Glutamate vs. L-Glutamine

[philoff]

I sure wish I had a science background. Increasingly, I read that many people (and I would be among them) have their RLS symptoms triggered by high glutamate foods (think Monosodium glutamate -MSG -in its many forms). A few days, the RLS Foundation had a webinar by a gastroenterologist about the possible link between SIBO (Small intestine bacterial overgrowth) and RLS. One of his recommendations was taking L-Glutamine. Are glutamate and glutamine the same animal? Apologizing in advance for my ignorance!

[Rustsmith]

No, glutamate and glutamine are not the same thing. But explaining the difference requires a rudimentary understanding of chemistry

Both are amino acids, but glutamine as an amine group (-N-H2) at the location where glutamate as a hydroxy group (-OH). Glutamate is similar to glutamic acid with an H+ removed.

And I know that this is too much information, but the L in L-glutamine indicates the orientation of the structure of the molecule. There is a compound designated R-glutamine that is the mirror image of L-glutamine. All living organisms are made up and utilize amino acids that with the L- orientation. Therefore R-glutamine is not something that occurs in nature and must be formulated in the lab.

[philoff]

Thank you for this reply! So, if I understand you correctly, L-glutamine would not aggravate RLS.

[Rustsmith]

I can't say, but my guess is that it would not. Glutamine is a necessary amino acid that you need in your diet, so supplementing probably wouldn't be an issue. But I am not a doctor nor have I tried taking a glutamine supplement.

[Frunobulax]

But I am not a doctor nor have I tried taking a glutamine supplement.

I'm not a doctor either, but I have taken glutamine for a couple of months as part of a leaky gut treatment. This was roughly at the time when I managed to lower my medication by a bit (30mg oxycodone to 25mg a day) -- I wouldn't attribute it to the glutamine alone, as I did several things at the time, but it certainly didn't aggrevate my RLS issues.

[badnights]

Higher levels of glutamate in the brain have been linked to worse WED/RLS. Glutamine is converted to glutamate in the body. I am not sure but iirc it's converted only when more glutamate is needed. So ingesting glutamine shouldn't increase WED/RLS symptoms by increasing gluatmate. (And moreover, it's not necessarily true that an increase of glutamate somewhere in the body means it is increased in teh brain.)

That said, I used a glutamine supplement in the evenings for leaky gut and it seemed to make my symptoms worse, so I switched to take it in the mornings. It seemed to be ok that way. But the disease symptoms are so variable, I can't be sure if the glutamine in the evening actually was the cause of the worsened symptoms./