Amino acid therapy for sleep and fatigue

Posted on Tue, 25 Apr 17

Nutritional supplementation with amino acids may be a useful way to improve sleep and reduce fatigue, according to a clinical intervention study. 

Although amino acids are traditionally thought of as nutritional ‘building blocks’ for proteins in the body, they actually have several important metabolic roles, much in the same way vitamin, minerals and other nutrients do. 

Inadequate supply of amino acids, either due to low intake and/ or increased requirements, has been proposed to play a role in fatigue, with personalized amino acid therapy based on urine testing of amino acid excretion having previously shown promise in people with chronic fatigue syndrome [1].  

In a new study, supplementation with 9.4 g daily of mixed amino acids for 30-days was found to result in significant improvements in reported fatigue and sleep for 81% of people [2].

Interestingly, the researchers measured urinary amino acid excretion and found that distinct “amino acid profiles” related to glycine and histidine loss correlated with particular clinical symptoms. They also found that men in the study with low fatigue scores at the start of treatment did not benefit from supplementation. 

Commenting on their findings the researchers suggested that urinary amino acid profiling and fatigue scores could be used to identify those individuals with sub-optimal amino acid status and fatigue, “and who would therefore potentially be more likely to benefit from amino acid support.” 

References: 

1. Brown BI. Chronic fatigue syndrome: a personalized integrative medicine approach. Altern Ther Health Med. 2014 Jan-Feb;20(1):29-40.
2. Dunstan RH, Sparkes DL, Macdonald MM, et al. Diverse characteristics of the urinary excretion of amino acids in humans and the use of amino acid supplementation to reduce fatigue and sub-health in adults. Nutr J. 2017 Mar 23;16(1):19