Amino Acids
The Elixir of Life: Amino Acids
Amino acids are the building blocks of life. Research reveals that supplementing with essential amino acids can reverse age-related cellular energy loss and restore immune function to peak performance.
Amino Acids
Amino acids are the building blocks of life. Research reveals that supplementing with essential amino acids can reverse age-related cellular energy loss and restore immune function to peak performance.
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Perhaps there is a solution to our problem: the decline in our cellular energy—that is, ATP levels in our cells—as we age.
Animal studies show us this. Older animals, compared to younger ones, often have only half the ATP in their cells and 30% less body protein. And that's what life looks like: energy-depleted, cellular chaos, increasing frailty, muscle wasting, and so on. Clearly, humans are no different.
But then a group of physicians at Wayne State University in the USA had a brilliant idea. They simply mixed a few essential amino acids into the drinking water of a group of old rats—with the remarkable result that all their values rose to young-rat levels.
All from a few amino acids. And that's exactly what this is about. That is what amino acids are: the core building blocks of your body, part of every enzyme, every antibody—the reason your body functions at all and why life exists. Amino acids. So it's no wonder there's a close connection between amino acid availability in your body and your sense of vitality. Without an essential amino acid, life simply gets harder. There's no easy solution without it.
At this point, you could dive deep and discuss each essential—or non-essential—amino acid individually. But here are the key points for the essential amino acids (EAAs):
Of course, this summary doesn't do justice to their complexity. But it gives you a helpful overview.
You probably noticed something about tryptophan: we mention the immune system specifically, not the «happiness hormone» (tryptophan is converted to serotonin, commonly called the «happiness hormone»), right?
But tryptophan plays a crucial role in immune function. Just a few years ago, research showed that gut bacteria metabolize tryptophan into a compound called indole-3-lactate, which triggers our immune cells to become much more tolerant—which, in turn, dampens intestinal inflammation. And how aggressive or tolerant your immune system is as a whole is, as we know, controlled in the gut.
Moreover: tryptophan is so critical for the immune system, especially for T cells, that tumor cells actively produce an enzyme that breaks down tryptophan. This impairs T cell function and gives tumor cells a growth advantage. Good to know, right? For years now, and continuing today, research has assumed that this deliberate tryptophan breakdown by tumor cells plays a role in the immune escape of tumor cells—in other words, it's a mechanism by which tumor cells evade the immune system.
We can provide tryptophan to our bodies. It's the rarest amino acid in food and therefore particularly sought after by the body. The best dietary sources of tryptophan are probably dairy products, especially whey protein—and of course, a good EAA supplement with plenty of tryptophan ;-)
That's exactly why we have our whey protein from Irish grass-fed cattle. It delivers essential amino acids right along with it. Around 40 g per 100 g of pure protein. Since whey is one of the highest-quality protein sources available, you can calculate how many essential amino acids you should be getting daily for «optimal» protein coverage.
Assuming we consume about 100–150 g of high-quality protein from various sources (as we should), we'd get roughly 50 g of essential amino acids—what thoughtful nutrition should include. One tablespoon of EAAs with apple flavor adds 10 g more—a substantial amount that would very quickly and very effectively improve your diet's protein quality. Worth remembering. Especially when you're dealing with a viral infection ;-) ... or just because.
