Glutamine NOS - Supplements Descriptions

Glutamine NOS
(Met-Rx)

Elsewhere on this site, I discuss the possible benefits of supplementing with glutamine and with arginine. Both of these are conditionally essential amino acids. Both are purported to increase human growth hormone levels. And both are said to aid in recovery from grueling workouts. I have found much benefit form the glutamine, but not so much from the arginine.

But then, I came across Met-Rx's Glutamine NOS. The NOS stands for "Nitric Oxide Support." This product contains both glutamine and arginine. So I figured it would be a easy way to supplement with both. However, the one thing I was concerned with was the quality.

I have experimented with several different brands of glutamine, and the ones that I found works the best is Jarrow Formula's L-Glutamine or Ultimate Nutrition's Glutapure. All other brands I tried didn't have as good of an effect. Some didn't seem to help at all. But these are pharmaceutical grade, so they are pure glutamine.

However, I wasn't so sure about the quality of Met-Rx products as I hadn't used any Met-Rx products before. Moreover, the Glutamine NOS was not marked as being pharmaceutical grade. But I decided to try it. And after just a short while I could tell that it was of high quality as it helped with my post-workout soreness as much as the other glutamines did.

Moreover, since I started using the Glutamine NOS, my training has been going well, but no better than when I was using glutamine alone. Moreover, I haven't noticed a greater "pump" while working out, but then powerlifting training with its lower reps doesn't give as much of a pump as a bodybuilder's higher rep routine does.

The label information from the container is the following:

MET Rx Glutamine NOS
Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size (scoop) 2
Servings Per Container 83
Calories 60
L-Glutamine (g) 10.3
L-Arginine (g) 1.5

When my doctor had me supplementing with glutamine and arginine, she had me taking 5 grams of glutamine and 1 gram of arginine, twice a day, on an empty stomach. So that's a total of 10 grams of glutamine and 2 grams of arginine a day. So she had me taking a slightly higher ratio of arginine to glutamine.

However, I checked Met-Rx's site, and the label info there was considerably different. It had:

Supplement Facts
Serving Size - 1 scoop (8 grams)
Servings Per Container - About 90
Calories 30
L-Glutamine 5g
Arginine Complex 3g
(L-Arginine and L-Arginine Alpha Ketoglutarate)

The arginine-based compound listed last is the type of compound generally found in specific NOS products. So it would seem that Met-Rx is increasing the ratio of arginine to glutamine and adding this specific form or arginine. But this might make the product more expensive.

June 21, 2014 Update

This product is no longer available. So if you want to supplement with glutamine and arginine, you will have to take separate products, but I wouldn't recommend the latter at all and the former only with qualifications. See my articles on these items for details: glutamine and arginine.

The above article was posted on this site June 30, 2004.

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