The results of a recent study showed that carnitine supplements can complement natural diabetes treatment.
Diabetes natural treatment is extremely important in ensuring an effective management of the disease. So in a study by a research team led by Deborah Muoio, PhD, of the Duke Sarah Stedman Nutrition and Metabolism Center, tests were performed on human muscle cells to see how carnitine supplements might work on older people with certain disorders that make it difficult to metabolize glucose or sugar, such as prediabetes condition and actual diabetes.
Carnitine is primarily produced in the liver and kidneys. The body’s natural production of this substance amount to 75% of the body’s daily needs, with the remaining 25% received through eating now foods with L carnitine, like red meat and certain fruits like avocados. However, as the body ages, so is its ability to synthesize its own L carnitine. This is where carnitine supplements come into the picture.
Duke researchers found that the skeletal muscle of obese rats produced so much acylcarnitines, which require free carnitine. The problem is that when there’s so little free carnitine available, acylcarnitines accumulate. The imbalance lead to problems with the body’s cells’ ability to burn fuel (fat and glucose). So correcting this severe imbalance in obese animals with carnitine supplements was thought to solve the problem. And it somehow did. In fact, in another study, carnitine supplements were able to induce a healthy weight loss.
In the present study, eight weeks of supplying obese rats with carnitine supplements showed to have restored their cells’ fuel-burning capacity that had been halted by the lack of natural carnitine. L carnitine also improved their glucose tolerance, thereby lowering their risk of developing diabetes.
The study’s results offer hope and a natural diabetes treatment to people with glucose intolerance, specifically older people, those with ailing kidneys, and those with type 2 diabetes.
After the study on rats, Muoio’s team is set to perform further studies involving humans.
Also, the acetylated form of L carnitine, acetyl l carnitine, can even be more effective in this respect.
