According to Lester Packer, Professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, “Alpha-lipoic acid could have far reaching consequences in the search for prevention and therapy of chronic degenerative diseases such as diabetes an cardiovascular diseases… And because it is the only antioxidant that can easily get into the brain, it could be useful in preventing damage from a stroke.”
The news release continues, “Known for more than thirty years (by now 45 years) and once thought to be a vitamin, alpha-lipoic acid was recognized as an antioxidant a mere seven (now 22) years ago, and only recently have scientists discovered how it works in the body. New data from Packer’s laboratory reported in an issue of Brain Research show that alpha-lipoic acid can significantly increase survival in rats that have suffered a stroke… The results prove the importance of this antioxidant in preventing cell and tissue damage.”
“What Packer has fleshed out in recent years is how alpha-lipoic acid and other antioxidants interact in a complex recycling process in the body. He showed, for example, that vitamin E ‘recycles’ vitamin C in the body – that is after vitamin E has disarmed or oxidized a free radical, vitamin C can come along and return vitamin E to fighting form. The two vitamins thus work together to prevent free radical damage in the body. Since then he and his colleagues have shown, vitamin C can be recycled by glutathione, an antioxidant only produced in the body. The cycle continues with another antioxidant NADPH – a coenzyme, or chemical essential to the action of other enzymes – recycling glutathione.”“Despite this detailed understanding of the antioxidant cycle, when Packer and other researchers tried to boost antioxidant levels to determine whether they can protect against disease, they were unable to find a way o increase glutathione levels. Glutathione cannot be taken by mouth like vitamins C and E because it is broken down in the stomach before it reaches the bloodstream. Alpha-lipoic acid proved to be the missing link.”
“Not only does it act as an antioxidant itself, it also stimulates production of glutathione, giving cells a double dose of antioxidant. It is also easily absorbed when taken orally, and once inside the cells is quickly converted to its most potent form, dihydrolipic acid. Because both alpha-lipoic acid and dihydrolipic acid are antioxidants, their combined actions give them greater antioxidant potency than any natural antioxidant now known.”
“Packer notes another property of alpha-lipoic acid that makes it a great antioxidant. Since it is soluble in both water and fat, it can move into all parts of the cell to neutralize free radicals. Vitamin C on the other hand is limited to the watery parts of cells because it is soluble only in water; while vitamin E is soluble only in fat and sticks to the fatty parts of the cells.”
According to Packer, alpha-lipoic acid is also important in cell metabolism, or the production of energy inside the cell. Without alpha-lipoic acid, cells cannot utilize sugar to produce energy and they shut down. This makes alpha-lipoic acid a metabolic antioxidant, able to draw on the cells’ own metabolism to magnify its protective effects and that of other antioxidants.”
“Just twenty-five years ago scientists had a simplistic view of free radicals and antioxidants. Today knowledge of a global antioxidant network has emerged, which is linked to the metabolic energy producing process – a new perspective that is leading to an explosion of basic research and therapeutic studies.”
Unfortunately for the average patient consulting an average physician, we however have to conclude with the observation that this knowledge and the preventive effects of antioxidants is mostly NOT put to use. When compared with the number of all practicing physicians worldwide, only a handful of doctors help their clients by supplementing them with micro nutrients and antioxidants.