Glycine supplementation re: lastest podcast

(Erin Macfarland ) #1

@richard can you tell us how much glycine you’ve been supplementing with to get those higher ketone readings?

Studies showing Sweeteners that Raise Insulin Levels?
Glucosimine
(Tom Seest) #2

I believe he supplemented 5000 mg. I had a private chat with him, and that’s the dosage he gave me.

(Ethan) #3

Interesting… I just bought some glycine powder and will be adding that and collagen powder to my MCT oil powder in my coffees!

(Richard Morris) #4

I’ve been adding a teaspoon to my morning espresso. Roughly 5g.

The main reason I’ve been taking it is I had a tooth extraction in December and today I had a dental implant inserted and I wanted to be particularly good at making collagen for bone recycling to make sure my jaw was strong enough to hold the implant securely. But I heard that there were specific benefits for glucose control as well. I have also been eating a lot of skin lately - salmon, chicken, pork skin. 1> because it’s delicious, but 2> also collagen in skin is 1/3 glycine.

I have some challenge methylating (MTHFR mutation) so both glycine and creatine may be conditionally essential for me. I’ve been supplementing Creatine since September, and Glycine just these past 2 weeks. My ketone changes all happened in these past 2 weeks.

It could all be random. But once I pass a torque test of my implant, I will test stopping glycine and seeing if the ketone numbers drop.

(Erin Macfarland ) #5

Chris Masterjohn discusses the importance of glycine when you have the MTHFR mutation so I make sure I take it!

(Ethan) #6

@richard, I started supplementing glycine about the same amount after I broke my fast Friday night. Since doing that, my ketones have been consistently above 3.5 (except after lifting weights)! This is very interesting. My normal levels are about .7-1.0, so this is a big change.

(Gabe “No Dogma, Only Science Please!” ) #7

I don’t test ketones, because it’s likely I’m rarely in ketosis. But I think I’m similar to you @richard, my fasting insulin is on the high end of normal, up at 10. I also have the MTHFR mutation.

Would love to supplement and see if this impacts my weight/fasting insulin. Any downsides to supplementing this? And any recommendations on a provider/brand?

(Richard Morris) #8

There is always an upper limit. In Rats there was no evident toxic limit up to 2g/kg/day

But I’m not a rat and I have seen speculation that over 25g/day of supplementation might be starting to get into toxic levels for humans. I’m personally not going to go over a teaspoon a day since I am seeing apparent benefit at that level. Once I have passed a torque test on my implant in 11 weeks, I’ll start titrating dose to see the minimum supplementation for me that achieves the effect.

(Erin Macfarland ) #9

@gabei use NOW brand glycine, not sure where you live but in the states you can order it on Amazon, it’s pretty inexpensive.

(Clare) #10

I was intrigued after hearing this week’s pod and ordered myself a bag of it.

The sweetness of it is quite startling - it’s actually almost sherbet like.
To be honest, the flavour is significantly better than most sweeteners - I may cancel my xylitol subscription with amazon and replace it with this. Does anybody know if it can be baked with like xylitol can?

I’m going to experiment with using it before I exercise in the morning as this seems to be an advised use. But when the bag arrived, I mixed a 2.5g dose into a glass of water to see how it felt. I’m not sure if it’s not just a placebo effect but within about 15-20 minutes I was feeling extremely sharp and frankly a bit wired - as if I’d had a coffee. Interesting stuff.

(Clare) #11

Ok further to this, I took 3g in water with lemon juice before going for a run with the dog this morning.
That worked rather well because the lemon juice negated the sweetness and it just tasted pleasant but bland.
This morning my ketones are up on what they have been for the last few days from 0.5 to 0.7.
I Can’t be sure it raised them as mine wobble around anyway because I eat a lot of vegetables but 3g certainly did not kick me out of ketosis.
I’ll experiment further but this could be a useful sweetener if it doesn’t hurt my ketosis.

(Richard Morris) #12

The liver can make glycogen from glycine … so biochemically it’s going to be a bit like fructose, a source of carbohydrate that doesn’t specifically raise your insulin but not something you will likely want to have in caloric (large) doses.

But a teaspoon in an espresso in the morning I seem to get a little extra wiring too.

(Bunny) #13

Always wondered what they are feeding the rats besides glysine or on whatever research study they are doing?

(Clare) #14

Ok well that puts me off baking with it - I’ll stick with xylitol for my occasional cakes and puddings. It’s not something I do a lot anyway.
I don’t like my coffee sweet but this certainly seems to make for a useful addition to my morning. I experimented a bit again because I didn’t have any lemon so I used some citric acid in roughly the same q as the glycine and used it as my drink while I was on my rowing machine.
Again, the acid makes the sweetness go away and it was a very refreshing drink.
And it certainly feels as if it perks me up a little while exercising.
And again I’ve definitely not been thrown out of ketosis.

In the spirit of pure nosiness, I’ll stick with it and see if I notice any other improvements.

(Erin Macfarland ) #15

That is fascinating! I wanted to ask your opinion @richard, since glycine is found in skin and connective tissue, would you say that pork rinds and cracklings are good sources of glycine? (This would be me looking for confirmation bias since I eat a ton of rinds and cracklings, lol, and am trying to ferret out a justification for doing so that is based on them being beneficial in some way other than being delicious!)

(Richard Morris) #16

Yes Erin I was thinking exactly the same. Also chicken skin (delicious - check), pork belly (check, check, check).

Gabor @erdoke always tells me that one balance it is important to pay attention to is methionine in muscle meat, vs glycine in connective tissues indicating that humans probably operate most efficiently when they eat nose to tail.

(Erin Macfarland ) #17

Well then I don’t feel so bad balancing all the steak with pork cracklings!

(Jessika Nilsson) #18

I’ve been supplementing with glycine for a long time, never thought it could improve my ketone levels though.
I usually take it before going to sleep, about a tsp in lots of water.
It’s supposed to help lower cortisol and help with sleep :slight_smile:

(T) #19

Yes! Only started doing this but what a difference - according to my Fitbit Alta HR. Significantly more REM, deep sleep, and less waking time. Sleep has always been an issue and more so at the moment as I wean myself off HRT through Dr support. But wow! Now I’ve probably jinxed this :grin:

(Tony Parrack) #20

Chris Masterjohn did 2 interesting podcast on glycine. It would be awesome if you two keto dudes could get him on your show and talk about this more in depth.