Do you know the effect of L-carnitine? Let’s take a look together

L-Carnitine is an amino acid that helps convert fat into energy. Many people are not familiar with it, and it mainly comes from red meat. The effects of L-carnitine are also little known to people. It has significant effects in enhancing endurance, improving athletic performance, promoting fatigue recovery, delaying the aging process, protecting infant health, heart and blood vessel health, eliminating fatty liver, and treating hemorrhagic shock. Precisely because of its wide range of effects, it is loved by many people, and even many athletes use it as an important drug to improve their sports performance. However, it also has certain side effects, so it should be taken with caution.

1. Introduction of L-carnitine

L-carnitine, also known as L-carnitine or carnitine, is an amino acid that promotes the conversion of fat into energy. Red meat is the main source of L-carnitine. L-Carnitine is an amino acid-like substance that exists naturally in the human body. It has the function of transporting fat to mitochondria and accelerating fat burning and decomposition, thereby allowing consumers to achieve the effect of losing weight. No toxic side effects on human body. Different types of daily diets already contain 5-100 mg of L-carnitine, but the average person can only consume 50 mg from their diet per day, and vegetarians consume even less. The main physiological function of L-carnitine is to promote the conversion of fat into energy. Taking L-carnitine can reduce body fat and weight without reducing water and muscle. In 2003, it was recognized by the International Obesity Health Organization as the safest weight loss nutritional supplement with no side effects.

2. Introduction

1. Enhance endurance and improve athletic performance

Since L-carnitine can promote the oxidation of fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane to provide energy, it can promote the burning of fat in the body to provide energy during exercise. At the same time, L-carnitine can also promote the oxidation and utilization of branched-chain amino acids, and can change the activity of respiratory enzymes in mitochondria, thereby improving the body's ability to provide energy through aerobic oxidation.

Therefore, athletes taking L-carnitine appropriately can increase energy generation during exercise, improve the body's endurance level, and thus improve athletic performance, which is especially suitable for endurance sports.

As early as 1982, the Italian team participating in the World Cup in Spain widely used L-carnitine as a nutritional supplement. In that tournament, the Italian players were in great physical condition, coupled with perfect technical performance, the Italians eventually won the championship. From then on, L-carnitine began to be widely used in the sports world.

2. Promote fatigue recovery

Supplementing with L-carnitine can promote the activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase in cells, thereby promoting the oxidation and utilization of glucose, which is beneficial for delaying the occurrence of fatigue during exercise. Excessive production of lactic acid during exercise will increase the acidity of blood and tissue fluid, reduce the production of ATP, and lead to fatigue. Supplementing with L-carnitine can remove excess lactic acid, improve exercise capacity, and promote recovery from sports fatigue. Ammonia is a product of protein degradation and a hallmark of exercise-induced fatigue; even low levels of ammonia can be highly toxic. Studies have found that L-carnitine has a protective effect against ammonia toxicity, can promote the urea cycle, degrade ammonia into urea, and thus eliminate the toxicity of ammonia.

Appropriate supplementation of L-carnitine also has a significant effect on chronic fatigue syndrome. L-carnitine is involved in many metabolic links. It plays an important role in improving human immunity, protecting the stability of cell membranes, improving exercise endurance and resisting fatigue. Actively correcting the deficiency of L-carnitine can promote the recovery of various metabolic disorders in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, enhance the body's energy synthesis, improve the maximum exercise endurance level, and play an anti-fatigue effect. It can also play a certain role in the prevention and treatment of sub-health.

3. Delay the aging process

Energy is the greatest anti-aging force. Cells will be full of vitality when they have enough energy. The weakening of cell energy during human aging is one of the reasons for accelerated aging. Appropriate supplementation of L-carnitine can slow down the aging process.

In addition, sufficient energy plays a protective role for cells. When the body ages, the cell energy supply is insufficient. Supplementing with L-carnitine can not only provide sufficient energy, but also keep the immune system strong, thereby avoiding the invasion of some diseases.

4. Good for baby's health

L-carnitine is a conditionally essential nutrient for infants and plays an important role in the metabolism of infants using fat as an energy source.

Infants' ability to synthesize L-carnitine is relatively weak, only 12% of that of adults, especially premature infants, who must supplement with exogenous L-carnitine to meet the body's needs.

L-carnitine not only plays an important role in energy production and fat metabolism, but also has certain functions in maintaining infant life and promoting certain physiological processes of infant development, such as ketosis and nitrogen metabolism. At present, 22 countries in the world have added L-carnitine to infant formula powder, and my country has also launched breast milk powder containing L-carnitine on the market.

5. Good for the health of heart and blood vessels

The heart is the most "hardworking" organ in the human body and needs to pump blood continuously to maintain human life. At least two-thirds of the energy of the constantly moving heart cells comes from the oxidation of fat, and L-carnitine is an indispensable key substance for fat oxidation. If L-carnitine is lacking, the heart is the first to be affected.

L-carnitine is extremely important for the health of myocardial cells. Supplementing with adequate L-carnitine can help prevent and treat a variety of heart conditions. For example, it can improve heart function in people with congestive heart problems, minimize the damage after a heart attack, reduce the pain of angina, and improve arrhythmia without affecting blood pressure.

In addition, L-carnitine can increase the level of high-density lipoprotein in the blood, help clear cholesterol from the body, protect blood vessels, lower blood lipids, and also lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension. A large number of animal and human experiments have confirmed that supplementing with L-carnitine is of great benefit in treating cardiovascular diseases. Currently, the most extensive and in-depth clinical research in my country is on the effects of L-carnitine in preventing myocardial ischemia, arrhythmia and lowering blood lipids.

6. Helps eliminate fatty liver

The liver is an important metabolic organ for lipids and fats. In addition to fatty liver caused by eating too much fat, when the body lacks L-carnitine or the methyl supply is insufficient, it will cause long-chain fatty acid oxidation disorders, and can also lead to excessive accumulation of fat in the liver and fatty liver.

Increasing or supplementing the intake of L-carnitine can regulate fat metabolism, promote fat oxidation, and fundamentally eliminate excess or accumulated fat in the body or organs. Currently, countries such as Switzerland, the United States and Japan use L-carnitine to prevent the occurrence of fatty liver. Recovery can also be achieved by adding L-carnitine to eliminate excess fat accumulated in the liver.

7. Treatment of hemorrhagic shock

The mechanism of hemorrhagic shock is closely related to the increase of free radical content and cell damage in the body caused by ischemia and hypoxia, in addition to the vasomotor dysfunction caused by endocrine disorders under stress. L-carnitine has multiple pharmacological effects on hemorrhagic shock.

Wistar rats were randomly divided into a saline control group and a L-carnitine treatment group. There were 10 rats in each group. They were anesthetized with 3% sodium pentobarbital (1 ml/kg) and intubated. Femoral artery blood was collected to detect blood pressure and changes in NO, MDA, and SOD levels at 1h, 2h, 3h, and 4h. The experimental results show that:

1. After being treated with normal saline, the mean arterial pressure of the rats in the control group recovered slowly and was very low, while the mean arterial pressure of the rats in the L-carnitine group was significantly increased compared with the control group.

2. The MDA content in the control group gradually increased, and the MDA content in the L-carnitine group was significantly reduced compared with the control group.

3. The NO content in the control group gradually increased, while the MDA content in the L-carnitine group significantly decreased.

4. The SOD content in the blood of the control group gradually decreased. Compared with the control group, SOD in the L-carnitine group was significantly increased.