My Nutrition World.net

 An amino acid, L-Arginine (LA) was first discovered in 1886. It plays a role in detoxifying the body by helping to shed ammonia from the system. For the elderly it also helps keep your muscles healthy, and athletes use it as a performance enhancer also. The body produces it on its own but sometimes not in great enough quantities which is why there are L-Arginine supplements available.

A new study printed online December 3, 2008 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition has concluded that LA may help with blood vessel health in diabetics. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S., affecting 24 million Americans, and costing our healthcare system billions of dollars each year.

In the study, researchers analyzed data from 13 trials with a total of 589 patients. The data concerned the role of LA in conditions that included coronary artery disease, heart failure, kidney failure, patients with high cholesterol, and patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD).

The researchers found that L-Arginine supplementation had the greatest effect in older patients (over 55) with low elasticity in their blood vessels.

After reviewing the data the researchers suggested that people with blood vessel problems are likely to benefit from taking L-arginine supplements and that “This beneficial effect seems not to be dose-dependent when the dose of L-arginine ranges from 3 to 24 grams per day.”