Photo by ANIRUDH on Unsplash
(Photo : ANIRUDH on Unsplash)

Often referred to as the building blocks of proteins, amino acids are the compounds that are consumed by living beings to perform different critical activities. Generally, a human body requires 20 different types of amino acids to function correctly. Nine of these 20 amino acids are known as essential amino acids and need to be consumed by humans through their food.

 The amino acids might be required by the human body for a plethora of vital activities like building proteins and producing hormones and neurotransmitters. To maintain the required level of amino acids in the body, people may consume them either in the form of a supplement or naturally to ameliorate their mood or bolster their athletic performance.

 Amino acids are found in different protein-rich foods like soybeans, fish meat, beef, eggs and dairy. The three groups or categories of amino acids include essential amino acids, non-essential amino acids and conditional amino assets. As the name itself suggests, essential amino acids are nine in number and they can be received through the food we eat. On the other hand, 11 non-essential amino acids are found both in food and even produced by the human body. The conditional amino acids initially start as non-essential amino acids and then later get converted to essential amino Acids in case of any emergency like an illness or other health issue.

 Now let's have a glance at the ten major benefits of these organic compounds that are composed mainly of hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen and carbon.

Effective Benefits Of Amino Acids

1.  Improving your mood

Being an essential amino acid, Tryptophan serves myriad important purposes, one of which is helping in the production of serotonin and melatonin. Serotonin is a hormone that may help to regulate your sleep, appetite, pain and mood.  On the other hand, melatonin might regulate your sleep-wake cycle. Thus, both these hormones together could essentially help you to feel happy and well adjusted.

Moreover,  low serotonin levels could even be linked with sleep disturbances and depressed moods. Due to this, studies have even shown that people who consume Tryptophan supplements may see a boost in their moods and a reduction in their depression symptoms.

2. Promote the growth of healthy hair, nails and skin.

 The two proteins, named elastin and collagen might encourage hair and nail growth and even facilitate a healthy-looking skin. Another protein, lysine, could even amplify collagen production in your body, thus facilitating healthy growth of your skin, nails and hair.

3. Support wound healing and surgery.

 People who are healing may prefer taking amino acid supplements because amino acids could help in wound healing and surgery. According to a study of 243 people, the people who consumed conditionally essential amino acids for two weeks after their surgery saw a truncation in their medical complications and rates of death as compared with the people who receive the standard nutrition.

4. Easy to digest

The free-form amino acids are already broken down and hence they may be easy to digest and can be readily absorbed by your body. Hence, the people or athletes that suffer from any digestion issues like Crohn's disease or IBS may consume the amino acids to amplify and bolster their energy levels without affecting the digestive system.

Moreover, amino acids even play a crucial role in cases when digestion may be impaired due to vascular shunting and muscle recovery is crucial. This results in a lack of blood in the digestive tract during endurance training or heavy sports. Moreover, heavy protein shakes that may be difficult to digest and sit in the stomach for long hours are always less effective than amino acids.

Your body produces histamine using histidine that could help in the proper functioning of your digestive system.

5. Support the immune system.

 As we all know, the immune system is a crucial part of the proper functioning of the human body. However, once your training volumes or workout sessions are amplified, there is a chance that you could see a compromise in your immune function. Here comes the role of amino acids.

 Since amino acids are the building blocks of the endocrine systems and they produce certain vital hormones and elements, supplementing your body with these acids during the intense training periods may support your immune system.

6. Produce neurotransmitters 

Another crucial benefit of Amino acids is the production of neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that help the nervous system in communicating with the rest of the body and hence could regulate every aspect of your body, be it its appetite or your mood. Phenylalanine produces some of the neural transmitters and even other amino acids that could improve the mood or regulate different conditions of your body.

7. Preserve muscle mass.

One of the most important functions of the essential amino acids is to evade any loss of muscle.  Hence these building blocks of proteins might prove to be more effective when the calorie intake in the person is insufficient or when the person is older. This is because in old age people protein digestion and assimilation are less efficient. Since muscle is an important tissue for the human body, protecting it under certain conditions might become more crucial. These conditions could include exercises like endurance training or intermittent sports or even when trying to cut the body fat.

8. Ameliorate exercise performance and recovery.

Amino acids are a great choice for all the athletes out there who want to ameliorate their muscle performance and facilitate faster muscle recovery after exercise. Due to the same reason, a plethora of people consume the three essential branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) known as isoleucine, leucine and valine. These amino acids could help to ameliorate your athletic performance, truncate the fatigue levels, and foster quicker muscle recovery after exercise.

Moreover, according to a review of eight studies, the branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) may help in promoting quicker muscle recovery and reduce the soreness after intense workout sessions even more than rest.

Besides this, the BCAAs could even truncate the rate of perceived exertion. Perceived exertion refers to the intensity of the workout as felt by people when they are engaged in high-intensity exercises.

9. Non-inflammatory nature.

 Since the amino acids are non-inflammatory, they could be an ideal choice for all the athletes and people out there who have certain underlying health issues or inflammatory issues. These diseases could include allergy, IBS, Crohn's disease, diabetes, asthma or coeliac disease. Since the whey proteins are pro-inflammatory, they might not be tolerated well by your body unless you are in the best health condition. Hence in all such circumstances, amino acids could be the perfect alternative.

10. Help in regulating the weight

 There are different amino acids with different functions that could help you to maintain a healthy weight. Amino acids like Methionine can regulate your metabolic rate and could even help with detoxification. On the other hand, threonine might play a critical role in metabolizing the fat thus, helping you to maintain a healthy weight. 

Recommended Intake Of Amino Acids

Since your body may not be able to produce the required amount of amino acids, it might be crucial for you to get them through your diet. There are various foods that are rich in essential Amino acids and could help to meet your daily requirements. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has provided the daily required consumption of the essential amino acid for the adults, per 2.2 pounds/1 kg of body weight. Let's have a look at this required daily consumption of amino acids.

  •  Methionine: 10.4 mg

  • Lysine: 30 mg

  • Histidine: 10 mg

  • Phenylalanine combined with the non-essential amino acid tyrosine: 25 mgmgs

  • Isoleucine: 20 mg

  • Valine: 26 mg

  • Leucine: 39 mg

  • Tryptophan: 4 mg

  • Threonine: 15 mg

To know the required daily consumption according to your body, you could multiply the numbers given above by your weight in kilogrammes. However, adhering to the daily consumption limit could be easy through most of your diets and hence you might not be required to track your daily individual amino acid intake.

Some of the foods that are a complete source of protein include dairy products, poultry, seafood, meat and eggs. Other plant-based sources are incomplete sources of proteins because they lack certain essential amino acids. These sources could include certain grains, beans or nuts. So if you are following a plant-based diet then you may make sure to get all the nine essential amino acids by focusing on consuming myriad plant proteins each day.

Conclusion

Thus, there are nine essential amino acids which you may consume using your diet. Amino Acids are quite crucial for your body because they may help in performing a plethora of body functions like nutrient absorption, tissue repair and protein synthesis. Some amino acids, may even evade muscle loss, ameliorate your mood and sleep cycles, bolster athletic performance and support recovery after surgery.

In case you may not be able to meet the daily needs of these vital compounds through your diet, you could even take essential amino acid supplements.