Arginine

Arginine

Ever wonder what better blood flow could do for your heart health and exercise performance? Though not as well known as many others, Arginine (or L-Arginine) is an anabolic amino acid that is intimately involved in building protein to help build muscle and repair tissues. A conditionally essential amino acid, arginine is a precursor for the synthesis of urea, nitric oxide, polyamines, proline, glutamate, creatine, and agmatine. Once inside your body, this amino is converted into nitric oxide, which causes blood vessels to widen. This offers a range of unique benefits such as, improving circulation to the heart (enhanced cardiovascular function) and brain (improved cognitive function). What’s more, this amino stimulates the production of the human growth hormone and insulin, which allows glucose to enter your cells for use as energy. This is why these supplements are often used by athletes to dramatically improve exercise performance.

Benefits of Arginine

• Enhance Exercise Performance
• Improves Blood Flow
• Enhances Cognitive Function
• Supports Heart Function / Promotes Healthy Blood Pressure
• Increase Immunity

Who Needs Arginine?

Health care practitioners will often recommend arginine for heart conditions like coronary heart disease, clogged arteries, and angina. Some of the most common uses include better athletic performance, enhanced cognitive performance and as a treatment for erectile dysfunction, as well as circulation in general.

Arginine Potencies & Formats

Arginine is usually taken in 3-6g divided doses. Like other amino acids, it is ideally taken on an empty stomach to maximize absorption.

For exercise performance, take it along with glutamine optimizes muscle recovery and enhancement after exercise.

Cardiovascular health can be optimized by taking grape seed extract along with arginine to not only increase oxygen flow to the heart, but to increase arterial wall strength.

Formats

• It is available either in powder or capsules and usually comes in one of three forms:
• Free-form L-arginine: resembles the same form found naturally in food.
• L-arginine HCL: neutralizes the bitter taste of this amino and enhances its absorption.
• L-arginine alpha-ketoglutarate (AAKG): ideal for exercise performance.

Final Thoughts

The arginine supplement you select will be a function of what symptom or condition you want to address. If you’re looking to enhance muscle building and circulation, an individual form of this supplement is great. There are also a variety of combination formulas with key nutrients that target specific areas such as cardiovascular health, immunity and sports performance. The powdered format is also absorbed faster.