• Glutamine can enhance recovery
  
  
• Glutamine may increase growth hormone levels
  
  
• Glutamine may preserve muscle wastage
  
  
• When necessary, glutamine can be used by the body directly for energy

Glutaflex 500g - $40
Glutaflex  1kg - $65

Glutaflex is 100% L Glutamine with no added ingredients. Glutaflex is virtually tasteless and will dissolve in water or milk very rapidly.

Though creatine monohydrate is a better known nutritional supplement, those not using glutamine may be surprised to hear that it can as beneficial as creatine, especially for those who put a lot of stress on their immune and muscular systems with intensive exercise.

Glutamine is one of the favourite supplements of body builders and others who exercise a lot. In its role as a carbon donor, glutamine is "muscle food," helping to replenish glycogen.Glutamine has another important function as a nitrogen-donor. Over 60% of skeletal muscle is glutamine while 20% of glutamine is nitrogen so its function here is very important.

Strenuous exercise such as weight lifting causes micro-injuries to the muscle tissue. By donating nitrogen, glutamine helps build proteins and repair the muscle, as well as help build up more muscle.  After strenuous exercise glutamine levels can be heavily depleted

Part of its muscle-building action may be due to its ability to induce the release of growth hormone. Serious fitness fans take glutamine both before and after workout. Taking at least 2-3 g after workout is particularly recommended.

But muscle isn't the only tissue where protein is being synthesized. Glutamine serves the anabolic (tissue-building) needs of the whole body. Since it can very easily donate nitrogen, it functions as a "nitrogen shuttle," delivering nitrogen wherever it is needed.

The use of glutamine has been documented to help the survival of severely ill surgical and others such as burn patients. It also speeds up wound and burn healing, and improves recovery in general.Glutamine can enter the Krebs cycle and serve as a non-carbohydrate source of energy. In fact, this is the main way it usually contributes to the production of energy.

However, if the blood sugar is low (hypoglycemia), glutamine is readily catabolized (broken down) in the liver to provide more glucose. Together with alanine, glycine, serine and threonine, glutamine is an important "gluconeogenic" amino acid, in fact the primary one. This production of glucose from glutamine takes place mainly in the liver. Recently, however, it has been discovered that the kidneys can contribute as much as 25% to whole-body glucose production, a phenomenon that occurs only during hypoglycemia. Actually this is not surprising, since the kidneys are especially equipped to process glutamine due to its importance in the detoxification of ammonia.

Providing abundant glutamine through diet and supplementation means that less muscle tissue (if any) will be broken down to provide glucose. This is of great importance to people on calorie-restricted diets, whose great problem is losing muscle mass more so than fatty tissue. Since it is the metabolically active muscle mass that helps keep us slender (not to mention strong and fit), extra glutamine can help dieters lose girth around the waist while preserving muscle mass.

Considering the effectiveness of glutamine in combating hypoglycemia, it is no wonder that alternative medicine recommends it for the purpose of eliminating sugar cravings, and alcohol cravings in the fight against alcoholism (many alcoholics appear to suffer from hypoglycemia).