I'm confused regarding the safety of glutamine supplementation. Below is a link to a letter written by neurosurgeon Russell L. Blaylock, M.D., in which he argues that glutamine supplementation increases brain glutamate, resulting in glutamate-induced excitotoxicity. Additionally, he states that increased brain glutamine increases free radical production and impairs mitochondrial function.
http://articles.merc.../glutamine.aspx
Dr. Blaylock was responding to the following statement by Dr. Robert Crayhon:
"Also, the idea that supplemental glutamine is all metabolized to glutamate is simply not the case. Have you ever seen a patient with MSG sensitivity? The symptoms these patients have are the symptoms of excess glutamate: headaches, nausea, dizziness, and this is something I have never seen nor seen reported with high dose glutamine. The body is very good at controlling the Glutamine-Glutamate pathway, which requires B6. I have had many discussions with cell biologist PhDs about this idea that glutamine turns to glutamate at will, and they all say that this is a misstatement, and are particularly critical of Russell Blaylock for making this error in his book.
After all, why doesn't the glutamine all just turn to GABA? Then glutamine would not over excite your neurons, it would put you to sleep. Glutamine clearly does neither".
So who's correct here? Does glutamine supplementation lead to excess brain glutamate (and hence its neurotoxicity)? This certainly seems possible given their interchangeability, and would be concerning as glutamine supplementation is not uncommon.
And hello...this is my first post
Edited by chrono, 26 August 2010 - 11:30 PM.
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