Anyone been told they have low Carnitine?

My Lyme doc thinks I may have mitochondrial issues b/c of this. She wants me to see a mitochondrial specialist, and there are very few of them. I'd have to go out of state.

I'm on about 400 mg of carnitine fumarate now.

She thinks my nerve issues may be caused by mitochondrial dysfunction. But lyme can cause nerve problems too, as well as certain co-infections.

Has anyone been treating with carnitine supps b/c their reading was low? And has anyone seen a specialist?

I took acetyl-l-carnitine for a while, It was before I switched to my current naturopath, and I forgot why I was taking it. I don't know if it helped or not.

This is an interesting and unfortunate situation you are in. You are thought to be low on carnitine yet many people with Lyme have problems with too many carnitine producing bacteria. Carnitine has an anti-microbial effect on some pathogens and can be utilized with ammonia to reduce some pathogen loads.

Mitochondrial issues can arise as your physician stated from issues involving carnitine, but I'm not convinced if treating with it is the best option. A choline deficiency can create issues with carnitine. Maybe it would be better to increase choline first and then try to increase carnitine levels. I think your diet would play a role in what would be best.

/www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0024320514008029
/www.cabdirect.org/cabdirect/abstract/19681403007

Carnitine is also found in streptococci, yeasts, and protozoa. Increasing carnitine levels can increase a source of carbon and nitrogen for the increased growth of Pseudomonas. We don't want more Pseudomonas. Could there be a huge viral component to your disease? Perhaps triglyceride levels could be indicative?

/journals.lww.com/aidsonline/Fulltext/2001/06150/Gemfibrozil_effectively_lowers_protease.24.aspx

Long story short, we should need mostly short chain fatty acids (butyrate) and not as much long chain fatty acids like carnitine transports. Actinobacteria only metabolize the carbon part of carnitine and form trimethylamine which is bad. We need more Actinobacteria when we have Lyme because these gram positive bacteria help produce antibiotic like substances but we must have the other phyla of bacteria to help reduce trimethylamine. Enterobacteriacea can convert both the carbon and nitrogen in carnitine but we really don't want more E coli in our GI tract. I'm not sure anyone has the answers but looking for the questions is the first step. I would print this and show to your physician. Even if he disagrees, it may provide him some information that may benefit his patients in the future.

In your situation, I would reduce methionine consumption before my body has epigenetic shifts to the CBS genes. I'd take Lithium orotate to try to stabilize the mitochondria. I'd look at substrates of the Kreb Cycle like Mg, Mn, Zn, and Cu. I'd gradually increase my fiber intake with a goal of over 50 grams a day. With a high pathogen load, this may not be possible and that is why it must be done gradually. I'd look into Iodoral supplementation either daily or pulsed.

On problem with trying to figure out what is going wrong is that our bodily processes are not linear. One day, you may have something going wrong but the next day, it is fine and something else is going wrong. The body begs and borrows whatever it can to put out the most important fire it can find. That's where your substrates come in. Copper is a good one. Copper can help your condition one day and hurt it the next. It has to do with the amount of oxidative stress the body is dealing with.

IMO, it is more important to deal with the side effects from having Lyme then dealing with Lyme itself. The reason we have Lyme is because the borrelia bacteria alters our microbiome in a way that allows other bacteria and pathogens to flourish. We try to kill the borrelia when we would benefit more from reducing the increased pathogens that the borrelia created. We often can't fix the microbiome unless we reduce the pathogen load. If that pathogen load is from a fungi like candida or a protozoa like babesia, treating borrelia won't accomplish our goal of improving our health. Dr Horowitz casts a huge net when he treats and that is why he has such good success rates. The meds he gives reduce all of the other pathogens in addition to reducing borrelia. Lyme isn't about one bacteria, that is what the IDSA says. If it were, their protocol would work.

6Hypnone said...
I do take zinc piccolinate. And mag glycinate. I had been on lithium orotate for a long while but was taken off.
What are you saying that lyme actually creates?
And a friend posted recently that Dr horowitz has sort of gone to the other side recently (eg idsa). I dont know the whole story or what happened.
Can I ask are you a nurse or just very well-versed? Are you in remission?

Re: Horowitz - in what way? Are you saying he’s not treating chronic Lyme anymore ? Or?

I’ve not heard this - I have heard he’s not currently taking on new patients though.

6Hypnone said...
Girlie---I just heard a fellow lymie say it on FB. I have no idea where she got her info. I thought it was a joke but I think the post was serious.

I haven’t heard that.

I did hear that he wasn’t taking any new patients now.