Overall Health Supplement - Equine Choice L-glutamine Paste

L-Glutamine is the most abundant amino acid in humans as well as horses and can be useful for:
fueling and repairing muscle tissue
replenishing the natural supply of L-glutamine depleted during stress
maintaining tight junctions in the gut lining, preventing pathogen leakage and systemic infection
While technically a nonessential amino acid, glutamine can be depleted during times of stress, such as during digestive distress or intensive training. When the depletion is severe, supplementation with L-glutamine is required, such that this amino acid is often referred to as “conditionally essential”.

Natural production of L-glutamine in the body may not be able to keep up with the horse’s demand under these stressors. Adding L-Glutamine to a horse’s diet fuels muscles and provides the additional reserves needed to recover and repair muscle tissue after physical activity.

Dietary glutamine helps to avoid these problems for horses that are in training, being used for hard work or are otherwise under stress. L-Glutamine supplies nitrogen to the immune cells of the intestinal mucosa, including T-cells, B-cells, macrophages and neutrophils. L-glutamine, after glucose, is the main fuel for intestinal epithelial cells (which make up the first layer of the gut lining). These “enterocytes” maintain intestinal integrity, ensuring that the gut lining can absorb nutrients while simultaneously keeping pathogens out.

Insufficient levels of L-glutamine can negatively impact intestinal villi, the finger-like tentacles that line the small intestine and increase the absorption of nutrients. Villous atrophy occurs when villi are eroded away by inflammation as well as ordinary wear-and-tear on the enterocytes. Supplementing with L-glutamine can strengthen intestinal villi against stressors and help maximize the surface area available for nutrient absorption along the small intestine.