Benefits
Given the important role of glutamine in the healthy body, it is not surprising that numerous studies have documented significant benefits from supplemental glutamine during times of physical stress.
In particular, studies have shown that supplemental glutamine or alanylglutamine:
- decreased the frequency of life-threatening infectious morbidity such as pneumonia, sepsis, and bacteremia in severely injured patients.(29)
- prevents intestinal atrophy and increased permeability. (30)
- prevents muscle glutamine loss and maintains nitrogen balance. (14)
- provides a number of beneficial effects on postoperative and post-traumatic skeletal muscle protein metabolism (i.e. preventing declines in muscle protein synthesis, nitrogen balance and muscle RNA content). (32)
- prevents deterioration in gut permeability and preserves mucosal structure.
- improves survival after irradiation or chemotherapy
- A study of bone marrow transplant patients who received glutamine-supplemented total parenteral nutrition (TPN) demonstrated significantly shorter length of stay, fewer infections, and lower hospital charges than patients who received standard TPN.
- Promotes synthesis and is synergistic with IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor) and of Human Growth Hormone
- May be synergistically useful when combined with other therapies like Growth Hormone, Insulin like Growth Factor, or anticytokine or adenosine analogs.
- May prevent multiple drug resistance of at-risk patients by speeding the repair of the patient’s damaged intestinal mucosa, increasing body’s ability to rehydrate, and improving the body’s ability to absorb antimicrobial or other therapy directed toward viruses, mycobacteria, bacteria, fungi, or parasites.
By providing such significant improvements to fundamental physiological functioning, supplemental glutamine dramatically increases an individual’s overall health, reduces recovery time from illness, surgery or athletic stress.
In addition to these obvious improvements on physical health, supplemental glutamine can significantly reduce the cost of hospital treatment by reducing the length of stay and the number of infections, preventing muscle loss and negative nitrogen balance, and speeding repair of intestinal function. (26, 33)
As a result, increased glutamine intake is beneficial and should be considered for:
- Immunocompromised individuals such as HIV Patients
- Burn Patients
- Intestinal Surgery Patients
- Chemotherapy Patients
- Any condition that requires intravenous feeding
- Athletes
- Infants
- Older Adults
- Patients with malnutrition or malabsorption