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At Mercola.com, Dr. Joseph Mercola discusses the use of the amino acid glycine for fighting viruses. He writes:
Collagen accounts for about 30% of the total protein in your body; 28% of collagen, in turn, is made up of glycine, and it is the amino acid with the highest concentration in collagen.1 It is a mildly sweet amino acid that can also be used as a sugar substitute.
Glycine, proline and hydroxyproline2 are the raw materials for connective tissue, but the benefits of glycine go far beyond connective tissue health. For example, glycine:
• Has potent anti-inflammatory effects, in part by inhibiting activation of immune cells and suppressing the production of proinflammatory cytokines, and in part by inhibiting the consumption of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate hydrogen (NADPH), as detailed in this previous article.
• Plays an important role in the aging process. In some animal studies, diets containing 8% to 12% glycine increased the median lifespan by as much as 28.4%.3
According to previous research,4 glycine may even be responsible for the epigenetic regulation that drives the aging process as a whole. It also induces autophagy, so that renewal and regeneration of your damaged cells can take place.
• Is a precursor to glutathione, a powerful endogenous antioxidant that declines with age.
• Acts as a neurotransmitter5 and may play an important role in depression.6 It’s also been shown to alleviate neuroinflammation and protect against cognitive deficits in mice with neurodegeneration.7
• Helps prevent cancer by inhibiting the growth of blood vessels that feed tumors.8
Glycine Protects Against Viral Infections
Interestingly, glycine also helps protect against viruses by reinforcing your extracellular matrix, as evidenced in a 2021 study.9 Collagen, which is high in glycine, is the primary protein of the extracellular matrix, which acts as a physical barrier against infectious agents such as bacteria, viruses and fungi.
When you’re deficient in glycine, your extracellular matrix is weakened, thereby raising the risk of viruses being able to proliferate through your tissues. Many infectious agents secrete proteases that destroy collagen to facilitate their proliferation.
Some viruses are also known to inhibit collagen synthesis, which has the same effect.10 Making sure you have enough glycine in your system at all times can help prevent viruses from destroying enough collagen to get inside your cells.
Read more here.
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