Energy Essential

Carnitine can help put the pep back in your step, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg for this versatile nutrient

- Vera Tweed

If energy drinks are among your favorites, you may be getting some carnitine with each swig, because it’s a popular ingredient in energy and workout formulas. And it has many more uses, including improving heart function, relieving leg pain from poor circulation, helping to control blood sugar, restoring energy in chronic fatigue syndrome, enhancing male fertility, and improving memory, mood, and attention problems.

Why does carnitine do so many things? Because it’s in nearly every cell of the human body and enables a basic process that keeps us alive and kicking: energy production.

What Is It?

Carnitine is an amino acid named after the Latin word for meat, “carnus ,” since meat is its richest food source. It’s classified as a “conditionally essential” nutrient, which can be a bit confusing. Essential nutrients, such as basic vitamins and minerals, are those the human body can’t live without and can’t make by itself, so they must be obtained from food. In the case of carnitine, our bodies can make it from two other amino acids, lysine and methionine, but may not make enough.