What Is The Real Purpose Of Alpha Lipoic Acid?

The body naturally produces small amounts of alpha-lipoic acid, also known as thioctic acid, a compound that acts as an antioxidant and may also have benefits in treatment of diabetes and other health conditions. Alpha-lipoic acid differs from alpha-linoleic acid, an omega-3 essential fatty acid, which is also often abbreviated ALA. Ask your doctor before taking supplemental ALA.

Functions

Found in every cell in the body, alpha-lipoic acid helps convert glucose to energy and aids the breakdown of amino acids. Alpha-lipoic acid acts as a cofactor, a substance necessary for an enzyme to function properly. Enzymes are chemicals that speed up chemical reactions without being changed themselves in the process.

Antioxidant Benefits

Alpha-lipoic acid's best known function is as an antioxidant. Antioxidants attack and help destroy free radicals known as reactive oxygen species or reactive nitrogen species. Because LA is both fat and water soluble, it can work throughout the body; water-soluble antioxidants such as vitamin C can work only in water, while vitamin E can work only in fat. Alpha-lipoic acid may also help regenerate other antioxidants that become depleted after attacking free radicals, the University of Maryland Medical Center explains.

Sources

Some foods, including red meat, brewer's yeast and organ meats contain LA, but dietary LA doesn't appear to raise the concentration of free LA in cells or in blood plasma. Dietary supplements in capsule form are also available; high doses of free LA in amounts of 50 mg or more cause a transient rise in LA level. The highest amount of supplement absorption occurs when you take supplements on an empty stomach rather than with food. Levels peak quickly after ingestion, within one hour or less, and then fall rapidly, the Linus Pauling Institute explains.

Disease Treatments

Studies on the benefit of alpha-lipoic acid to treat certain disease processes have shown promising results, although most studies have been small and not well designed, UMMC cautions. Alpha-lipoic acid does appear to lower blood sugar levels and may benefit diabetics with peripheral neuropathy, numbness, tingling and pain in the extremities, although the greatest benefit in studies appeared when LA was given intravenously rather than orally. Oral administration over a four-to-seven month period appears to benefit autonomic neuropathy, which affects the nerves leading to the heart, according to a German review of available studies published in the 1999 "Experimental and Clinical Endocrinology and Diabetes." A Russian study reported in the 1995 "Vestnik Oftalmologii" reported benefit in treating 45 patients with glaucoma with LA. Since health benefits have not been established for use of supplemental LA, do not take the supplement without your medical practitioner's approval.