After his latest version change, Olympic champion Mo Farah is the center of attention; the shadow of doping is once again hanging over the figure of this British runner. The controversial substance this time is L-carnitine, but what is L-carnitine for? The substance that Mo Farah took before the London Marathon, a key amino acid in the generation of energy.
A report by the BBC Panorama program puts Olympic champion Mo Farah in the spotlight. The reason? The consumption of the substance L-carnitine prior to his participation in the 2014 London Marathon. What is L-carnitine and how does it affect a runner's performance? Iker Muñoz, sports director of Runnea Academy, clears all the doubts about this supplement.
L-carnitine, a substance taken by Mo Farah before the London Marathon 2014.
L-carnitine is an amino acid that can be found in red meat and fish. It is a key element in the utilization of fats and carbohydrates by the aerobic route, "which means that a good availability of L-carnitine in our cells will help to use these substrates as a source of energy and prevent us from resorting to the anaerobic route," says Iker Muñoz.
A supplement used for years by endurance athletes as well as by people whose goal era weight loss. But does L-carnitine improve our performance? Given the importance of this amino acid for our metabolism, "for years many studies have focused their efforts on determining whether L-carnitine supplementation brings increased performance or not, although there is still no consensus," warns the sports director of Runnea Academy.
Does the intake of L-carnitine improve our performance?
"To make a simile, if I have 30000 boxes (in our case will be our fats and carbohydrates) to carry inside the mitochondria and instead of 20 trucks I have 50 (it will be faster transport). Logic tells us that this is obvious but in people and athletes with a proper diet no positive effects on performance have been demonstrated," explains the Runnea Academy sports director.
"There is no scientific evidence that L-carnitine intake improves performance," concludes Iker Muñoz. The controversy and the shadow of doping hovers, once again, over the figure of Mo Farah and his latest change of version has set off all the alarms. As the report of the BBC Panorama program has pointed out, the Olympic champion lied to the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) about the supply of L-carnitine before the 2014 London Marathon.
Will I test positive if I ingest L-carnitine?
"No, L-carnitine that we can find as a supplement, whose administration is orally, is not contemplated within doping substances," warns Iker Muñoz. "A study by Karlic and Lohninger (2004)* opened the door to future studies on other implications of L-carnitine such as stimulation of the creation of red blood cells, delay in programmed cell death (apoptosis) and recovery of our cells after intense training. However, these hypotheses have not been sufficiently contrasted and the reality is that today there is not enough scientific evidence to support the use of L-carnitine as a performance-enhancing supplement.
- Literature Reference: Karlic, H. & Lohninger, A. (2004). Supplementation of L-carnitine in athletes: does it make sense? Nutrition, 207):709-15.
Images: Mo Farah official website
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