hutch@shark.UUCP (09/19/84)
| >Arginine: | > ... L-A is known to strengthen | > the immune system and to stimulate the release of growth hormones. | > It has also been reported to promote thymus activity as well | > as wound healing. The thymus serves as the master immune gland | > which coordinated the production of T-Cells that identify foreign | > invaders or cancers and direct further immune actions. | | Also, be advised that the thymus gland is implicated in the | neuromuscular disease, myasthenia gravis. The thymus does most of its | work in the prenatal being and in very early childhood. By adolescence, | the thymus should begin to shrink. In the adult, the normal thymus | should be atrophied and dormant. (See modern Physiology texts for | confirmation and a better explanation.) Any person suffering from | myasthenia who is discovered (by chest CAT scan) to have a large thymus | is a good candidate for thymectomy (removal of the thymus). | If some chemical promises to enlarge the thymus, it probably | should be avoided. | | Brint There is no evidence that l-Arginine in any way enlarges the thymus gland, merely that it seems to affect the thymus. This is conjectured to be connected with the thymus' operation as a part of the immune system. The immune system is among the things stimulated by human somatotropic hormone. It is likely that the increased thymus activity is a result of the increased levels of somatotropic hormone, sometimes called a growth hormone. (It is actually more of a pre-growth-hormone hormone, if my informants are correct.) Clearly anyone suffering from myasthenia would not want to aggravate the condition by taking l-Arginine. However, the experience of many strength athletes using l-Arginine and l-Ornithine as part of a program to avoid the use of steroid drugs has shown that it helps increase strength. This is rather the opposite of myasthenia. Hutch