L carnitine supplements not only burn more fat than other substances, they may also play a vital role in the treatment of liver cancer (also, check out vitamins alpha lipoic acid).
A team of researchers at King Saud University College of Pharmacy in Saudi Arabia, headed by Prof. Sayed-Ahmed found that having not enough L carnitine leaves a person at risk for liver cancer. A naturally occurring amino acid derivative, L carnitine is synthesized primarily in the liver and kidneys. The extra L carnitine that our body does not produce but still require comes from dietary sources. Now foods rich in L carnitine include red meat, dairy products, avocados, and a fermented soy bean food called tempeh. What’s more, an even more powerful form of L carnitine is acetyl l carnitine, which is effective in battling a number of oxidative stress-related disorders.
Prof. Sayed-Ahmed’s team discovered that long-term carnitine supplements may even prevent the development of liver cancer. In their study using lab rats as animal model, they observed that a depletion in L carnitine levels led to the development of pre-malignant lesions in the liver and also progressed the vital organ’s degeneration. Providing carnitine supplements were found to completely reverse the degradation and the pre-cancerous lesions in the river also disappeared.
As an aside, another team of Japanese scientists made a similar finding with L carnitine’s role in liver cancer treatment, specifically how carnitine supplements protect the liver from the inflammation caused by free radicals.
Liver cancer is one of the world’s most fatal cancers. In the USA alone, liver cancer kills about 20,000 people every year.
The team’s findings have been published in the World Journal of Gastroenterology.
Live Longer Now » Carnitine Supplements May Stop Liver Cancer
June 7th, 2010