The body is remarkably efficient in maintaining constant concentrations of amino acids in the blood. This is true even when in the case of prolonged  fasting.

In the early 1960's it was common to place severly obese individuals on supervised starvation. One of the most famous cases involved an individual who weighted more than 700 pounds. The individual was provided only water, minerals and vitamins for over one year, with the reslut being a loss of more than 500 pounds. 

Despite proof of the vital importance of maintaining the circulating levels of amino acids comes from an unlikely source: the IRA hunger strikers who protested the British control of Northern Ireland. They chose to starve themselves to death to draw attention to their cause. They insisted that blood samples be taken throughout the process, so some medical good could come from their sacrifices.

None of them were obese and, sadly they died in about 40 days. The key signal that death was close: blood amino acid levels could no longer be maintained. When the amino acids levels dropped below the normal level, the synthesis of essential proteins could not be sustained, and they died.

Muscle plays a key role in maintaining the plasma amino acid's levels in the absence of absorption of dietary amino acids from digested protein. You can consider muscle to be the reservoir of amino acids for the rest of your body.

It is the only tissue in the body that can afford to lose some of its mass without impairment of health. In the absence of dietary amino acids, there is a net breakdwon of muscle protein to supply amino acids to the blood to balance the amount taken up by the tissues, in order to maintain health in other tissues and organs. The result is a net loss of skeletal muscle in the absence of dietary intake. 

In Short: You muscles sacrifice themselves so that you can live!

That is precisely what muscle atrophy is. Your body is sacrificing its muscles in an effort to gert the essential amino acids to your vital organs!

If you are not eating a balance of essential amino acids, and the average person is NOT, then protein synthesis is not happening at the rate that you want or need.

Thankfully, the situation can be reversed if caught in time. Muscle loss can be replaced and the muscle growth and strengthening rate can be accelerated by getting a balance formula of essential amino acids in foods and with the essential amino acid complex, MyoHealth.

Eating dietary amino acids usually results in the production of muscle, and those essential amino acids are ideally in the proper amounts and combinations to get the best results.

MyoHealth will help give you the necessary concentrated balance of essential amino acids to build the muscle you want and live healthier!

Dr Robert Wolfe: Build It Stronger