Can Carnitine Help Diabetics?
Neil Wagner September 17, 2009 –> Adding the nutrient carnitine to the diet of obese rats helped the rats clear the excess sugar which had been accumulating in their blood. Carnitine also improved the rats’ overall fuel burning ability (both sugar and fat). These results hint that oral carnitine supplements may be helpful to people who have elevated blood sugar, including those with type 2 diabetes. Carnitine is a nutrient essential for proper fat metabolism. It binds to long−chain fatty acids and shuttles them into mitochondria, the cell’s powerhouses. There, the fatty acids are burned (oxidized), producing energy. Carnitine also shuttles excess undigested and partially digested fatty acids out of the mitochondria and into the bloodstream, where they can be redistributed to the tissues that need them the most. This is usually the muscles, which require tremendous amount of energy. Generally, the body produces sufficient carnitine so that dietary supplementation is not necessary. But
