Wednesday, May 30, 2012

What is the Deficiencies of Carnitine?

The deficiency of carnitine occurs in a body whenever carnitine concentration in plasma and tissues are less than what is needed for the normal function of the body.

There are two types of carnitine deficiency: primary and the secondary.

Primary carnitine deficiency is a genetic disorder occurs in a person who has very low levels of carnitine in the blood due to a faulty carnitine transporter which prevents carnitine from getting into the cells where it is required. Again this primary form of the disorder are classified into either systemic carnitine deficiency or muscle carnitine deficiency. Systemic deficiency affects many organ systems including the heart and the brain whereas muscle carnitine deficiency is restricted to voluntary muscles. The symptoms for this deficiency can be skeletal-muscle weakness, and hypoglycemia.

Secondary carnitine deficiency occurs more common than the primary carnitine deficiencies. This deficiency occur due to certain disorders such as chronic renal failure or use of certain antibiotics that reduce carnitine absorption in the body or kidney disease can lead to an increased loss of carnitine in the urine. Vegetarians, premature infants, and during pregnancy may have deficiency of carnitine.

However, carnitine deficiency is not known to occur in healthy people, and also no studies have shown or estimated the incidence of primary carnitine deficiency in the United States. According to international studies, this deficiency occurred 1 in 40,000 births in Japan and 1 in 15,500 births in the United Kingdom.

In order to get rid of these carnitine deficiency, you have to include more carnitine in your diet. However exact amount of carnitine levels are not known but you can even take high amounts of this carnitine vitamin.

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