Kaged Muscle is back, but this time they’re not launching another flavor, they’re launching a new product – and this one has a very interesting new spin on a “legacy” ingredient!
If you’re a Kaged Muscle aficionado, then glutamine is nothing new, since they already sell a Micropure Fermented Glutamine powder, which you can easily stack with other products. Furthermore, you can tell that Kris Gethin and Brian Rand are proponents of fermented glutamine, because it’s included in several of their comprehensive formulas such as Re-Kaged.
Although glutamine is sold by various brands, it doesn’t get the spotlight nearly as much as some other ingredients, and hasn’t changed or had innovation for decades. Glutamine is classified as a non essential amino acid, meaning that our body is able to use other amino acids to create it endogenously as needed. The question comes with the benefits of additional supplementation – and if we can make it even better.
Glutamine: Recovery, Immunity, and Gut Health
Some consider glutamine as a “conditionally essential amino acid”, since there are certain contexts in which supplementing with an exogenous source of glutamine is beneficial. Within the sports supplement industry, glutamine is typically marketed as a recovery booster and muscle builder.
Unfortunately, there’s little evidence to support muscle building claims, especially when subjects are getting in adequate amounts of it from their diet. Several foods are rich in glutamine, including meat, seafood, protein powders, eggs, and a variety of vegetables. With that known, plain ol’ L-glutamine is no longer on the top of most healthy supplement users’ stacks – but there are still some benefits:
One of the reasons why glutamine is now considered to be a conditionally essential amino acid is because under extreme circumstances, such as extreme training, injury, or illness, extra glutamine may help facilitate recovery, support the immune system, and improve overall gut health.
But glutamine can be better – and Kris Gethin and team may have found the right partner to improve the legendary amino acid.
Making a better glutamine
One of the major issues of glutamine, especially for aiding recovery, is its bioavailability. Because glutamine is utilized heavily in the gastrointestinal tract — specifically the stomach — there’s very little left to be used for other purposes. Fortunately, Kaged Muscle may have a solution to this problem and it’s called microencapsulation.
Kaged Muscle Microencapsulated Glutamine For Enhanced Absorption
The formulators at Kaged Muscle have already proved once that microencapsulation significantly improves solubility and absorption with one of their best selling products — CreaClear. Now they’re using the same technology for glutamine and propose that microencapsulation will also enhance the solubility and bioavailability of glutamine as well!
Kaged Muscle Microencapsulated Glutamine is now available for you to reap all of the benefits that glutamine has to offer. Not to mention, with this product they used a plant-based protein to encapsulate the glutamine, opposed to milk based protein used in CreaClear, so it’s vegan-friendly! If Kaged Muscle can do for glutamine what they did for creatine, then we are very interested.
Everything you need to know about Kaged Muscle Microencapsulated Glutamine is down below! But before you read any more information, sign up for Kaged Muscle news and deal alerts to stay up to date with the latest product drops and sales!
Kaged Muscle Microencapsulated Glutamine – Deals and Price Drop Alerts
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Kaged Muscle Microencapsulated Glutamine Ingredients
Each (6.1g) serving of Kaged Muscle’s Microencapsulated Glutamine contains 5g of fermented L-Glutamine. The additional 1.1g goes to the vegan-based microencapsulation technology discussed below.
Recommended Dosing
The formulators at Kaged Muscle have some very specific dosing protocols for you to follow in order to get the most out of it. They recommended taking 5g of Microencapsulated Glutamine four times a day for a total of 20g per day. Furthermore, they suggest consuming it on training and non-training days. Because it’s unflavored, you can easily add one scoop to 8-10oz of water or other beverage of choice.
If you’re meticulously tracking your caloric intake, keep in mind that each serving has approximately 25 calories (even if it cannot be legally placed on the label due to FDA guidelines). So if you take it four times per day, make sure to account for 100 calories in total. 100 calories may seem like a lot, but when you consider the benefits you’re receiving, it’s likely worth it.
Key Features
There are countless glutamine supplements on the market but Kaged Muscle Microencapsulated Glutamine is definitely the most innovative. Beyond the microencapsulation technology, Kaged Muscle opts to use fermented L-Glutamine and specifies that right on the label.
Why fermented?
It’s obvious by now that Kris Gethin, founder of Kaged Muscle, refuses to cut corners — he’s adamant when it comes to quality, transparency, safety, and honesty. He and his team use the fermented versions of amino acids whenever possible.
Fermented aminos are plant-based, unlike others from synthetic sources or things like animal hair or feathers. This choice is great for vegans, vegetarians, or anyone who’s ethically-minded — after all, who wants to be drinking amino acids from hair or feathers?! Kris also strongly believes that fermented amino acids are better absorbed by the body, which would yield better results. Whether that’s true or not, PricePlow is definitely a huge advocate for fermented amino acids as opposed to horse hair!
Vegan-Friendly!
Kaged Muscle decided to use a plant-based protein in order to encapsulate the L-Glutamine, so overall, this product is completely vegan-friendly. This is a great feature, especially since vegans and vegetarians are likely to benefit most from amino acid supplementation, as their diets are typically lacking in high-quality protein sources.
Here are the main bullet points about KM’s differentiation in the glutamine market:
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Informed Sport Certified
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Microencapsulated
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Micropure Quality
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Third Party Tested
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Non-GMO
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100% Plant Based
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Vegan Friendly
Now that we have that covered, let’s see what health and performance benefits glutamine has to offer!
The benefits of glutamine
Glutamine is an conditionally essential amino acid that takes on several roles in the body — it’s most notably involved in muscle protein synthesis, the immune system, and the gastrointestinal system.[1] Not only does the body naturally produce glutamine, it also acquires glutamine from various sources of food.
Glutamine is known as the most abundant free-form amino acid in the blood, but research shows that you can develop glutamine deficiency during periods of metabolic stress, such as injury, illness, or intense exercise.[1,2] Preliminary studies have found that glutamine can preserve skeletal muscle mass, maintain nitrogen balance, and may enhance barrier function within the gut, which is key for preventing illness.[1] Since the research on L-glutamine supplementation focuses on three key areas (recovery, the immune system, and gut health), that’s what we will do as well:
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Promoting Recovery
Even though glutamine contributes to muscle protein synthesis, there’s very little evidence showing that supplementation of L-glutamine increases muscle mass.[3] However, research has reported that oral L-glutamine supplementation enhances recovery and reduces soreness.[4]
In a study from 2015, researchers recruited 16 healthy men and women to participate in a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled crossover study.[4] Half of the subjects received 0.3g/kg of L-glutamine along with 0.3g/kg of maltodextrin, once per day.[4] The other half served as the placebo, thus they were given 0.6g/kg of just maltodextrin, once per day over a three day period.[4]
All participants performed an eccentric exercise protocol consisting of unilateral knee extension. At the end of the study, the researchers concluded that the participants who supplemented with L-Glutamine had significantly less soreness and greater knee extension peak torque after the eccentric exercise protocol than the placebo group.[4]
Another study from 2011 was conducted to determine if L-glutamine supplementation could positively impact muscle recovery after eccentric exercise.[5] The researchers utilized a randomized single-blind placebo controlled design, recruited 15 physically-active males, and gave them either 0.3g/kg of L-glutamine or 0.3g/kg of maltodextrin, 0, 24, 48, and 72 hours post exercise.[5]
Each participant performed 100 drop jumps in order to induce muscular damage from eccentric exercise.[5] In the end, they found that L-glutamine supplementation resulted in greater preservation of strength (as measured by peak torque knee extension) and significantly lower muscle soreness over 96 hours.[5]
In addition, glutamine can be very beneficial for promoting healing following an injury, since the research shows that injuries can be a major cause of glutamine deficiency.[2] If you train long enough, injuries are bound to arise, so keep in mind that it may be a good idea to add in some extra glutamine in order to facilitate healing and get back in the gym faster!
Although the research on glutamine’s ability to enhance muscle growth and body composition is lacking, there’s definitely evidence that shows it may promote recovery, preserve strength, and reduce muscle soreness.[4,5] It’s also important to note that many athletes get plenty of glutamine from their diet, especially if they eat meat. Thus, if you adopt a more plant-based diet, then supplementing with glutamine will likely be even more beneficial.
Promoting recovery is not all glutamine can do — it’s also crucial for the immune and gastrointestinal systems!
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Immune System
Glutamine is a major fuel source for both intestinal and immune system cells.[2] Studies show that glutamine is rapidly used by immune cells, and is deemed crucial for optimal lymphocyte proliferation, phagocytic activity, and cytokine production.[6]
Furthermore, glutamine is a precursor to one of the most powerful antioxidants within the body — glutathione. Thus, it helps protect against oxidative stress induced by free radicals.[2] Glutamine has also been shown to express strong immunomodulatory properties and can stimulate the proliferation of lymphocytes, also known as white blood cells, which play a key role in defending against foreign pathogens.[2]
Research suggests that individuals with the following conditions could benefit the most from supplementing with L-glutamine: overtrained athletes, endurance athletes, individuals with burns, injuries, sepsis, or following surgery.[6]
The researchers speculate that glutamine deficiency occurs from the increased utilization by the liver, kidneys, gut, and immune system during these conditions.[6] In addition, lowered levels of plasma glutamine contribute to decreased immune system function — significantly increasing your risk of getting sick.[6]
It’s fair to say that glutamine may be even more important for the immune system then muscle growth or recovery.
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Gut Health
The last major benefit of glutamine we’re going to highlight is its ability to improve gut health!
Your gut is closely related to your immune system, and it makes sense that glutamine would support both systems. Not only is glutamine a major energy source for enterocytes and epithelial cells within the intestines, it helps maintain proper gut barrier function.[7]
This barrier is crucial for optimal health, because it keeps foreign invaders from entering circulation and prevents chronic gastrointestinal conditions from developing, such as leaky gut syndrome.
Furthermore, glutamine contributes to mucus formation and integrity of the intestinal surface.[7] Intestinal mucosa is important for trapping bacteria and inhibiting it from entering the body.
A meta-analysis from 2012 reported that glutamine can prevent gastrointestinal injury induced by radiation in cancer patients, decrease mucosa atrophy, improves barrier function and morphology, reduces oxidative stress, enhances mucosal lymphocyte count, lowers intestinal permeability, and inflammation.[8]
Gut health issues have become more and more common, and if you suffer from some type of gastrointestinal disorder, then we highly recommended seeing a health care professional and discussing what they think about adding in glutamine as part of the treatment.
The downside of standard glutamine supplementation
It’s clear that glutamine is rapidly used up by the cells within the gut, which is one of the reasons why Kaged Muscle decided to formulate a different kind of glutamine that’s likely more effective for aiding recovery.
The “first pass effect”
Studies show that a large percentage of glutamine supplementation suffers from what’s known as the first-pass effect.[9,10] This means that other cells, in this case enterocytes and immune cells, use the majority of the glutamine before it can enter circulation to be used for other things, such as muscle protein synthesis and fueling muscle growth/recovery.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing per say, since you will still receive several benefits from glutamine in regards to immune and gut health, but those may not be what you’re after – especially after decades of the industry marketing other potential effects.
Enter microencapsulated glutamine:
The Science Behind Microencapsulation
A few years ago, Kaged Muscle partnered with an innovative company called AnaBio Technologies LTD to utilize microencapsulation technology with some of their products, the first one being CreaClear — microencapsulated creatine monohydrate. After Kaged Muscle had incredible success with CreaClear, they decided to use this same technology with glutamine in an effort to increase solubility, absorption, and bioavailability. The CreaClear blog post linked above goes heavily into the science and the patent inside.
For the Microenscapsulated Glutamine, however, the microencapsulation utilizes a plant-based protein matrix to “shield” the glutamine through the digestion process, resulting in significantly increased absorption.
“Micro-encapsulation involves protecting tiny particles of the bioactive within a coating to create a microscopic capsule. This capsule protects the bioactive from a wide range of environmental conditions and ensures that it’s released at an appropriate time and site within the body.”
— AnaBio Technologies LTD
If you’ve ever used CreaClear, then you know how phenomenal it dissolves in water and absorbs, which is exactly what you should expect with Microencapsulated Glutamine! The key difference between Microencapsulated Glutamine and CreaClear is the protein sources.
As we mentioned in the introduction, CreaClear uses a milk based protein, whereas Microencapsulated Glutamine uses a plant-based protein. They don’t specify which plant protein specifically, but it’s vegan-friendly, which was the primary goal. Kaged Muscle wanted a wide variety of people to be able to take this product.
Kaged Muscle changed the game with CreaClear and they are about to do it again with glutamine!
Beyond superior bioavailability and absorption,[11] the key benefits of microencapsulation include:
- Flavor masking[11]
- Increased stability of the bio-active ingredient[11]
- Enhanced dispersibility[11]
- Targeted release[11]
New research on its way:
Kaged Muscle stated that they are working with AnaBio Technologies LTD to perform research studies on the Microencapsulated Glutamine. They want to assess if it enhances the body’s ability to uptake the glutamine and use a greater percentage of it for recovery and muscle growth. Once that study is officially published, this article will be further updated — so stay tuned and sign up for our Kaged Muscle news alerts!
Anecdotally speaking, if the microencapsulation technology can protect the glutamine from being utilized by the intestinal cells, then more of it will be available for muscle protein synthesis. We’re excited to see what results they come up with once the study is published!
If you want to learn more about microencapsulation, check out this in-depth article on how it’s used for CreaClear: Kaged Muscle CreaClear Makes Creatine Monohydrate Cool Again.
What about the original Kaged Muscle Glutamine?
Due to the benefits of supplementing with standard glutamine, Kaged Muscle informed us that they’re still going to keep making the original Micropure Glutamine, however they’ve released a new version in an effort to target sports performance and offer another option for their customers.
Kaged Muscle: Innovation, Expansion, and Growth
Kaged Muscle is always looking for ways to improve, innovate, and expand their product line. 2020 has been a huge year for them — they’ve made some big changes within the company that’s really paying off. You can tell that Kaged Muscle is taking things to a new level — especially with all of the new product and flavor releases.
Not only are they cranking out all kinds of new products and flavors, they’re vastly improving on every level — quality, taste, mixability, production time, formulations, and even marketing campaigns. Time and time again, Kaged Muscle proves why they’re one of the top-tier companies in the industry, and Kris Gethin is ready to kick things up another notch. He believes that the consumers deserve more and is willing to do whatever it takes to deliver.
Offering an alternative version of glutamine is a prime example of this mission — this provides customers with more options, especially for those who want the most out of their supplements. Kaged Muscle has always prided themselves on producing high quality products and that’s one of the reasons why they’ve risen to the top and continue to climb!
The year isn’t over yet — Kaged Muscle is getting warmed up — subscribe down below so you don’t miss out!
Kaged Muscle Microencapsulated Glutamine – Deals and Price Drop Alerts
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