L-carnitine is proven to be safe

www.bodybynature.co.uk

This systematic review of the 13 controlled trials in 3,629 patients, involving 250 deaths, 220 cases of

new heart failure, and 38 recurrent heart attacks, found that L-carnitine was associated with:

 

Significant 27% reduction in all-cause mortality (number needed to treat 38)

Highly significant 65% reduction in ventricular arrhythmias (number needed to treat 4)
Significant 40% reduction in the development of angina (number needed to treat 3)
Reduction in infarct size

There were numerically fewer myocardial reinfarctions and heart failure cases associated with L-carnitine,

but this did not reach statistical significance.

First author James J. DiNicolantonio, PharmD, Wegmans Pharmacy, Ithaca, NY, observes, “Although

therapies for acute coronary syndrome (ACS), including percutaneous coronary intervention, dual

antiplatelet therapy, b-blockers (BBs), statins, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs), omega-3

fatty acids, and cardiac rehabilitation, have markedly improved clinical outcomes, adverse cardiovascular

(CV) events still occur too frequently after ACS. One promising therapy for improving cardiac health

involves using L-carnitine to improve free fatty acid levels and glucose oxidation.”

“The potential mechanisms responsible for the observed beneficial impact of L-carnitine in acute

myocardial infarction are likely multifactorial and may, in part, be conferred through the ability of Lcarnitine

to improve mitochondrial energy metabolism in the heart by facilitating the transport of longchain

fatty acids from the cytosol to the mitochondrial matrix, where b-oxidation occurs, removing toxic

fatty acid intermediates, reducing ischemia induced by long-chain fatty acid concentrations, and

replenishing depleted carnitine concentrations seen in ischemic, infarcted, and failing myocardium,” says

DiNicolantonio.

L-carnitine is proven to be safe and is readily available over the counter. The investigators agree that the

overall results of this meta-analysis support the potential use of L-carnitine in acute myocardial infarction

and possibly in secondary coronary prevention and treatment, including angina. They advocate for a

larger randomized, multicenter trial to be performed to confirm these results in the modern era of routine

revascularization and other intensive medical therapies following acute myocardial infarction. But, says

DiNicolantonio, “L-carnitine therapy can already be considered in selected patients with high-risk or

persistent angina after acute myocardial infarction who cannot tolerate treatment with ACE inhibitors or

beta blockers, considering its low cost and excellent safety profile.”

These findings may seem to contradict those reported in a study published earlier this month in

Nature

Medicine

by Robert A. Koeth and others (Koeth, R. A. et al. Nature Med. which demonstrated that metabolism by intestinal microbiota o

dietary L-carnitine produced trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and accelerated atherosclerosis in mice.
They also noted that omnivorous human subjects produced more TMAO than did vegans or vegetarians following ingestion of L-carnitine, and suggested a possible direct link between L-carnitine, gut bacteria, TMAO, and atherosclerosis and risk of ischemic heart disease. “The Nature Medicine paper is of interest,” agrees senior investigator Carl J. Lavie,
M.D.,FACC,FACP,FCCP, Medical Director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention Center at the
John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute at the University of Queensland School of Medicine in New Orleans, “but the main study reported there was in animals, and unlike our study, lacks hard outcomes.” He also notes that “there are various forms of ‘carnitine’ and our relatively large meta-analysis specifically tested L-carnitine on hard outcomes in humans who had already experienced acute myocardial 

NOTES FOR EDITORS

“L-Carnitine in the Secondary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease: Systematic Review and Metaanalysis,”

by James J. DiNicolantonio, PharmD; Carl J. Lavie, MD; Hassan Fares, MD; Arthur R.

Menezes, MD; and James H. O’Keefe, MD,

Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Volume 88, Issue 6 (June 2013),

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