Hi @secondlifeguide,

I’ve just subscribed to your site. Thank you so much for sharing this extremely valuable information both on Accutane long-term effects and, most importantly, supplements that can help. 

I’m curious regarding ALCAR supplementing. Unfortunately in my country the ALCAR bulk supplement you recommend is not available. 

I am looking into:

– a bulk supplement from HSN, but not sure about the dose, the recommended daily dose as per their site is 500mg: https://www.hsnstore.com/marcas/raw-series/alcar-acetil-l-carnitina-en-polvo  

– combined with 100mg of CoQ10 daily.

A FEW QUESTIONS:

– Do you have a feedback on the HSN brand in general?

– Would you recommend getting this ALCAR by HSN (Acetyl L-carnitine) in the hydrochloride form? 

– If yes, which dose would you recommend to ingest daily for a 60kg woman in her thirties?

Thank you in advance 🙂

@kawaii_cat2 

Apologies for the slow reply. I’m glad you’ve found my articles useful. I can’t attest quality of HSN products specifically however the 500mg daily dose is just advisory. In fact a study on long term use of ALCAR for depression found that 2g of ALCAR twice a day for 90 days had no detrimental impact on physical function, general health or blood markers. [1] The inclusion of hydrochloride is primarily to make ALCAR more soluble in water, and wouldn’t effect the efficacy of the supplement itself. In the context of Accutane’s long term effects, I recommend ALCAR for upregulating ALDH. The highest dose used in the study, which was the most effective at reducing Cerebellar malondialdehyde. This dose would equate to around 1g a day. However, given the good safety profile of ALCAR it would be fine to try more. 

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21443422/