Why You Should Take Lipoic Acid

Young Again.org

Why You Should Take Lipoic Acid

- Roger Mason

Until recently alpha-lipoic acid (aka thioctic acid) was not listed in my recommended supplements simply because this was a supplement more for diabetes and blood sugar disorders than anything else. The more you read about lipoid acid, however, the more you see that anyone over the age of 40 should certainly add this to their supplement regimen.

We get very little Lipoic acid in our food. It occurs as lipolylysine and not actual lipoic acid itself. You'll never get any realistic amount out of food as broccoli (one of the best sources), for example, contains a mere 100 micrograms per 100 gram serving. This means you would have to eat over two pounds of broccoli to get one single milligram of lipolylysine to convert into alpha lipoic acid. This is then converted to dihydrolipoic acid during digestion. This occurs as the Rform, while the lipoic acid of commerce occurs as the racemic (containing both isomers) R- and S- forms (these are mirror images). Some internet ads claim you should buy their overpriced Ronly form and that the commercial lipoic acid is somehow ineffective. If you'll review the studies nearly every single one of them uses regular, synthesized racemic lipoic acid. That's right; all the clinical studies use plain, regular old lipoic acid. Please don't get your medical education from internet advertisements no matter how scientific they sound on the surface. The deeper you look into the clinical studies on lipoic acid the more effective you see it is. It is a powerful antioxidant to fight free radicals. This is a very powerful and proven free radical scavenger- and free radicals multiply very much as we age. Lipoic acid not only helps alleviate diabetes but also insulin resistance. Please read the ARCHIVES on insulin resistance as it is now epidemic in Americans over 40 years of age. This means our cells no longer react well to normal amounts of insulin and insulin levels go up severely to try to compensate for this. And you don't even realize you are insulin resistant. This is obviously a precursor to diabetes which now affects over 16 million Americans.

The journal BioFactors volume 10 (1999) published a study from the Eberhard-Karls University in Germany. Doctors there found that lipoic acid helps cure insulin resistance, normalize blood sugar levels and cure diabetes. They gave real adult human diabetics large (600 mg) doses of regular lipoic acid for only 10 days and improved insulin sensitivity an amazing 27%. When they gave them 1,000 mg the insulin sensitivity was improved a surrealistic 51%!!! They did this in only ten days. This is far, far more than any pharmaceutical drug anywhere on earth at any cost could possibly do. These are human studies folks, using generic lipoic acid with no funding from anyone at a major university in Germany with 39 citations. Yet doctors keep handing out dangerous, toxic, prescription drugs instead of natural supplements that are far more effective such as lipoic acid, CoQ10, the 18 minerals we need especially vanadium and chromium, and beta glucan. You do not need these huge doses over the long term certainly, and 200 mg is reasonable. You can buy 60 capsules of 200 mg lipoic acid from several sources for under $20, which means you can take this for about 30 cents a day. $10 a month to help prevent insulin resistance, blood sugar, dysmetabolism, diabetes, and scavenge free radicals effectively. That's a deal.

The journal Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology volume 182 (2002) published a review done at UCLA in California complete with 78 citations. This is a very technically written and hard to read review, but the bottom line is that there are many proven benefits to lipoic acid supplementation in addition to just blood sugar and insulin metabolism. The antioxidant effects are far ranging and improve the metabolism of our three main antioxidant enzymes SOD, glutathione and catalase. There are hundreds of such studies as these proving the powerful properties in not just test animals, but real people. Insulin resistance is now an epidemic in America and this column will deal with it more in the future. Free radicals are the main cause of aging. Lipoic acid helps with both these conditions. Add this to your regimen please.