Carnitine, a Stimulant for Heart, Brain, and Muscles

May 9, 2005

Carnitine creates energy in aged cells. The message from a new scientific congress is that supplementation of carnitine seems to help against both heart disease, arteriosclerosis, and dementia.

Are your memory failing or are you loosing strength, then perhaps carnitine is the remedy for rescue

Carnitine is an – undeservedly – overlooked dietary supplement that is on its way into the ‘scientific warmth’. A clear signal is that the New York Academy of Sciences dedicate a whole volume of its famous scientific annals to carnitine alone.

Here you can read more than 197 pages from all 18 contributions given at a two-day conference on carnitine held by the academy in March 2004. The contributions are, among other things, about the importance of carnitine for the burning of fat, for the functioning of the muscles and the heart and about its promising role in the fight against a weakened memory.

Carnitine is an essential nutrient that we mainly get from red meat and dairy products. The body only produces small amounts, and vegans in particular are at risk of deficiency. Carnitine is necessary for the mitochondria – the energy factories of the cells – to burn fat. First, it enables fatty acids to enter the mitochondria, then it promotes their combustion, thereby preventing the harmful accumulation of fatty acid residues, while at the same time supplying the cells with energy.

With age, the transfer of fatty acids to the mitochondria slows down. In addition, the mitochondria become less able to get rid of incompletely broken down fatty acids. This leads to their accumulation of free radicals, a main reason why they degenerate. But without mitochondria, there is no life. Degeneration of the mitochondria is a central phenomenon in the aging process.

Anti-Aging
Many therefore believe that carnitine is an extremely obvious ally in the fight against aging. In a summary by Charles Rebouche from Iowa University, it is stated that carnitine supplementation appears to inhibit aging in rats, just as in humans it both combats age-related memory decline and mitigates the deterioration of Alzheimer’s.

That carnitine as a supplement can really replace missing carnitine function is evident from experiences with children who, for genetic reasons, have difficulty transferring carnitine to the mitochondria. Untreated, they develop severe heart and muscle diseases, but with the help of carnitine supplements, children with these rare disorders have survived to more than 30 years of age – and are still doing well.

However, many more people can benefit from Italian studies that have shown that it is possible to limit the damage that occurs to the heart when a blood clot cuts off the blood supply to parts of the heart muscle. Carnitine reduces the deformation of the heart that would otherwise occur, and during long-term treatment, carnitine-treated patients can work longer and harder, and their fitness is better.

This is an extremely exciting result, which is consistent with the finding that patients with intermittent claudication – walking pain due to calcification, and thus narrowing, of the arteries in the legs – improved their performance on a treadmill when they received a supplement of two grams of carnitine daily.

After the congress, experiments have shown that carnitine also helps against the type of diabetic neuropathy that causes pain. In both rats and humans, a significant effect has been found on this neuropathy, which is often a painful companion to undertreated diabetes. The dose was ½-1 gram three times daily.

Nerves, muscles and heart are major consumers of energy. Carnitine supplies energy. When the brain, heart or muscles weaken with age, it seems wise to think about Carnitine.

By: Vitality Council

Reference:
Salvatore Alesci et al. (Eds.). Carnitine: The Science behind a Conditionally Essential Nutrient. Annals of The New York Academy of Sciences 2005, vol. 1033.

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