7 Health Benefits of L-Arginine

L-arginine is a chemical building block called "an amino acid." It is obtained from the diet and is necessary for the body to make proteins. L-arginine is found in red meat, poultry, fish, and dairy products. It can also be made in a laboratory and used as medicine. L-arginine is used for heart and blood vessel conditions including congestive heart failure (CHF), chest pain, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart surgery, recovery after heart transplant, heart attack, and coronary artery disease.


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Side Effects
L-arginine has few reported reactions. Nausea and diarrhea have been reported infrequently. Bitter taste may occur with higher doses. Due to its ability to dilate blood vessels, low blood pressure may also occur. Intravenous preparations containing L-arginine hydrochloride have a high chloride content that may increase the risk for metabolic acidosis in patients with electrolyte imbalances. Low potassium and high serum urea nitrogen levels may occur in patients with kidney and/or liver impairment.

Benefits

• Chest pain. Taking L-arginine seems to decrease symptoms and improve exercise tolerance and quality of life in people with angina. However, L-arginine does not seem to help widen the blood vessels that are narrowed in angina.
• Erectile dysfunction. Taking 5 grams of L-arginine by mouth daily seems to improve sexual function in men with ED. However, there is some early evidence that taking L-arginine with maritime pine bark extract and other ingredients, might improve the effectiveness of low-dose L-arginine for ED.
• High blood pressure. There is early evidence that taking L-arginine by mouth can reduce blood pressure in healthy people, people with high blood pressure, and people with slightly high blood pressure with or without diabetes.

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