugar craving will soon pass.
Tip:
Here’s my favourite for sugar cravings: Mix 1 heaped tablespoon of L-glutamine powder with 50 ml of heavy organic cream or coconut cream. Drink or spoon it as a dessert, mixing in a handful of fresh raspberries or blueberries – delicious!
4. L-glutamine Helps Reduce Symptoms of Stress
In part, L-glutamine is used by the brain to build and balance the neurotransmitter GABA. There is growing evidence that L-glutamine and GABA play a significant role in mood and anxiety disorders.
Over time, chronic stress can cause serious health problems. For example, chronic stress can suppress your immune system leaving you vulnerable to infections and other illnesses and inhibiting your body’s ability to repair itself and absorb vital nutrients. However, L-glutamine is known as the “calming amino acid” for its effectiveness in reducing stress-related anxiety symptoms.
Increasing L-glutamine levels may also reduce symptoms of stress-related IBS. When the body is stressed, it releases the hormone cortisol, which can lower L-glutamine levels stored in the muscle tissue.
5. L-glutamine Boosts Muscle Recovery
Your body needs lots of protein and amino acids to help your muscles recover after a workout. L-glutamine is the perfect post-workout supplement as it boosts muscle recovery by increasing protein intake to build muscle, up-regulate the immune system, and improve the gut to help lean out and build muscle.
Heavy workout sessions can deplete your glutamine levels and, due to the stress placed on your body after working out, your muscles and tendons need significant amounts of glutamine. Supplementing with L-glutamine post-workout hydrates your muscles and triggers a boost in growth hormone. More growth hormone helps your body synthesise protein to build muscle, reduce recovery time, and mobilise fat from storage to make it available for energy.
Supplementing with just 80g of L-glutamine throughout the day provides a protein intake equivalent to 400g of meat!
How Much L-Glutamine to Take Per Day
If you’re new to L-glutamine, I recommend starting with a 10g serving in the evening between your evening meal and going to bed. This should be taken with Magnesium Bisglycinate. After a while, you can then increase your intake with another 10g in the morning, mixed with lime, salt and water. Eventually, you should be able to increase your intake to 8 X 10g servings of L-glutamine per day.
Takeaway
L-glutamine powder may traditionally be used to burn fat and build muscle, but evidence shows that there are far wider benefits. This amino acid promotes gut and brain health, boosts immunity and athletic performance, and improves your overall health.
You may also want to consider L-glutamine powder if you have symptoms like anxiety, sugar or alcohol cravings, a poor immune system, low muscle mass, poor wound healing, or slow recovery after workouts.
Human Performance Hub recommends these pharmaceutical-grade L-glutamine powders:
FAQs
What is L-Glutamine?
L-glutamine is the most abundant amino acid found in muscle tissue and a significant building block of protein. The musculoskeletal system is made up of around 60% glutamine, therefore, it won’t surprise you to learn that your body needs a lot of it.
Your body naturally produces L-glutamine. You can also get L-glutamine from your diet in animal and plant protein foods like beef, chicken, fish, eggs, and beans.
However, many people don’t consume enough in their diet to reap the benefits. In fact, inadequate L-glutamine levels in your body can have harmful effects on your health. Some recent studies have associated glutamine depletion with increased mortality on the extreme side. For this reason, critically ill patients are often given a glutamine supplement.
Wednesday, 2nd December 2020
Dear Friends,
As we head into the festive season, no doubt we’re all familiar with the overindulgence that can lead to holiday weight gain.
But these are unprecedented times. Shuttered gyms and stress eating while staying at home during the Covid-19 lockdown has led to widespread weight gain, birthing phrases like the “Quarantine-15” and “Covid-15”. Yes, this is very true!
We may not be “flattening the curve” fast enough, but we have certainly been “fattening the curve”.
Sadly, being overweight or obese; both are often linked to chronic health problems, This is also emerging as a significant risk factor for coronavirus-related complications. Excess body fat contributes to systemic inflammation, inhibiting a healthy immune-system reaction to infection.
Combined with the sedentary lifestyles of Netflix and Zoom fatigue, stress, and inadequate sleep, unhealthy eating can lead to severe health issues. This is not a winning combination to be fighting fit!
With exercise, one of the best things you can do to improve your brain and body’s response, which in turn can promote your weight loss and help anxiety, is to supplement with inositol. This vitamin plays a role in many bodily processes and has many health-promoting effects, especially relevant during these times.
READ MORE ABOUT THE BENEFITS OF INOSITOL HERE
YPSI Inositol Plus Magnesium is an excellent product providing 2 grams of inositol along with 400 mg of magnesium glycinate – great for promoting healthy sleep – and amino acids L-glycine and L-taurine is a water-soluble powder.
This is one of the products I give every single one of my clients at one point. See why it’s one of the most important vitamins you should consider adding to your health arsenal.
Your partner in health,
Roan
PS: Have you gained weight during the Covid-19 lockdown? Looking ahead to the holiday season, is weight loss or weight maintenance one of your goals? Let me know.
Consultations
We’re always here to help. If you have any questions or would like advice about supplements, nutrition, or training, please book in for a consultation.
Disclaimer
Always speak with your physician or other healthcare professionals before making any nutritional & lifestyle changes or before taking any nutritional supplement. For more information, please view our terms & conditions.
Further Reading
There’s a vast array of supplements on the market today and accompanying marketing lingo vowing to save your health. How do you know the claims are real? As a health-conscious consumer, you want to make sure you’re making the right choices.
Monday, 16 November 2020
Dear Friends,
This year has been about learning to adapt to life in new ways.
Inositol is one of the most important vitamins you may never have heard of! It is often promoted as a general health supplement for women due to its benefits for fertility and polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), as well as for relieving symptoms of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and anxiety. However, inositol benefits a wide array of conditions in both women and men, and has many other health-promoting effects.
In this article, I’ll talk about why inositol is so essential and how you can boost it in your body.
So, what are inositol benefits? Inositol is beneficial in balancing neurotransmitters, but has a wide range of other health benefits including:
- Promotes quality sleep
- Improves PMS and PCOS symptoms
- Reduces anxiety
- Reduces depression
- Aids weight loss
Read on to learn more about the health benefits of supplementing with inositol, as well as when and how to take it.
What is Inositol?
Inositol is a vital nutrient produced naturally in the body and found in plants and animals. Inositol plays a part in many bodily processes. However, one of the primary reasons we use inositol here at Human Performance Hub is its vital role in balancing neurotransmitters.
Inositol and Neurotransmitters
Neurotransmitters relay messages between the billions of neurons or nerve cells in your brain and affect many aspects of your life, ranging from moods, productivity, stress management, memory and learning ability, sleep, food cravings, addictions, etc.
While all neurotransmitters are essential, the “big four” are:
- Dopamine – impacts energy, drive, focus and motivation
- Serotonin – affects mood, sleep, and immune function.
- Acetylcholine – influences memory and attention span.
- Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid (GABA)– promotes calmness and contentment, optimal sleep and digestion
All major neurotransmitters rely on inositol to relay the messages between your brain cells. Like your phone needs a signal to work, neurotransmitters can’t do their thing without inositol.
Unfortunately, modern living, with high-stress levels, inadequate sleep, and poor nutrition, can rapidly imbalance your neurotransmitters; to be physically and mentally healthy, you need a good balance of neurotransmitters.
Inositol is an excellent balancer because it’s naturally a part of many brain chemical systems. As such, inositol can help a wide array of health conditions as well as boost good health. It is one of the first supplements I recommend to new clients.
5 Inositol Benefits Backed by Science
Here are five ways that inositol can improve your health and wellbeing.
1. Inositol Helps to Promote Quality Sleep
The great thing about inositol is that it works as an adaptogen – this means it promotes only what your body needs on an individual basis. For example, GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, slows down brain activity and puts your body in a calmer and more relaxed state. Low GABA activity in your body is linked to insomnia and disrupted sleep. Meanwhile, serotonin is another brain chemical that affects how you sleep. If serotonin is low, it can disrupt sleep.
So if you’re low in GABA and serotonin and struggle with sleep, inositol can help bring your levels back up. Alternatively, if you struggle to get out of bed in the morning due to low dopamine levels, inositol can help bring this up instead.
Learn more about how neurotransmitters and brain chemicals affect how we sleep in our blogs, The Brain Chemicals that Boost Sleep and Recovery and The Science and Sensibilities of Sleep.
2. Inositol Helps to Improve PMS and PCOS Symptoms
Inositol helps diminish the mood swings, depression, and anxiety of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and the more severe premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD). Taking inositol supplements can also positively improve polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) symptoms like menstrual irregularities, infertility, weight gain, high blood sugar, and unhealthy cholesterol and triglyceride levels.
Furthermore, several studies found that daily doses of inositol reduced blood triglyceride levels, improved insulin function, lowered blood pressure, and promoted ovulation in women with polycystic PCOS(3, 4, 5, 6). It supports ovarian function so well that some nutritional supplements specifically designed to encourage fertility contain inositol.
Inositol also shows potential in boosting fertility for men. One study of 194 men showed that inositol supplementation improved sperm quality, sperm count, and fertility after three months.
3. Inositol Helps Lessen Anxiety
Several mental health disorders such as anxiety, panic attacks, OCD, and depression are linked to lower levels of inositol in the brain (8, 9). Inositol affects neurotransmitters and low inositol levels may contribute to decreased serotonin activity in your brain, impacting behaviour and mood. Research on inositol supplementation showed improved symptoms associated with conditions affecting serotonin and the brain.
In some instances, inositol was more effective than the most commonly prescribed medications. For example, one study found that people taking inositol had fewer panic attacks per week compared to those taking SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) anxiety medication.
4. Inositol Helps Reduce Depression
Like anxiety, inositol has benefits for depression. That’s because inositol levels are lower than average in people with depression, however, inositol increases serotonin and creates SSRI effects, similar to antidepressant drugs like Prozac. In one study of 28 people with depression, high doses of inositol (12 g/day) improved mood and all symptoms after four weeks.
These studies suggest that inositol can be as effective, if not more, when compared to SSRI antidepressant drugs for different conditions.
5. Inositol Helps Weight Loss
Inositol can encourage weight loss by improving how the body responds to insulin. Insulin is a critically important hormone for controlling blood sugar levels, and when your body has a problem responding to insulin, the resulting insulin resistance causes blood sugar fluctuations. This can lead to compulsive overeating and cravings for sugary foods in many people.
Inositol helps reduce insulin resistance by improving the body’s sensitivity to insulin. In one study, women supplemented with 4 grams of inositol per day showed improved insulin sensitivity. (14)
Recommended supplementation
It’s best if you build up your inositol levels steadily. I recommend taking 900mg – 3,6 grams every night for at least one month.
The product I prefer is our Myo-Inositol. Each cap serving has 900mg of inositol. Most people find this the most convenient and economical way to take Inositol.
Takeaway
Inositol has tremendous health benefits due to its many roles in the body. It can help with stress, anxiety, hormonal issues, PCOS, acne, trouble with focus and sugar cravings, and metabolic conditions such as diabetes, autoimmune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases and more. If you have any of these issues or want to help prevent them, you should add inositol to your health toolkit.
Consultations
We’re always here to help. If you have any questions or would like advice about supplements, nutrition, or training, please book in for a consultation.
Did you know you can boost your energy, immunity, gut health, and decrease belly fat with one straightforward morning habit?
“Spices, the friend of physicians and the pride of cooks”
Charlemagne – 8th Century King and Conqueror
“The rule is: the basics are the basics, and you can not beat the basics!”
Charles Poliquin 5th March 1961 – 26th September 2018
Carnitine was first found in animal meats in the early 1900s. Over the course of the 19th century it was researched more and more where it was found that L Carnitine existed across all animal and plant tissues. In the 1980s, L Carnitine was known as a popular supplement with numerous books being written all about it. It continues to be widely used today, but its benefits are not as well known as they should be.
So, what are the benefits of L Carnitine? The main benefits of L Carnitine supplements are weight loss, energy production and healthy brain function. Numerous studies have shown L Carnitine to be effective in weight loss, whereas another form of Carnitine, ALCAR is thought to be effective in promoting brain function.
Read on to learn more about Carnitine, its different forms and how consuming supplements can benefit the body.
What Does L Carnitine Do? What is it?
L Carnitine is a combination of 2 amino acids; Lysine and Methionine. Together they create a single compound. This compound is mostly stored in the muscles (around 95%), whilst the remainder is stored in the liver and blood.
As a supplement, L Carnitine is known for two primary benefits; fat loss and brain function. It works by transporting fatty acids into the mitochondria cells. These cells act as engines, burning fats to create usable energy.
But, there are different forms of Carnitine. Be sure to take the correct supplement to receive your desired results.
What’s the Difference Between L Carnitine and ALCAR?
We don’t want this to turn into a chemistry lesson, but it is important to distinguish between the two main forms of Carnitine, namely L Carnitine and Acetyl-L Carnitine (abbreviated as ALCAR).
The different chemistry of carnitine means it has a different effect on the body and operates differently. In terms of function, these 2 mains forms can be distinguished:
- L Carnitine – known to be good for fat loss and exercise performance.
- ALCAR – known to be beneficial for brain and cognitive health.
Quite simply, ALCAR means that there is an acetyl group. This is where 2 carbons, 3 hydrogens and 1 oxygen have been thrown together onto Carnitine. Think of it as a Lego structure, you have 2 red bricks, 3 yellow bricks and 1 green added onto a central piece. It is this difference which changes the function of ALCAR.
Top L Carnitine Benefits
Fat Loss
Most of the early research of Carnitine was done on energy production and fat loss with L Carnitine. There is a general consensus that it has a good effect on this. A good way to illustrate how L-carnitine works is to think of a power plant.
In your body, you have mitochondria in almost all of your cells. The mitochondria are the furnaces using fuel for energy but to produce energy you need fuel. L Carnitine is the vehicle which delivers fuel to the powerhouse.
More specifically, L Carnitine brings fatty acids to the mitochondria so that the mitochondria can use them for energy production. As such, it can be useful to consume this supplement quite early on in your fat loss journey.
For this same reason, it has been used to good effect for exercise performance. Particularly endurance exercise which is heavily reliant on fat as fuel for the muscular work performed. By getting fats to the mitochondria more effectively, the energy production is more efficient as a result.
Brain Support
We’ve already discovered that using L Carnitine is great in the early stages for fat loss and exercise performance. But in the long term, there are other great benefits for your brain health and support.
Our daily lives are more than ever characterised by stress, inflammation and toxins, which means the cells of our body can be damaged and poorly-functioning. Thus, we need to support our bodies. In the context of Carnitine, we provide support for our brains!
We know that L Carnitine is good for energy supply, and we know that brain tissue and performance can suffer from lack of energy resources. However, L Carnitine struggles to get into the brain unless it is in the form of Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALCAR).
The brain has, in effect, a filter which means only certain substances in the blood can get through to the brain cells. This is a built-in protective system for the brain to prevent just anything getting in. ALCAR is able to pass this filter and exert a positive influence on the brain. In fact, ALCAR has several lines of decent research supporting its use for neurological health, whether that be with dementia, Alzheimer’s or cognitive decline in ageing.
Acetyl-L Carnitine has several influences in the brain which mean it is protective. As mentioned previously, energy supply is important for brain tissue and ALCAR is a great form of carnitine since it is actually able to get to the brain to supply energy.
ALCAR also has other ‘neuroprotective’ effects not just through energy supply. It is an antioxidant which helps to prevent free radicals (and toxins) from causing damage to brain cells. It also fortifies the mitochondria’s defences.
Internal Communications
Neurotransmitters are like the brain’s accelerator and brake pedals. They send messages between the cells of the brain where they either speed up, slow down, or modulate activity of the brain. This can affect your focus, alertness and wakefulness.
Of the 7 major neurotransmitters, Acetylcholine was the first to be discovered and is the one which we will briefly look at here. Since Acetyl-L Carnitine is made up of an ‘acetyl’ group attached to carnitine, it is able to provide acetyl groups to make the acetyl-part of Acetylcholine. This is important for improving alertness, memory and focus.
Acetylcholine irregularities have been linked with Alzheimer’s, showing the importance of this neurotransmitter for brain function .
When to Take L Carnitine
It is best to take a direct concentrated form of Carnitine. Many supplements contain it but they also contain numerous other ingredients and so this can lessen the effectiveness.
In scientific literature, the doses vary from 0.5g to 4g. From whatever dose you start at, it would be a good idea to titrate up. For example, start at a moderate dose (e.g 1g per day) and build up depending on how you respond to it.
In terms of when to use it, it is probably most optimal to take earlier in the day and before exercise. This way, you get the benefits at the right time. For example:
- 1-2 caps in the morning
- 1-2 caps pre-training or at lunch
L Carnitine at Human Performance Hub
At Human Performance Hub, we offer three Carnitine specific supplements to help support weight loss and healthy brain function:
Carnitine Complex – a combination of L Carnitine and ALCAR
Acetyl-L Carnitine – purely ALCAR
