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Home / Healthcare & Medicine / Nutrition / Nutrition: Eating to Live Well / Supplement Approach of Glutamine

Supplement Approach of Glutamine

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14.3
A lot of formulas on enteral nutrition in the market added glutamine in them. Enteral nutrition is to supplement nutrition by eating or via naso-tube feeding. Some of the nutrition formulas will mix with other nutrients for a balanced formula. Glutamine can be made in the form of powder, or in liquid so that it can be supplemented by just opening it and drinking it. It can also be supplemented through intravenous infusion. For patients with critical illness, they might not be able to eat orally. instead, glutamine can be supplemented intravenously. However, glutamine has poor water solubility, and its stability in water solution is low. Therefore, glutamine is not added to the formula of traditional intravenous nutrition. Now, there is a new supplement approach.
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This approach is to use the combination of glutamine with another amino acid to form the approach of dual-peptide and supplemented it by water solution. The combination of dual-peptide glutamine is more stable in water solution. Therefore, for patients with critical illness, the required glutamine can be supplemented through this approach. We all know its various functions in our body as mentioned earlier. Especially for some patients with critical illness or the injured or infected patients, there might be special demands in their bodies. How much amount of glutamine should be given to these patients would be sufficient? The researches in the past also focused on the patients with different conditions and provided some special suggestions.
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The suggested glutamine volume is 15%-35% of the total amino acid amount. For patients after surgery, due to the loss of protein in the body is more, the demand for protein is more than what normal people need. For normal persob, it will be around 1 gram protein per kilogram of weight. For patients after surgery, they might need 1.5 grams protein per kilogram of weight. In the 1.5 gram protein, glutamine might account for 20%. That is, glutamine is around 0.3 grams per kilogram of weight. This is the requirement for patients after surgery.
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If the patient is with severe level of illness and serious loss of protein, for example, multiple wounds and burns, which is open wound, involved with more loss of body liquid and protein, then the patients require more demands on supplement of protein. For patients with multiple wounds or burns, it is suggested the volume of protein is 2.0-2.5 grams per kilogram of weight. So, glutamine supplements is expected to be 30 grams of glutamine. This lao means that the patient will need more glutamine than the volume that obtained from daily normal diet. Without additional glutamine supplement, patients’ bodies can not meet the demands of normal function.

Prof. Yeh will explain the different methods of glutamine supplement.

Glutamine can be supplied by eating or via naso-tube feeding. Some of the formulas mix with other nutrients for a balanced formula. The glutamine is also sold in the form of powder or in liquid so that it can be supplemented by just opening it and drinking it. It can also be supplemented through intravenous infusion.

The suggested glutamine volume is 15%-35% of the total amino acid amount. For normal people, it will be around 1 gram protein per kilogram of weight. For patients after surgery, due to the loss of protein in the body is more, the demand for protein is more than what we normal people need. For patients after surgery, the requirement for patients after surgery is around 0.3 grams per kilogram of weight.

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