Additional information about amino acids and chronic Lyme disease
Amino acids are essential for the treatment of Lyme disease because they are the building blocks that make up proteins. Proteins provide structure for all living things and participate in the vital chemical processes that sustain life. Sound important???
There are 20 amino acids, 9 of them are essential amino acids, and include histidine, isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan, and valine. These 9 essential amino acids cannot be manufactured by the body and must be obtained from food or supplements. The rest are non-essential, meaning they can be manufactured by the body from other amino acids, and include alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, ornithine, proline, selenocysteine, serine, and tyrosine.
People with limited diets, chronic diseases, like Chronic Lyme disease, or those who have trouble absorbing nutrients, will benefit from supplementing with amino acids.
For those with chronic illness such as Chronic Lyme disease, amino acids are scavenged by the offending bacteria, therefore destroying the essential amino acids you need for protein synthesis. It is therefore essential to supplement with amino acids.
The most important amino acids to replace when dealing with chronic Lyme disease or any of its co-infections, including mycoplasma infections, are L-arginine, L-tryptophan, L-threonine, and L-serine. It is essential that you supplement with all amino acids, especially the 9 essential aminos.
L-arginine is very important to supplement if you have Bartonella. (DO NOT USE L-ARGININE IF YOU HAVE ACTIVE HERPES, CHICKEN POX, OR SHINLES)