Our body is like a functioning machine, and many of us do not know the important parts of this machine. For example, have you heard of L-Arginine, which is an essential amino acid for the formation of protein, which is extremely important for us? Without L-Arginine, there would be no question of protein formation in our body, and even in the absence of such an amino acid, we would experience many health problems.
Of course, the body produces such an important amino acid on its own. Not only that, we also get L-Arginine from many of the foods we consume. However, sometimes, especially athletes, the amount of amino acids they take naturally is not enough and they take it as an additional supplement. So how healthy is this? Let’s take a closer look at what L-Arginine is and what it does, and let’s see in detail the harms and benefits it brings.
Contents
First, what is L-Arginine actually?
L-Arginine is one of the 20 essential amino acids that make up the structure of proteins. It is an essential amino acid for protein formation in mammals. Our body naturally produces the required amount of L-Arginine for us. In addition, we can get this amino acid from many different animal foods. In cases where all these are not enough, additional L-Arginine supplement can be taken. Many athletes use additional L-Arginine supplements for performance enhancement.
What does L-Arginine do?
L-Arginine is one of the most basic amino acids that make up protein, so if there is no L-Arginine, protein is meaningless. Another important effect of the L-Arginine amino acid is that it opens and widens our blood vessels. Due to this feature, it is used for treatment purposes in heart diseases and disorders such as erectile dysfunction.
Foods containing L-Arginine:
- The fish
- Red meat
- Poultry
- Soy
- Whole grains
- legumes
- Dairy products
Here are some of the foods that contain L-Arginine amino acid. In fact, when we look at this list, we see that foods with plenty of protein naturally contain L-Arginine. In other words, when you regularly consume protein naturally, you get L-Arginine along with all the amino acids found in protein.
What are the benefits of L-Arginine?
Benefits on chest pain:
In studies conducted on people who frequently experience chest pain due to heart diseases, vascular disorders or a different disorder, it has been seen that regular use and consumption of L-Arginine increases the quality of life by reducing the severity of chest pain.
Benefits on hypertension:
It has been observed that blood pressure, which is quite high in those with hypertension, in other words, those with high blood pressure, occasionally, those with high blood pressure, diabetes and lung problems, decreases and stabilizes after regular use and consumption of L-Arginine.
Benefits during pregnancy:
L-Arginine, which has a positive effect on high blood pressure that occurs during pregnancy, is also good for a condition called preeclampsia that can occur due to this high blood pressure.
Benefits on erectile dysfunction:
The most basic cause of erectile dysfunction or sexual impotence as it is known among the people is the narrowing of the penile vessels and their inability to swell by filling with blood. L-Arginine amino acid has a healing effect when used in the treatment process, as it has the ability to dilate blood vessels.
Benefits on circulation:
Depending on many different reasons, the blood vessels in our body can narrow or be blocked in different ways. This causes circulatory disorders. It has been observed that the L-Arginine amino acid supplement used in the treatment process regulates blood circulation.
What are the harms of L-Arginine?
L-Arginine is generally considered safe and harmless, as it is a natural amino acid found in protein. But it is the amount of use that makes even the healthiest thing harmful. Your body produces it, you take it with food, if it is not enough, if you take it as a supplement, it will be harmful. The correct consumption dose will be determined by your doctor. Additional L-Arginine supplementation may have the following effects;
- Nausea
- Stomach ache
- Diarrhea
- Swelling
- Gout
- Headache
- allergic reactions
- increase in asthma symptoms
These reactions that occur when you take additional L-Arginine supplements may not seem so important. However, if you have recently had a heart attack, if you have an allergic body, if you have asthma, if you have herpes, do not neglect to consult a specialist doctor before using additional L-Arginine supplements.
Considerations when using supplemental L-Arginine supplements:
- Do not use with drugs that prevent blood clotting.
- Do not use with drugs that lower blood pressure.
- Do not use with diabetes medications.
- Do not use with heart and chest pain medications.
- Do not use with erectile dysfunction medications.
The amino acid L-Arginine has specific effects on the body. If you are already using a drug that shows this effect, and if you take L-Arginine supplement on top of it, it will have a much stronger effect and unfortunately, even permanent health problems may occur as a result.
Does L-Arginine make you gain weight?
The amino acid L-Arginine, one of the basic building blocks of protein, both makes you gain and lose weight. But using only additional L-Arginine supplements is completely useless. You can gain and lose weight in a much healthier way by adding natural L-Arginine to your regular sports and diet plan for weight loss or weight gain.
Conclusion: Should we use supplemental L-Arginine?
Since L-Arginine is an amino acid that is both produced by our body and can be obtained naturally from food, it is not recommended to take additional L-Arginine supplements. However, if you have a health problem, if the L-Arginine you take or produce is not enough, or if you are a professional athlete, this is very important, you can take additional L-Arginine supplement by consulting your doctor. Your doctor will adjust the required dose.
We talked about the benefits and harms of L-Arginine by answering questions such as what is L-Arginine, one of the amino acids that make up the basic building blocks of protein, and what it does. What we describe is for informational purposes only. Do not forget that you should get the most accurate and specific information about the subject from a specialist physician by applying to the nearest health institution.
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