Does Carnitine Cause Heart Disease?

Recently, a study widely reported by the media created a controversy around carnitine, a common amino acid, by claiming to show an association between carnitine and heart disease.

However, even if the study were not deeply flawed, this single study would have to be placed in the context of the huge body of studies showing that carnitine is beneficial for heart disease. . . .

Double-blind research has shown that carnitine:

1. Is beneficial for angina (Int J Clin Pharmacol Ther Toxicol 1985; Drugs Exp Clin Res 1991)

 

2. Is beneficial for intemittent claudication (Circulation 1988; Am J Med 1991; J Am Coll Cardiol 1995; Am J Cardiol 1997; J Am Coll Cardiol 1999)

 

3. Is beneficial for congestive heart failure (Arzneimforsch 1992; Eur Heart J 1994), including significantly increasing survival (Am J Heart 2000)

 

4. Prevents heart attack (Post Grad Med J 1996) and improves heart health and reduces the chance of dying by 90% in the first year after suffering a heart attack (Drugs Exp Clin Res 1992)

 

Carnitine may also improve cholesterol and triglycerides.

 

But the single study also did not show what it and the media claimed it showed. The negative study claimed to show an association between high blood levels of carnitine and heart disease. But, according to Alan Gaby, M.D., the link was not statistically significant. That means the study failed to show the association. The association only appeared when the researchers used “less stringent”, or what Gaby calls “mathematically inappropriate” criteria.

 

Furthermore, Gaby points out that the link between carnitine and heart disease disappeared utterly whien differences in kidney function were corrected for. Weak kidneys impair the ability to excrete carnitine. So, high levels of carnitine may have been a symptom in those with heart disease caused by impaired kidney function, and not a cause.

 

Once again, the flawed study discrediting natural health gets huge, and careless, media reporting. We wonder if any of those positive carnitine studies, including the one showing 90% increased survival after a heart attack, got all that media attention.