This paper reports the cholinergic effect in the brain and the anti-obesity effect of carnitine. This cholinergic effect of carnitine is proved to be beneficial to the restoration of cognitive function in the aged brain. Carnitine is originally known to act as a carrier for fatty acids to pass into mitochondria in skeletal and cardiac muscles that need fatty acids for their energy source. Carnitine supplementation is shown to enhance the fatty acid oxidation and reduce body weights.
In animal experiments, aged rats given carnitine showed cognitive improvement due to increased acetylcholine synthesis and weight loss by accelerated fatty acid oxidation.
In a clinical trial, a fatty woman aged 84 who suffered from obesity (89.2 kg; BMI, 41.0), type 2 diabetes meritus, dermatitis and constipation at the beginning was given carnitine for seven months. She lost 23 kg (BMI, 30.6) resulting in much improvement in ADL with normalized blood glucose.
