Great Facts About Alpha Lipolic Acid
Great Facts About Alpha Lipolic Acid
A group of researchers from the University of California at Berkeley and the Children’s Hospital of Oakland Research Institute conducted studies on the effects of “alpha lipolic acids.” They gave rats a combination of two nutrients, alpha lipolic acid and acetyl L-carnitine. This combination had great effects on aged rats restoring them to youthful state. When given the two supplements , the rats’ performance on tests of memory improved . They became more active and energetic.
One of their studies revealed that alpha lipolic acid and acetyl L-carnitine reduced oxidative damage and structural decay in the “hippocampus” , the part of the brain that deteriorates in Alzheimer’s disease patients.
Overview of Alpha Lipolic Acid
The oxidative decay of mitochondria is the first step in the age-related breakdown of cellular function. Bruce Ames studies found out that feeding acetyl L-carnitine and alpha lipolic acid can slow down the process of mitochondrial aging.
Alpha lipolic acid works as a coenzyme in the metabolic process within the mitochondria. ALA is a very powerful antioxidant and can recharge Vitamin C and E. Alpha lipolic acid possesses four important characteristics that is valuable in delaying age-related diseases :
- It is absorbed well in the gastro intestinal tract.
- It is converted within cells and tissues into more active antioxidant substances,
- It has antioxidant actions in lipids and aqueous regions of cells.
- It has low toxicity,
ALA is also helpful in moving excessive amounts of metals such as mercury, iron , aluminum and copper safely out of the body. These metals are known to enhance the production of free radicals. Accumulation of aluminum and mercury in the nervous system may turn out to be an important cause of Alzheimer’s disease.
In test-tube studies ALA prevented the activation of nuclear factor kappa-B (NFK – B ), a protein that can alter the behavior of genes. NFK-B has been involved in the development of cancer..
ALA has been found to prevent the formation of glycated proteins in test-tube studies. Free radicals are produced fifty times faster by glycated proteins than by non-glycated proteins.
Alpha Lipolic Acid and Diabetes
More recent studies reveal that ALA helps to reverse insulin resistance and enhances the ability of insulin to move glucose into cells.
Scientists in Russia and the United States discovered that supplementation of Alpha lipolic acid significantly reduces the severity of symptoms of the most common kind of diabetic neuropathy.
A study of twenty type 2 diabetes demonstrated that doses of 600, 1200, 1800 mg of ALA daily for four weeks improved insulin sensitivity by 25 percent.
A study from the Linus Pauling Institute reveals that a combination of ALA and vitamin C increased the synthesis of nitric oxide, a natural blood vessel dilator in the human aorta.
Alpha Lipolic Acid and the Brain
At the Central Institute for Mental Health Germany, aged rats given ALA perform better on memory tests.
ALA can also protect the brain against reperfusion injury following stroke. Indian researcher Manas Panigrahi, Ph.D of the National Institute of Mental Health and NeuroSciences in India discovered in his studies that pretreatment with ALA reduced the death rate from induced stroke to a third of the animals that had not been pretreated.
In December 2003 issue of the journal Biochemical Society Transactions, a German research group in their article “Anti-aging Defenses Against Alzheimer’s Disease” write that “Accumulation of insoluble protein deposits and their cross linking by advanced glycation end products in the brain is a feature of aging and neuro-degeneration especially in Alzheimer’s disease.”
ALA may help to slow the oxidation that results from glycation; it can reduce glycation as well.
Researchers have also discovered that antioxidants such as ALA protect against mercury toxicity. In a study conducted by Swiss researchers , early onset Alzheimer’s patients were found to have blood mercury levels three times higher than those of control subjects, while late onset patients had levels twice.
SOURCE :
USER’s GUIDE TO ANTIOXIDANT SUPPLEMENTS
By JACK CHALLEM and MELISSA BLOCK
PUBLISHED By : BASIC HEALTH PUBLICATIONS
