Carnitine Compound Eases Diabetic Nerve Pain
(NY, Reuters Health, 1/14/05)

In two trials, one in Europe and the other in the US and Canada, more than 1000 patients with diabetic neuropathy were given either 500 or 1000 mg of acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC) three times daily or a placebo, for one year. Researchers had originally concluded from these studies that ALC had no significant effect on neuropathy. But Dr. Anders A. F. Sima from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, and colleagues, reanalyzed the data from the trials and found that the subjects who had ranked pain as “the most bothersome symptom” at the outset, had found relief from that pain with the higher dose of ALC. Subjects who had the neuropathy for a short time tended to experience the greatest relief. Sima is working to get the FDA to formally approve ALC for painful diabetic neuropathy.

(Diabetes Care, January 2005)