Effect in the heart muscle
The heart is an important muscle when it comes to the performance of the human body. Many diseases of the heart result in a significant reduction in the body’s performance. L-carnitine also plays a special role in the heart, as the heart increasingly uses the fat reserves as a source of energy. A lack of L-carnitine in the heart muscle can cause particularly severe performance limitations. This is particularly dangerous when there are already diseases of the heart muscle, which is why an adequate supply of L-carnitine in the presence of heart muscle disease has recently been the subject of many studies.
Food supplements
As a dietary supplement, L-carnitine is especially popular with athletes and as a dietary supplement. Most studies on the subject have so far not been able to find a positive effect on fat burning and muscle building if test persons did not suffer from a proven lack of L-carnitine. According to current scientific opinion, even with an excess of L-carnitine, the body cannot burn more fat than it would with the normal amount of L-carnitine.
For this reason, the effect of L-carnitine as a food supplement is highly controversial.Experts assume that it would be wrong to assume that persons, without increased need at L-Carnitin, by a supply of the food auxiliary means the dismantling at fatty acids in their body could increase. L-Carnitin can unfold rather only its effect as food auxiliary means meaningfully if the energy, which develops by the metabolism of the fatty acids, is actually used by the body. It is therefore only sensible to take L-carnitine as a food supplement for sportsmen and women who can show an increased fat metabolism due to their physical strain.
Nevertheless, there are people who have an increased need for L-carnitine, for whom a substitution of L-carnitine makes sense. A vegetarian lifestyle, for example, can be accompanied by lowered concentrations of L-carnitine in the body. The side effects of an overdose are not tolerable compared to the non-existent benefits for non-athletes, so additional intake is not recommended in most cases.
