Glycocyamine Information & FAQs
Glycocyamine information, FAQ and product listing page. This page contains information and frequently asked questions about glycocyamine as well as a complete list of products containing glycocyamine.
Quick jump to the sub-sections on this page:
What is glycocyamine and what does it do?
Glycocyamine, more often known as GAA or guanidinoacetate, is part of a group of compounds known as guanidine. It is the immediate precursor of creatine in the body. Glycine is formed by your body by combining the components glycine and arginine – this creation occurs mainly in the liver. Once developed, a portion of the GAA is transported to your liver where GAMT, or guanidinoacetate methyltransferase starts the methylation process and converts it into creatine.
You can find glycocyamine located in many different creatine products and it's believed to operate synergistically with creatine by increasing creatine production.
What are the benefits of taking glycocyamine?
To understand the benefits of glycocyamine, you must first understand the limiting factor of creatine – which is the creatine transport. Since muscle tissue is not able to be synthesized by creatine, you must transport it into muscle cells through blood circulation by the creatine transporter. After creatine supplementation plateaus, an increase of dosage of creatine will gain you no more benefit or advantage because the muscle creatine transporters are saturated.
This means that any supplement that is designed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of creatine should increase creatine transport – however, glycocyamine does the opposite. As a matter of fact, literature on glycocyamine describes it as a potent inhibitor of CRT, or the creatine transporter. One study confirms this and earlier studies by witnessing creatine inhibiting uptake across the blood-brain barrier by 69.8%. More than likely, this is because GAA also uses the creatine transporter resulting in a competitive inhibition of the CRT.
In addition, glycocyamine replaces creatine in the transportion to muscle tissue with the enzymes required to convert glycocyamine to creatine being absent in muscle tissue. This underscores the importance of glycocyamine as when combined with creatine, muscle creatine levels were increased more than if you just supplemented with creatine alone.
Who can benefit from taking glycocyamine?
Bodybuilders and athletes that are supplementing with creatine can greatly benefit from supplementing with glycocyamine. However, due to some inadvertent side effects listed below, you should first consult a licensed medical professional.
Those who shouldn’t take glycocyamine include those people with a history of epilepsy.
How much glycocyamine should I take?
You should strictly adhere to the directions found on the label of the supplement you are taking.
Does glycocyamine have any side effects?
GAA does come with an added risk. Because the conversion of GAA into creatine through GAMT requires SAMe, or S-adenosylmethionine to be present, a chain reaction occurs. The amount of SAMe that is typically used for the biosynthesis of endogenous creatine is more than the amount used for all other methylation reactions in your body combined. As a result of this reaction, homocysteine is produced. This increases blood concentrations of homocysteine and has unfortunately been linked to an elevated risk for vascular disease.
Products That Contain Glycocyamine:
The glycocyamine product list is coming soon!
Sources used:
Int J Dev Neurosci. 2003 Jun;21(4):183-9. Inhibition of Na+, K+-ATPase activity in rat striatum by guanidinoacetate. Zugno AI, Stefanello FM, Streck EL, Calcagnotto T, Wannmacher CM, Wajner M, Wyse AT.
Acta Crystallogr D Biol Crystallogr. 2003 Sep;59(Pt 9):1589-96. Monoclinic guanidinoacetate methyltransferase and gadolinium ion-binding characteristics. Komoto J, Takata Y, Yamada T, Konishi K, Ogawa H, Gomi T, Fujioka M, Takusagawa F.
Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2001 Nov;281(5):E1095-100. Methylation demand and homocysteine metabolism: effects of dietary provision of creatine and guanidinoacetate. Stead LM, Au KP, Jacobs RL, Brosnan ME, Brosnan JT.
Mol Cell Biochem. 2003 Feb;244(1-2):143-50. Creatine deficiency syndromes. Schulze A.
