Canadian Bodybuilding
15-04-2008, 08:46 PM
Welcome to a whole new dimension in supplements.
Dr.M, working for Phd. Biochemistry-
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock these last couple of years, you’ve probably heard something about R-Alpha Lipoic Acid (R-ALA for short). You’ve also probably heard some pretty outlandish tales which made you wonder whether or not the people making them had taken their medication lately. The fact is that Glucorell R from Anabolic Fitness is the BEST alpha-lipoic acid on the market – hands down. Here’s a little more to tell you why they’re the only company that will let you tap into the wealth of benefits offered by R-ALA, and what those benefits REALLY are.
“What is it?”
R-ALA is a naturally occurring substance which has seen extensive use in Europe due to its ability to rejuvenate and restore the liver, as well as its antioxidant properties. R-ALA is actually a fatty acid compound, but is unique in that it has a sulfur-sulfur bond at the distal end (away from the carboxylic acid end of the fatty acid). It is this sulfur-sulfur bond which provides the antioxidant properties of R-ALA, due to the fact that it is easily reduced. For example, R-ALA is a great scavenger of hydroxyl radicals; these radicals are easily able to attack at one of the sulfurs and attach to the molecule. After attachment, the –OH now on R-ALA is able to be disposed of safely by the body, either through fatty acid metabolism or through the passage of the –OH group to another antioxidant molecule such as Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol).
“Radical, man!”
OK, so maybe my lingo is best saved for 1992, but the compounds I’m referring to didn’t go away with M.C. Hammer’s parachute pants and Madonna’s cone-shaped brassiere. Metabolism is sometimes a violent thing; many enzymes are forced to generate energetically unfavourable products such as free radicals (and other oxidants) in order to produce other substances necessary for life. These free radicals have been implicated in premature aging (sun damage is a result of UV-induced free radicals which cause thymidine dimerization in DNA), diseases of the liver (the liver is one of the hotbeds of radical production in the body, as it is forced to detoxify our bodies on a daily basis; long-term exposure has been implicated in diseases such as cirrhosis), and certain cancers (radicals + DNA = trouble waiting to happen)… It doesn’t take a genius to realize that minimizing free radicals in the body is key to good health and longevity. The free radicals produced in our bodies need to be neutralized as soon as possible to prevent them from reacting with something critical, with possibly disastrous consequences. This is where antioxidants come in. Antioxidants are much like an absorbent sponge which sucks up the radicals and puts them into a much less harmful form; the problem isn’t what happens to the antioxidants, it’s what happens when you don’t have enough antioxidants to go around.
“Lean on me…”
We’ve all heard this great song by Bill Withers… and strangely enough, it applies to R-ALA. The line “lean on me, when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend. I’ll help you carry on for it won’t be long, ‘til I’m gonna need somebody to lean on” is probably the best (and catchiest!) description of antioxidant regeneration in the body. The main players are Vitamins C and E, which we tend to consume as part of our daily diet, and Coenzyme Q, which we synthesize. The problem is, with today’s fast-food culture, many of us aren’t able to ingest enough of Vitamins C and E, or synthesize enough Coenzyme Q, to keep up with our own radical production. This is where R-ALA comes in. Antioxidants use each other to swap functional groups and regenerate each other (remember the –OH group from our hydroxyl radical?) – R-ALA is no different. By adding even a small amount of R-ALA to your daily diet, you can help your other antioxidants to do their job better because R-ALA will help to regenerate them – and R-ALA will act on its own to further reduce your free radical levels!
R-ALA also acts to increase glutathione levels in cells (glutathione is another sulfur-containing antioxidant), and is a cofactor in a number of enzymes which are involved in metabolism (one example of such enzymes is the group of alpha-keto acid dehydrogenases, critical in the citric acid cycle for the usage of metabolites such as alpha-ketoglutarate).
“I noticed that Glucorell-R includes additional Biotin…”
Yes, it does. This is because R-ALA can actually compete with Biotin in the body; without biotin supplementation, symptoms of biotin deficiency can actually manifest themselves. So, instead of making you go out and get biotin for yourself, we threw some in there for you! Now THAT’S service!
“OK, so R-ALA is just for old people, or people who are worried about radicals…”
WRONG! We’re just getting started. Let’s talk healthy, active people here – people like you and me. Most of us have a little bit of fat which we’d like to get rid of… come on, admit it – wouldn’t you like those love handles gone? Thighs tighter? Butt firmer? Somehow, no matter how much we’re able to lose with proper diet and exercise, these stubborn pockets of fat linger. Why? Because, for the most part, they’re insulin-resistant. Insulin resistance in fat pockets means that they are unresponsive to insulin signaling, and can occur for a variety of reasons (chronic hyperglycemia, genetic predisposition, receptor damage, etc.). The bottom line is that these fat pockets simply don’t respond the way the rest of the body responds to insulin. Because of this, the body secretes more insulin, which further downgrades the insulin response in resistant cells, which causes higher insulin secretion, which… well, you get the picture – and it’s not pretty. R-ALA has been shown to actually prevent or REVERSE insulin resistance in clinical studies. Remember the antioxidant properties we talked about earlier? Well, here’s an excerpt from a paper published by the University of Montreal:
“The antihypertensive action and the prevention of insulin resistance by lipoic acid appears to be associated with its antioxidant properties because it prevented the increase of oxidative stress…”
El Midaoui A and Champlain J (2002). Prevention of hypertension, insulin resistance and oxidative stress by alpha-lipoic acid. Hypertension 39(2):303-7.
By preventing or reversing insulin resistance, your body is able to PROPERLY respond to insulin. Proper response to insulin means your muscles are able to take up glucose from the bloodstream and utilize it for fuel – this reduces hyperglycemia and its associated negative effects. Not only is this good for your blood sugar, it’s also good for your body fat! Excess carbohydrate (like sugars) is the main reason that most of us accumulate fat. By allowing our muscles to remove sugars from the bloodstream effectively, thus lowering blood sugar levels, we simply don’t have the CHANCE to store the excess carbohydrate as fat! The significance of this fact will become clear in just a few seconds.
Also, notice they mentioned hypertension (high blood pressure) in the passage above. Not only does R-ALA help you burn excess fat by preventing/reversing insulin resistance, it lowers your blood pressure! I don’t know about you, but that’s definitely a side-effect I could get used to…
“Can you repeat that please?”
Let’s recap: R-ALA will decrease the level of harmful oxidants in your body, prevent or reverse insulin resistance, slow your conversion of carbohydrates into fats, normalize your blood sugar, and lower your blood pressure. Man, I’d hate it if all of that happened – wouldn’t you? But we’re not done yet!
“Gentlemen, start your engines…”
Okay, remember that bit about slowing your storage of ingested carbohydrates as fats? Well, if that’s a jab then this is the right roundhouse – R-ALA actually boosts your metabolic rate! No, I’m not kidding – R-ALA actually boosts your metabolic rate! The ‘engine’ of your body’s cells is their mitochondria. Mitochondria are organelles (organelles are to cells as your organs are to your body) which provide the cell’s energy via the metabolism of fuels like carbohydrates and fats (proteins are metabolized primarily in the cytosol of the cell, then the carbon skeletons of converted amino acids are used in the mitochondria). Bottom line: improve mitochondrial function, and you’ll increase your metabolic rate. Let’s take a look at what the labcoats over at University of California at Berkeley have to say about this one:
“… R-lipoic acid supplementation improves indices of metabolic activity as well as lowers oxidative stress and damage evident in aging.”
Hagen TM et al (1999). R-alpha lipoic acid supplemented old rats have improved mitochondrial function, decreased oxidative damage, and increased metabolic rate. FASEB J 13(2):411-8.
Look at the title of that paper - “… improved mitochondrial function … increased metabolic rate”; this is exactly what we’re talking about! Now here’s where it starts to get really interesting if you’re into burning fat. If R-ALA causes your consumed carbohydrates to be utilized by muscle tissue for fuel, it doesn’t leave much (if any) for your adipocytes (fat storage/metabolism cells which make up adipose tissue). Just as you get hungry, so do your adipocytes. And when your adipocytes go to raid the fridge for their midnight snack, and there’s no carbohydrate to be found, they decide on a nice big chunk of FAT. That’s right – the very cells which produced the fat in the first place are forced to break it down so that they can survive. And where do they break it down? You guessed it – the mitochondria! Less fat synthesis + increased fat breakdown = reduction or elimination of those stubborn fat pockets you’ve always wanted to get rid of.
“But how are the muscle and fat cells differentially affected?”
Many people ask how R-ALA can possibly make a difference when it up-regulates the expression of the insulin-sensitive glucotransporter GLUT4 in BOTH muscle and fat cells (myocytes and adipocytes). The answer is somewhat complicated… but then again, so is the body. While R-ALA does upregulate the expression levels of GLUT4 in both adipocytes and myocytes, we have FAR more skeletal muscle in your body than we have fat cells. Thus, while the clearance rate of blood glucose due to adipocytes does in fact increase briefly, the clearance rate due to myocytes increases dramatically simply because of the sheer amount of muscle which has increased its GLUT4 activity. In essence, the adipocytes are the runts of the litter who can’t quite elbow their way into the trough at feeding time… there’s simply too much muscle around. The bottom line: there just aren’t enough adipocytes to compete with the high demand placed on blood glucose by skeletal muscle.
“So how is GLUT4 activity controlled, from a mechanistic point of view?”
We get this question a lot as well… it makes me feel good to know that someone out there is just as much of a keener as I am when it comes to this sort of thing. At the same time, it makes me sad because I can imagine what their social life is like…
Let’s take a look at a paper from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto:
“…results indicate that R (+) alpha-lipoic acid directly activates lipid, tyrosine and serine/threonine kinases in target cells, which could lead to the stimulation of glucose uptake induced by this natural cofactor. These properties are unique among all agents currently used to lower glycaemia in animals and humans with diabetes.”
Yaworsky K et al (2000). Engagement of the insulin-sensitive pathway in the stimulation of glucose transport by alpha-lipoic acid in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Diabetologia 43(3):294-303.
Now, you might have to take my word for it, but activation of specific kinases (and thus ATP dependence) is a hallmark of vesicular transport in cells. So, since we see activation of the kinase families listed above, we can postulate that GLUT4 is recycled using vesicles which bud off from the membrane and return to the cytoplasm when the insulin (or R-ALA) signal is removed. Upon the return of the signal, these vesicles localize and fuse with the membrane, placing the transporter once again in contact with the outside environment and thus allows it to take up glucose across the membrane and into the cell’s interior. Evidence that wortmannin, an inhibitor or PI-3-Kinase, abolishes R-ALA stimulated glucose uptake provides some evidence that the mode of action is vesicular formation/fusion since PI-3-Kinase is critical for vesicle-mediated processes.
How the R-ALA stimulates these various kinases would likely be through interaction with either a cell-surface receptor which causes a signaling kinase cascade, or directly with one of the numerous heterotrimeric G proteins which would lead to the same sort of event. It’s essentially a case of a possibly analogous pathway making sense in light of past evidence. Similar pathways exist for most, if not all, of the peptide hormones, neurotransmitters such as serotonin (5-HT) and epinephrine, and numerous other cell-signalling molecules – it just makes sense that a tried, tested, and true method would also be seen in the R-ALA mechanism since the final effects (multiple kinase activation) are so markedly similar. With the amount of research presently being done on R-ALA and its mode of action, a definite answer cannot be far behind.
“My training includes substances which cause liver damage…”
This is, admittedly, a bit of an aside – but many people have no idea how truly versatile – and valuable – R-ALA really is.
There’s no disputing the fact that users of 17-alpha alkylated substances (and users of other substances) can do serious damage to their livers if they use these substances too much or too long. Not to mince words, if you damage your liver past a certain point, you probably shouldn’t be making any plans for next year (or possibly even next week). Naturally, very few – if any – individuals reach this sort of crossroads, but I’m sure you see the point: protecting one’s liver is of paramount importance.
R-ALA is one of the most versatile and most useful compounds known to man when it comes to treatment or protection of your liver. But don’t take my word for it – talk to University of California at Berkeley:
“… alpha lipoic acid was also used as a therapeutic agent in a number of conditions relating to liver disease, including alcohol-induced damage, mushroom poisoning, metal intoxification, and CCl4 [carbon tetrachloride] poisoning. Alpha-lipoic acid supplementation was successful in the treatment for these conditions in many cases.”
Bustamante J et al (1998). Alpha-lipoic acid in liver metabolism and disease. Free Radic Biol Med 24(6):1023-39.
Why take chances with 17-alpha alkylated substances when protection can be so close at hand? Now, we’re not saying that R-ALA is a miracle cure – if you’re going to abuse these substances, you’ll still suffer all of the ill effects (you can’t stop a tidal wave with a bucket, right?). However, it’s our belief that an investment in R-ALA is an investment in your future health.
“OK, that all sounds great… but what’s with the R?”
The R’s in R-ALA and Glucorell-R aren’t just for show – they’re a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to effectiveness of lipoic acid. To understand this a little better, let’s look at what this R business is all about.
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall…”
Some molecules which contain carbon have a distinctive property of being optically active. This means that they can rotate plane-polarized light in a given direction. The reason for this is because of a certain absolute configuration around one (or more) carbon atoms which are bound to 4 different groups. This property is called chirality, and a molecule which has one or more of these stereogenic centers (the name for carbons bound to 4 different substituents) is called a chiral molecule. For every stereogenic center, there are two relative configurations, called enantiomers. Enantiomers are distinguishable based on the fact that they are non-superimposable mirror images. Good examples of two enantiomers are your right and left hand. They’re mirror images of one another which can’t be superimposed. Make sense? Remember the hand analogy; it will become important later.
Dr.M, working for Phd. Biochemistry-
Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock these last couple of years, you’ve probably heard something about R-Alpha Lipoic Acid (R-ALA for short). You’ve also probably heard some pretty outlandish tales which made you wonder whether or not the people making them had taken their medication lately. The fact is that Glucorell R from Anabolic Fitness is the BEST alpha-lipoic acid on the market – hands down. Here’s a little more to tell you why they’re the only company that will let you tap into the wealth of benefits offered by R-ALA, and what those benefits REALLY are.
“What is it?”
R-ALA is a naturally occurring substance which has seen extensive use in Europe due to its ability to rejuvenate and restore the liver, as well as its antioxidant properties. R-ALA is actually a fatty acid compound, but is unique in that it has a sulfur-sulfur bond at the distal end (away from the carboxylic acid end of the fatty acid). It is this sulfur-sulfur bond which provides the antioxidant properties of R-ALA, due to the fact that it is easily reduced. For example, R-ALA is a great scavenger of hydroxyl radicals; these radicals are easily able to attack at one of the sulfurs and attach to the molecule. After attachment, the –OH now on R-ALA is able to be disposed of safely by the body, either through fatty acid metabolism or through the passage of the –OH group to another antioxidant molecule such as Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) or Vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol).
“Radical, man!”
OK, so maybe my lingo is best saved for 1992, but the compounds I’m referring to didn’t go away with M.C. Hammer’s parachute pants and Madonna’s cone-shaped brassiere. Metabolism is sometimes a violent thing; many enzymes are forced to generate energetically unfavourable products such as free radicals (and other oxidants) in order to produce other substances necessary for life. These free radicals have been implicated in premature aging (sun damage is a result of UV-induced free radicals which cause thymidine dimerization in DNA), diseases of the liver (the liver is one of the hotbeds of radical production in the body, as it is forced to detoxify our bodies on a daily basis; long-term exposure has been implicated in diseases such as cirrhosis), and certain cancers (radicals + DNA = trouble waiting to happen)… It doesn’t take a genius to realize that minimizing free radicals in the body is key to good health and longevity. The free radicals produced in our bodies need to be neutralized as soon as possible to prevent them from reacting with something critical, with possibly disastrous consequences. This is where antioxidants come in. Antioxidants are much like an absorbent sponge which sucks up the radicals and puts them into a much less harmful form; the problem isn’t what happens to the antioxidants, it’s what happens when you don’t have enough antioxidants to go around.
“Lean on me…”
We’ve all heard this great song by Bill Withers… and strangely enough, it applies to R-ALA. The line “lean on me, when you’re not strong, and I’ll be your friend. I’ll help you carry on for it won’t be long, ‘til I’m gonna need somebody to lean on” is probably the best (and catchiest!) description of antioxidant regeneration in the body. The main players are Vitamins C and E, which we tend to consume as part of our daily diet, and Coenzyme Q, which we synthesize. The problem is, with today’s fast-food culture, many of us aren’t able to ingest enough of Vitamins C and E, or synthesize enough Coenzyme Q, to keep up with our own radical production. This is where R-ALA comes in. Antioxidants use each other to swap functional groups and regenerate each other (remember the –OH group from our hydroxyl radical?) – R-ALA is no different. By adding even a small amount of R-ALA to your daily diet, you can help your other antioxidants to do their job better because R-ALA will help to regenerate them – and R-ALA will act on its own to further reduce your free radical levels!
R-ALA also acts to increase glutathione levels in cells (glutathione is another sulfur-containing antioxidant), and is a cofactor in a number of enzymes which are involved in metabolism (one example of such enzymes is the group of alpha-keto acid dehydrogenases, critical in the citric acid cycle for the usage of metabolites such as alpha-ketoglutarate).
“I noticed that Glucorell-R includes additional Biotin…”
Yes, it does. This is because R-ALA can actually compete with Biotin in the body; without biotin supplementation, symptoms of biotin deficiency can actually manifest themselves. So, instead of making you go out and get biotin for yourself, we threw some in there for you! Now THAT’S service!
“OK, so R-ALA is just for old people, or people who are worried about radicals…”
WRONG! We’re just getting started. Let’s talk healthy, active people here – people like you and me. Most of us have a little bit of fat which we’d like to get rid of… come on, admit it – wouldn’t you like those love handles gone? Thighs tighter? Butt firmer? Somehow, no matter how much we’re able to lose with proper diet and exercise, these stubborn pockets of fat linger. Why? Because, for the most part, they’re insulin-resistant. Insulin resistance in fat pockets means that they are unresponsive to insulin signaling, and can occur for a variety of reasons (chronic hyperglycemia, genetic predisposition, receptor damage, etc.). The bottom line is that these fat pockets simply don’t respond the way the rest of the body responds to insulin. Because of this, the body secretes more insulin, which further downgrades the insulin response in resistant cells, which causes higher insulin secretion, which… well, you get the picture – and it’s not pretty. R-ALA has been shown to actually prevent or REVERSE insulin resistance in clinical studies. Remember the antioxidant properties we talked about earlier? Well, here’s an excerpt from a paper published by the University of Montreal:
“The antihypertensive action and the prevention of insulin resistance by lipoic acid appears to be associated with its antioxidant properties because it prevented the increase of oxidative stress…”
El Midaoui A and Champlain J (2002). Prevention of hypertension, insulin resistance and oxidative stress by alpha-lipoic acid. Hypertension 39(2):303-7.
By preventing or reversing insulin resistance, your body is able to PROPERLY respond to insulin. Proper response to insulin means your muscles are able to take up glucose from the bloodstream and utilize it for fuel – this reduces hyperglycemia and its associated negative effects. Not only is this good for your blood sugar, it’s also good for your body fat! Excess carbohydrate (like sugars) is the main reason that most of us accumulate fat. By allowing our muscles to remove sugars from the bloodstream effectively, thus lowering blood sugar levels, we simply don’t have the CHANCE to store the excess carbohydrate as fat! The significance of this fact will become clear in just a few seconds.
Also, notice they mentioned hypertension (high blood pressure) in the passage above. Not only does R-ALA help you burn excess fat by preventing/reversing insulin resistance, it lowers your blood pressure! I don’t know about you, but that’s definitely a side-effect I could get used to…
“Can you repeat that please?”
Let’s recap: R-ALA will decrease the level of harmful oxidants in your body, prevent or reverse insulin resistance, slow your conversion of carbohydrates into fats, normalize your blood sugar, and lower your blood pressure. Man, I’d hate it if all of that happened – wouldn’t you? But we’re not done yet!
“Gentlemen, start your engines…”
Okay, remember that bit about slowing your storage of ingested carbohydrates as fats? Well, if that’s a jab then this is the right roundhouse – R-ALA actually boosts your metabolic rate! No, I’m not kidding – R-ALA actually boosts your metabolic rate! The ‘engine’ of your body’s cells is their mitochondria. Mitochondria are organelles (organelles are to cells as your organs are to your body) which provide the cell’s energy via the metabolism of fuels like carbohydrates and fats (proteins are metabolized primarily in the cytosol of the cell, then the carbon skeletons of converted amino acids are used in the mitochondria). Bottom line: improve mitochondrial function, and you’ll increase your metabolic rate. Let’s take a look at what the labcoats over at University of California at Berkeley have to say about this one:
“… R-lipoic acid supplementation improves indices of metabolic activity as well as lowers oxidative stress and damage evident in aging.”
Hagen TM et al (1999). R-alpha lipoic acid supplemented old rats have improved mitochondrial function, decreased oxidative damage, and increased metabolic rate. FASEB J 13(2):411-8.
Look at the title of that paper - “… improved mitochondrial function … increased metabolic rate”; this is exactly what we’re talking about! Now here’s where it starts to get really interesting if you’re into burning fat. If R-ALA causes your consumed carbohydrates to be utilized by muscle tissue for fuel, it doesn’t leave much (if any) for your adipocytes (fat storage/metabolism cells which make up adipose tissue). Just as you get hungry, so do your adipocytes. And when your adipocytes go to raid the fridge for their midnight snack, and there’s no carbohydrate to be found, they decide on a nice big chunk of FAT. That’s right – the very cells which produced the fat in the first place are forced to break it down so that they can survive. And where do they break it down? You guessed it – the mitochondria! Less fat synthesis + increased fat breakdown = reduction or elimination of those stubborn fat pockets you’ve always wanted to get rid of.
“But how are the muscle and fat cells differentially affected?”
Many people ask how R-ALA can possibly make a difference when it up-regulates the expression of the insulin-sensitive glucotransporter GLUT4 in BOTH muscle and fat cells (myocytes and adipocytes). The answer is somewhat complicated… but then again, so is the body. While R-ALA does upregulate the expression levels of GLUT4 in both adipocytes and myocytes, we have FAR more skeletal muscle in your body than we have fat cells. Thus, while the clearance rate of blood glucose due to adipocytes does in fact increase briefly, the clearance rate due to myocytes increases dramatically simply because of the sheer amount of muscle which has increased its GLUT4 activity. In essence, the adipocytes are the runts of the litter who can’t quite elbow their way into the trough at feeding time… there’s simply too much muscle around. The bottom line: there just aren’t enough adipocytes to compete with the high demand placed on blood glucose by skeletal muscle.
“So how is GLUT4 activity controlled, from a mechanistic point of view?”
We get this question a lot as well… it makes me feel good to know that someone out there is just as much of a keener as I am when it comes to this sort of thing. At the same time, it makes me sad because I can imagine what their social life is like…
Let’s take a look at a paper from the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto:
“…results indicate that R (+) alpha-lipoic acid directly activates lipid, tyrosine and serine/threonine kinases in target cells, which could lead to the stimulation of glucose uptake induced by this natural cofactor. These properties are unique among all agents currently used to lower glycaemia in animals and humans with diabetes.”
Yaworsky K et al (2000). Engagement of the insulin-sensitive pathway in the stimulation of glucose transport by alpha-lipoic acid in 3T3-L1 adipocytes. Diabetologia 43(3):294-303.
Now, you might have to take my word for it, but activation of specific kinases (and thus ATP dependence) is a hallmark of vesicular transport in cells. So, since we see activation of the kinase families listed above, we can postulate that GLUT4 is recycled using vesicles which bud off from the membrane and return to the cytoplasm when the insulin (or R-ALA) signal is removed. Upon the return of the signal, these vesicles localize and fuse with the membrane, placing the transporter once again in contact with the outside environment and thus allows it to take up glucose across the membrane and into the cell’s interior. Evidence that wortmannin, an inhibitor or PI-3-Kinase, abolishes R-ALA stimulated glucose uptake provides some evidence that the mode of action is vesicular formation/fusion since PI-3-Kinase is critical for vesicle-mediated processes.
How the R-ALA stimulates these various kinases would likely be through interaction with either a cell-surface receptor which causes a signaling kinase cascade, or directly with one of the numerous heterotrimeric G proteins which would lead to the same sort of event. It’s essentially a case of a possibly analogous pathway making sense in light of past evidence. Similar pathways exist for most, if not all, of the peptide hormones, neurotransmitters such as serotonin (5-HT) and epinephrine, and numerous other cell-signalling molecules – it just makes sense that a tried, tested, and true method would also be seen in the R-ALA mechanism since the final effects (multiple kinase activation) are so markedly similar. With the amount of research presently being done on R-ALA and its mode of action, a definite answer cannot be far behind.
“My training includes substances which cause liver damage…”
This is, admittedly, a bit of an aside – but many people have no idea how truly versatile – and valuable – R-ALA really is.
There’s no disputing the fact that users of 17-alpha alkylated substances (and users of other substances) can do serious damage to their livers if they use these substances too much or too long. Not to mince words, if you damage your liver past a certain point, you probably shouldn’t be making any plans for next year (or possibly even next week). Naturally, very few – if any – individuals reach this sort of crossroads, but I’m sure you see the point: protecting one’s liver is of paramount importance.
R-ALA is one of the most versatile and most useful compounds known to man when it comes to treatment or protection of your liver. But don’t take my word for it – talk to University of California at Berkeley:
“… alpha lipoic acid was also used as a therapeutic agent in a number of conditions relating to liver disease, including alcohol-induced damage, mushroom poisoning, metal intoxification, and CCl4 [carbon tetrachloride] poisoning. Alpha-lipoic acid supplementation was successful in the treatment for these conditions in many cases.”
Bustamante J et al (1998). Alpha-lipoic acid in liver metabolism and disease. Free Radic Biol Med 24(6):1023-39.
Why take chances with 17-alpha alkylated substances when protection can be so close at hand? Now, we’re not saying that R-ALA is a miracle cure – if you’re going to abuse these substances, you’ll still suffer all of the ill effects (you can’t stop a tidal wave with a bucket, right?). However, it’s our belief that an investment in R-ALA is an investment in your future health.
“OK, that all sounds great… but what’s with the R?”
The R’s in R-ALA and Glucorell-R aren’t just for show – they’re a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to effectiveness of lipoic acid. To understand this a little better, let’s look at what this R business is all about.
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall…”
Some molecules which contain carbon have a distinctive property of being optically active. This means that they can rotate plane-polarized light in a given direction. The reason for this is because of a certain absolute configuration around one (or more) carbon atoms which are bound to 4 different groups. This property is called chirality, and a molecule which has one or more of these stereogenic centers (the name for carbons bound to 4 different substituents) is called a chiral molecule. For every stereogenic center, there are two relative configurations, called enantiomers. Enantiomers are distinguishable based on the fact that they are non-superimposable mirror images. Good examples of two enantiomers are your right and left hand. They’re mirror images of one another which can’t be superimposed. Make sense? Remember the hand analogy; it will become important later.