Owen,
After years of reading about vitamin C I came across the Pauling Therapy site. Needless to say you could have knocked me over with a feather.
Last year I became very interested in amino acids and purchased several books. Which is leading to my question and I thought it might be better to ask you instead of posting.
I have several containers of Whey Protein and during times of stress or if I am too busy to eat right I take several servings a day (.5 grams of protein for each pound of muscle mass). Anyway
I have read the back of that bag many times I happen to notice there is 2190 mg of L-Lysine per serving and 1380 mg of L-Proline per serving. Keeping in mind there are 18 amino acids listed.
My question is if I take a therapeutic dose of vitamin C along with a serving a my whey protein that should have the same effect as taking the supplements separately. Looks to me it should work.
Thanks in advance
FL
In theory, yes - especially if you do take vitamin C at the same time, because the protein (aminos) chelate vitamin C increasing its bioavailability. (Source: Vitamin C: Its Biology and Medical Potential by Sherry Lewin 1976,)
The only way this doesn't work if all the aminos share the same transport system through the intestinal wall. If some of the lysine/proline are blocked due to competition with the other (16?) aminos, you might not get the same effect. This is the only reason I can think of why it would be less effective, but if you spread out consuming the protein, I would think this risk is minimized.
Remember, Pauling recommended 2-3 grams prevention, and 5-6 grams lysine as therapeutic. That is 5000 to 6000 mg lysine or 2 to 3 servings of your mix.
Pauling did not give specific proline recommendation, but we have had remarkable success with 800 mg in 2 jars of Heart Technology. Some alt docs recommend up to 2000
mg proline. In your case, the ratio is fixed, which might be another drawback.