A Personal Account by Roger Burns
Updated: May 24, 2009
L-carnitine therapy for CFS has been described in some scientific papers. It has been helpful to me and some other CFS patients, although it does not seem to help all CFS patients.L-carnitine is an amino acid compound that is involved in energy transfers into the mitochondria within every cell of the human body. It is not clear how L-carnitine may be helping CFS patients, but since it is generally known to be involved in energy transfers at a micro level, the fact that it sometimes helps fatigue-related health issues is not surprising.
Despite its helpfulness, L-carnitine treatment has some important difficulties. The scientific paper by H. Kuratsune et al. about this treatment notes the following:
Patients have told me (and I don't recall whether this is in the scientific paper) that the human body cannot absorb more than 1000 mgs in a single meal and so the treatment needs to be spread out over three meals.
There is a related product called acetyl-L-carnitine. It seems to give a boost to general cognition and memory and its effects can be noticed within just a few days. I have no idea whether it can be a complete substitute for L-carnitine in addressing all CFS-related health issues. I have not dared to experiment in that regard, my first priority continues to be to take the L-carnitine daily. I often try to use acetyl-L-carnitine as well.
When I first tried the L-carnitine treatment, I found it very difficult to stay on it for the full 60 days knowing that I would not see any result during that initial time period. I usually can't try something new and stick with it if I have seen no results for 2 or 3 weeks. When I first tried L-carnitine there was a day or so that I skipped, and when I got to the end of 60 days I didn't notice any benefit. I tried again at a later time, this time going through the entire 60 days without skipping a day. I did begin to notice a small improvement, which increased slowly and gradually over time as I continued the treatment.
Unlike the program in the scientific study, I only took 1,000 milligrams daily. I slowly began to notice an increase in physical stamina and a lessening of brainfog. I can now stand in place for long periods of time without having to fidget or feel like I am very near to fainting. Also much of my mental confusion has dissipated. Despite all this, I regret that my mental concentration has not increased, as I had hoped. But I am much more communicative now and am more aware of my personal situation since using L-carnitine.
In the USA, L-carnitine can be found in many health food shops. There is a prescription version of L-carnitine called Carnitor which may be covered by health insurance, which can make it less expensive than the over-the-counter version.
Again, not all patients are helped by this treatment. Also, while a few scientific papers say that this treatment may help some patients, there is at least one paper that says that L-carnitine gives no help to CFS patients at all (see the citations below).
Roger Burns is the publisher of CFS-NEWS and he maintains this website.
SELECTED SCIENTIFIC PAPERS:
Kuratsune H, Yamaguti K, Takahashi M, Misaki H, Tagawa S, Kitani T. Acylcarnitine deficiency in chronic fatigue syndrome. Clin Infect Dis. 1994 Jan;18 Suppl 1:S62-7. PMID: 8148455Plioplys AV, Plioplys S. Amantadine and L-carnitine treatment of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Neuropsychobiology. 1997;35(1):16-23. PMID: 9018019
Kuratsune H, Yamaguti K, Lindh G, Evengard B, Takahashi M, Machii T, Matsumura K, Takaishi J, Kawata S, Langstrom B, Kanakura Y, Kitani T, Watanabe Y. Low levels of serum acylcarnitine in chronic fatigue syndrome and chronic hepatitis type C, but not seen in other diseases. Int J Mol Med. 1998 Jul;2(1):51-6. PMID: 9854142
Soetekouw PM, Wevers RA, Vreken P, Elving LD, Janssen AJ, van der Veen Y, Bleijenberg G, van der Meer JW. Normal carnitine levels in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. Neth J Med. 2000 Jul;57(1):20-4. PMID: 10862998