{"id":4749,"date":"2023-03-14T07:01:33","date_gmt":"2023-03-14T11:01:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chaneyhealth.com\/healthtips\/?p=4749"},"modified":"2023-03-01T22:13:50","modified_gmt":"2023-03-02T03:13:50","slug":"are-carnitine-supplements-a-boon-or-a-bust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaneyhealth.com\/healthtips\/are-carnitine-supplements-a-boon-or-a-bust\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Carnitine Supplements A Boon Or A Bust?"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Is The Truth About Carnitine And Heart Disease?<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Author: Dr. Stephen Chaney<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bodybuilder\"<\/a>If you are a weightlifter or bodybuilder, chances are you are taking an L-carnitine supplement, or a protein shake fortified with L-carnitine. That is because L-carnitine has been promoted for increasing muscle mass and physical performance for so long that most people have come to believe it must be true. Is it true, or is it just another food myth?<\/p>\n

If you visit Dr. Strangelove\u2019s website, you may also be told that carnitine supplementation is beneficial for weight loss, migraines, baldness, ADHD and autism, chronic fatigue syndrome, and\/or low energy, muscle loss, and cognitive decline in older adults. Are these claims fact or fiction?<\/p>\n

On the flip side, recent studies have suggested that the carnitine in red meat might be bad for your heart. Could the same be true for carnitine supplements? Could they also be bad for your heart?<\/p>\n

A recent systematic review (AG Sawicka et al, Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition, 17: 49, 2020<\/span><\/a>) of L-carnitine supplementation answers these important questions. The authors called their study \u201cThe bright and dark sides of L-carnitine supplementation\u201d because they set out to systematically investigate the benefits and potential risks of L-carnitine supplementation.<\/p>\n

But before I share the results of this study, I need to give you a little background on L-carnitine. It is time for another Biochemistry 101 segment.<\/p>\n

Biochemistry 101: What You Need To Know About Carnitine<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\"professor<\/a>Carnitine plays an essential role in human metabolism. It is required for transport of fatty acids into our mitochondria so they can be used to generate energy. Without carnitine we would be unable to utilize most of the fats in our diet as an energy source.<\/p>\n

As you might expect, carnitine is essential for any tissues that have mitochondria, but it is particularly important for high energy tissues like skeletal and heart muscle.<\/p>\n

For most of us, our liver and kidneys make all the carnitine we need. So, we don\u2019t really need carnitine from food or supplements.<\/p>\n

However, we do get significant amounts of carnitine from red meat, much smaller amounts of carnitine from other animal foods, and almost no carnitine from plant foods. Adults consuming diets with red meat and other animal foods get about 60-180 mg of carnitine a day from their diet, whereas vegans only get around 10-12 mg\/day.<\/p>\n

Uptake of carnitine from the blood into muscle tissues requires insulin. Thus, carnitine uptake into muscle is significantly less on a low-carbohydrate or keto diet than it is on a mixed diet containing carbohydrates.<\/p>\n

Finally, our kidneys do an excellent job of regulating blood carnitine levels, with excess carnitine being excreted into the urine. Thus, total body carnitine levels are virtually the same with high-carnitine and low-carnitine diets.<\/p>\n

\"Question<\/a>This raises the question: \u201cAre L-carnitine supplements good for you?<\/span>\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s talk about the dark side of carnitine. I have discussed this in a previous issue<\/strong><\/a><\/span> of \u201cHealth Tips From the Professor\u201d. Here is a brief summary:<\/p>\n