Ingredient Spotlight: Can Glycine Reduce Anxiety?
This world is constantly on the go, and finding an effective way to recover and calm down from the hustle of life is crucial. Our Chill drink line at Perk Energy is geared to help you recharge, relax, and recover through the night, and glycine is one of the main ingredients to promote this. So, do our relax and recovery drinks work strictly because of glycine? Or does glycine truly help reduce anxiety?
Read on to find out.
What Is Glycine?
To start, glycine is a versatile amino acid that your body uses as a building block for growth, tissue repair, and hormone production. Your body can naturally produce glycine through combining other amino acids, but typically, it’s not enough for your body to perform at optimal levels. That’s why you can find it in protein-rich foods and dietary supplements.
Other Benefits
As stated above, glycine is versatile, offering a variety of benefits. From anxiety and stress relief to muscle growth and repair, glycine is one of the most effective, inexpensive, and safest substances available.
Main Component In Collagen
Containing high amounts of glycine, collagen is a structural protein and a key component for muscles, bones, ligaments, and cartilage, all of which factor into healthy recovery. Without collagen, joint pain can increase, healthy skin can decrease, and bone loss may occur, so to have effective collagen production, glycine is extremely important.
Main Component In Creatine
Glycine is one of three amino acids your body needs to create creatine, another naturally produced substance in the body. Creatine provides your muscles and cells in the body and brain with the energy to perform quick bursts of movement and has also been shown to help with muscle development, bone health, and brain function (which could help with conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease).
Improves Your Sleep
Glycine is also a fantastic way to help improve your sleep quality, which is hard to come by these days with life’s ever-increasing list of demands and pressures. You can prepare your mind for sleep in several ways, and glycine can greatly promote a good night’s sleep. Because of the calming effects it has on your brain, glycine is seen as a good alternative to prescription sleep medication.
Glycine Helps With Anxiety
It may have seemed like a roundabout way to get here, but yes! Glycine helps with anxiety. Because of the versatile nature of this little amino acid, glycine helps reduce anxiety – directly and indirectly. Simply put, when the body is not functioning properly, the body and mind cannot fully relax, adding to anxiety levels. Not sleeping – or not sleeping well – can directly affect your mind and mental health, increasing anxiety levels.
Don’t take it from us; several studies have even linked decreased amounts of glycine to anxious behaviors. This therapeutic amino acid can lessen anxiety symptoms and reduce factors that contribute, as well.
The Science Behind Glycine
Okay, so how does it work? Basically, your central nervous system has receptors (also known as glutamate receptors), and N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA for short) is a subclass of these receptors. When NMDA receptors are overworked, anxiety levels often increase. Glycine’s role is to bind to these overworked NMDA receptors, which leads to improved anxiety symptoms. Studies have also shown how glycine can actively manage symptoms from psychiatric disorders.
Why We Love Glycine At Perk Energy
Perk Chill provides a simple, convenient, and delicious way to ensure you have an ample supply of glycine to support your sleep quality and emotional health. Fun fact: Glycine derives from the Greek word for “sweet,” which is simply another reason why we love this amino acid. We use glycine in our Chill drink line to not only offer you a relax drink to help with recovery but to taste good, too. What’s the point if it doesn’t taste calming? From our classic chocolate flavors to our soothing chai latte flavor, browse our Perk Chill drinks today to see other delicious ways you can incorporate glycine into your everyday diet.