On the flip side, a small study of professional athletes found that those who received 3 to 4 grams of L-carnitine immediately before a workout had better endurance. Living with type 2 diabetes takes a whole lotta discipline. Some research suggests acetyl-L-carnitine ALC dials down nerve pain and weakness caused by type 2 diabetes. A study suggested L-carnitine supplements could also lower blood sugar.
L-carnitine is technically FDA-approved for just one use: treating carnitine deficiency. But doses of less than 3 grams a day seem safe for pretty much anyone. Taking too much 2 to 3 grams, depending on your body can cause mild side effects, including:.
And, as we mentioned, a study in mice found that L-carnitine in red meat might contribute to clogged arteries, although more research is needed. Technically, your body can whip up L-carnitine without help, thank you very much. The main things to consider are your diet and whether your body is healthy enough to create what it needs. Most people supplement with to 2, milligrams of L-carnitine per day. Two grams 2, milligrams seems to be the sweet spot for long-term effectiveness without health risks.
You can find it in foods, liquids, powders, and even injections. While the best way to score nutrients is through diet and a healthy lifestyle, supplements can help. Your body absorbs L-carnitine from food sources more quickly than from supplements. Sneak in some L-carnitine with a 3-ounce serving about the size of your palm of these meats:.
Bonus: You can try ALL the flavors! Start slow, with a 1,milligram dose per day. Cost is the main drawback to liquid supplements. Powdered L-carnitine supplements work well for those who already whip up a protein shake or smoothie in the morning. Add a scoop 1, milligrams along with your collagen or protein powder. At the same time a shift occurred in the ratio of fat to protein in favour of protein in the carcass, leading to a marked reduction of body fat levels and a slight reduction of protein levels.
There were, however, no significant differences between the control group and the treated group with L-carnitine supplementation with regard to any of these parameters. The clinico-chemical parameters measured in plasma glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, free fatty acids, 3-hydroxybutyric acid also showed no differences between the groups. However, no studies have confirmed the benefits of carnitine supplements in these specific populations.
Older adults may also benefit from L-carnitine supplements. Research shows that your levels tend to decline as you age 63 , In one study, 2 grams of L-carnitine reduced fatigue and increased muscle function in older adults.
Other research reveals that acetyl-L-carnitine may also help boost brain health and function as you age 64 , Additionally, the risk of deficiency is higher for those with diseases like cirrhosis and kidney disease. If you have one of these conditions, a supplement may be beneficial 1 , 66 , Specific populations may benefit from L-carnitine supplements. This includes older adults and people who rarely or never eat meat and fish. Although dosage varies from study to study, here is an overview of the use and dose for each form:.
Although the recommended dose varies, around —2, mg 0. L-carnitine is best known as a fat burner — but the overall research is mixed. It is unlikely to cause significant weight loss. However, studies support its use for health, brain function and disease prevention. Supplements may also benefit those with lower levels, such as older adults, vegans and vegetarians. Of the different forms, acetyl-L-carnitine and L-carnitine are the most popular and seem to be most effective.
There are several effective supplements that can help you burn body fat. This article lists 5 natural fat burners that are supported by science. You can improve your brain health with the right diet. Eat these 11 foods to boost your memory and focus, help prevent disease, and keep sharp as you….
Nootropics are drugs or supplements that can boost brain function. Here are 10 nootropic supplements proven to have brain-boosting benefits. Supplements and energy drinks that contain L-carnitine claim to be metabolism boosters that can help you shed weight and increase your athletic…. LC supplementation was also noted to induce an increase of fasting plasma trimethylamine-N-oxide TMAO levels, which was not associated with modification of determined inflammatory nor oxidative stress markers.
Prolonged LC supplementation in specific conditions may affect physical performance. Therefore, additional studies focusing on long-term supplementation and its longitudinal effect on the cardiovascular system are needed.
LC also plays an important role in the regulation of metabolic pathways involved in skeletal muscle protein balance: proteolysis and protein synthesis [ 3 ]. Furthermore, LC acts as anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory compound [ 3 ]; thus, it may attenuate the exercise-induced muscle damage. The opinion that LC supplementation does not change metabolism is based mostly on short-term supplementation protocols [ 4 ].
Recent studies demonstrate that prolonged supplementation, especially in combination with carbohydrates CHO , may increase muscle total carnitine TC content in skeletal muscle [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Therefore, LC supplementation in specific conditions may affect physical performance. On the other hand, LC has been proposed as the red meat nutrient responsible for atherosclerosis promotion [ 8 ]. As a potential link between red meat consumption and the increasing risk of cardiovascular disease, trimethylamine-N-oxide TMAO has been indicated [ 8 ].
Studies with the following criteria were excluded: described in languages other than English, articles without full-text availability, reviews and case reports. Firstly, studies were assessed by title verification between databases duplicates were removed. The second assessment performed by abstracts analysis, excluded studies in a language other than English, studies with lack of full text, reviews, case reports, animal studies and in-vitro studies.
The last step was performed by analysis of full manuscripts based on the described above eligibility criteria. The following information was compiled for each study: authors, year of publication, type of study, length of supplementation, a dose of supplementation and main effect.
Lastly, the thematic analysis was carried out, to synthesize and interpret all the data that appeared from the included publications.
The process of selecting papers, data collection as well as the quality assessment was performed independently by two authors A. By the above-described search strategy, publications were identified. After the first selection, adjusted by duplicates, persisted articles.
Of these, were excluded after abstracts screening and identified articles in languages other than English, lack of full text or being review articles, case reports, animal or in-vitro studies. The full texts of articles were screened by eligibility criteria. Table 1 provides details and results of the 11 studies reviewed.
Selected studies were published between and In three studies, supplementations were combined with carbohydrates CHO [ 5 , 6 , 7 ], and in one with L-leucine [ 18 ]. Muscle carnitine content was not affected following 12 weeks of LC supplementation alone [ 11 , 12 ].
Twenty-four-weeks of LC supplementation alone did not affect muscle strength in healthy aged women [ 15 ], but significantly increased muscle mass, improved physical effort tolerance and cognitive function in centenarians [ 14 ]. In two studied groups of healthy aged woman, LC supplementation alone [ 16 , 17 ], or in combination with L-leucine [ 18 ], induced an increase of fasting plasma TMAO levels. However, higher TMAO was not associated with determined inflammatory [ 16 ] nor oxidative stress [ 17 ] markers.
The present findings have been debated in the six separate paragraphs, and for a better picture of LC supplementation, other studies were also disputed. It has been assumed that LC supplementation, by increasing muscle carnitine content, optimizes fat oxidation and consequently reduces its availability for storage [ 19 ]. Nevertheless, the belief that carnitine is a slimming agent has been negated in the middle of 90s [ 20 ].
These findings implied that LC supplementation was not able to increase fat oxidation and improve exercise performance by the proposed mechanism. Since LC concentration in skeletal muscles is higher than that of blood plasma, active uptake of carnitine must take place [ 23 ]. Stephens et al. Moreover, higher serum insulin maintained by the consumption of simple sugars resulted in augmented LC retention in healthy human subjects supplemented by LC for 2 weeks [ 26 ].
This assumption has been confirmed in later studies [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Neither exercise metabolism nor muscle metabolites were modified by augmented TC in vegetarian [ 12 ]. Skeletal muscle mass depends on the rates of protein synthesis and degradation. Elevated protein synthesis and attenuated proteolysis are observed during muscle hypertrophy.
The activation of mTOR leads to phosphorylation and activation of S6 kinases S6Ks and hyperphosphorylation of 4E-binding proteins 4E-BPs , resulting in the acceleration of protein synthesis. At the same time, Akt phosphorylates and inactivates forkhead box O FoxO , thereby inhibit the responsible for proteolysis ubiquitin ligases: muscle-specific RING finger-1 MuRF-1 and muscle atrophy F-box protein atrogin-1 , for review see [ 27 , 28 , 29 ]. The association between LC supplementation and the regulation of metabolic pathways involved in muscle protein balance have been shown in several animal studies Fig.
FoxO inactivation attenuated MURF-1 expression in quadriceps fem oris muscle of supplemented rats compared to control [ 33 ]. All these findings together might suggest that LC supplementation protect muscle from atrophy, especially in pathophysiological conditions. The association between LC supplementation and the regulation of metabolic pathways involved in muscle protein balance. Various effects might be due to different IGF-1 levels; significantly lower in the HIV-seropositive patients than in healthy subjects [ 38 ].
These findings altogether suggest that prolonged LC supplementation might affect body composition in specific conditions. Therefore, authors suggested that LC supplementation may be effective in obese and overweight subjects. It has been assumed that a combination of LC supplementation with increased energy expenditure may positively affect body composition.
However, either with aerobic [ 41 , 42 ] or resistance [ 43 ] training, LC supplementation has not achieved successful endpoint. Similarly, lack of LC effect has been reported in obese women [ 42 ]. Body composition, determined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, indicated no significant effect in fat mass and fat-free mass due to supplementation. Moreover, LC administration did not influence bench press results. The number of leg press repetitions and the leg press third set lifting volume increased in the LC group compared to the placebo group [ 43 ].
Different LC effect in the limbs may be associated with the higher rates of glycogenolysis during arm exercise at the same relative intensity as leg exercise [ 44 ].
Aged people have accelerated protein catabolism, which is associated with muscle wasting [ 45 ]. LC could increase the amount of protein retention by inhibition of the proteolytic pathway. Six months of LC supplementation augmented fat free mass and reduced total body fat mass in centenarians [ 14 ].
Such effect was not observed in elder women age range 65—70 y. The effectiveness of LC supplementation may result from the age-wise distribution of sarcopenia.
The prevalence of sarcopenia increased steeply with age, reaching Muscle damage may occur during exercise, especially eccentric exercise. In the clearance of damaged tissues assist free radicals produced by neutrophils. Therefore, among other responses to exercise, neutrophils are released into the circulation. While neutrophil-derived reactive oxygen species ROS play an important role in breaking down damaged fragments of the muscle tissue, ROS produced in excess may also contribute to oxidative stress for review see [ 47 , 48 ].
Based on the assumption that LC may provide cell membranes protection against oxidative stress [ 49 ], it has been hypothesized that LC supplementation would mitigate exercise-induced muscle damage and improve post-exercise recovery.
Since plasma LC elevates following 2 weeks of supplementation [ 21 , 22 ], short protocols of supplementation may be considered as effective in attenuating post-exercise muscle soreness. It has been shown, through magnetic resonance imaging technique that muscle disruption after strenuous exercise was reduced by LC supplementation [ 37 , 51 ].
This effect was accompanied by a significant reduction in released cytosolic proteins such as myoglobin and creatine kinase [ 50 , 52 , 53 ] as well as attenuation in plasma marker of oxidative stress - malondialdehyde [ 51 , 53 , 54 ]. Furthermore, 9 weeks of LC supplementation in conjunction with resistance training revealed a significant increase of circulating total antioxidant capacity and glutathione peroxidase activity and decrease in malondialdehyde concentration [ 43 ].
In Rebouche et al. Similar observations were noted in later human studies [ 56 , 57 ], with the peak serum TMAO observed within hours following oral administration of the tracer [ 56 ]. Three months of oral LC supplementation in healthy aged women induced ten-fold increase of fasting plasma TMAO, and this level remained elevated for the further 3 months of supplementation [ 16 ].
Four months after cessation of LC supplementation, plasma TMAO reached a pre-supplementation concentration, which was stable for the following 8 months [ 60 ]. In Wang et al. Since diets high in red meat have been strongly related to heart disease and mortality [ 62 ], LC has been proposed as the red meat nutrient responsible for atherosclerosis promotion [ 8 ].
As a potential link between red meat consumption and the increasing risk of cardiovascular disease, TMAO has been indicated [ 8 ]. Numerous later studies have shown the association between increased plasma TMAO levels with a higher risk of cardiovascular events [ 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ]. The recent meta-analyses indicated that in patients with high TMAO plasma level, the incidence of major adverse cardiovascular events was significantly higher compared with patients with low TMAO levels [ 67 ], and that all-cause mortality increased by 7.
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