L-carnitine as an ergogenic aid for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease submitted to whole-body and respiratory muscle training programs

What Was Tested

Researchers studied L-Carnitine in the context of muscle disease (myopathy) in this randomized controlled trial publication.

The effects of adding L-carnitine to a whole-body and respiratory training program were determined in moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

Nutritional status, exercise tolerance on a treadmill and six-minute walking test, blood lactate, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory muscle strength were determined as baseline and on day 42.

Who Took Part

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were older adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized and placebo-controlled.

Because people in this L-Carnitine study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the L-Carnitine group a baseline to be compared against.

The timeline in the abstract includes 6 weeks.

What Was Measured

Nutritional status, exercise tolerance on a treadmill and six-minute walking test, blood lactate, heart rate, blood pressure, and respiratory muscle strength were determined as baseline and on day 42.

PubMed files the paper under topics including Breathing Exercises, Carnitine, Dietary Supplements, Exercise Therapy, Exercise Tolerance, Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive and Respiratory Function Tests.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and placebo-controlled study of L-Carnitine in people with muscle disease (myopathy) over 6 weeks.

The publication is from 2006 (Brazilian journal of medical and biological research = Revista brasileira de pesquisas medicas e biologicas), a journal based in Brazil.

More context: the L-Carnitine compound page, Muscle disease (myopathy) research.