Are Amino Acids Bad For You?

The building blocks of protein, amino acids, perform many functions within your body. Some amino acids perform unique individual functions, and you must take them in via dietary protein, making them essential for life. You synthesize other amino acids from various compounds, making them non-essential. You consume amino acids with every meal, assuming you consume a protein source. Excess amino acids can have various effects, but a staggering amount of amino acids must be consumed to be toxic, unless you possess an underlying condition that renders you sensitive to a specific amino acid. Consult a health care professional before using any dietary supplement.

The Basics

Amino acids combine to form various proteins within your body. These proteins make up various muscles, including the cardiac muscle -- your heart. Brain and nerve cells consist of various amino acids, and even digestive enzymes consist of specific amino acids and proteins. Your hair, nails, skin and cellular transmitters consist of amino acids formed into proteins. Amino acids combine into proteins that carry oxygen throughout your blood, and transmit impulses throughout your nervous system. Without amino acids, you cannot function.

Types

Essential amino acids are those that cannot be produced, or produced in enough quantity, by your body. The essential amino acids include arginine, isoleucine, histidine, leucine, methionine, lysine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, threonine and valine. Non-essential amino acids include alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartic acid, cysteine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, proline, serine and tyrosine. All of the non-essential amino acids can be produced or synthesized from other compounds within your body. A third category of amino acids are branched-chain amino acids -- leucine, isoleucine and valine. Branch-chain refers to their structure and has nothing to do with their function.

Branched-Chain Amino Acids

Branched-chain amino acids are the most prevalent amino acids in your skeletal muscles. These amino acids make up more than 30 percent of the amino acids in all of your lean muscle tissue. The importance of branched-chain amino acids in your diet for exercise recovery cannot be overstated. Fortunately, you get these amino acids from nearly every protein source. Supplementation can also help with muscle pain and soreness. A 2006 study published in the "Journal of Nutrition" showed that branched-chain amino acid supplementation reduced muscle soreness and delayed the onset of fatigue.

Issues

The only people who may have an issue with consuming one or more specific amino acids are those with an underlying pathology, similar to an allergy. A urea-cycle disorder might result in the inability to digest and process one or more amino acids, but this usually only occurs during the neonatal period. Nonketotic hyperglycinemia is the inability to specifically process the the amino acid glycine and can result in neurological problems. Phenylalanine hydroxylase deficiency is the inability to process phenylalanine. These conditions occur independent of amino acid supplementation. However, should you be diagnosed with a specific amino-acid-related condition, supplementing the specific amino acid presents the same issues as dietary consumption.