Glutamine – Helpful for Heartburn or Not?
by Anna Hart
Filed under Heartburn Relief
Glutamine. Is it helpful for heartburn or not? Among the millions who suffer from heartburn, tens of thousands do not want to use prescription medication as a remedy. They shun non-prescription medication also. Rather than put chemicals into their bodies and risk side effects, they say, they will rely on natural remedies – like glutamine.
Is glutamine helpful for heartburn?
What It Is
Glutamine is an amino acid that the human body produces naturally. It is available as a nutritional supplement.
How It Works
Glutamine helps the human body dispose of damaged cells, and increase production of new cells. A powerful antioxidant, glutamine also helps protect body cells from the damage caused by free radicals. Glutamine heals mucous membranes that are being damaged by heartburn. It repairs the lining of the esophagus.
Perhaps more exciting is glutamine’s ability to strengthen muscles. Because it is recommended to enhance muscular strength and mass, glutamine is often used by those involved in body building.
Why is this exciting to heartburn sufferers?
Glutamine Is Helpful for Heartburn Root Causes
Heartburn is caused by muscular weakness. The lower esophageal sphincter (LES) is a ring of muscle between the top of the stomach and the lower end of the esophagus. When the LES functions properly, it opens to allow swallowed food to enter the stomach, and then closes quickly to keep stomach acids where they belong.
Heartburn is a result of weakness in the LES. It relaxes too much, or is forced open in spite of itself.
Glutamine, a muscle strengthener, helps remedy heartburn by enhancing the strength and mass of the LES.
Dosage for Heartburn Relief
Purchase pure powdered L-glutamine (Thorne, Jarrow, ARG). Start with 1 teaspoon of glutamine in water. Take this twice daily, 2 hours after eating, and 2 hours before eating again. Glutamine’s activity will be destroyed by acid, so be sure you eat nothing for that period before and after taking it.
If you have trouble taking powdered supplements, try glutamine tablets for heartburn. Take between 1 and 4 tablets twice a day with water. Do not take them with juice, as this will trigger acid production and ruin glutamine’s activity against heartburn.
I wanted to thank you for your clear, concise and yet very detailed article about L-Glutamine.
My son who is 10 has recently been diagnosed with reflux and of course he has been put on losec with a possible visit to the gastro scope doctor in September.
I am not too happy about stopping the body from doing its job and was reading a book I bought when I lived in Ireland written by a stomach specialist there, called, ‘Hard to Stomach’.
In it, he suggests L-Carnitine as a means to produce more mucous for the stomach lining to keep it from acid issues. I am only now researching this aspect because after all the research I have done, I still throw my hands up and just want to find a perfect regiment to bring my son back to his original state of health but everyone has an opinion. I am only interested in what has been tried and proven.
Thank you again for your excellent article on this subject and cutting through a lot of the fluff surrounding this matter.