Micronutrients & recovery
Oral L-carnitine supplementation reverses diet-induced mitochondrial dysfunction and improves glucose tolerance in obese, insulin-resistant states by restoring carnitine homeostasis and promoting acylcarnitine efflux.
If you have insulin resistance or are aging, your body may naturally deplete carnitine, leading to mitochondrial inefficiency. Supplementing with L-carnitine (300 mg/kg/day in rats, roughly 2-3g/day for humans) for several months can restore this balance, improve how your muscles handle sugar, and help clear metabolic waste products. This is most effective when combined with addressing the underlying cause of the depletion, such as a high-fat diet.
These mitochondrial abnormalities were reversed by 8 weeks of oral carnitine supplementation, in concert with increased tissue efflux and urinary excretion of acetylcarnitine and improvement of whole body glucose tolerance.
Why this rating
Strong rodent models with clear mechanistic pathways and reversal of phenotype, though human data is limited to in vitro myocyte studies.
Source
Carnitine Insufficiency Caused by Aging and Overnutrition Compromises Mitochondrial Performance and Metabolic Control
Robert C. Noland et al. · Journal of Biological Chemistry · 2009
DOI 10.1074/jbc.m109.032888
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