Non-essential and Conditional Amino Acids: Nonessential is a misnomer because these amino acids do fill essential roles. They are considered non-essential because the body can synthesize them, not because they are not essential to health.

Of these eleven non-essential amino acids, eight are referred to as conditional amino acids because when the body is ill or under stress, it may not be capable of producing enough of these amino acids to meet its needs.

The conditional amino acids include; arginine, ornithine, glutamine, tyrosine, cysteine, glycine, proline, and serine.

Amino acids can be used by the body to produce energy, but their primary function is to build proteins. Certain amino acids may also fill non-protein-building functions; such as in the formation of neurotransmitters or hormones.

Each of the body’s twenty amino acids has a unique chemical structure that dictates how they’ll be utilized. A protein will consist of fifty to two-thousand different amino acids that are linked together in a particular sequence according to specific (genetic) instructions.