{"id":80,"date":"2008-04-05T00:28:16","date_gmt":"2008-04-04T22:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.ultimatefatburner.com\/wordpress\/ingredient-watch-glycocyamine\/"},"modified":"2015-02-12T20:18:45","modified_gmt":"2015-02-13T01:18:45","slug":"ingredient-watch-glycocyamine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/ingredient-watch-glycocyamine\/","title":{"rendered":"Ingredient Watch: Glycocyamine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Glycocyamine is an ingredient that some companies add to their creatine-containing supplements.\u00a0 Because glycocyamine is the immediate precursor for creatine synthesis, it represents an additional pathway for increasing creatine storage in muscle tissue.\u00a0 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/jpet.aspetjournals.org\/content\/266\/3\/1454.abstract\" rel=\"noopener\">It\u00a0also has hypoglycemic effects<\/a>, and may be able to\u00a0enhance creatine uptake\u00a0in muscle without\u00a0a sugar-mediated insulin spike.<\/p>\n<p>Glycocyamine, however, has a dark side, and there have been warnings posted on various boards about avoiding supplements that include it.\u00a0 In higher amounts, glycocyamine\u00a0can cause: <!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>an increase in plasma homocysteine levels &#8211; which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.\u00a0 The process of converting glycocyamine to creatine imposes a high &#8220;<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/ajpendo.physiology.org\/content\/281\/5\/E1095.full\" rel=\"noopener\">methylation demand<\/a>.&#8221;\u00a0 <em>S<\/em>-adenosylmethionine (SAM) is the methyl donor for the reaction, and homocysteine is one of the end products.\u00a0 Homocysteine can degrade protein function; and can\u00a0<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/jnr.20070\/abstract\" rel=\"noopener\">inactivate the enzyme (DDAH)<\/a>\u00a0responsible for the breakdown of another potentially harmful compound (asymmetric dimethylarginine).<\/li>\n<li>seizures: glycocyamine accumulates in the brains of\u00a0patients with GAMT deficiency.\u00a0 This is a genetic disorder that\u00a0prevents the conversion of glycocyamine\u00a0to creatine.\u00a0 Epileptic seizures are a symptom of the disorder, and can be <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/11749046?ordinalpos=1&amp;itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_DiscoveryPanel.Pubmed_Discovery_RA\" rel=\"noopener\">corrected by measures that reduce glycocyamine levels<\/a>.\u00a0 This symptom may be related to <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/16773469?ordinalpos=3&amp;itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum\" rel=\"noopener\">glycocyamine&#8217;s ability to generate free radicals<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In addition, glycocyamine competes with creatine for the same transporters, which would negate any benefits from co-administration.<\/p>\n<p>Personally, I feel the dangers\u00a0are being\u00a0exaggerated:\u00a0only small amounts are used in bodybuilding supplements &#8211; it&#8217;s\u00a0mostly\u00a0&#8220;label decoration.&#8221;\u00a0\u00a0I have a hard time seeing how it could be harmful at that level.\u00a0 In older experiments, glycocyamine\u00a0has been fed to both <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/jn.nutrition.org\/content\/64\/2\/229.full.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\">rats<\/a> and <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jbc.org\/content\/235\/8\/2357.full.pdf\" rel=\"noopener\">chicks<\/a> at low concentrations\u00a0with no apparent harm, nor have any problems been reported from the use of glycocyamine-containing supplements.\u00a0 Nonetheless, there&#8217;s no apparent advantage to including it, and little to be lost by removing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0All things considered, regular creatine formulas get the job done, and are still the best choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Glycocyamine is an ingredient that some companies add to their creatine-containing supplements.\u00a0 Because glycocyamine is the immediate precursor for creatine synthesis, it represents an additional pathway for increasing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27],"tags":[448,761],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7919,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/7919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ultimatefatburner.com\/ufb-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}