L-Carnosine Protects Diabetics

June 17, 2009

L-carnosine is a combination of two amino acids — alanine and histidine. Not to be confused with the energy-producing amino acid, l-carnitine (known in supplemental form as acetyl-L-carnitine), L-carnosine is found in foods, especially meats, and in your body, where it’s concentrated in long-lived muscle and nerve cells. In animals, high levels are associated with longer life span. Levels decline with age, and may account for the age-related decline in muscle mass known as sarcopenia. Exercise increases blood L-carnosine levels and higher levels help lower blood sugar.

So if you’re over 50, if you don’t eat much meat or if you don’t exercise much, you may have even lower than average levels.

L-carnosine prevents glycation, a process that causes irreversible damage to the body’s proteins and is an underlying cause of weakened immunity, damaged nerves, thickened blood vessels, wrinkles and cataracts. People with uncontrolled diabetes have up to triple the glycation damage as non-diabetics, but everyone sustains more glycation damage as they age.

While L-carnosine acts similarly to a diabetes drug called aminoguanidine that protects cholesterol from oxidative damage and protects against artery clogging deposits, it’s better. That’s because L-carnosine inhibits glycation at an earlier stage of the process, and because it also acts as a powerful antioxidant and cell rejuvenator. Its only known side effect is the possibility of too low blood sugar. So, if you take it, you may need to lower the dosages of prescription diabetic medicines — something that needs to be discussed with your doctor.

The Anti-Aging Bottom Line: If you have diabetes and want to avoid its devastating consequences, make sure you take at least 500 mg of l-carnosine a day, long-term. Be sure to let your doctor know you’re taking it. Choose a high-quality, pharmaceutical grade product.