Alright guys and gals. I thought I would adress this issue since I haven't heard anyone talking about it. I think it's safe to say that most of us realize the benefits of supplementing Alpha Lipoic Acid. Amongst other things, it has been shown to regenerate and elevate intracellular glutathione levels, wich result in the recycling of antioxidants in our bodies.
Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) consists of two entantiomers, R and S.
Only the R- portion is biologically active. When you supplement ALA, you are getting a 50/50 mixture of R-Lipoic Acid and S-Lipoic Acid. That means that when you take a 600mg dose of ALA, only 300mg is active.
So, with the non-active, S- portion out of the picture, let's talk about R-Lipoic Acid (R-LA). It's more biologically active and offers better antioxidant and neuroprotective benefits at substantially lower doses than ALA. The downside to R-LA is it's poor bioavailability. Also, polymerization is a major problem when dealing with R-LA. In other words, it changes sructurally very easily.
So now we've got K-RALA. Note: K-RALA is not naturally found in the body. K-RALA is a registered trademark of GeroNova. K-RALA is R-LA with the addition of Potassium-R-lipoate added in order to reduce polymerization and increase bioavailability. So we get all the benefits, and it's a more stable version.
Well guess what? Just like the progression of ALA being reduced to R-LA. The next step is R-LA being reduced to R-DHLA or R-Dihydro-Lipoic Acid. This is the form wich is immeadiately availible to cells. Free R-LA is rapidly taken up by cells and reduced to R-DHLA wich have all of the benefits previously spoken of with even smaller doses. Also, only R-Dihydro-Lipoic Acid has been shown capable of actually repairing oxidative damage.
So there you have it. Something else to spend our money on!
Oh and by the way. If you are thinking of purchasing any in the future, remember that it is only effective as a liquid capsule due to the fact that R-DHLA is a liquid and can NOT be oxidized.
Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) consists of two entantiomers, R and S.
Only the R- portion is biologically active. When you supplement ALA, you are getting a 50/50 mixture of R-Lipoic Acid and S-Lipoic Acid. That means that when you take a 600mg dose of ALA, only 300mg is active.
So, with the non-active, S- portion out of the picture, let's talk about R-Lipoic Acid (R-LA). It's more biologically active and offers better antioxidant and neuroprotective benefits at substantially lower doses than ALA. The downside to R-LA is it's poor bioavailability. Also, polymerization is a major problem when dealing with R-LA. In other words, it changes sructurally very easily.
So now we've got K-RALA. Note: K-RALA is not naturally found in the body. K-RALA is a registered trademark of GeroNova. K-RALA is R-LA with the addition of Potassium-R-lipoate added in order to reduce polymerization and increase bioavailability. So we get all the benefits, and it's a more stable version.
Well guess what? Just like the progression of ALA being reduced to R-LA. The next step is R-LA being reduced to R-DHLA or R-Dihydro-Lipoic Acid. This is the form wich is immeadiately availible to cells. Free R-LA is rapidly taken up by cells and reduced to R-DHLA wich have all of the benefits previously spoken of with even smaller doses. Also, only R-Dihydro-Lipoic Acid has been shown capable of actually repairing oxidative damage.
So there you have it. Something else to spend our money on!
Oh and by the way. If you are thinking of purchasing any in the future, remember that it is only effective as a liquid capsule due to the fact that R-DHLA is a liquid and can NOT be oxidized.