THE NEW NUTRITION RAGE : AMINO ACIDS : They Are the Building Blocks, but Can Athlete Safely Stand on Them?

Amino acids are just itsy bitsy, tiny little elements that link together to make up protein. There are amino acids in you, in your lunch, in your dog, in your potted plant. They’ve always been there, minding their own business.

So, why in the name of all that is wholesome are amino acids, all of a sudden, at the center of a raging controversy?

Because there are some companies selling them in capsules and tablets for body-building, selling them at a boom rate and making a lot of money.

And because there are some folks in the scientific community who say it’s all a bunch of useless hooey and those companies are no better than the old snake oil salesmen.

Which makes the advocates of amino acids countercharge that the medical community is keeping a valuable product from the public because it’s a food, not a drug, and doctors and pharmaceutical companies can’t make any money from it.

Which makes the doctors and the scientists spit out such distasteful little words as quack and scam and con.

It gets nasty.

Each side claims to have solid fact in its corner and challenges the other side to prove its allegations. But every time one side presents a “fact” or a study or a position paper, the other side dismisses it as unfounded.

Actually, the problem lies in the lack of research and the lack of conclusive evidence on either side.

Dr. Forest Tennant, executive director of Community Health Projects in West Covina and the drug adviser to the National Football League, put it this way: “The controversy really is over whether they work or don’t work (to improve athletic performance). And the fact is, nobody really knows. Not conclusively. The whole subject is new; too new to make hard and fast judgments.”

Those making hard and fast judgments, however, are the athletes who have seen improvements in size, strength and stamina in their own bodies, and, on the other side, nutritionists who will not be swayed by testimonials and who say that it is unnatural and unhealthy to upset the natural balance of anything--including amino acids--in the diet and in the body.

No one denies that there are proven medical uses for amino acids, which come in countless forms and have countless effects on the chemical reactions taking place in the body.

Just last week, former heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali decided not to have experimental surgery for Parkinson’s syndrome, but to continue, instead, with the traditional treatment--taking dopamine. The disease itself is characterized by a deficiency of dopamine in a part of the brain, which causes tremors and lack of muscle control.

Dopamine is formed by amino acids.

Forms of amino acids are also used to treat Alzheimer’s disease and chronic pain. And amino acids are used in treating patients undergoing withdrawal from chemical dependency.

Because amino acids are the simplest form of protein, and protein is necessary to sustain life and growth, amino acids have long been used as dietary supplements for patients with metabolic or digestive deficiencies. In patients whose bodies do not, on their own, break down food protein into the amino acid form the body must have, the free-form amino acids can sustain life.

Formulas for infants with digestive deficiencies include, among other amino acids, arginine, a synthesis from the amino acid ornithine, to stimulate the pituitary gland to release growth hormone.

Arginine and ornithine are among the most popular amino acids being bought in the gyms by body builders and football players who want to stimulate the growth hormone.

The sales representatives for amino acid companies conclude that nothing could be more simple and natural. Arginine and ornithine aid growth. Take it, they say, without the calories that come along with it in food, and you’ll add lean muscle mass without fat. Period.

Ellen Coleman of the Riverside Cardiac and Fitness Center, who is a registered nutritionist and an exercise physiologist, does not argue that arginine and ornithine contribute to growth. But instead of capsules, she suggests what she calls an “inexpensive, natural, timed-release form of protein--beans.”

And she disagrees with the claim that because amino acids are found, naturally, in the body there is no danger in taking them as supplements. Writing for the Sports Medicine Digest, Coleman said:

“Substituting free-amino acid supplements for food may cause deficiencies of other nutrients found in protein-rich foods (such as iron, niacin, and thiamine). Excess amino acids from supplements or food which cannot be incorporated into new proteins are either burned for energy or converted to fat and, to a lesser degree, glucose.

“When amino acids are used for energy or turned into fat, increased urea production occurs. Thus, excessive intake of individual amino acids (or protein) may cause gout, calcium loss, and other metabolic disorders, as well as dehydration and possibly kidney strain. There is also evidence that single amino acid supplements, like unbalanced protein supplements, can interfere with essential amino acid absorption. . . .

“It makes no sense to consume a product which has not been proved safe or effective--particularly when that product is promoted by people who stand to gain financially from their widespread usage.”

Gene Hagerman, Ph.D., of the Sports Physiology Laboratory at the U.S. Olympic Training Center, has suggested that because such a high protein diet can lead to increased urea production, increased urine volume and therefore greater losses of salt, the chance of dehydration during exercise is increased. And he says that a high-protein diet can be expensive, while providing the body with little available energy.

Jay Kenny of the Pritikin Longevity Center, who has a Ph.D. in nutrition from Rutgers and who is one of only a few scientists certified by the American Board of Nutrition, said: “Jay’s law is, ‘It’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.’ Whether it’s huge amounts of supplements or huge amounts of salt or huge amounts of saturated fats or eating foods with the fiber removed--it’s unnatural.”

Kenny attributes any improvements claimed by athletes who have used amino acid supplements to the placebo affect--the reaction of a patient who is given sugar pills instead of medicine and who shows improvement because he believes the medicine is helping him.

The scientific community insists that all research include a double-blind study, which means that a control group is given a placebo in place of the product being tested, but neither the group receiving the active ingredients nor the group receiving the placebo knows what is in the pills.

Kenny said: “A lot of it is psychological. If people believe you, and they trust you, they’ll show improvement. You can do the same thing with hypnosis.

“I’m not saying that all of the people selling amino acids are psychopathic liars out to make a buck. Some of those people do believe what they’re saying. I’ve talked to some that believe to the point that it’s like a cult religion. They believe they’re helping people.”

Luke Bucci, who has a Ph.D. from the University of Texas, is director of research and development for Biotics Research Corporation of Houston, which also makes supplements for Sports Research. Bucci is the first to admit that there is nothing simple about nutrition or the study of the affects of amino acids on athletes.

He also freely admits that amino acids do not produce the desired results in all of the athletes who try them. He further admits that the research that has been done does not meet the kind of standards that those in the academic community expect as proof that the product is effective.

Bucci said: “We know that there are more positive results than we have yet been able to absolutely prove. Unless we can show that a product works a lot better on 95% of the test subjects, (people in the scientific community) are not going to accept the results as significant.

“But, believe me, if an athlete sees it work for someone else, and let’s say he has reason to believe that it works 20% of the time with the alternative being that there is no harm in it and there’s a possible placebo effect--he’s going to want that product.”

As far as Tennant is concerned, there’s nothing wrong with that.

“There may not be enough evidence to say that it’s a fact that amino acids will benefit an athlete, but some of them have seemed to benefit. And it’s a fact that no one has ever proven any harm comes from it, so I think the very important point to make is that amino acids are sure a lot safer than anabolic steroids, and I’d rather see them using amino acids.”

Lots of athletes do.

Sales representatives are the usual source of the products and the information and instruction on how to use the products. And the sales representatives tend to be current on the literature and research so they can counter criticism and answer the questions of a relatively health-conscious clientele.

Sales representatives also know that their best advertisements are their own bodies, and they can be expected to look pretty strong and healthy.

Joe Coco, a sales representative for Sports Research (SRC West) working out of Palos Verdes, is a competitive body builder and a walking encyclopedia on who has written or claimed what and who is most likely to takes sides in the debate. He takes all the supplements that he recommends and he gets downright indignant when he hears the put-downs from nutritionists who would categorize him as either a huckster or a food fadist.

“If people ate a perfect diet, then maybe the nutritionists who say that supplements aren’t necessary would be right,” Coco said. “But people don’t eat a perfect diet. We have products that can help people feel better, look better, be healthier. . . . You know why I think that people in the so-called medical community don’t back supplements? Because if everyone were healthy, they’d be out of a job.”

Sundae Merrick, a sales representative for Integrated Health of Marina del Rey, has been working for years as a personal fitness and nutrition consultant for individual clients and groups. She works out at Gold’s Gym in Venice, and she sells her products not only to her personal clients but to gyms, health food stores and chiropractors.

“There are some M.D.s who aren’t afraid to admit that they believe in the good that supplements can do, but, let’s face it, some doctors just aren’t well informed on nutrition and supplements,” Merrick said. “What do they learn in medical school? How to fix people who are sick. And they learn to do it with drugs. We’re talking about preventive medicine, overall health, through food supplements.”

Coco and Merrick give much the same explanations for how their different products can add lean muscle mass and at the same time help metabolize fat, how another product can work as a natural tranquilizer, how still another can enhance stamina and concentration.

Both advocate amino acids and vitamins as supplements to a balanced diet, and say that the supplements themselves have to be balanced. Each, of course, thinks that his own product is best.

There is a wide range of quality in the products on the market, a wide range of price and a wide range of opinion on whether they are effective.

Coleman points out that because it is expensive to make amino acids in the right proportion--some are much more expensive to produce than others--many products on the market are not balanced.

And Kenny suggests that the human body can’t handle such a large amount of protein all at once because the body has evolved to synthesize amino acids in a series of chemical reactions that take hours, not seconds. The excess, then, if it doesn’t do harm--and he thinks it might--is, at best, wasted.

Even Bucci, whose business it is to document positive results, says that money can be wasted on amino acids if they are not taken correctly, and he says that the timing of the dosages is crucial.

“This is a relatively new field and education is needed at all levels,” Bucci said. “The most effective way we have of getting the information out, right now, is to be sure that our sales representatives understand it so that they can educate their customers and the owners of the gyms and the health food stores. But I’m sure some of it gets distorted on the way down.”

Unfortunately, it is next to impossible to walk into a health-food store, read some labels and come up with a program of amino acid supplements that even the strongest advocates of the supplements would endorse. There is nothing simple about the chemistry involved.

“I am trying to bridge the gap between the two extremes,” Bucci said. “There are some quacks who make claims for amino acids that aren’t true, and there are conservative people in the medical community who write off amino acids because they are just ignorant of what amino acids can do.”

Tennant said: “My job as a consultant to the NFL is to find a meeting of the minds. I saw this thing coming. I saw what the guys were doing in the gym and I knew what the reaction of the scientific community would be.

“The scientific community is always going to want to see the proof and there haven’t been enough studies to prove results. I don’t think there will be. You’re just not going to find any of the top-flight researchers qualified to do neuro-chemical research wanting to take the time to do it.

“It’s a matter of priorities and, frankly, I have more important research backed up in my lab right now.

“Even if I did do it, they’d want six or seven confirming studies, and no one is going to bother. It may sound funny to you, but you can’t find research on anabolic steroids, either. What we know about anabolic steroids we know from the athletes who have used them. And that’s how we’ll know about amino acids.

“If amino acid supplements work to enhance athletic performance, athletes will be using them on a wide scale three or four years from now. If they don’t work, you won’t hear a word about them.”