LYSINE: Herpes fighter

Although best known among health food fans as a very effective herpes treatment, lysine is no single-purpose supplement. It also deserves recognition for its help in preventing osteoporosis and cataracts, preserving muscle tissue and helping us to recuperate from stress. In addition, it maintains energy levels and keeps the heart strong by providing the ingredients for the body to make the amino acid carnitine. And it may be a piece of the elusive puzzle called ‘How to Control Lipoprotein(a)’.

Lysine is one of the eight essential amino acids that the body cannot manufacture on its own, but most people consume all the lysine they need. Red meats, chicken, turkey and other animal proteins provide ample amounts. Vegetarians and low- fat dieters, however, may not get enough. Milling strips grains of their lysine, leaving little in flour and other refined products. Cooking a protein food along with sugar also destroys lysine. That’s one reason desserts and junk food raise the risk of a protein deficiency. In the absence of even one of the essential eight amino acids, the body can’t make protein efficiently enough to preserve our lean tissue. Viagra online in Australia

THE BONES AND BEYOND

Until relatively recently, we weren’t fully aware of lysine’s contribution to bone health. Now, however, it’s an established part of my osteoporosis programme. All postmenopausal women should take at least 500 mg per day, perhaps more if the diet is low in animal protein. The body needs lysine to absorb calcium and transport the mineral to the bones. A deficiency can increase the loss of calcium through urine.

Сold Sores
Lysine actually does not kill the herpes simplex virus, but a dosage of between 1 and 3 grams a day does hold back active symptoms, notably the blisters that emerge around the mouth or the genitals. Lysine works because it interferes with the absorption of the virus’s favourite food, the amino acid arginine.

Immune Strength
Although the two amino acids vie for absorption, lysine and arginine become allies in the immune system. Consuming the two together, lab tests show, increases certain indications of better immune system vitality, such as the number and effectiveness of neutrophils, the most numerous of our white blood cells. This provides a rationale for using lysine as part of the nutritional treatment for chronic fatigue viruses, hepa. titis or HIV.

Cataracts
In the eye, lysine slows the lens damage that high blood sugar inflicts. Anyone with Type I or Type П diabetes should take the amino acid for additional protection against cataracts.

Heart Disease
At least one doctor-author, Mathias Rath, MD, feels that lysine may play a big role in reversing heart disease. Along with another amino acid, proline, and vitamin C, he feels it helps reverse the artery-blocking effects of lipoprotein(a).

SUPPLEMENT SUGGESTIONS

A few researchers have linked a high-lysine diet to increased cholesterol, but I’ve never seen this occur in any of my patients. In fact, dosages as high as 8 grams per day have been administered in some studies without ill effects. Nevertheless most of us do not need lysine supplements. We get quite enough from food. Supplements need to be considered only by vegetarians or anyone eating a low-protein diet, as well as by anyone attempting to combat a herpes outbreak or another lysine-responsive condition. Clomid Australia

For suppressing herpes, lysine, in a daily dose of 1-2 grams, works better if combined with a sugar-free diet and supplements of vitamin A, vitamin C, the bioflavonoids and bromelain. Taking lysine and arginine together in a doily dosage range of 1—3 grams each should provide immune support against viruses unrelated to herpes.