Indications

• L-Glutamine SAP can be use to protect and heal a permeable intestinal tract.
• L-Glutamine SAP can help reduce inflammation in the intestinal tract and therefore help treat IBD and IBS.
• L-Glutamine SAP may be beneficial to enhance recovery from acute illnesses or infections and severe burns.
• L-Glutamine SAP may provide ergogenic benefit to endurance athletes by increasing time to exhaustion.
• L-Glutamine SAP could be helpful in preventing postoperative ileus after gastrointestinal surgery.
• L-Glutamine SAP may help treat and prevent cachexia and malnutrition in patients undergoing cancer treatment.

Ingredients

Each bottle contains:
L-Glutamine (powder) ... 300 g

Contains no: Preservatives, artificial flavour or colour, sweeteners, wheat, gluten, soy, starch, yeast, citrus, egg or dairy.

Description

L-Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in the human body.(1) Glutamine is metabolized in the small intestine and serves as an important fuel source for intestinal mucosa.(2) Glutamine plays an important protective role in the intestinal tract, and is crucial for patients with increased permeability of the intestinal system, which can be seen in patients with inflammatory bowel diseases including for example Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis, as well as in irritable bowel syndrome and allergies.(3, 4) This amino acid plays an important role in nutrient metabolism, the immune system, protein turnover and acid-base balance.(1) With infection, severe burns, cancers and some other pathologies, both intracellular and extracellular concentrations of glutamine are markedly reduced.(1) This leads us to believe that glutamine supplementation may play an important role in the body's ability to recover from illness. Glutamine has also been studied for use in patients after gastric surgery and may act as a motility-recovery agent after gastrectomy.(5) Patients receiving treatment for cancer often experience malnutrition and cachexia, which may be improved with glutamine supplementation.(6) PURITY, CLEANLINESS and STABILITY Third-party testing on L-Glutamine SAP is performed to ensure that the product is free of heavy metals, volatile organic acids and other impurities. L-GLUTAMINE AND INFLAMMATION L-Glutamine administration in recent studies has been shown to enhance heat shock protein (HSP) expression, which may be the key to its mechanism of action with regards to its protective ability.(4) In a study performed on rats which were induced with colitis, animals were administered either 0.75 g/kg/day glutamine or a placebo for 7 days. After the 7 days, a reduction was observed in bleeding and diarrhea in the treatment group compared to placebo, concomitant with increases in levels of both Hsp25 and Hsp70.(4) Researchers concluded that glutamine is crucial for colonic epithelium to mount a cell-protective, anti-apoptotic and anti-inflammatory response against inflammatory injury.(4) L-GLUTAMINE AND POSTOPERATIVE ILEUS One of the most common complications of gastrointestinal surgery is postoperative ileus (POI).(5) In a study conducted on patients after a partial distal gastrectomy for gastric cancer, patients were split into two groups and received either glutamine at 3 g/day or placebo.(5) Results were based on manometric recordings done 12 days after surgery. Motor activity in the duodenum of the glutamine group was significantly greater than that of the control group.(5) Phase 3 motor activity (interdigestive migrating motor contractions) in the glutamine group was rated at 60%, versus 19% in the control group.(5) This study indicates that glutamine can function as a motility-recovery agent after gastrectomy.(5) L-GLUTAMINE AND ONCOLOGY For patients with cancer, malnutrition is associated with a poor prognosis, and weight loss can be a very important predictor of mortality.(6) Patients supplementing with glutamine saw benefit, including a reduction in tissue toxicity and improved outcomes, while supporting the efficacy of the chemotherapy treatments.(6) In a study looking at 50 GI cancer patients who had undergone surgery and received total parenteral nutrition (TNP) after surgery, researchers explored the inflammatory modulation effect of glutamine supplementation in one half of the patients.(8) The supplemented group showed a reduction in interleukin 6 (IL 6), serum C reactive protein, and had higher serum prealbumin levels, as well as better nitrogen balance than the control group.(8) The control group had 4 cases of postoperative infections, while none were reported in the treatment group.(8) Researchers concluded that enriching TPN with glutamine may be beneficial in reducing inflammation and decreasing morbidity associated with infections in postoperative GI cancer patients.(8) L-GLUTAMINE AND INFLAMMATORY BOWEL DISEASE/ IRRITABLE BOWEL SYNDROME The pathophysiology of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is not well understood, but one pathway that may be involved is that of increased intestinal permeability.(3) Researchers performed a controlled study on patients with diarrhea-predominant IBS and assessed their intestinal membrane permeability using the lactulose/mannitol test as well as looking at the glutamine synthetase expression in gut tissue.(3) A subset of 42% of patients had both increased intestinal membrane permeability and decreased glutamine synthetase expression compared to the controls and IBS patients with normal membrane permeability.(3) This result indicates that certain patients with IBS who have increased membrane permeability as well as decreased glutamine synthetase expression may benefit from supplemental glutamine in the diet. A study performed in rats looked at the benefit of prophylactic administrations of glutamine for its capability to stop inflammatory damage.(9) Researchers found that administration of glutamine before induction of colitis resulted in decreased indices of inflammation; however, this same benefit was not seen if administered at the same time as the colitis was induced.(9) Further study needs to be performed on human subjects but it may be promising in that glutamine could be useful for patients with colitis in remission to help prevent flare-ups. L-GLUTAMINE AND ENDURANCE ATHLETES Endurance athletes often become mildly dehydrated during the course of training and competition. Researchers exploring the effects of L-alanyl-L-glutamine ingestion during performance, measured changes in fluid regulations, immune, inflammatory, as well as oxidative stress, and recovery in athletes who were properly hydrated and during dehydration.(10) Across 4 groups of athletes tested, one group did not rehydrate, group 2 rehydrated using only water, group 3 rehydrated using water and 0.05 g/kg of the supplement, and group 4 rehydrated using water and 0.2 g/kg of the supplement.(10) Subjects then worked at 75% of their VO2 max on a cycle ergometer. Blood samples were obtained immediately following the exercise and after resting for 24 hours.(10) Results demonstrated that athletes in groups 3 and 4 had significantly greater times to exhaustion than those in groups 1 and 2, as well as having lower aldosterone levels and higher plasma sodium levels.(10) Group 4, who received the largest amount of glutamine, demonstrated the greatest improvement.(10) Researchers concluded that the supplementation provided a significant ergogenic benefit to athletes by increasing the time to exhaustion during mild dehydration.(10) L-GLUTAMINE AND SEVERE BURNS A clinical study was performed exploring the protective effects of oral supplementation of glutamine in patients with severe burns on intestinal mucosal barrier function.(2) Patients were randomly divided into 2 groups and received either placebo or glutamine granules 0.5 mg/ kg orally for 14 days.(2) Results showed that the glutamine group compared to the control group had a lower urinary lactulose/mannitol ratio, improved wound healing and shorter hospital stays of 46.6 days on average, versus 55.7 days on average in the control group.(2) This study demonstrates that oral glutamine could reduce the amount of intestinal injury and permeability as well as improve wound healing, leading to shortened hospital stays.(2)

Quantity

60 servings of 5 g per bottle

Dose

Take one scoop once or twice daily mixed with juice or water or as directed by your health care
practitioner.

Potential side effects/Safety

L-Glutamine is generally considered safe with the no-observed-adverse-effect-level determined
to be 5.0% l-glutamine in the diet, which was around 4000 mg/kg.(7)

References

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1. Xi, P., Z. Jiang, C. Zheng, Y. Lin, G. Wu. “Regulation of protein metabolism by glutamine:
implications for nutrition and health”. Front Biosci 1, no. 16, January 2011: 578–597.
2. Peng, X., H. Yan, Z. You, P. Wang, S. Wang. “Effects of enteral supplementation with
glutamine granules on intestinal mucosal barrier function in severe burned patients”. Burns
30, no. 2, March 2004: 135–139.
3. Zhou, Q., W.W. Souba, C.M. Croce, G.N. Verne. “MicroRNA-29a regulates intestinal
membrane permeability in patients with irritable bowel syndrome”. Gut 59, no. 6, June
2010: 775–784.
4. Xue, H., A.J. Sufit, P.E. Wischmeyer. “Glutamine therapy improves outcome of in vitro and in
vivo experimental colitis models”. J Parenter Enteral Nutr 35, no. 2, March 2011: 188–197.
5. Mochiki, E., T. Ohno, M. Yanai, Y. Toyomasu, H. Andoh, H. Kuwano. “Effects of glutamine on
gastrointestinal motor activity in patients following gastric surgery”. World J Surg 35, no. 4,
April 2011: 805–810.
6. Paccagnella, A., I. Morassutti, G. Rosti. “Nutritional intervention for improving treatment
tolerance in cancer patients”. Curr Opin Oncol, 2011 May 5. [Epub ahead of print].
7. Wong, A.W., B.A. Magnuson, K. Nakagawa, R.G. Bursey. “Oral subchronic and genotoxicity
studies conducted with the amino acid, l-glutamine”. Food Chem Toxicol, 2011 May 27.
[Epub ahead of print].
8. Lu, C.Y., Y.L. Shih, L.C. Sun, J.F. Chuang, C.J. Ma, F.M. Chen, D.C. Wu, J.S. Hsieh, J.Y. Wang.
“The inflammatory modulation effect of glutamine-enriched total parenteral nutrition in
postoperative gastrointestinal cancer patients”. Am Surg 77, no. 1, January 2011: 59-64.
9. Israeli, E., E. Berenshtein, D. Wengrower, L. Aptekar, R. Kohen, G. Zajicek, E. Goldin.
“Prophylactic administration of topical glutamine enhances the capability of the rat colon
to resist inflammatory damage”. Dig Dis Sci 49, no. 10, October 2004: 1705–1712.
10. Hoffman, J.R., N.A. Ratamess, J. Kang, S.L. Rashti, N. Kelly, A.M. Gonzalez, M. Stec, S.
Anderson, B.L. Bailey, L.M. Yamamoto, L.L. Hom, B.R. Kupchak, A.D. Faigenbaum, C.M.
Maresh. “Examination of the efficacy of acute L-alanyl-L-glutamine ingestion during
hydration stress in endurance exercise”. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 7, no. 1, February 3, 2010: 8–19.