Amino acids are the building blocks of protein. The human body needs twenty-two different amino acids to make up the 50,000-plus proteins that make you, just as we can make all the words in the English language from just 26 letters.
The amino acids fall into two basic categories: essential and nonessential. Essential amino acids are the nine aminos you must get from your diet—like vitamins, you have to have them and, unlike vitamins, you can't get them any other way. (The amino acids arginine, histidine, and cysteine are essential for growing babies but not for adults.) Nonessential amino acids are the amino acids you can make in your body by combining two or
more of the essential amino acids. Nonessential doesn't mean unnecessary. You don't have to get these aminos from your food (although they are found in foods), but you still need to have them. That means your food has to contain enough of the essential amino acids to build them.
Nine amino acids are essential- You must get them from your food. The other amino acids are nonessential. You must have them, and you can get them from your food, but you can also make them in your body from the essential amino acids.
Your body contains many other amino acids, such as carnitine and taurine, that don't fall into the essential/nonessential categories. We know that some of these aminos play important roles in your body. There are others that we still don't fully understand, but researchers are working on them. We believe there may be some exciting new developments in this area in the next few years.
Amino acids may have complicated names, like phenylalanine, or confusingly similar names, like glutamine, glycine, and glutamic acid. To make them easier to remember, we've listed them all in a chart. We're going to be talking about the different aminos by name, so refer back to the chart if you get mixed up.
Essential amino acids
Histidine
Isoleucine
Leucine
Methionine
Phenylalanine
Threonine
Tryptophan
Valine
Nonessential amino acids
Alanine
Arginine (essential for babies)
Asparagine
Aspartic acid
Carnitine (essential for babies)
Cysteine
Glutamic acid
Glutamine
Glycine
Proline
Serine
Taurine (essential for babies)
Tyrosine
50,000 Proteins from Just 22 Aminos
Some people claim that taking supplements containing nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) can help "revitalize" you. Others sell hair and skin products made with nucleic acids, claiming that they somehow restore a youthful appearance. We can always hope, of course, but these products are worthless.
You need all twenty-two amino acids to make the bigger protein molecules that keep you alive.Amazingly, those twenty-two aminos can be assembled into so many different three-dimensional combinations that your body can make over 50,000 different proteins. That includes all the proteins that make up your tissues and form all the many enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, and other chemical messengers that keep your body working.
The instructions for making all those proteins are encoded in your genetic material—the DNA in the nucleus of every one of your cells. In a very complicated sequence of events, your DNA tells your cells to put together specific amino acids, anywhere from two or three to a thousand or so, to make whatever protein happens to be needed at that moment. Amazingly, some cells in your body can produce as many as 10,000 different proteins! When exactly the right aminos are linked together in exactly the right order, they coil and fold up into exactly the shape of that protein and no other. That protein, folded into its particular shape, fits like a key into a lock with other proteins as it carries out its specific job in your body. When the job is done, other proteins come along and recycle it; breaking it back down so that its amino acids can be used again in another combination. The intricate complexity of your body is truly awesome!
Peptides are simple proteins that are easily absorbed into your body. A peptides is a very short chain of two or three amino acids.
When two or three amino acids combine into a short chain, they form a very simple protein called a peptide. You make a lot of different peptides. We're just starting to understand how many and how important they are. Most of your neurotransmitters, the chemical substances that send messages to and from your brain and help regulate your body, are peptides. They have complicated names only a biochemist could remember, like bradykinin, leucine, enkephalin, and substance P.
50,000 Proteins from Just 22 Aminos
Some people claim that taking supplements containing nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) can help "revitalize" you. Others sell hair and skin products made with nucleic acids, claiming that they somehow restore a youthful appearance. We can always hope, of course, but these products are worthless.
You need all twenty-two amino acids to make the bigger protein molecules that keep you alive.Amazingly, those twenty-two aminos can be assembled into so many different three-dimensional combinations that your body can make over 50,000 different proteins. That includes all the proteins that make up your tissues and form all the many enzymes, hormones, neurotransmitters, and other chemical messengers that keep your body working.
The instructions for making all those proteins are encoded in your genetic material—the DNA in the nucleus of every one of your cells. In a very complicated sequence of events, your DNA tells your cells to put together specific amino acids, anywhere from two or three to a thousand or so, to make whatever protein happens to be needed at that moment. Amazingly, some cells in your body can produce as many as 10,000 different proteins! When exactly the right aminos are linked together in exactly the right order, they coil and fold up into exactly the shape of that protein and no other. That protein, folded into its particular shape, fits like a key into a lock with other proteins as it carries out its specific job in your body. When the job is done, other proteins come along and recycle it; breaking it back down so that its amino acids can be used again in another combination. The intricate complexity of your body is truly awesome!
Peptides are simple proteins that are easily absorbed into your body. A peptides is a very short chain of two or three amino acids.
When two or three amino acids combine into a short chain, they form a very simple protein called a peptide. You make a lot of different peptides. We're just starting to understand how many and how important they are. Most of your neurotransmitters, the chemical substances that send messages to and from your brain and help regulate your body, are peptides. They have complicated names only a biochemist could remember, like bradykinin, leucine, enkephalin, and substance P.
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