L-Arginine: The amino acid for power and potency

An amino acid that increases your performance and potency: L-arginine improves performance in the gym AND in bed. You can find out everything about the effect, intake and dosage in this article.

What is Arginine? In sports circles, the leading semi-essential amino acid no way around. Here it is intended to help athletes achieve top form, sometimes as a booster or sometimes in capsule form. L-arginine is considered a real all-rounder and has numerous positive effects. The semi-essential amino acid L-arginine, which is partly produced by your body and partly absorbed through food, is necessary for the production of nitric oxide, which in turn has a vasodilating effect and thus supplies your body better with blood. Better blood supply = better pump – this equation should be particularly interesting for strength athletes. Endurance athletes benefit from improved oxygen intake and thus improved endurance performance, and arginine can also accelerate regeneration. But taking L-arginine also benefits non-athletes numerous benefits, ranging from relieving clogged blood vessels, preventing cardiovascular diseases to increasing potency, which have been proven in numerous studies. It's no wonder that L-arginine is an ingredient in a variety of supplements that are intended to improve athletic performance. We will now tell you why L-arginine has such a positive effect on your body, how it can be used and what you need to consider when using supplement products.

Contents

• What is L-Arginine?
• How does L-arginine work?
• L-arginine intake: need, natural occurrence and deficiency symptoms
• studies

What is L-Arginine?

The proteinogenic amino acid is considered semi-essential because - unlike essential amino acids, which the human body cannot produce itself - it is partly absorbed through food and partly produced itself. If you eat a balanced and varied diet, you should generally be able to cover your arginine needs. For people who have higher needs due to illness, extraordinary stress or growth phases, nutritional supplements can represent a sensible alternative. L-arginine has the highest nitrogen content of all amino acids and is therefore important for the formation of nitric oxide in the body. This is important for the blood supply in your body, which is where the numerous positive effects of the amino acid come from. The importance of L-arginine was only discovered in 1998, when a team of researchers discovered the effect of arginine on the synthesis of nitric oxide and received a Nobel Prize for it.

How does L-arginine work?

L-arginine is a fundamental building block in your body and is important for the formation of muscles, enzymes and hormones. In addition to this role as a building substance, L-arginine takes on various tasks in your organism. Of all the amino acids, arginine is the one that has the highest proportion of nitrogen by mass. The amino acid is therefore important for the Formation of nitric oxide. If you're now wondering why you need nitric oxide: the substance, which most people are more familiar with as an environmental pollutant, has a relaxing, vasodilating effect on the blood vessels, which counteracts the formation of atherosclerosis, high blood pressure and the formation of blood clots. The formation of nitric oxide in the human body is definitely positive. Below you will find out how your body benefits from L-arginine.

Immune system booster

Arginine helps produce the neurotransmitter nitric oxide. This stimulates the division of lymphocytes, or immune cells, and thus promotes the activity of phagocytes that fight pathogens. Arginine is also said to combat infections and injuries more quickly.

Arginine & Blood Pressure: Vasodilation and improved blood circulation

L-Arginine helps you with that Education from Nitric oxide. This leads to vasodilation in the body, which in turn is extremely desirable for the blood supply in the body: blood is a carrier and means of transport for numerous nutrients and oxygen. If your body is better supplied with blood, organs and extremities will also benefit from the increased blood flow and their function will be improved. The expanded blood vessels further ensure that the blood has more space in the vessels. This leads to a drop in blood pressure. This effect is desirable for the numerous patients of hypertension.

Reduction of oxidative stress and detoxification

Arginine reduces free radicals in the blood and reduces oxidative stress. Here too, the health of your vessels, which are damaged by free radicals, benefits. Arginine also has a positive effect on protein metabolism: when proteins are broken down, ammonia is produced - a poison that has to be eliminated in the liver. This is where arginine comes into play, which, together with the amino acids ornithine and citrulline, is involved in detoxification in the urea cycle.

Arginine and strength training: Big muscle pump and faster building

“Rough Pump” – Arginine is particularly popular in strength training because it ensures firmer muscles: By enriching the muscles with nitric oxide, your muscles are better supplied with blood and increase their volume. As a pre-workout booster, L-arginine not only increases muscle volume; Because the vasodilation allows oxygen and nutrients to reach the muscle cells better, they ensure stronger muscles and higher training intensity. This means your muscles tire much later, which means you can train longer and actually build muscle. The effect is not just visual.

L-Arginine & muscle building

Arginine is also a building substance and therefore necessary for the formation of muscles. The substance is therefore also highly valued by fitness athletes who hope to make progress in strength training by taking arginine. In fact, studies show that arginine seems to stimulate the release of growth hormones.

L’Arginine & Blood Pressure

Arginine also improves blood circulation and thus ensures an improved supply of muscle cells: nutrients and oxygen are transported faster due to the improved blood supply and supply your organs. Arginine also works with the branched-chain amino acids valine, leucine and isoleucine in BCAAs to combat fatigue during training and increase endurance. An effect that has not yet been observed in humans, but has been shown in mice, is improved energy metabolism. Here, mice gained less fat when given arginine. There are also initial studies on humans in which weight loss was observed as a result of arginine supplementation.

L'Arginine & Potence

Arginine is said to increase potency and can help with erectile dysfunction. The reason for this is the synthesis of nitrogen monoxide caused by L-arginine: Since this causes vasodilatation, the sexual organs also receive better blood flow. The blood vessels and arteries are expanded and blood circulation is stimulated - the best conditions for male erections. In order for your erectile function to benefit from L-arginine, you should take around 3000 - 6000 mg of the amino acid half an hour to an hour before sexual activity. Female potency remains unaffected by L-arginine. However, women can benefit from the amino acid in other ways, as you will learn in the next point.

How does L-arginine work for women?

Although L-arginine cannot eliminate potency problems in women, the L-arginine effect in women has other advantages. The substance can help with menopausal symptoms and eliminate typical symptoms such as hot flashes and sweats. Arginine can also help with PMS and menstrual cramps; here it can reduce abdominal cramps and mood swings. L-arginine has proven particularly useful in combination with essential fatty acids.

L-Arginine effect hair

L-Arginine is not just good for your health. The amino acid is a real beauty booster and ensures beautiful, strong hair. But how does arginine strengthen hair? The reason here also lies in the L-arginine increased blood circulation: this ensures that the vessels in your scalp are better supplied with nutrients and stimulated. A healthy scalp is the prerequisite for healthy, strong and shiny hair. If there is a lack of L-arginine, the hair appears brittle and dull because the scalp is inadequately supplied. A deficiency of amino acids can promote hair loss. The effect of arginine on hair growth can be observed after regular consumption; A visible effect occurs on average after about two months.

L-arginine intake: need, natural occurrence and deficiency symptoms

L-Arginine has a variety of positive effects that you can benefit from in sports during training or in everyday life to be able to help. The question arises as to how much of the valuable amino acid you need to consume daily in order to benefit from the positive effects mentioned.

L-arginine daily requirement: How much L-arginine do I need?

The recommendation of the daily L-Arginine dosage varies depending on source and needs. The recommendations range from around 5,000 mg, which should be enough to demonstrably change blood circulation, up to 6,000 mg if there are acute problems such as potency problems. This dose is relatively easy to achieve for people who eat animal products (we'll tell you how in a moment). In fact, there are also groups of people who need more than the recommended dose because they are exposed to particular stress or who are at high risk of a deficiency for other reasons. This includes people who suffer from vascular disease, cancer or kidney problems, who are dealing with an injury or surgery. These groups of people should adjust their needs upwards.

L-arginine deficiency: How to recognize a deficiency

Since arginine affects your vessels and blood supply, symptoms of an L-arginine deficiency manifest themselves in malfunction of the blood vessels, cardiovascular diseases, wound healing and impaired immune function. A susceptibility to infection can also be an expression of a deficiency.

L-arginine foods

L-Arginine can partly be produced yourself. Another part is absorbed through food and can be covered primarily by protein-rich foods. The amino acid is found in high proportions in beef, turkey and chicken. Nuts, soybeans and wheat germ are also good, reliable sources of L-arginine. In percentage terms, plant sources sometimes even contain more L-arginine than animal foods. 100 g of pumpkin seeds provide you with more than 5,000 mg of L-arginine, while turkey meat only provides you with around 2,000 mg. What you shouldn't ignore, however, is the calorie content of the food: 100 g of pumpkin seeds are quite heavy at 565 calories and are therefore not suitable for fitness athletes in this quantity.

L-arginine is found in these foods, among others:

Gelantine 7.450 mg / 100 g

Turkey meat 2,226 mg / 100 g

Kalb 1.991 mg / 100 g

Pumpkin seeds 5,137 mg / 100 g

Sojamehl 3.200 mg / 100 g

L-Arginine als Supplement

L-Arginine has various positive effects that can increase your performance in sports and therefore lead to you achieving your goals more quickly. These include improved blood flow to the muscles and the production of growth hormones. L-Arginine can also have health benefits for you: the semi-essential amino acid is also used to treat high blood pressure, among other things, and has been proven to increase blood circulation. It can therefore be recommended to take the amino acid L as a supplement. How and when should you take the supplement, are there any known side effects and how do you recognize a good supplement? You can find out here.

Buy L-Arginine: Which preparation is right for me?

L-arginine capsules, L-arginine powder, combination preparations and, and and... L-arginine has long been a popular supplement in strength training and is available in different forms. How you want to take L-arginine - dissolved in water or as a capsule - is up to you. When choosing the right supplement, you should make sure that it contains high doses of L-arginine so that the arginine effect can be noticed. You should also pay attention to the origin of the ingredients; Reputable manufacturers are transparent when declaring the origin of their ingredient list. All forms of intake expand the vessels as described and thus supply muscles and organs with blood (hello, muscle pump and extra power!). Unfortunately, the effect only lasts for a short time because L-arginine is broken down quickly. The situation is different if you take L-arginine in combination with L-citrulline. The amino acid is the precursor to L-arginine and ensures that blood pressure and blood vessels benefit from the effect even hours after taking the supplement.

How to take: When and what dose?

When it comes to taking your supplement, follow the package instructions. A dose of 4,000 – 6,000 mg is usually recommended, which is considered safe. When you take L-arginine is up to you. To make progress in training, it is recommended to take the supplement before training. Taking L-arginine before bed can help you fall asleep faster by lowering your blood pressure.

L-Arginine & side effects

L-arginine experience and studies show that a dose of up to 20,000 mg per day is safe for adults. Such a dosage did not cause any significant L-arginine side effects, even over a period of several weeks. An arginine overdose is almost impossible: Arginine is safe for adults in high doses of up to 20,000 milligrams per day. Studies have also tested higher doses for a period of several weeks without causing serious side effects. From a current perspective, however, 20,000 milligrams should not be exceeded in the long term. For some people, 6,000 to 9,000 milligrams of arginine can cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, nausea, and vomiting - especially if the dose is taken all at once.

studies

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6290676/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4726550/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6743852/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5075284/

https://examine.com/supplements/citrulline/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22553931

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00503.2010

Eine Portion (5G in 400 ML. Wasser aufgelöst verzerren.

L- Argininhydochlorid