MORE THAN MUSCLE

Most of us think of amino acids as something bodybuilders use to build muscle or athletes take after a workout. But research suggests they may play a much broader role in our health, influencing everything from hydration and recovery to collagen formation, energy production and healthy ageing.

I certainly didn’t know any of that six years ago when I started taking ElectrAAte, a hydration supplement containing amino acids. I started taking it because I sweat. A LOT. I sweat when I run, when I walk, and even when standing completely still. At the time, I wasn’t thinking about amino acids at all. I simply wanted something that might help replace what I was losing through sweat.

After a few months of taking it every day, I realised that while the sweat still came in buckets, my recovery was quicker, my energy levels felt better, and cramping and stitches had almost disappeared. Then I noticed something else. The restless legs I’d lived with since I was a teenager had gone. Whenever I stopped taking it, they came back.

That was enough to sign me up for life.

But when I recently caught up with Professor Hugh Dunstan, the co-founder of InnovAAte, the company behind ElectrAAte, I discovered my daily routine may have been doing far more than I’d realised. Hugh and fellow researcher Professor Tim Roberts have spent more than 30 years researching amino acids and their role in human health.

“Most people think amino acids are simply the building blocks of protein, but they’re involved in hundreds of processes throughout the body,” Hugh told me.

“They play important roles in metabolism, energy production, nerve function, tissue repair and maintaining normal body function. That’s what led us to study what we now call High-Demand Amino Acids – a group of six amino acids that are used extensively throughout the body and lost in relatively high amounts during physical stress and sweating.

“We’ve always focused on replacing fluids and electrolytes, and that’s absolutely important. But our research suggested sweat isn’t just salty water. We also found significant losses of specific amino acids, which raised the question of whether replacing electrolytes alone tells the whole story.”

For people working long shifts in physically demanding jobs, particularly in hot environments, that could be an important piece of the recovery puzzle.

“These amino acids contribute to much more than muscle recovery. They’re involved in producing energy, transporting oxygen, supporting connective tissue, maintaining electrolyte balance and many of the biochemical processes that keep the body functioning efficiently.”

Their research has also led Hugh and Tim to explore the role amino acids may play in collagen formation and healthy ageing.

“If the body doesn’t have enough of the amino acids needed to build collagen, it becomes more difficult to maintain connective tissues. That’s why we became interested in supplying the building blocks rather than simply thinking about collagen itself.

“Healthy ageing is really about maintaining the body’s ability to repair itself. Amino acids are central to those repair processes, which is why they become increasingly important throughout life, not just during sport.”

After decades of research, Hugh and Tim eventually decided to apply what they’d learned in a practical way, leading to the development of InnovAAte’s ElectrAAte hydration formulation and OptimAAte recovery formulation.

“The products came after the research. We weren’t trying to create a supplement first. We were trying to understand how the body works and then apply that knowledge in a practical way.”

ElectrAAte will always be the product that unexpectedly stopped my restless legs, although Hugh is the first to point out that’s my personal experience and more research is needed before drawing any scientific conclusions. Learning about everything else amino acids may be doing has simply given me even more reasons to keep taking it.