Modulatory Effects of Multi-species/Multi-strain Synbiotic and L-carnitine Concomitant Supplementation on Atherogenic-Indices, Body Composition, Visceral Obesity, and Appetite in Metabolically Healthy Women with Obesity: A Double-Blind Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial.

Abstract

Obesity, a chronic disease with pandemic proportions, is recognized as a major risk factor for cardiometabolic disorders due to its association with atherogenic dyslipidemia, a common characteristic attributed to visceral adiposity in patients with obesity. Atherogenic and visceral-obesity indices have been conceded as surrogate cardiovascular diseases (CVD) indicators surpassing the conventional markers due to stronger predictive power for obesity-induced cardiometabolic risk and CVD mortality rate. Nutraceuticals have been suggested as emerging approaches to counteract obesity-associated cardiometabolic disorders. Considering the evidence addressing the ameliorating effects of either L-carnitine or biotics on metabolic indices, also the reports addressing higher efficacy of concomitant supplementation versus single-therapies, this clinical trial was conducted to assess the effects of L-carnitine + multi-species/multi-strain synbiotic combined supplementation compared to L-carnitine mono-therapy on atherogenic-indices, body composition, visceral obesity, and appetite sensations in 46 metabolically healthy women with obesity, randomly assigned to co-supplementation (L-carnitine-tartrate (2 × 500 mg/dl) + synbiotic (one capsule/day)) or mono-therapy (L-carnitine-tartrate (2 × 500 mg/dl) + maltodextrin (one capsule/day)) groups for 8 weeks. L-carnitine + synbiotic co-supplementation led to a significantly greater reduction in atherogenic-indices including atherogenic-index-of-plasma (AIP), Castelli's-risk-index-I (CRI-I), Castelli's-risk-index-II (CRI-II), atherogenic-coefficient (AC), lipoprotein-combine index (LCI), systolic blood pressure (SBP), fat-mass (FM) weight/percent, visceral-adiposity index (VAI), waste-to-height ratio (WHtR), body-adiposity index (BAI), and appetite sensation scores compared to L-carnitine mono-therapy. L-carnitine + synbiotic combined supplementation was more efficient in improving atherogenic-indices as cardiovascular risk markers, body composition, visceral obesity, and appetite sensations in metabolically healthy women with obesity. Therefore, simultaneous supplementation of L-carnitine + synbiotic might be considered a promising approach to ameliorate cardiometabolic risk factors in healthy individuals with obesity. Further longer period studies are required to confirm these findings. (Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (IRCT; https://irct.behdasht.gov.ir/trial/28048 ).