L-Carnitine & Health Canada

[sheltie57]

I tried to purchase some L-Carnitine in Winnipeg and could not find it anywhere. I finally asked the clerk at at Vita Health store and was told that Health Canada made them pull it off of the shelves. Has anyone else in Canada heard of this?

[sos_group_owner]

Hi Sheltie57,

Look for Acetyl L-Carnitine. Acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) is a delivery
form for both L-carnitine and acetyl groups (more benefit).

When we visited Canada 4 summers ago, we could not find doses
of CoQ10 any higher than 50 mg at Walmart or Pharmacies. You
might have to order CoQ10 doses higher than 100 mg and ALC over
the internet:

ConsumerLab.com recommends these vendors...
* VitaminLife.com
* Puritan's Pride
* papanature.com (newly opened division of iHerb.com)
Consumer Lab tests the quality of nutritional supplements.
Some of their info is free.
[/url]http://www.consumerlab.com/products.asp[url]

Fran

[Ray Holder]

Hi Sheltie57
I think the reason for the withdrawal of carnitine in Canada must be something to do with an item I read saying that there are some supplies of faulty Chinese carnitine in circulation.

We use L carnitine, but there is also a D (dexter) version, which has the same chemical composition, but the molecules are a right hand version, while the L or levo is the left hand variety. The D version can be harmful, and is sometimes found along with L in poor quality carnitine.

I presume Canada Health has clamped down on it for that reason, but that is not very helpful for the likes of us, and the UK version of Carnitor, the licensed drug version, would cost me £700 a month, compared to the £100 which I now pay.

I have been a bit troubled about the use over there of Acyl Carnitine, which I tried in the beginning and found less than useful. I have tried to find a helpful website on this, it is difficult to find one which doesn't fly off into the realms of obscure associated actions in the mitochondria, but it appears that L carnitine is needed to carry fat into the mitochondria as fuel, and then it becomes acyl to carry the "combustion" products away.

Now I never had muscle pain, only wastage, but I started off, after polio, with a shortage of glucose fuelled muscle, and I had to rely much more on fat and Lcarnitine for energy and to keep the muscle from damage.

As a result I did not have the waste products of glucose "burning" to dispose of, only the reduced amount from fat. As you folk had a lot of muscle pain, which I believe was due to accumulated waste products needing acyl carnitine to get away, then acyl works for you, up to a point.

You probably have still a good amount of glucose burning muscle left to keep you going, but if you are not getting enough L carnitine to service the fat-needing muscles, you will not prevent slow wastage of that part of each muscle's bulk. My wasted muscle gained a considerable amount over the first few months of carnitine use.

These are only my thoughts, and someone may know more about this complex subject than I have been able to glean from the web, and it needs some careful consideration to avoid any long term problems.

[sos_group_owner]

Hi Ray,

Thank you for that excellent explanation of how L-Carnitine and
Acetyl L-Carnitine are utilized by our body. Will keep that info
handy for future reference.

Fran

[sheltie57]

I did a little more research into this on the internet and I think I've come to the conclusion that you can only get it by doctor prescription over here in Canada. I'm not sure how my doctor will react if I tell her I need this prescription. She has been very accommodating to me in regards to stoping the Lipitor. My neurologist was also pretty understanding about why I wanted to stop taking the Lipitor. Both doctors even told me of things they had heard or read recently that lead them to believe that there may be a connection between my muscle problems and the statin drugs. It was a big relief to me that I didn't get friction from either one. And I also found a very interesting article on the internet called: "Statin-Associated Myopathy with Normal Creatine Kinase Levels". My neurologist said that I had a higher incidence than normal of lipids in my muscle biopsy results. This article talks about that happening when people are on statin drugs. I'm thinking of taking this article to my neurologist next time I go to visit him.

[Ray Holder]

Hi Sheltie
I thought I had sent this post yesterday, but it seems to have got lost in cyberspace, so here goes again.

I was looking again at Fernando Scaglia's treatise on Carnitine deficiency, which deals mainly with inherited deficiency, but he has a section on Secondary, or acquired, deficiency and gives some medications which can bring it on , although statins had not then been recognised as a cause. He states that permanent supplementation may be required. This is a first class medical paper on the subject, and might be something to show your doctors.

It can be found at ww.emedicine.com/ped/topic321.htm

Others with this problem may find it useful for the same purposes.

Ray

[jhon]

Acetyl L-Carnitine is an amino acid-like compound that is related to choline and may assist in the conversion of choline into acetylcholine. Acetylcholine, one of the body's key neurotransmitters, chemically transmits messages from one nerve cell to another.
http://www.homeherb.com/productdetail.asp?pid=11