about twenty years ago an oral surgeon friend told a couple of us to bone up on L-Lysine when we felt a cold coming on.
since then when i start feeling something come on i take 1000mg twice a day (also started taking ionic zinc and vitamin c) with hot green tea, honey and lemon. it won't cure what you have but it mutes the symptoms. allows me to function and i rarely get sick anymore.
stops severity of different colds, coughs whatever - but not all (enough to enable me to keep my voice and sound normal) it works for one of the friends as well, never kept up with the others.
melatonin is nature's anti-stress hormone because it counters the effects of high cortisol.
many scientists consider melatonin to be the best anti-oxidant known. it crosses all membrane barriers and is a powerful scavenger of free radicals.
i take about 3-5mg about 40 minutes before bedtime. on high central nervous system workouts like heavy squats and dead lifts i have it in my gear bag along with the citrulline-malate, whey, leucine etc... it counters cortisol from heavy workouts.
Great info. I think lysine is most known to stop coldsores and I know that is why many buy it. Many used to come into my shop to buy it for that reason. As you state it's just a great tool in the whole area of immunity. As is melatonin and I know how popular that is on here. I use 5-10mg pre bed and as you state it's another great tool. I think the likes of zinc and vitamin c fit very well into this group of supplements too. Here is some info on lysine and arginine for anxiety and cortisol.
Oral treatment with L-lysine and L-arginine reduces anxiety and basal cortisol levels in healthy humans.
Smriga M1, Ando T, Akutsu M, Furukawa Y, Miwa K, Morinaga Y.
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Dietary supplementation with an essential amino acid L-lysine has been shown to reduce chronic anxiety in humans with low dietary intake of L-lysine. A combination of L-lysine and L-arginine has been documented to normalize hormonal stress responses in humans with high trait anxiety. The present study was carried out in one hundred eight healthy Japanese adults. The aim of study was to find out whether a week-long oral treatment with L-lysine (2.64 g per day) and L-arginine (2.64 g per day) reduces trait and stress-induced state anxiety and basal levels of stress hormones. We confirmed that, without regard to gender, the amino acid treatment significantly reduced both trait anxiety and state anxiety induced by cognitive stress battery. In addition, we found that the treatment with L-lysine and L-arginine decreased the basal levels of salivary cortisol and chromogranin-A (a salivary marker of the sympatho-adrenal system) in male subjects. These results of this double-blind, placebo controlled and randomized study confirm the previous findings in humans and animals and point to a combination of L-lysine and L-arginine as a potentially useful dietary intervention in otherwise healthy humans with high subjective levels of mental stress and anxiety.
A diet fortified with L-lysine and L-arginine reduces plasma cortisol and blocks anxiogenic response to transportation in pigs.
Srinongkote S1, Smriga M, Nakagawa K, Toride Y.
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We studied the effects of diet fortified with L-lysine HCl (Lys) and L-arginine (Arg) on stress (transportation) responses in male finishing pigs (Landrace x LargeWhite x Duroc). Pigs (n = 16) were randomly divided into two equally sized groups so that the average starting body weight in the groups was identical. For 1 week immediately preceding the transportation, the first group of pigs received a control diet while the second group received a Lys and Arg fortified diet. Plasma aminogram, cortisol and body weight were evaluated. Behavior of pigs was measured with the help of a video camera, recorded for 2 h at the same time, as on the day, before a day and immediately after transportation. The study revealed main stimulatory effects of transportation and main inhibitory effect of Lys and Arg on plasma cortisol (P < 0.05) without transportation x treatment interactions. Pigs fed with Lys and Arg diet tend to have higher body weight at the end of the experiment, when compared to their normally fed counterparts, but the difference did not reach a significant level (P < 0.21). Lys and Arg diet significantly inhibited stress-induced increase in locomotion (P < 0.05), without affecting feeding pattern. Transportation stress decreased plasma Lys and Arg. This decrease was reversed in the fortified group, and what is more the plasma Lys and Arg levels were significantly higher than in controls (P < 0.05). Lys and Arg enhanced plasma urea production (P < 0.05), without regards to stress. The behavioral results indicate a reduction in stress-induced anxiety in pigs fed with Lys and Arg fortified diet, that parallels similar observations in research with rats and broilers. The mechanism probably involves a decreased plasma cortisol, and/or normalized plasma Lys, Arg levels.