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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
