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L-Carnitine, The Amazing Amino Acid

By Ben Mester

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 17Jul2011
Word count: 530
Viewed: 230 time(s)

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L-Carnitine benefits the body in many amazing ways. It's an amino acid, one of 22 amino acids that the body needs for regular function. Amino acids have been called the building blocks of life. They each are integral in the production of proteins, enzymes, hormones and other chemicals, but some of them have other functions as well that are very beneficial. L-Carnitine is one such amino acid. But before we talk more about it, let's answer the question, do I get enough L-Carnitine in my normal diet? The answer is yes for most people. Most people aren't deficient in L-Carnitine and have enough for normal function.

Why do some people supplement with L-Carnitine then? The reason why some people still supplement with L-Carnitine is because of one very huge benefit that L-Carnitine brings to the body. Apart from being a building block for more complex chemicals, L-Carnitine also has the added benefit of helping the body to metabolize fats. In fact, L-Carnitine is the transport mechanism that the body uses in order to bring fatty acids into the mitochondria of the cell to be burned up. The mitochondria of the cell has been called the cell's power plant. It's where the cell produces energy. In order for the cell to produce energy though, it needs fuel. That's where L-Carnitine comes in.

L-Carnitine has the special action of being a transport mechanism for fats. It carries fatty acid molecules into the cell mitochondria for processing, thereby helping the body to burn through its stores of fats. In many clinical trials, patients were given L-Carnitine in different situations to find out whether supplementing L-Carnitine actually has a positive effect on the body's fat burning response. These trials mostly concluded that with moderate exercise, L-Carnitine helped to rev up the body's fat burning ability and use fats as a main source of energy. Without moderate amounts of exercise, little benefit was noticed, but with exercise, the benefits were very noticeable.

And that only stands to reason. Without exercise, the body really has no reason to burn excess fuel at all. So even with an abundance of L-Carnitine floating around the bloodstream, there's really not a whole lot of extra fat burning that will transpire. But once the body starts having a need for more energy production, then L-Carnitine starts to kick in. Stored fats are grabbed by L-Carnitine molecules and delivered to the cell mitochondria for processing. It should also be noted that burning fats is a very good source of energy for the body, much better in most situations than sugars. Fats are more clean burning than sugars and don't produce as many side chemicals like lactic acid that the body is then forced to deal with. That's the reason why a person gets sore after working out when they haven't worked out for a long time. The body burns through its stores of quick, inefficient energy and byproducts like lactic acid are produces which the body then has to deal with and dispose of. So burning more fats has added benefits from that standpoint as well.

L-Carnitine benefits many different systems of the body, most notably fat burning. If you're looking to get rid of excess fat, check out L-Carnitine as a great tool to help your body burn it's way through stored fat. There are other amino acid benefits as well that have equally great properties when supplemented.

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