Lara, have you ever worked with gelatin/collagen products? I have over the years from other companies in capsule forms and didn't really notice anything. I'm doing this primarily for joint health and as I said I was flabbergasted at my straight thru sleep last night.

I am having guidance on all this from the friend I mentioned. I believe she knows a lot as she consults many with their health issues.

I first learned about amino acids many years ago when I started my alternative journey and believe in these amino acid building blocks as they are called.

If you don't feel good about these amino acids and what they do, then that's your choice. This way of getting protein isn't for everyone.

I have so little faith in conventional medicine so I come from there as well.

I eat some protein but certainly not gobs of protein. I don't know how many grams of protein I truly get in a day. I don't depend on meats too much -- eat some but very moderate amounts.

Copious amounts of protein would be sitting down to a 1lb of steak which many consume. Maybe not so much in today's times.

Apart from the possible health concerns of eating lots of collagen of unknown provenance (who knows what chemical procedures were used to extract it from animal tissue?), it is a very unusual protein.

About 75% of its constituent amino acids are glycine, proline, hydroxyproline, alanine and glutamate. These are all "non-essential" amino acids, which means that they can be made in the body from non-protein dietary sources.

Collagen is very low in the essential amino acids (phenylalanine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, leucine, isoleucine, lysine, and histidine). The essential amino acids can not be made from non-protein dietary sources.

Getting 30% of daily protein from highly-processed collagen does not look like a good plan to me.

Caroline,

I'm very sorry if I wasn't clear...

My concern in the post that I replied to earlier is that someone would be getting 30% of their daily intake of protein from hydrolized gelatin.

Obviously I've not "worked" with Gelatin as I've written already that the whole concept is not for me.

I'm very aware of the recent fads for bone broths etc., however it concerns me that people don't know exactly what they're consuming despite the great name of "Great Lakes Gelatin" which acts as a calming influence for people in the USA thinking it's sourced locally perhaps? More likely the great lakes of Patagonia.

I also have read, for my own interest, many abstracts in PubMed since you alerted me to this product and most of them were specifically regarding malnutrition or protein undernutrition.

Consuming 30% of the daily intake of protein from gelatin produced in the way described on their site is definitely something I could not do.

Caroline, an option that you could consider is getting your dietary protein from natural sources.

Good natural sources include (in no particular order): fish, meat, pulses (beans and peas), nuts, eggs and cheese.

People who get their dietary protein from some combination of these natural sources are (unless they have some underlying medical problem), very unlikely to be deficient in any amino acid so there is not need for them to eat amino acid/protein dietary supplements.

Kiwi, I eat very well, this is an adjunct to what I already do. There are foods I have been eliminating for my reasons.

Caroline, which one of these are you using now... 9 tablespoonfuls?

http://www.greatlakesgelatin.com/consumer/supFacts.php

from what I see here:
http://www.greatlakesgelatin.com/con...cidContent.php

your dosing would give you about 5000mg (+ or - 500mg) of arginine, and about 2500mg of lysine.

People who consume much more arginine daily than lysine, may trigger or activate latent Herpes simplex, and Herpes Zoster virus in the body. Both these viruses use arginine to replicate and may activate when arginine becomes higher than lysine. These gelatin products are very high in arginine, and are mentioned on many sites as triggers for viral activation (shingles).

Here is one example by Dr. Perlmutter MD:
https://www.facebook.com/DavidPerlmu...92789767420120

So if you continue with that very high intake of gelatin you may encounter over time the shingles or a reactivation of cold sores. I saw this commonly in nursing home patients receiving Arginaid for bed sores.
http://www.nestlenutritionstore.com/...l#.VeSV5Zd53To
Arginaid has 4.5 grams of arginine per dose. The above link is an example of what Arginaid is.

No, I am not taking 9T per day, this is the dose the health consultant takes and when she said her knees are not stiff, this is when I realized I was not taking enough all the time I've been on GLH...I was NOT measuring. Now I am, and taking most days 4-5T.
The general dose on cannister is 2 rounded T two times per day.

The night before I slept 8 hrs straight thru.
Last night I slept 7 hrs straight thru.
And I'm not taking it for sleep, but I'm sleeping better with GLH.

I may never get up to 9T and as my friend says, everyone is unique for their needs and what our body uses best.

My neighbor just started it today, she is the one with horrid OA and wakes up every hour during the night to pee....she has HOPE that it will help her. She is taking the recommended dosage to start out. She has a stomach issue and was concerned but it did not bother her and I read in some notes that it helps gastro issues. She is excited and I hope she will be another good testimony.

The great lakes company has been producing gelatin since the 20's and formulated the hydrosylate about 6 yrs ago. Remember the Knox gelatin, I've taken that off and on years ago.

I believe this product has a balanced amount of amino acids and the herpes thing, I guess if a person is in an outbreak they should stay away from it. Until better. People with a history of herpes need to be taking Lysine anyway as I recall over many years from reading on herpes. For me too, I believe my grape seed ex keeps me in good immune health too. I had herpes many many years ago and grape seed does have anti viral properties in it.

The company is very helpful with information and if anyone wants to ask questions they are there for people. I am hanging with it as my goal is less stiff knees. Time will tell with the proper dose. And I know it's not for everyone to try. I totally get that.

From what I found, it is the high glycine content that helps with the sleep.

The aminos in that product are NOT balanced. They are only the aminos found in animal collagen, and not in other parts of the animal meat etc.

Please reread kiwi's posts on this thread.

Eliminating excess amino acids happens in the kidney. Most elderly people have some loss of kidney functions, and so this could be a problem. Using this now and then in lower doses might be safer for you. But you will do what you want anyway, I suppose. There will be other readers here, so I hope they pay attention to the the links I found and the data too.

MrsD, I'm having faith in this company and their product. Thanks for all the red flags etc...

This is not about the company at all. The market for gelatin is quite large and has been for decades. Their website is quite transparent and provides alot of information, so people can choose what they decide to do with the product.

This is about biological tolerability, and the uniqueness of each person to be able to use this product based on their own medical status and situation.