Amino acid deficiency may be the result of protein malnutrition. Such deficiency is generally associated with a faulty diet, failure to digest or absorb adequately, stress conditions, infection, trauma, use of drugs, deficiency of other nutrients such as vitamins and minerals, and dysfunctions connected with the ageing process. Since amino acids perform such a major role in the structure and function of the body, in both health maintenance and disease, the importance of available tests to assess their relative presence cannot be underestimated. Tests not only disclose the nutritional and metabolic status of the patient, they also discover the effect of factors such as stress, trauma, and other drugs.
The deficiency conditions resulting from any of these causes can be corrected by supplementation of appropriate amino acids.
Posts Tagged ‘Human body’
Amazing Power of amino acids cont…
February 12th, 2010Amazing power of amino acids cont…
February 11th, 2010There are 23 amino acids. Eight of them are strictly dietary essentials and cannot be synthesized at all by the body. These are isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. In addition to these strictly essential amino acids, two other amino acids, namely, arginine and histidine, are essential for infants and young persons, as the capacity for their synthesis in the body is not adequate to meet the needs for growth.
In addition to the ten essential amino acids, there are thirteen non-essential amino acids. They are proline, carnitine, tyrosine, glutamic acid and glutamine, cysteine and cystine, glycine, alanine, b-alanine, aspartic acid, taurine, ornithine, citrulline, and gama-aminobutyric acid (GAMA). Under special conditions, the demand for some of the non-essential amino acids may be greater than the synthetic capacity, and therefore, they too can become dietary essentials.
About 75% of the amino acids entering the bloodstream through the liver from the gastro-intestinal tract after a meal, are metabolized in the liver, and only about 25% enter the general circulation. Out of the intake of amino acids in excess of immediate requirements, upto 50% are catabolized for energy-yielding metabolism, and non-essential amino acids that have not been ingested in adequate amounts are synthesized for transport to other tissues. The nitrogen from this amino acid catabolism is not excreted immediately, but a considerable amount of urea is recirculated through the gastro-intestinal tract and reabsorbed as ammonia.
