People who have been to the gym or paid attention to weight loss products are definitely familiar with the name [L-carnitine].
Baidu search [weight loss], see the list of those weight loss drugs, the top few must have L-carnitine. Fitness coaches also relentlessly sell related products to students, with prices ranging from a box of 100 yuan to several hundred yuan. Taobao search L-carnitine, the first page has about 100,000 boxes of monthly sales, with [extremely popular] to describe it.
Is it really so magical that the popular [weight loss medicine] is so popular?
When there are too many people to eat, there will always be people questioning:Why don’t you take this medicineLess, but can’t see the effect of losing weight?
A fitness trainer (note that he is not a doctor or pharmacist) explained this specious way:
First, eating L-carnitine must be combined with exercise to lose weight.
Second, L-carnitine is a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and sells well in Europe and the United States. You can rest assured.
Then the problem arises. We are exercising and eating L-carnitine. How do we know that L-carnitine is the credit for the weight loss effect? If you don’t eat, will the effect be the same? Besides, is this medicine really safe? Will there be side effects of what?
[L-carnitine] is not a diet pill
When L-carnitine is used as a drug, the more common Chinese name is [L-carnitine], the English is L-Carnitine or Levocarnitine, and its derivative [acetyl L-carnitine] is also common. In order not to confuse readers, [L-carnitine] is used uniformly in this article.
This drug was indeed approved by FDA and China Food and Drug Administration very early and is on sale in the form of a drug.
However, the only approved application of L-carnitine is to treat [L-carnitine deficiency], not a diet drug.
Who needs to supplement L-carnitine?
Patients with advanced nephropathy requiring regular dialysis and patients with congenital deficiency of L-carnitine.
In fact, L-carnitine is widely found in various human cells. The main function of L-carnitine is to help fatty acids to be transported to mitochondria, which are the [boilers] of energy generated by burning nutrients in cells. Perhaps that is why some people think that supplementing L-carnitine can increase the burning of fat.
When the drug was first developed and approved, it was mainly aimed at patients with advanced kidney disease who need regular dialysis. These patients will continuously lose many substances including L-carnitine and therefore need to be supplemented. In addition, it is also aimed at some patients who are inherently deficient in L-carnitine due to genetic defects.
Meat and milk contain a lot of L-carnitine
However, the human body itself can synthesize L-carnitine in liver and kidney. Moreover, it is also quite rich in meat, especially red meat, and in various dairy products (including ice cream and cheese), which shows that we can obtain L-carnitine through ourselves and our daily diet.
There is no lack of L-carnitine in ordinary people at all. If it is added, it will basically be discharged from urine.
Can’t lose weight, but may endanger health
L-carnitine on the market, which claims to have weight loss effect, is all the identity of health care products. As we all know, the examination and approval of health care products is far less strict than that of drugs, and it is very easy to go on the market.
Scientists have also been optimistic about the potential of L-carnitine as a weight-loss drug. Therefore, from the 1990s to recent years, research institutions in Europe and the United States have carried out many studies, all trying to provide exact evidence for L-carnitine to lose weight.
However, none of the experiments can draw a conclusion that weight loss is effective.
It can be said that the weight loss effect of L-carnitine is not based on facts. The weight loss effect observed by some users probably comes from exercise and diet.
Although this finding needs further verification, it also reminds us to be careful: L-carnitine may not be as [safe and harmless] as some promoters claim.
Is there a safe and effective diet pill?
There are drugs that have been approved to go on the market in the United States as weight-loss drugs (rather than health products). However, many once approved weight-loss drugs have been banned due to [serious adverse reactions], such as trimester, which was once a national hot seller but has now collapsed. Its main ingredient is sibutramine.
At present, only a few are allowed to be sold: orlistat, chlorocaselin (Bivik) and the combination of phentamine and topiramate.
In fact, these weight-loss drugs themselves are controversial and even on the line because of their safety problems:
1. Orlistat
The drug is a drug that hinders digestion and absorption of fat and was found [possibly causing liver damage]. However, due to insufficient evidence, FDA did not immediately ban the drug, but demanded a clear warning and timely reporting of adverse reactions.
2. Chlorocaserin
The drug’s effect is to inhibit appetite. In clinical trials, the drug was found to be suspected of [increasing the risk of valvular heart disease]. However, after a protracted game among manufacturers, professional organizations and public organizations, FDA approved its sale, but also warned of its possible side effects and suggested that after 12 weeks of administration, if the weight loss is still not obvious, the drug should be stopped.
3. Pentamine and Topiramate
These were originally two drugs for treating mental diseases, which were added together as weight loss drugs to use their effects of suppressing appetite and stimulating exercise. The side effects of this drug itself are quite large, but FDA believes that for those patients with severe obesity, it may be more harmful not to lose weight, so it is recommended to use them cautiously, and stop taking the drug if the effect is not obvious.
Therefore, it can be said that even if the current weight-loss drugs are covered with authoritative certification, we can only be very cautious about their safety and can only be taken under the advice of doctors.
However, those so-called [weight loss drugs] that are already only [health products] qualified, including L-carnitine discussed today, should not be expected at all. At present, all authoritative guidelines believe that for ordinary people to lose weight, exercise and diet adjustment are the only safe and healthy choices.
Responsible Editor: Ding Ruoshui
This article is exclusively authorized by the author to be used by Clove Garden and refuses any other form of reprinting.