http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLVZ0bJx_ec

Glutamine

Of all the amino acids that can be taken separately, none come close to generating the potential of L-Glutamine.  Under Normal circumstances the body can synthesize sufficient L-Glutamine from other amino acids to meet physical demands, but under some conditions the body cannot do so.  Recently, L-Glutamine has come to be regarded as one of the most important of the amino acids when the body is subjected to stress such as trauma, cancer burns, and intense exercise!  Under these conditions, L-Glutamine becomes an essential amino acid, and it is therefore very important to consume sufficient amounts to meet the increased physical demands created but these situations.

For Body Builders, glutamine’s primary benefit is to keep the body in a positive nitrogen balance.  Body building or not, everyone wants to remain healthy, and besides being a necessity in muscle building, glutamine is also a primary ingredient in many of the immune system’s potent germ fighters.  As long periods of intense workout can depress the immune system, athletes will be wise to supplement with glutamine.  The fact that amino acid also boost muscle-tissue synthesis is a bonus.  The normal dosage of glutamine taken by body builders and other athletes is 5-10 grams per day.

(from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Glutamine (abbreviated as Gln or Q) is one of the 20 amino acids encoded by the standard genetic code. It is not recognized as an essential amino acid but may become conditionally essential in certain situations, including intensive athletic training or certain gastrointestinal disorders. Its side-chain is an amide formed by replacing the side-chain hydroxyl of glutamic acid with an amine functional group. Therefore, it can be considered the amide of glutamic acid. Its codons are CAA and CAG. In human blood, glutamine is the most abundant free amino acid, with a concentration of about 500-900 µmol/l.

Examples for the usage of glutamine

In catabolic states of injury and illness, glutamine becomes conditionally-essential (requiring intake from food or supplements). Glutamine has been studied extensively over the past 10–15 years and has been shown to be useful in treatment of serious illnesses, injury, trauma, burns, and treatment-related side-effects of cancer as well as in wound healing for postoperative patients. Glutamine is also marketed as a supplement used for muscle growth in weightlifting, bodybuilding, endurance, and other sports. Evidence indicates that glutamine when orally loaded may increase plasma HGH levels by stimulating the anterior pituitary gland. In biological research, L-glutamine is commonly added to the media in cell culture.

I pulled into the clubhouse at 5:30 am and began the usual task of grabbing the members lunch box, thermos, collecting the appropriate fowling piece and needed shot for the day afield.  This trip would have me taking a member’s son-in-law to the cornfield after geese.  In the gun room after being introduced, the boss man had quite a time announcing that my job was to get this man his first goose.  Problem with this scenario was that i knew this was not the best setting for me.  Times were tough in the corn field; it had been shot so heavily that no one wanted to go there and now i was being set up to accomplish this task?  My character loves a challenge and i new i had my hands full on this one, even so i couldn’t help but give them all a little extra lip service on the way out the door exclaiming that we would not only return with geese, but that we would also help the local biologist out by returning with some hardware (bands) to phone in…everyone in the gun-room laughed.  So did I as the door shut.

Every now and again, as hunters we will encounter a day where we ask ourselves why we even got up that day.  It seemed as though nothing was going right.  It was late November and the fields were extremely wet, to soft to pull the truck and trailer into them.  In those days my trailer was setup such that all the BigFoot decoys were loose in the trailer, all ten dozen.  Avery had not yet attacked the market with there decoys and bagging system.  so the only way to get them into the field was about 8 to 10 at a time piled in a little garden trailer pulled with a quad.  The real problem was that the quad was flipping mud all over the decoys, it was a disaster.  There were a few birds loafing in on of the hay fields, so about a week prior they had dug a make-shift blind in the middle, which now stuck out like a sore thumb.  They had placed a piece of plywood in the bottom for a floor which had soaked up the rain and became very slick to stand on.  after placing 5-6 doz goose decoys, it was time to start the wait.

Time seemed to fly with this gentleman, as he owned and operated a beer pub/dance hall in Montana, language of choice was that of a sailor.  We both shared stories of success, but his attention was drawn to my lanyard holding my calls around my neck.  That infamous question they will ask “so whats with the trinkets”…On days like this, it was a conversation piece.  I gave him my spill about the memories, to which i must not have connected because he asked me “so all birds have them”?  No, I laughed!

The story was interrupted by the distant sound of a flock of geese.  I sent out a few greeter calls, to which they gave a faint response coming in our direct.  Problem was they just would lose any altitude and come in for a closer look.  There was a snow goose in the flock, to which i through in a couple snow goose calls in the mix, the snow goose responded by cutting out and swinging by close enough that i felt my shooter had a fare chance at hitting and the fact that the canada’s just would respond, so i cut him loose to shoot.  Shooting a ten gauge, he smoked the snow like it was no problem and began to celebrate his first goose.  I hadn’t thought of that, but he had and i simply wasn’t ready to face the boys back at the clubhouse with a single snow goose story for his members to tease him over.  You see, many of the members come from California where they attitude towards snow geese is such that they don’t waste their time shooting them.  I could already hear the laughter.  After recovering from his excitement, again in the distance came a honk, another flock of canada’s headed our way.  normally, a flock of 10-12 birds is a sure ticket to decoying geese, but this flock circled and circle, eventually landing 150 yards wide, so i got out of the blind and walked them out.  They didnt seem to spooked by the process so i got back on the call to see if they would respond.  Sure enough, the circled and came by for a look, two and then three passes, i knew that they just didn’t feel comfortable enough to come in and land so i gave him the go ahead again.  The ten gauge rang out and the lead bird fell like a stone.  I went to work myself, dropping one, two and then three birds…in this process, i had a 275 pound grown man celebrating like  a hungry native;  He had become so excited that he dropped his gun on the floor of the blind.  I was aware of the gun, his dancing and yelling and the fact that birds were falling every time i shot; what a site it had to be.  when the smoke cleared, my retrieving partner named Shooter was in the process of being out ran to the first goose down.  What a sight!  As Shooter returned with the first goose, i could see a band dangling, so I told him “hey you shot a banded goose for your first goose”, he snagged that goose out of my hand as i was lining shooter up for the second retrieve…and sent him on his way.  I turned to see why the noise had ceased,  and there was the goose belly down and it’s feathers being preened for a photo, camera in hand.  I figured i would just leave him in the moment to celebrate, as long as i knew where his gun was.  Shooter had now returned with the second bird and as i reached down to receive the bird from his hold, BAND!  I was pretty happy, Shooter lined up for the third bird which was maybe an 80 yard retrieve and shipped him off.  The second bird with the band was again taken from my hand, to which i wasn’t to happy about on the inside, we both knew he had only shot the one shot and in my mind was now taking the bird for the band.  He placed it on the ground, belly down next to the other bird and repeated the same preening process as before.  In the moment, i heard Shooter’s mouth-full-o-down snort as he strolled up by my side, tail a wagging, i looked down and BAND.  At this point humor took over and i asked shooter if he was banding birds while we weren’t looking.  The last bird down had sailed quite a distance into the neighboring pasture.  a solid 300 yard blind with one serious obstacle, a barbed wire fence.  as I was taking my time to line Shooter up, the third bird was yanked from my hand, I was furious inside at this point.  I shipped Shooter off, ready too whistle-sit him just before the fence so he wouldn’t tear himself up on the barbed wire, i gave him an “easy” back and off he went.  Shooter was the kind of dog that you could handle like a remote control car and had many birds through his mouth.  This one should have been a walk in the park as we had a good line.  For what ever reason, he wouldn’t take a few of the hand signals, he want to do his own thing.  The wind was blowing and he wouldn’t take the cast into the wind…it became a wrestling match, so i shorten up the distance by running out there towards him about a hundred yards.  A couple more whistles and growls from the handler, Shooter finally got the bird.  I wasn’t to happy about the hacked up blind, nor the bands that i figured that the member was taking of my birds.  I was mumbling to myself as i walked back to the scene of the crime and along the way, i hear that old familiar muffled snort as Shooter proudly trots up along side his master, he walked along side me snorting as if to say “HEY BOSS”, i looked down and BANG…BAND #4!!!  At this point,I was in awe!!!  4 shots fire, 4 Birds fell, 4 Geese with bands!!!

Later, after getting out of the field and taking the gear to the car wash, we stopped for a burger at the world famous Mim’s of Corinne, Utah.  After returning from washing my hands, i returned to the table and pulled the 4 bands out of my pocket that i had later removed from the geese.  Placing them on the table between us, i asked him, how would you like to separate the bands?  He looked at me and said, i have no interest in that band, i got my trophy he said…you keep that one for your scrap book and winked at me.

Now’a days, when i look at those bands, a series of mental pictures flow through my mind, but the fun part is revisiting the look on the boys faces when we walked back in the gun room with those bands and that story.  Certainly one to remember.