Glutamine

[crillmom]

Does anyone know anything about glutamine? Is it safe for children and can it be used safely with meds. I remember discussing this with catatonic a while back, I told her my son was responding becalmd and we kind of discussed maybe it was the glutamine. I would like to give this to my son along with his meds. and I was wondering if anyone knew if this was safe. thanks for all your help and support

[ohmama]

Crill mom,
You have to remember that adding an amino acid is adding a medication. Even though it is natural it is being used as a med to correct or help with a certain problem. Just like any other med you would want to check with the pharmacist about interactions. If the medication that you are using from the doctor is not addressing the specific problem what does he say about that? Does he suggest adding something else to target this? It gets a little tricky when you are using amino acids and meds together. Be cautious with this.

[catatonic]

Crillmom -
There is evidence that a sub-group of ADHD children will respond quite well to glutamine. I have hesitated to give this to my son because glutamine is metabolized by the body into glutamate, and those who react badly to MSG will often react badly to glutamine supplementation. My boy has enough reactions without me giving him another one!

If you are taking any anti-seizure medications, the glutamine may interfere with their ability to do their job. That's because many anti-epileptics act by blocking glutamate receptors. So in such cases, I wouldn't add glutamine without talking to your doctor and probably not even then, since the odds he'll really know anything about it are pretty low.

For an adult, you'd start taking 500mg 3 times a day, but that's a heavy dose for a child. Half of the adult dose would probably be the safest way to go at first, until you know what the response will be. I would not, for any reason, exceed the 500mg 3x daily, unless you have a doctor involved. Glutamine has been known to cause manic behavior in those with bipolar if they are given more than 2,000mg per day over time.

I'm always uncomfortable manipulating individual amino acids. It's so easy to create an entirely different and unintended imbalance. If possible, include a balanced amino acid supplement (like one of the protein powders you stir into juice with breakfast). Best of all would be to have a nutritionally oriented physician involved, but I know that's not always possible to do.

There is some research evidence that children with ADHD already have TOO MUCH glutamine in their brains.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12547476&dopt=Abstract

On the other hand, this study found that children with ADHD, as well as with autism spectrum, were deficient in both glutamine and phenylalanine (that's another amino acid which the BeCalm'd contains).
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=11727202&dopt=Abstract

You already know your child responded positively to the BeCalm'd. If you use glutamine and are successful, that's wonderful. If it doesn't achieve what the BeCalm'd did, you can try the phenylalanine instead. But be careful, monitor closely for any negative effects, make sure your doctor knows what you are doing, and give plenty of "holidays" from the supplementation to allow some of the other amino acids to readjust if they need to.