Collagen is the most abundant structural protein in the body and is vital for maintaining healthy soft tissues.
- It is important to provide the body with the key ingredients it needs to make collagen for strong and healthy connective tissues throughout the body.
- These soft tissues include skin, cartilage, ligaments and tendons as well as within the bones, blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract and muscle tissues.
A good supply of glycine is critical to producing collagen because 33% of the amino acids in collagen are glycine residues. Glycine is also required in high quantities for elastin and keratin to provide structural elasticity. This places a very high demand on the supply of glycine to manufacture the most abundant types of protein in the body.
- Glycine is lost in very high quantities in sweat and urine which adds pressure on the demand for this amino acid.
- Glycine is also used in numerous metabolic processes in the body, further contributing to the demand on its supply to sustain good health.
- These include aspects of energy metabolism, toxic waste removal and antioxidant protection.
Glycine is an integral component of OptimAAte®.
Glycine can be made by our bodies, but the production is limited due to unique metabolic circumstances and production by the body cannot always satisfy the metabolic demands. Many researchers now consider that glycine is “semi-essential” which means we must take it in via our food to meet daily demands.
These losses can be exacerbated when living in a hot climate and when you are undertaking regular exercise.
Collagen turnover is a vital part of the replacement/repair of damaged soft tissues. This is required to maintain the structural components in the body such as cartilage, ligaments, tendons and skin as well as the collagen within the bones, blood vessels, gastrointestinal tract and muscle tissues.
- An exogenous supply by supplementation would compensate for the slow rates of glycine synthesis in the body, resulting in less breakdown of muscle proteins.
OptimAAte® has been designed to replenish the stocks of glycine and the other five high-demand amino acids. This approach has been determined as the result of extensive scientific investigations which
- measured the rates of losses of amino acids through sweat and urine, and
- modelled the daily turnover of amino acids in metabolism.
On this basis, OptimAAte® provides a very important source of glycine and other high-demand amino acids to help sustain the body’s capacity to synthesise collagen to support exercise and recovery. See the research here.