Is ALA useless?

[MiniHulk]

I have quoted this from another site, could someone tell me if this is true or not? I am assuming that MP's ALA is unstabilized. (R ALA is the same as ALA right?)


Stabilized R ALA is water soluble, it dissolves in water, while the R-ALA is not soluble. This also leads to another point -stabilized R ALA is easily absorbed, which means it gets into the system where it becomes efficient and does its job, while the R-ALA absorption is slower and far less. In a clinical trial, the concentration of lipoic acid in the plasma was 40 times higher in the people who were given stabilized R ALA than those who were given R-ALA!

You should also know that unstabilized R-ALA can cause heartburn or indigestion, while stabilized R ALA does not cause heartburn, indigestion or stomach discomfort.

I think these differences (and I only wrote about those I considered most important, but there are more) make it clear for anyone why Stabilized R ALA is much better and why you should get it and not just R-ALA.

[Wotan]

Where and how does he define "stabilised" R ALA??

Does he have any idea of what R ALA actually is?

If you want to use ALA why are you not using K R ALA??

[MiniHulk]

Sorry Wotan, just done a search and seen the K R ALA, I will grab some when I have some cash.

I eat low carb all day and then have a fair amount of carbs (mostly greens with a few carrots, beets etc) with my last meal... taking this 20 minutes before the last meal will help glucose disposal from what I understand... is there a more effective way?

Be gentle on me, I am still being nourished from your teat, haha.

[Wotan]

This was from a discussion on THIS forum in 2006!

"The S(-) enantiomer is the byproduct of industrial ALA synthesis, and as noted, appears to exert negative effects regarding mitochondrial ATP synthesis. The old studies that used "ALA" were actually using r-ALA, because at the time the industrial process had not been mapped out and they weren't aware of the S(-) form.

The R(+) enantiomer is the form with all the benefits, including mild nutrient partitioning abilities. However, as also noted, it is not terrible stable in heat, light or moisture. Ironically, the racemic (50:50) mix of R(+):S(-) found in generic ALA products is more stable because of the S(-) presence.

I use the potassium-R-lipoate form daily (with every carb meal actually) as it is part of Glucophase. I love it. It is patented by Geronova though, so they control the price of it, and its not especially cheap. They recently released sodium-R-lipoate, which may or may not be an improvement. The chemical weight of sodium is less than potassum, so you get more r-ALA mg per mg, but they've made up for this by increasing the price of it, so i'm not sure there is any additonal benefit.

If you just want to use ALA for the anti-oxidant properties, go for the cheap racemic and use 100-300mg daily. If you want to get the partitioning properties then get KR-ALA and use 250mg of it with each meal containing 30g+ of carbohydrates."

I will remind you of that date again, 2006!

Now you know why I don't deal with other forums. As far as diet, supplement and nutrition advice goes the vast majority talk more crap than a cow's got fanny to be perfectly blunt. I don't bother answering their naff stuff on their forum and I don't think we should be doing it here.