When severe, L-lysine deficiency may result in diminished utilization of fatty acids for energy production and even in sudden death. Human needs for L-lysine vary markedly from person to person. In one study, the amount of L-lysine required for protein balance was found to vary from 400 to 1600 milligrams per day. L-lysine has been researched as having a possible role in reducing the incidence of herpes infection and migraine headaches. And in some people, the eating of low L-lysine foods such as nuts, seeds and cereals causes a nutritional imbalance that favors growth of the herpes virus.
L lysine suppresses the virus by improving the balance of nutrients that reduce viral growth.
The research showing that L-lysine suppresses the herpes virus goes at least as far back as 1952 and is quite extensive. If the theory that a herpes simplex virus is the causative agent in many cranial nerve syndromes, including migraine headache, is correct, then L-lysine may be helpful in the treatment of these headaches. When the virus subsides to latency in the cranial and spinal ganglia, it is protected from circulating antibodies. Herpes reactivation and replication begins in the ganglion cells, and then passes down the axons to induce the formation of the herpetic vesicle in the skin or mucous membranes. Current treatments for migraine and tension headaches assume the disease is primarily a vascular one instead of a neuritis.