Acetyl L-Carnitine benefits for brain health
What is Acetyl L-Carnitine
Acetyl-L-carnitine, ALCAR or ALC, is an acetylated form of L-carnitine. It is naturally produced by the body, although it is often taken as a dietary supplement. Acetyl L-carnitine is broken down in the blood by plasma esterases to carnitine, it is a mitochondrial boosting supplement, ALCAR helps your muscle mitochondria burn fat, which can increase your endurance, give you an edge in the gym, and help you recover faster. Also, Acetyl L-Carnitine benefits for brain health includes improving mood, learning, and memory etc .
Acetyl L-Carnitine benefits for brain health
When our brains start to age, our bodies also decay. The brain controls our lives. Billions of nerve cells in the brain determine our ability to identify and give us thoughts and emotions. When our brain cells become dysfunctional or die, we lose memory, we lose our ability to think, our muscles atrophy, our bones become brittle, our immune system weakens, our ability to coordinate our actions declines, and our lives begin to slip away.
Acetyl L-carnitine content in different human brains is not the same, but the content decreases significantly with aging. Acetyl L-carnitine structure is similar to acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is the main memory and other neuro metastatic factor for brain function, an insufficient content of acetylcholine in the brain can lead to Alzheimer’s disease. So maybe ALCAR also has the same effect on brain? The study shown Acetyl L-carnitine is very effective against Alzheimer’s disease, depression and memory impairment.
In this one year study, Alzheimer’s patients were divided into two groups, one group took acetyl L-carnitine twice per day, and the other group took placebo. The study tested 14 indicators, including overall status evaluations, known functional tests, memory tests, and physical fitness assessments. The result shown that ALCAR group was superior to the placebo group in all parameters.
Many older people suffer from depression, which is not only they have lost a lot of things in their lives, but also because aging causes certain physiological changes in the brain. In the double-blind experiment of acetyl L-carnitine and antidepressants, acetyl L-carnitine has been shown to have a significant depressant effect. The common dose is 500 mg with three times per day. Patients with the most severe depression in the test shown the greatest improvement after taking acetyl L-carnitine.
Also, according to a new study published by researchers in the United States, acetyl L-carnitine levels in the blood of depressed patients are low. This study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that compared with healthy people, acetyl L-carnitine levels in the blood of depression patients were significantly lower. And the blood acetyl L-carnitine level is particularly low in patients with severe depression and in patients with early onset of depression. As a biomarker of depression, acetyl L-Carnitine is expected to offer the possibility of developing new, faster-acting antidepressants.
