Pure Glutamine


(Dwayne Kittelson) #1

I’ve heard glutamine can trigger gluconeogensis and kick you out of ketosis, if so how much glutamine is ok? If any?

So I guess the actual question is, is glutamine ok with youre in ketosis?


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #2

What is glutamine, and what foods contain it?


(L. C.) #3

(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #4

Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid, meaning that it is one of the amino acids the body is capable of producing. It seems to be essential to managing ammonia levels in the body (nitrogen is an essential part of the structure of amino acids), and it is part of the system that delivers nitrogen to cells for rebuilding proteins. Some foods that contain glutamine are bone broth, dairy, beef, cabbage, asparagus, and broccoli, all good keto foods.


(Omar) #5

people with leaky guts like to supplement with glutamine to heal the intestinal skin but I found that unless I reduce the inflammation glutamine is useless.

and if the inflammation goes away I do not need the glutamine any way.


#6

I’ve read that cancer cells can make use of glutamine as well as glucose (but not ketones). Therefore any serious attempt to starve cancer out of existence in your body needs to deal with its access to glutamine - which can be produced in the body - or shifted from one part to another. Apparently stopping this process is a bit of a challenge.

This suggests that there is a dietary challenge here too - since cancer patients are encrouaged to go on a keto diet, using specifically those foods Paul lists, all of which contain glutamine. Hmmm.


(Omar) #7

true

but I also read that for treating cancer they use some kind of glutamine blockers because the body will make it together with ketogenic diet


(Dwayne Kittelson) #8

I’m actually referring to the glutamine supplement in it’s pure form. Usually referred to as L-Glutamine. You take it in powder form with water. So you’d be taking a lot more than any food sources can give, which I heard can trigger gluconeogenesis, but not enough times to be confident with it yet. The dose is usually 5-10g of glutamine per serving. 1 maybe 2 servings a day.


#9

Yes. But as far as I know none are approved, and the list is not long. Perhaps the’re trying to develop some, or trying existing medications (such a chloroquine)? (Ironically I took chloroquine for years as a malaria prophylaxis.)


(Bacon is a many-splendoured thing) #10

Different kinds of cancer cells can metabolize different kinds of things. The Warburg Effect does not apply across the board for all cancers. Some cancer cells do very well on ketones but not on glucose, while for others it’s the reverse. Some cancers do well on both. And not all cells in the same cancer metabolize the same things, either.

Even those doctors who recognize and employ the ketogenic diet as part of their therapeutic strategy don’t believe that a ketogenic diet by itself can prevent or cure cancer. I believe that a ketogenic diet makes cancer less likely, but its main medical use seems to be as an adjuvant to chemotherapy or radiation treatment, or in dealing with cancer cachexia. It is not a primary treatment.

ETA: Go on YouTube and look for lectures by Dawn Lemanne, an oncologist in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. She has a very realistic understanding of what a well formulated ketogenic diet can and cannot do in the context of treating cancer.