Acetyl l-carnitine and co q10 combo

[jayne73]

Hi this is my first post but I'm not new to CFS.
I have started taking the following doses together: carnitine 1.5g and Q10 250mg. Within 20 minutes of taking these in the morning I get a surge of energy, this lasts for 4 hours before I come crashing down with extreme fatigue and heavy fog. I'm going to try spreading the doses out tomorrow but has anyone else experiencing this, I feel like absolute crap and can't function this afternoon.

 

[TiredSam]

Q10 blew my head off and made me feel really wierd. I read everything on PR that others had to say about it beforehand and was quite hopeful, but stopped within a couple of days.

 

[jayne73]

Thanks for your reply. I tried the supplements seperately and neither had an effect. It was the combination of the two which had a massive improvement on my fatigue, I didn't feel wired but full of energy and really good but only for 4 hours. Did you feel worse after the q10 had worn off, I felt awful afterwards. I think I need to experiment a bit with the 2 supplements and hopefully find something that works for me.

 

[TiredSam]

I've just checked my notes. I took Q10 for two days, it made me dopey and headachey. I took 100 mg on the morning of day 1, and felt dizzy and very tired over the middle part of the day. On day 2, I took another 100 mg and again felt very tired over lunchtime and had a mild headache. My notes also say "great a.m.", which I suppose must mean that I had a good morning after taking the tablet, at least on day 2. It was last September. I stopped taking them and was back to how I normally feel the next day.

 

[CFS_for_19_years]

Large doses of carnitine (2gm) suppress the thyroid, in fact, it is often used as a treatment for hyperthyroidism. More conservative amounts of carnitine such as 500mg won't have the same effect. It's possible you're getting a boost from the coQ10, followed by a thyroid-suppressing crash from the carnitine.
Effects of carnitine on thyroid hormone action
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15591013
Abstract

By experiments on cells (neurons, hepatocytes, and fibroblasts) that are targets for thyroid hormones and a randomized clinical trial on iatrogenic hyperthyroidism, we validated the concept that L-carnitine is a peripheral antagonist of thyroid hormone action. In particular, L-carnitine inhibits both triiodothyronine (T3) and thyroxine (T4) entry into the cell nuclei. This is relevant because thyroid hormone action is mainly mediated by specific nuclear receptors. In the randomized trial, we showed that 2 and 4 grams per day of oral L-carnitine are capable of reversing hyperthyroid symptoms (and biochemical changes in the hyperthyroid direction) as well as preventing (or minimizing) the appearance of hyperthyroid symptoms (or biochemical changes in the hyperthyroid direction).

It is noteworthy that some biochemical parameters (thyrotropin and urine hydroxyproline) were refractory to the L-carnitine inhibition of thyroid hormone action, while osteocalcin changed in the hyperthyroid direction, but with a beneficial end result on bone. A very recent clinical observation proved the usefulness of L-carnitine in the most serious form of hyperthyroidism: thyroid storm. Since hyperthyroidism impoverishes the tissue deposits of carnitine, there is a rationale for using L-carnitine at least in certain clinical settings.

Why not try them one at a time to see what's causing what?

 

[CedarHome]

Thank you for this reference! I was just looking for this info.
I'm having a huge energy boost from carnitine and was wondering about the thyroid effects.
800 mg was too much for my stomach to take so I'm trying 250 mg 2x day and tolerating that better.