Therefore, people with type 2 diabetes may benefit from supplementing with glycine, though research is too preliminary to make any specific recommendations. Higher levels of glycine are associated with a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes, even after accounting for other factors that are associated with the condition, such as lifestyle ( 35, 36). Interestingly, because glycine has been shown to increase insulin response in people without diabetes, it’s suggested that glycine supplements may improve impaired insulin response in people with type 2 diabetes ( 11, 33, 34). Insulin decreases your blood sugar levels by signaling its uptake into cells for energy or storage. It’s a condition characterized by impaired insulin secretion and action, meaning your body doesn’t produce enough insulin or that it doesn’t respond properly to the insulin it makes ( 32). Type 2 diabetes may lead to low levels of glycine. Summary Glycine may lower heart disease risk factors by preventing the build-up of a molecule associated with heart disease and by increasing your body’s ability to use nitric oxide. While encouraging, clinical studies on the effects of glycine on heart disease risk in humans are needed before it can be recommended ( 31). What’s more, glycine has been found to reduce several risk factors of heart disease in rats fed a high-sugar diet ( 29).Įating and drinking too much added sugar can raise blood pressure, increase levels of fat in your blood and promote dangerous fat gain around the belly - all of which can promote heart disease ( 30). In an observational study in over 4,100 people with chest pains, higher levels of glycine were associated with a lower risk of heart disease and heart attacks at a 7.4-year follow-up ( 28).Īfter accounting for cholesterol-lowering medications, the researchers also observed a more favorable blood cholesterol profile in people who had higher glycine levels ( 28). This amino acid may also improve your body’s ability to use nitric oxide, an important molecule that increases blood flow and lowers blood pressure ( 29).
It prevents the accumulation of a compound that, in high amounts, has been linked to atherosclerosis, the hardening and narrowing of the arteries ( 25, 26, 27, 28). Increasing evidence suggests that glycine offers protection against heart disease. Summary Eating a diet with glycine decreases and reverses alcohol-induced liver injury in rats, but its effects in humans are unknown. In a study in rats with alcohol-induced liver damage, the liver cell health returned to baseline 30% faster in a group fed a glycine-containing diet for two weeks compared to a control group ( 21).ĭespite promising finds, studies on the effects of glycine on alcohol-induced liver damage are limited to animals and cannot be translated to humans ( 22, 23, 24).
While moderate alcohol-induced liver damage can be reversed by abstaining from alcohol, glycine may improve the recovery process. What’s more, glycine may also help reverse liver damage caused by excessive alcohol intake in animals. It has been shown to reduce concentrations of alcohol in the blood of alcohol-fed rats by stimulating the metabolism of alcohol in the stomach rather than the liver, which prevented the development of fatty liver and alcoholic cirrhosis ( 20). Interestingly, research suggests that glycine may reduce the harmful effects of alcohol on your liver by preventing inflammation.
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