Message: | In catabolic states of injury and illness, glutamine becomes conditionally essential requiring intake from food or supplements.
Glutamine has been used as a component of oral supplementation to reverse cachexia (muscle wasting) in patients with advanced cancer or HIV/AIDS.
Glutamine oral supplementation significantly reduces the risk of systemic infections originating from the gut such as in critically ill individuals and in individuals who have had abdominal surgery. The reduction in rates of infections in these groups of people are due to glutamine improving intestinal barrier function including reducing increased intestinal permeability. Intravenous administration does not appear to produce these benefits, however.
Supplementation does not appear to have an effect in infants with significant problems of the stomach or intestines.
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