Our intestines use 40% of the body's L-glutamine supply. When stress, disease or physical injury occur, much more is needed. Not only does glutamine repair leaky gut and prevent pathogens from entering the blood, it removes excess ammonia from the body and brain where it can cause tissue damage.

Glutamine passes across the blood-brain barrier and helps provide the necessary fuel needed for proper brain function. It is the precursor to GABA and the antioxidant glutathione.

A shortage of L- Glutamine can reduce IQ levels. L- Glutamine supplementation has been shown to increase IQ levels in some mentally deficient children. L- Glutamine is brain fuel. It feeds the brain cells, allowing them to fire on all cylinders. A deficiency in L- Glutamine can result in “foggy thinking” and fatigue.

Individuals with “Fibro fog” may benefit tremendously from this essential amino acid.

Even a small shortage of L- Glutamine will produce unwarranted feelings of insecurity and anxiousness. Other symptoms include continual fatigue, depression, and occasionally impotence.

If we have trouble in our intestines, such as yeast overgrowth damaging the lining, more glutamine will be pooled their to repair things, and less available to the brain. A supplement may be in order for these circumstances.

Thank you and good night. :yawn:

gort,
Thanks for the thread. As I had stated in a previous thread, I suffer from exhaustion/fatigue/very low energy, short-term memory problems, concentration issues, etc. I've dealt with tons of stress, worrying, anxiousness, and depression over the years. I also have had more gas/flatulence in recent years than I used to, which could tie in with the leaky gut.

I was wondering if you think that trying a L-glutamine supplement would be worth looking into? I have had glutathione IV pushes before, but they didn't help with my symptoms.

I think it will help you because our symptoms are pretty closely in common. I have been using something called Intestinew by Renew Life for 2 weeks. It has 5000mg of l-glutamine, 200mg n-acetyl glucosamine, a few other aminos and herbs like marshmallow root, marigold, etc. I take it in the morning an hour before breakfast and its companion product Intestinal Bowel Soother capsules at night. That one has antispasmodic chinese and western herbs. I realize a lot of the herbs are calming things down, but I just feel like the l-glutamine is the one thing that I haven't had in any other product that is making the improvements. And when I looked up what glutamine does in the body, it all made so much sense to the huge turn around this week. I mean I don't feel compelled to eat bread after each meal like I did 2 weeks ago. I couldn't stop. Now I don't really think about bread. One of the benefits of glutamine is stopping cravings. It is used in alcoholic recovery as well. I'm suitably angry that all the candida kits I've seen in stores don't have glutamine in them. Today I found a few obscure web sites with quite comprehensive yeast programs that include l-glutamine, n-acetyl cysteine, biotin (5000mcg), molybdenum, copper, zinc, in addition to the usual anti-fungal herbs and probiotics. I had never heard of this approach before. Some of those ingredients are for removing the toxins (acetyldehyde, formaldehyde) that the yeast gives off. Killing the yeast is just one part of it. Repairing the damaged lining is essential. No wonder I only felt better for short periods of time before. The toxins and thin lining were never addressed.

My body must be starved for glutamine. It says that a stressed body takes it out of muscles to get what it needs, causing damage and atrophy. I believe it will take several months of glutamine supplementation for me to have a fully thickened intestinal lining and healed diverticula. I have not been diagnosed with that but the shape of my stools sometimes tells me there has been some swelling pockets in some areas. If you end up trying this we can compare our progress. I feel like I found the missing link to my gut health.

P.S. Added Swedish Bitters to my digestion war 5 days ago.

I started drinking a whey protein powder (I mix it with water) for about one month now, and have noticed my desire for bread and sweets has been reduced to zero....talk about a miracle. I've always craved breads and sweets. The whey protein powder I've been drinking for the last week has about 3,290 mg of glutamine per serving and I drink three servings per day. However, the whey powder that I was drinking for the other three weeks isn't showing any glutamine in the ingredients. I'm thinking that maybe upping my protein intake, whether there was glutamine or not, was the reason for the loss of cravings. Also, my bowels movements have been complete since the addition of more protein. To be on the safe side though, I'm going to make sure to consume protein drinks with glutamine from now on. Thanks for the info, gort