What Are Amino Acid Supplements?

Amino acids are organic compounds which come together to make proteins, which perform essential parts of our bodily functions and muscle growth.

They come in three different types, the first of which are called essential amino acids. These cannot be produced by our bodies and must come from an external source, such as supplements. They include valine, tryptophan, threonine, phenylalanine, methionine, lysine, leucine, isoleucine, and histidine.

Non-essential amino acids can be made by our bodies, meaning we’ll have them regardless of whether or not we take them as supplements or in our diet. These include tyrosine, serine, proline, glycine, glutamine, glutamic acid, cysteine, aspartic acid, asparagine, arginine and alanine.

Conditional amino acids are generally not vital for our health, except when sick or under a lot of stress, and in those cases, supplements are ideal. These are serine, proline, ornithine, glycine, tyrosine, glutamine, cysteine, and arginine.