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Optimal form of Alpha Lipoic Acid

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Posted 1/11/2015 9:10 PM (GMT 0)
My LLMD taught me something recently and I'm sharing it in the event others might benefit.

I slowly added various supplements based upon those suggested in Dr. Burrascano's "Diagnostic Hints & Treatment Guidelines". ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid) was one of the first I chose. The guidelines indicated that a generic would be fine.

My LLMD knew I was taking ALA (Alpha Lipoic Acid) and only asked me last week if I was taking the "R" form since it's optimal (and, apparently, another form is dangerous).

As always, I started researching today and found this on one of my fav sites:

http://www.lef.org/Magazine/2005/2/report_lipoic/Page-01

I'm switching to the "R" form and, after reading the above link, have decided to take it for the rest of my life...and my husband will be taking it, too :)
Posted 1/11/2015 9:19 PM (GMT 0)
Great information, CD, thank you!
Posted 1/12/2015 2:15 AM (GMT 0)
Any brand recommendations?
Posted 1/12/2015 3:01 AM (GMT 0)
That was really interesting, thanks for posting. I too would be interested to know what brand you end up choosing.
Posted 1/12/2015 5:07 AM (GMT 0)
Wow this sounds fantastic! I think I'll add this to my regiment. I second the brand recommendations. So do you purchase R-ALA or R-Dihydro-Lipoic Acid?
Posted 1/12/2015 1:21 PM (GMT 0)
My LLMD just mentioned the "R" version and I opted to try Dr. Danielle's brand.

http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Danielle-Lipoic-Extremely-Quality/dp/B00JQPOOA2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1421069624&sr=8-1&keywords=dr+danielle%27s+alpha+lipoic+acid

I did some Googling for R-Dihydro-Lipoic Acid and only found products that were discontinued or an insanely-priced one ($300+).

It seems the R-ALA does convert to R-Dihydro-Lipoic Acid.....contrary to the "standard" ALA preparations that are much less effective.
Posted 1/12/2015 4:45 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks CD!! And for 120 caps that's not bad! Did your doc tell you how much to take each day? The bottle says 1 a day, so at that dose that would be about a 4 month supply!! Heck, even I could afford that!!
Posted 1/12/2015 5:52 PM (GMT 0)
I didn't ask for dosing instructions from my LLMD because he approved me following Dr. B's guidelines for supplements.

Dr. B mentions 300mg twice daily and that's what I've been taking.

I'm giving my husband 300mg once daily.

Post Edited (cd3764) : 1/12/2015 10:55:08 AM (GMT-7)

Posted 1/12/2015 6:19 PM (GMT 0)
Has anybody tried this "Bulk Supplements" brand for any supplements? They have the R-ALA and they also have acetyl-l-carnitine which I have been meaning to pick up again. They are cheaper than the capsules but still look to get decent reviews. I prefer to have capsules so I can take supplements with me during the day but I suppose I can capsule them up myself if I want to. You're paying for the convienence I suppose. Anyway, last time I got ALCAR I got the Now Foods brand but I'm willing to switch over to Bulk Supplements if those are good as well.

Here's the link to the bulk supplements R-ALA if anybody wants to take a look:
www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00F7NX2BE/ref=ox_sc_act_title_2?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A8MA32QEVO3GI

That Dr. Danielle brand has really good reviews as well it looks like. I can't find the dosage per capsule though?
Posted 6/30/2018 1:17 AM (GMT 0)
Hi, I know this is a pretty old post by now, but I'm in the same spot, trying to figure out which to use; ALA, or R-ALA and here's what I'm confused about:

CD3764, in the article you posted it says "Unlike R-lipoic acid, synthetic lipoic acid comprises a fifty-fifty mixture of two forms of alpha-lipoic acid: R-lipoic acid and S-lipoic acid." (Which to me basically means every ALA supplement you buy is composed of those 2. You'd need to buy specifically R-ALA only if you want just that.)

But, then you give a link to Dr Danielle's supplement, which on the bottle says "Alpha Lipoic Acid With R-Alpha Lipoic acid" (which I believe is a little misleading), and the ingredients are "R-ALA 300mg, S-ALA 250mg". So this supplement is literally almost 50/50 what normal ALA contains according to the quote from the article...

If the bottle said "R-ALA 300mg, and ALA 250mg", then I would conclude about 50% of the ALA in that bottle is actually R-ALA, and the rest is S-ALA, while the 300mg of R-ALA is R-ALA. But that's not what it is. Dr Danilelle's supplement is just (about) half R-ALA and half S-ALA, which in reality equals ALA...

lol, am I going crazy here??? You're paying 3x the price for normal ALA!!! righthtttt??

(Maybe they changed the supplement ingredients, and back in 2014 it was just R-ALA, but then I feel like the link would have shown that product.)
Posted 6/30/2018 3:28 AM (GMT 0)
Hi VfromCT - welcome to our community. I missed your first post on the forum.


Cd3764 is not on regularly anymore, so not sure she will see your post.
And I'm not able to answer your question on the alpha lipoic acid.

Btw - do you have Lyme disease?
Posted 6/30/2018 5:28 AM (GMT 0)
Hi Girlie, Thanks for the Welcome.

I'm more of a lurker, but happened to have enough motivation to actually post this time.

Yes, I have Lyme Disease. Struggled for about 11 years, just got a proper IGenex diagnoses last August. Positive for Lyme and Bart, but highly suspecting Babs too. (more details in signature now).

When 8 months of ABX did nothing, we recently discovered through testing I have 4 active viral infections, with EBV sky high and heavy metals, with Tungsten, Lead, Barium and the pesky, never heard of, THALLIUM - is my highest metal well into the RED spectrum on the Dr Data DMSA provocation urine test.

Currently chelating with DMSA and supportive supps + herbs.
Posted 6/30/2018 5:40 AM (GMT 0)

VfromCT said...
Hi Girlie, Thanks for the Welcome.

I'm more of a lurker, but happened to have enough motivation to actually post this time.

Yes, I have Lyme Disease. Struggled for about 11 years, just got a proper IGenex diagnoses last August. Positive for Lyme and Bart, but highly suspecting Babs too. (more details in signature now).

When 8 months of ABX did nothing, we recently discovered through testing I have 4 active viral infections, with EBV sky high and heavy metals, with Tungsten, Lead, Barium and the pesky, never heard of, THALLIUM - is my highest metal well into the RED spectrum on the Dr Data DMSA provocation urine test.

Currently chelating with DMSA and supportive supps + herbs.

How long have you been taking DMSA? How long before you should expect to have improvements?
Do you have symptoms that you can link to the metals?
Posted 6/30/2018 6:21 AM (GMT 0)
Girlie,
UPPS, forgot to fill in signature before posting... hope it works now.

I've been taking DMSA since beginning of May, 3 days on 12 days off, 100mgs morning and evening. Going for 6 months to begin with, then retest.

When I first began (sep 2017), the Doc told me his treatment estimate was 1.5-2 years. I honestly don't ever ask him about it since then. I just chug along. I've read enough books/articles/forums about Lyme to know it's a life long disease for some, and everyone's healing comes at different times. I don't even like thinking about "when ill be healthy". I take it day by day. My life was such hell for the last couple years before diagnosis. I can wait however long I need to for healing to slowly occur (on most days when I'm feeling patient smile

So no, I do not know how long before I see improvements, but I give myself at least 6-12 months of chelation before I started thinking I should.

I sort of have additional perspective on the heavy metals thing though. I did 5 years of Nutritional Balancing w/Dr Larry Wilson, which included hair mineral testing every 4-6 months. I had a lot of aluminum and lead "dumps" during this time. "Retracing" is quite and experience.

My main issues are always weakness and fatigue, extreme brain spaciness, memory loss, emotional dullness (not depression, more like numbness where I don't really feel any emotions), big time trouble sleeping. And most of all this feeling of being TOTALLY AND UTTERLY STUCK, like my methylation isn't working, like nothing is leaving my body, everything is in a bottleneck. I would say all of that is associated with metals to some degree.

I used to have things like joint pain, inflammation and headaches years ago for a long time, but the Nutritional Balancing took care of it (which was taking a lot of minerals, coffee enemas, near infrared saunas, complete diet change.) Didn't take care of the LYME though, not one bit.
Posted 6/30/2018 3:09 PM (GMT 0)

VfromCT said...
Girlie,
UPPS, forgot to fill in signature before posting... hope it works now.

I've been taking DMSA since beginning of May, 3 days on 12 days off, 100mgs morning and evening. Going for 6 months to begin with, then retest.

When I first began (sep 2017), the Doc told me his treatment estimate was 1.5-2 years. I honestly don't ever ask him about it since then. I just chug along. I've read enough books/articles/forums about Lyme to know it's a life long disease for some, and everyone's healing comes at different times. I don't even like thinking about "when ill be healthy". I take it day by day. My life was such hell for the last couple years before diagnosis. I can wait however long I need to for healing to slowly occur (on most days when I'm feeling patient smile

So no, I do not know how long before I see improvements, but I give myself at least 6-12 months of chelation before I started thinking I should.

I sort of have additional perspective on the heavy metals thing though. I did 5 years of Nutritional Balancing w/Dr Larry Wilson, which included hair mineral testing every 4-6 months. I had a lot of aluminum and lead "dumps" during this time. "Retracing" is quite and experience.

My main issues are always weakness and fatigue, extreme brain spaciness, memory loss, emotional dullness (not depression, more like numbness where I don't really feel any emotions), big time trouble sleeping. And most of all this feeling of being TOTALLY AND UTTERLY STUCK, like my methylation isn't working, like nothing is leaving my body, everything is in a bottleneck. I would say all of that is associated with metals to some degree.

I used to have things like joint pain, inflammation and headaches years ago for a long time, but the Nutritional Balancing took care of it (which was taking a lot of minerals, coffee enemas, near infrared saunas, complete diet change.) Didn't take care of the LYME though, not one bit.

Thank you so much for sharing this. I just had half my amalgams removed and will get the right side removed in 2 weeks. I did not do the DMSA challenge test and haven't had any testing, but I suspect heavy metals are part of my complex picture.

I totally get what you mean about feeling stuck. I am, too, and don't know what to do anymore. I'd like to see a doctor who will really take time to analyze my big picture, do some proper testing instead of guessing/assuming, and really help me. I don't detox well at all even after almost 2 years of trying supplements and herbs, etc.

I just got got denied Soc Sec and haven't worked in 15 months. I have mold and chemical sensitivities, too, which is a big part of why I had to stop working. I don't know what to do anymore.
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