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What is alpha-lipoic acid useful for?

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carineitiwu
What is alpha-lipoic acid useful for?

What is alpha-lipoic acid useful for?

Many people experience numbness or pain when they get older, especially in their legs and feet.

It is a serious complication of type 2 diabetes and peripheral neuropathy.

Numbness in the legs and feet is only a mild symptom, and severe muscle weakness is even the inability to walk and stand and maintain balance.

Today I would like to introduce you to a very good ingredient, Germany and other countries have been using this type of treatment, and it has received good results.

It is α-lipoic acid, which is an antioxidant in the human body and is not only used to treat diabetes.

Before learning about lipoic acid, let's introduce an interesting case.

α-lipoic acid improves diabetic neuropathy

Diabetic patients will basically develop neuropathy in the later stage, which is caused by nerve damage due to long-term high blood sugar.

Neuropathy is divided into peripheral and autonomic neuropathy, and diabetes can cause many different types of neuropathy, each with different symptoms.

Peripheral neuropathy is mostly in the hands and legs, and can cause pain, numbness, temperature insensitivity, muscle weakness, ulcers, etc.

Autonomic neuropathy is more severe, with the autonomic nervous system controlling key organs such as the heart and lungs, and symptoms such as difficulty swallowing, diarrhoea, urinary incontinence, sexual dysfunction, and heart rate problems.

In order to improve the peripheral neuropathy of patients, a diabetes treatment center tried α-lipoic acid

Treat.

Effect of treatment with →α-lipoic acid for 3 months

The 26 patients were all patients with type 2 diabetes who had progressed to stage 2, that is, they already had symptoms of peripheral neuropathy.

They were treated daily with α-lipoic acid 600 mg for a duration of up to 3 months, and no one gave up and interrupted.

The results were very encouraging, with 20 patients having stage 1 resolution of somatic neuropathy at the end of the day, meaning that from symptomatic to asymptomatic, 5 patients had no signs of neuropathy.

Their motor fiber nerve conduction velocity was also measured, increasing from 36.8 m/s to 41.3 m/s.

At 3 months, their average blood glucose measurements were significantly lower than baseline, indicating good glycemic control.

Of course, these 26 patients differed in gender, BMI, diabetes history, etc., and female, thinner and younger patients generally had better results.

It can be determined that the treatment of diabetic peripheral neuropathy with α-lipoic acid is relatively effective and safe.

α-Lipoic acid, a powerful antioxidant

α-Lipoic acid, an antioxidant made by the body, is found in every cell.

α-Lipoic acid is often confused with α-linolenic acid, their English abbreviations are ALA, α-linolenic acid is a member of the omega-3 fatty acid family, and it is also good for the human body.

However, don't think of lipoic acid as omega-3, which is a bit more powerful than omega-3 because omega-3 is a fatty acid and is insoluble in water.

Lipoic acid is soluble in both fat and water, so it works more than ordinary antioxidants, such as vitamin C (soluble in water) and vitamin E (soluble in fat).

→α-Lipoic acid improves cognitive impairment

Lipoic acid can not only improve the neuropathy of diabetes, but the effect in this area is too significant, so it is widely used in the treatment of diabetes.

For other neurological disorders such as cognitive impairment, brain dysfunction, stroke, etc., lipoic acid also helps to protect the brain and nerve tissue, as α-lipoic acid can easily enter the brain.

A systematic study of dietary antioxidants has shown that there is an association between dietary antioxidant intake and cognition, which can improve dementia and improve cognitive performance to some extent.

Although there is no clear conclusion in the summary study, those who have experience with ketogenic or pure meat should feel that after eating antioxidants, their energy and memory are indeed improved a lot.

→ scavenges free radicals and reduces ROS

If lipoic acid could introduce itself, it would probably say something like: I am an antioxidant who is proficient in the human body, and it consumes 180,000 free radicals in 3 minutes.

Of course, this is a joke, it is difficult to determine how many free radicals lipoic acid can remove, but it can be determined that its ability to kill free radicals is very strong, and not only that.

It destroys reactive oxygen species (ROS) and is able to enter various structures of cells due to its water- and fat-soluble nature.

For example, the cell membrane is a lipid, and the intracellular cytosol is an aqueous solution, and lipoic acid can trigger antioxidant effects in both the cytoplasm and the plasma membrane.

Not only that, but general antioxidants are only available in reduced forms, and both the oxidized and reduced forms of lipoic acid are powerful antioxidants.

And in cells with or without mitochondria, lipoic acid can react with different substances to produce the same reduction product, scavenging free radicals and reactive oxygen species.

Lipoic acid not only removes oxidant factors on its own, but also promotes regeneration of other consumed antioxidants. For example, glutathione, and the endogenous antioxidant Nrf2 that has been mentioned to everyone.

→ chelating agent for heavy metal ions

Since the structure of lipoic acid has two thiol groups, it is an effective chelating agent for metal ions.

As we all know, some heavy metals are toxic in small amounts, such as lead, mercury, etc.

In addition to oxidative stress, these toxic metals can directly cause injury and even death in the human body.

Excessive intake of some minerals that are beneficial to the human body may also cause oxidative stress.

Sometimes we may not know where to get metal ions, so in addition to taking precautions, lipoic acid, which can remove harmful metals from the body, is a natural detoxifier.

→ repair of oxidized proteins

Normal proteins are "polluted" by free radicals and turn into oxidized proteins, which bring a variety of diseases and aging to the human body.

The human body itself has a repair mechanism, but if there are too many reactive oxygen species, the protein oxidation rate increases, or the oxidized protein repair rate decreases, and oxidized proteins form and accumulate in the body.

In fact, lipoic acid does not directly repair oxidized proteins, but cysteine and methionine.

Glutathione (GSH) is also an antioxidant that maintains and regulates cysteine and methionine, and lipoic acid can directly regulate changes in GSH levels.

It may sound a bit of a stretch, but the result is simple: lipoic acid helps repair oxidized proteins.

Inhibition of → nuclear factor activation

A brief introduction to the nuclear factor NF-κB, which is a nuclear factor that plays a key role in immunity.

NF-κB can control DNA transcription, activate and control immune responses when stimulated by stress, free radicals, ultraviolet light, oxidative low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and viruses.

The normal process is this, but if NF-κB is abnormally regulated, cancer, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases can occur.

Alpha lipoic acid can inhibit NF-κB activation, and don't get me wrong, it's not that the normal immune response should also be inhibited, but the abnormal expression of NF-κB.

NF-κB also affects synaptic plasticity and memory processes, so lipoic acid improves cognition as well.

What else can lipoic acid do?

Seeing this, you may have an understanding of the antioxidant capacity of lipoic acid, but it is not only antioxidant.

→ weight loss and sugar control

In the treatment of diabetes complications with lipoic acid, it was found that blood sugar was also controlled.

Studies have also shown that α-lipoic acid can help lower blood sugar levels. In animal studies, blood sugar levels were reduced by up to 64%.

Alpha lipoic acid can also reduce the activity of AMPK, which is a fat-burning switch that turns it on and makes it easier to mobilize the body's fat burning.

Lipoic acid is an AMP-activated protein kinase produced by the hypothalamus and is used to increase hunger.

Therefore, supplementing with lipoic acid can reduce a person's hunger and thus control weight. However, the results of this study are not very significant, and the effect is somewhat but relatively small.

→ alpha lipoic acid benefits for skin, boosts brightness and whitens

α-Lipoic Acid may help fight skin aging, and this effect is significant.

Personally, I think that one is the antioxidant effect of lipoic acid, and the other is that lipoic acid is water-soluble and fat-soluble, so the absorption of the skin is relatively fast and deep.

 

When applied to the skin, α-lipoic acid melts into the inner layers of the skin and provides antioxidant protection against harmful UV radiation, and its good partner, glutathione, is also beneficial to the skin.

A human study has proven that applying a cream with α-lipoic acid to the skin can reduce fine lines, wrinkles, and rough skin without side effects.

→ inhibits the formation of AGEs

Many friends know that anti-sugar is anti-AGEs, and antioxidant is anti-free radicals.

These are all things that directly cause skin damage.

→ reduce the risk of heart disease

The antioxidant properties of α-lipoic acid are good for heart disease, because many problems in the heart are related to oxidized LDL and inflammation.

Because oxidative stress increases the risk of heart disease, α-lipoic acid neutralizes free radicals and reduces oxidative stress.

And the results lived up to our expectations, with a review of studies finding that taking α-lipoic acid supplements reduced triglyceride and LDL (bad cholesterol) levels.

And, lipoic acid can improve endothelial dysfunction, a condition in which blood vessels do not dilate properly, increasing the risk of heart attack and stroke.

The key skinny dragon said

The body naturally produces α-lipoic acid, but the amount produced is a little smaller, but fortunately it is abundant in many foods.

α Lipoic acid is an important source of foods such as red meat and organ meats, especially liver and heart, so be sure to eat enough meat.

Some plant-based foods are also available, such as broccoli, tomatoes, spinach, etc.

α-lipoic acid has attracted much attention in recent years, mainly as a drug for the treatment of diabetes. Intake is given intravenously and the dose is generally 300-600 mg.

It's unclear what oral α-lipoic acid does, and the use of the drug is certainly not the same as the supplement, although lipoic acid is generally safe, has few side effects, and may occasionally cause a rash.

If you want to treat diabetes with lipoic acid, you can talk to your doctor.

If you want to supplement lipoic acid to fight oxidation and improve skin color, you can try some supplements.

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