Best Carnitine Energy 667mg, 90T

Suitable for vegetarians

• Science-based nutrition
• Dietary supplement
• Vital for energy production by mitochondria.*
• Promotes fat and carbohydrate metabolism.*
• Elevates resistance to oxidative stress.*
• Enhances brain, circulatory, other organ functions.*

Best CARNITINE ENERGY supplies L-carnitine, an amino acid nutrient vital for the body to convert fats into energy, and to effectively metabolize carbohydrates. Carnitine protects and facilitates the mitochondria’s essential energy functions, but can be depleted by common lifestyle factors and by advancing age. Best CARNITINE ENERGY provides this conditionally essential nutrient at high potency for youthful wellbeing and healthy aging.

The sigma-tau L-Carnitine in this product is derived from a base of pharmaceutical grade L-Carnitine manufactured by a patented, FDA-approved process. It is GMO-free, pesticide-free, and BSE free.

 

Suggested Adult Use: Take 3 tablets daily after meals, in divided doses. Higher intakes may be beneficial, as recommended by a nutritionally informed physician. Individuals with thyroid problems or on anti-coagulant therapy should consult their physician before using this product.

Supplement Facts
Serving Size: 3 tablets
Servings per container: 30 servings
Amount Per Serving      %DV
L-Carnitine       2000mg         †
(from 3,540 mg L-carnitine fumarate)
_____________________________________
† Daily Value not established

Other Ingredients: Microcrystalline cellulose, stearic acid, magnesium stearate (vegetable source), silicon dioxide.

Contains nothing other than listed ingredients.

90T

Best CARNITINE ENERGY is a highly potent source of carnitine (technically, l-carnitine or levocarnitine), a nutrient vital for the body to make energy. This small molecule enables the tiny mitochondria located within our cells to perform their complex energy-generating processes. Carnitine also helps protect the mitochondria against damage from their own toxic metabolic byproducts. In addition to the mitochondria, carnitine provides detoxification and other protective functions to the rest of the cell.

 

Carnitine is built into the body’s natural biochemistry. It is therefore an ortho molecule, or right molecule for the body, following the idea of “the right molecules in the right amounts” for optimal health as conceived by two-time Nobel Prizewinner Professor Linus Pauling.¹ As with other ortho nutrients, carnitine is required by all the body’s cells and across the entire human life cycle.

 

Carnitine is chemically related to amino acids, but unlike these it does not become incorporated into proteins. It is made in the body, mostly in the liver and kidney, by combining the amino acid lysine with S-adenosylmethionine (SAMe) in a series of reactions that require four enzymes and a variety of nutrient cofactors.^2,3 Carnitine is considered a "conditionally essential" nutrient since an individual’s total requirement can exceed their capacity to make it and acquire it from the diet.^3,4

 

An array of metabolic stressors can deplete carnitine from the body. They include byproducts of fat and protein metabolism, poor nutrition, overweight, pharmaceutical adverse effects, and the life stages pregnancy, birth, and aging (see the Table, below).^3-23 Adequate carnitine status is typically associated with less fatigue^1-3,24,25 and healthy functioning of the skeletal muscles, heart, liver, gastrointestinal tract, lungs, thyroid, immune, and male reproductive system. ^{1-5,9,10,26-30}

Vital For Energy Production By Mitochondria

Virtually all the body’s carnitine is located inside the cells, where it specifically facilitates the mitochondria to generate life energy from foods^3,6,31:

1.   Any of the many fatty acids derived from fats can be combined with carnitine to form a linked molecular complex. Other enzymes then target the carnitine portion to transport the molecular complex into the mitochondria. There the mitochondria’s respiratory enzymes use oxygen to “burn” the fatty acid portion and generate life energy.^3,6,31

2.   Carnitine promotes both carbohydrate and fat metabolism.³¹ As each fatty acid is burned a carnitine molecule is released that can then stimulate enzymes that burn carbohydrates in the mitochondria. Carnitine therefore endows the mitochondria with metabolic versatility to utilize both fats and carbs for energy.

3.   Carnitine also helps keep the mitochondria free of toxic accumulation. It can combine with potentially toxic byproducts of the energy reactions, then facilitate their transport out of the mitochondria and subsequently out of the cell.^31,33 This action helps protects the mitochondria against toxic damage, and boosts their energy efficiency.

4.   Most of the cell’s carnitine actually is located outside the mitochondria and available for detoxification in those other cell compartments. This carnitine can combine with potentially toxic pivalic acid as it enters the cell, to neutralize it before it can damage the mitochondria.¹⁴

5.   Carnitine facilitates osmotic regulation, the major means by which cells balance water coming in with water going out. Cells in the testis, for example, vary their carnitine content to protect against osmotic stress.³⁴

 

These fundamental actions of carnitine help account for its impressive health benefits, as documented from randomized controlled (RC) trials and other human studies.

 

Elevates Resistance To Oxidative Stress

Oxidative stress is a relative dominance of potentially toxic “free radical” and other oxidative processes occurring in the body over the body’s protective antioxidant defenses.³⁵ Aside from toxins and other oxidative stressors that originate outside the body, internally it is the mitochondria that make the greatest contribution to oxidative stress due to their routine production of oxygen free radicals.^3,35 Carnitine helps minimize this problem by enabling the mitochondria to perform at high efficiency.

 

In one RC trial with healthy women aged 18-54 years, the carnitine group (680 mg/day, for one week) had a statistically significant lowering of free radical products in their blood, also statistically superior to the placebo group.³⁶ In another trial, which involved healthy men along with women, a single dose of carnitine (2 grams) significantly increased the activity of the major antioxidant enzymes (superoxide dismutase, glutathione peroxidase, catalase) for at least 6 hours.³⁷

 

In children and adults having energy difficulties and depleted of carnitine, supplementing sufficient carnitine to restore its tissue levels to normal typically relieves their energy problem.^{11,15,16,,24,25} Carnitine supplementation simultaneously improves the body’s antioxidant defenses. Using this nutrient as a dietary supplement therefore offers a dual advantage—a boost in energy production, plus enhanced protection against potential damage from that energy boost.

 

Powers And Protects The Heart And Circulation

The muscle fibers of the heart burn mostly fats for their energy, and typically contain high concentrations of carnitine.³ Normal carnitine levels in the blood help ensure optimal heart function, growth, muscle tone, blood sugar management, immunity, and mental function.³⁸

 

Besides being crucial for heart health, carnitine also can enhance blood vessel health. One double-blind RC trial tested whether carnitine supplementation could support arterial tone in healthy subjects challenged with a high-fat meal.³⁹ First the 30 volunteers (men and women aged 20-50) received either carnitine (2 grams per day) or a placebo, for 3 weeks. Then each was brought into the laboratory and set up with ultrasound equipment to measure healthy vasodilation control in the brachial artery.

 

After baseline measurements were taken, the subjects consumed the high-fat meal (908 calories, 84% fat), and each took their last daily dose of carnitine or placebo. Then their brachial artery dilation capacity was assessed. Those who had been supplemented with carnitine showed improved arterial dilation capacity, while the opposite was true for those who received placebo. Subjects who got just the placebo showed significantly impaired arterial function due to the high-fat meal.

 

Supports Skeletal Muscle Function And Exercise Endurance

Most of the body’s carnitine is in the skeletal muscles. The fibers of the skeletal muscle (as in the heart) typically burn fats for their energy and have high metabolic demand for carnitine.⁴⁰ Intense exercise tends to lower their carnitine content and cause structural disruption that results in soreness and tenderness. In a clinical trial with untrained healthy men, carnitine supplementation (3 grams per day, for 3 weeks) reduced the soreness and tenderness they experienced as a result of intense quadriceps exercises.⁴¹

 

Carnitine can also improve muscle performance in trained athletes. In a 2002 double-blind trial, ⁴² 10 men previously trained in squat exercises received either carnitine (2 grams per day) or a placebo for 3 weeks, then performed a series of squats at 50% of their one-rep weight maximum (5 sets of 15-20 repetitions). The subjects developed soreness that peaked the day after exercise and declined over 4 days. The degree of perceived soreness was significantly less in those that received carnitine, compared to those that received the placebo.

 

Counters Occasional Fatigue And Frailty of Aging

The skeletal muscles tend to lose mass with aging (“sarcopenia”).⁴³ Their carnitine levels also decline, as does their mitochondrial function.^9,44 In the elderly these changes are linked to increasingly severe fatigue with exercise, and an increased tendency to frailty.⁹ In a double-blind RC trial, men and women aged 72-84 years complaining of physical and mental fatigue received either carnitine (4 grams per day) or a placebo, for 30 days.²⁴ They were provided with scoring questionnaires to help them accurately record their fatigue levels.

 

At the trial’s end, the carnitine group’s records showed significant lowering of their physical fatigue (by about 40%) and their mental fatigue (by about 45%), versus non-significant lowering of 11% and 8% for the placebo group.²⁴ Carnitine also significantly lowered fat mass and increased muscle mass, better than did the placebo. The carnitine group also experienced significant reductions in their triglycerides, and increases in their HDL-cholesterol, statistically superior compared to the placebo group.

 

Enhances Memory And Other Vital Functions In The Very Old

In a double blind RC trial, 70 centenarian individuals (aged 100-106 years) received carnitine (2 grams per day) or a placebo, for 6 months.²⁵ The carnitine group reported significant improvement of their mental fatigue (by 36%) and physical fatigue (by 32%), compared to the placebo group (less than 10 percent reductions).

 

Carnitine also improved the memory and related cognitive performance of these centenarians.²⁵ On the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), a widely-accepted cognitive test series,⁴⁵ the carnitine group improved by 4 points (from an average of 16.4 to 20.5, on the 0-30 scale), versus just 0.6 points for the placebo group (16.6 to 17.2).²⁵ An MMSE score below 17 is generally considered to indicate severe cognitive impairment.⁴⁵

 

These results indicate carnitine is able to substantially promote the mental performance of very old individuals. The researchers who worked with the centenarians commented, “Among all the substances whose concentration decreases with age, L-carnitine diminution is fundamentally important, given its function in the production of energy.”²⁵ In addition, carnitine significantly increased the total muscle mass, lowered the total fat mass and improved the walking capacity of these centenarians.

 

Factors That Deplete The Body’s Carnitine Stores

• Aging²³

•  Pregnancy,²¹ premature birth²²

•  Malnutrition (protein-energy type, in children)¹¹

•  Overweight (BMI 27-33 kg/m2)¹²

• Pharmaceuticals: pivampicillin/pivalic acids^13-15; valproate sodium/valproic acids^7.16; cisplatin, doxorubicin, ifosfamide¹⁷; cyclophosphamide, interferon-beta¹⁸; interferon-alpha¹⁹; zidovudine.²⁰

How To Use This Supplement

Best CARNITINE ENERGY is a powerful option for anyone who desires higher energy levels. By enabling the mitochondria to simultaneously convert both fats and carbohydrates into energy, carnitine empowers our cells, tissues and organs to take full advantage of the natural fluctuations in our sources of calories. The brain and other organs that depend mostly on burning carbohydrate can function cooperatively with the heart, skeletal muscles and liver, which depend mostly on burning fats. Carnitine is the body’s ultimate energy nutrient.

 

As a dietary supplement, carnitine is very safe to take and very well tolerated. Its potent unit serving of 2 grams per day is best tolerated when taken after meals, preferably in 3 divided doses. Higher intakes may be beneficial, as recommended by a nutritionally informed physician. Individuals with thyroid problems or on anti-coagulant therapy should consult their physician before using this product.

 

The carnitine fumarate used in this formulation is supplied by Sigma-tau, a renowned carnitine manufacturer. The carnitine is bound to fumaric acid, which (like carnitine) is an ortho nutrient and an important substrate for energy generation by mitochondria.⁴⁰ The mitochondria are increasingly coming under scrutiny as the possible “Achilles Heel” of human health and wellbeing. This carnitine-fumarate combination further assures mitochondrial integrity and performance.

 

Since plant foods provide very little carnitine,^3-5 vegetarians can use this supplement to ensure they are getting enough of this premier energy nutrient. Taking this supplementation is also a prudent action for people of all ages and lifestyles wanting to ensure they are fully equipped to make life energy. Energy is the basis for life, and Best CARNITINE ENERGY is without parallel in facilitating the body’s capacity to make energy from its foods.

1.   Pauling L. Science 1968;160:265-271.

2.   Rebouche CJ. Am J Clin Nutr 1991;54:1147S-1152S.

3.   Sharma S, Black SM. Drug Disc Today Dis Mech 2009;6:e31-e39.

4.   Walter JH. Archs Dis. Child 1996;74:475-478.

5.   Longo N, et al. Am J Med Genet C Semin Med Genet 2006;142C(2): 77-85.

6.   Eaton S, Bartlett K, Pourfarzam M. Biochem J 1996;320:345-357.

7.   Matsuda I, Ohtani Y. Pediatr Neurol 1986;2:90-94.

8.   Borum PR. J Neurol Sci 1977;34:279-286.

9.   Crentsil V. Ageing Res Rev 2010;9:265-268.

10. Rudman D, Sewell CW, Ansley JD. J Clin Invest 1977;60:716-723.

11. Alp H, et al. J Trop Pediatr 1999;45:294-296.

12. Kim JY, et al. J Proteome Res 2010;9:4368-4375.

13. Holme E, et al. Scand J Clin Lab Invest 1992;52:361-372.

14. Melegh B, Kerner J, Bieber LL. Biochem Pharmacol 1987;36:3405-3409.

15. Pap M, et al. J Nutr Biochem 1999;10:670-673.

16. Lheureux PER, Hantson P. Clin Toxicol 2009;47:101-111.

17. Hockenberry MJ, et al. J Pediatr Hematol Oncol 2009;31:664-669.

18. Lebrun C, et al. Mult Scler 2006;12:321-324.

19. Neri S, et al. C. Neuropsychobiol 2003;47:94-97.

20. Dalakas MC, et al. Ann Neurol 1994;35:482-487.

21. Marzo A, et al. Gynecol Endocrinol 1994;8:115-120.

22. Scaglia F, Longo N. Semin Perinatol 1999;23:152-161.

23. Costell M, O'Connor JE, Grisolia S. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 1989;161:1135-1143.

24. Pistone G, et al. Drugs Aging 2003;20:761-767.

25. Malaguarnera M, et al. Am J Clin Nutr 2007;86:1738-1744.

26. Lerner A, Gruener N, Iancu TC. Gut 1993;34:933-935.

27. Al-Biltagi M, et al. J Allergy 2012; V212, Article ID 509730, 7 pages.

28. Sinclair C, et al. Muscle Nerve 2005;32:357-359.

29. Famularo G, et al. Ann NY Acad Sci 2004;1033:132-138.

30. Moradi M, et al. Urology J 2010;7:188-193.

31. Calvani, M, Reda E, Arrigoni-Martelli E. Basic Res Cardiology 2000;95:75-83.

32. Nowaczyk MJ, et al. J Inherit Metab Dis 2000;23:188-189.

33. Mels CMC, et al. ISRN Pharmacol 2011;V2011:8 pages.

34. Cotton LM, et al. Mol Reprod Rev 2010;77:114-125.

35. Kidd PM. Altern Med Rev 2005;10:268-293.

36. Sachan DS, Hongu N, Johnsen M. J Am Coll Nutr 2005;24:172-176.

37. Cao Y, et al. Tohoku J Exp Med 2011;224:209-213.

38. Winter SC, et al. Am J Child Dis 1987;141:660-665.

39. Volek JS, et al. Am J Cardiol 2008;102:1413-1417.

40. Stryer L. Biochemistry. 1998;New York: WH Freeman.

41. Giamberardino MA, et al. Int J Sports Med 1996;17:320-324.

42. Volek JS, et al. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2002;282:E474-E482.

43. Cruz-Jentoft AJ, et al. Age Ageing 2010;39:412-423.

44. Gonzalez-Crespo MR, et al. J Rheumatol 1999;26:2229-2232.

45. Crum RA, et al. JAMA 1993;269:2386-2391.

Q1.	I have read that carnitine supplements have an effect on thyroid function. What would be the expected effect on someone with hypothyroisim?  Or is carnitine contra-indicated for a person with hypothyroidism?
A1.	There is what is considered a "moderate" interaction between L-carnitine and thyroid hormone (often taken in hypothyroidism conditions). Although not understood completely, it appears that L-carnitine may be an antagonist of thyroid hormone, and has been shown to be beneficial in those suffering from hyperthyroidism. In one study, 2-4 grams of L-carnitine improved symptoms of hyperthyroidism, suggesting that it blocked thyroid hormone's actions (Benvenga et al 2001). In vitro trials have also indicated that L-carnitine inhibits thyroid hormones T3 and T4 entry into peripheral cells (Benvenga et al 2004). Although there are no published human clinical trials measuring the effects of L-carnitine on thyroid function or thyroid hormone levels, it can be assumed that it may have a inhibitory effect on thyroid hormone and therefore contraindicated in those with hypothyroid conditions. More studies are warranted to determine exactly what this effect is and to what extent the effect is in humans.
Q2.	I am somewhat confused on how to take the DRB products. On many of the labels the Suggested Adult Use will list something along the lines of: Take 2 capsules daily, but it does not state whether they should be taken together or separately. What is the correct usage?
A2.	Unless otherwise specified on the label, the product may be taken together or separately.
Q3.	Is there a limit to how many vitamins can be taken safely in one day?
A3.	While our bodies need vitamins and minerals, like other things, if taken in large amounts they may adversely affect health. Large amounts of anything can be toxic. It is important to follow all label directions and discuss any concerns with your physician.
Q4.	What are the other ingredients and why are they used?
A4.	These are used as flow agents and aid in the production to keep the machinery running smoothly and the capsules filling correctly.  Similarly for the croscarmellose sodium, which is cellulose (sourced from the cell walls of green plants), and is used to help disintegrate the tablet in the stomach.
Q5.	Since Doctor's Best does not manufacture its supplements, how are the purity and integrity of supplements verified? In addition, how are your prices lower than other brands? Does this mean that quality is being compromised?
A5.	Doctor's Best supplements are manufactured in the US at cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practice) certified facilities. All of our manufacturers and suppliers go through our vendor qualification program, which includes inspections and testing, before we agree to work with them. Our finished products have also been tested at the raw material level, in process, and as a finished product to ensure safety and quality. We place the highest importance on safety and quality and do not compromise for the sake of a better price point. The price points are lower because of production size and the overall business structure. We also place great importance on making our supplements available and affordable to those who need them most.
Q6.	What is HPLC?
A6.	HPLC stands for "High Performance Liquid Chromatography." This is an analytical lab testing method that is used to quantify the active ingredients. It is considered to be a very sensitive and accurate test. HPLC testing is a tool recognized as a quality benchmark for herbal extracts.

Don’t see the answer to your question? Ask us!

Enter Name:
Enter E-mail:
Enter Question:

Related News

Doctor's Best Introduces Best Carnitine Energy 2000mg