RESEARCH AND MARKET EXPRESS
Alpha-Lipoic acid research update on human Obesity, diabetes, hypertension
Peter Ou, Ph.D.A survey of medical science in the use of Alpha-Lipoic Acid. Alpha-Lipoic acid and The Heart Muscle, Diabetes, Oxidative Stress, Atherosclerosis, Hypertension (high blood pressure,) Alzheimer's, Down's Syndrome, Anti-Obesity, Asthma & Multiple Sclerosis
Anti-obesity--"Obesity shortens life expectancy and is a risk factor for hypertension and Type 2 diabetes. When added to the standard chow of [animals]...[as 5% of total,] it reduced body weight and food intake. Alpha-lipoic acid also increased whole-body energy expenditure...Long term studies to determine whether these anti-obesity effects are maintained in animals are required before alpha-lipoic acid is considered for clinical trial in human obesity." Emphasis added.
From: Expert Opinion Investig. Drugs, vol. 13, 2004. By: Dr. D. Doggrell, School of Biomedical Sciences of Queensland, Australia.
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Aging--"The well-known OH+ free radical* scavenging properties of alpha-lipoic (ALA) cannot easily be utilized for biological experiments because the compound is practically insoluble in water. We elaborated a simple method of preparing its Na-salt [sodium salt] (Na-ALA) which proved to be water soluble...
"[The results of our subsequent experiments] indicate that the geriatric topical [skin] application of Na-ALA may have an established rationale [against oxygen radical damage in aging.]
*Free radicals in the body can and do, destroy healthy tissue.
In: Archives of Gerontol. Geriatrics, vol. 29, 1999. By: Drs. Perricone, Nagy, Horvath, Uray, et. al., Dept. of Gerontology, Yale School of Med., New Haven, CT., U.S.A.
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Alzheimer's and Aging--"Free radical-mediated damage to [nerve] membrane components has been implicated in the [development] of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and aging...Our previous studies reported higher oxidative stress markers [evidence of free radical activity in animals exhibiting symptoms similar to Alzheimer's.]...Further, we have previously shown that injecting the [animals] with alpha-lipoic acid (LA) reversed...the learning and memory impairments in the [animals.]" Emphasis added.
In: Neurochem Int., Jan. 2005. By: Drs. Poon, Lynn, Banks, Butterfield, et. al., Dept. of Chemistry, U. of Kentucky, Lexington, KY 40506-0055, U.S.A.
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Alpha-Lipoic against Hypertension (high blood pressure) and Diabetes--
"...since the development of hypertension could either be totally prevented or markedly [reduced] by...treatment potent antioxidative therapies such as alpha lipoic acid or aspirin... Moreover, the development of insulin resistance, which is associated to the model of glucose [sugar] induced hypertension, was also found to be prevented by chronic antioxidant therapies thus suggesting that oxidative stress [which is caused by the action of oxygen radicals] plays an important role as well in the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.
"In conclusion...our studies suggest that the chronic treatment with appropriate antioxidative therapies [including alpha lipoic or aspirin] could prevent the development of hypertension and diabetes as well as their complications in various experimental models of hypertension." Emphasis added.
In: Clin. Exp. Hypertens. vol. 20, 2004. By: Drs. Champain, Girouard, Laplante, et. al., Dept. of Physiology, Faculty of Med., U. of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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Asthma--"Conclusion: These results [stated earlier in the report,] suggest that oxidative stress plays an important role in asthmatic airway inflammation and that alpha-lipoic acid may be useful as [additional] therapy for bronchial asthma."
In: Journal of Allergy & Clin. Immunol., vol. 114, 2004. By: Cho, Lee, Park & Moon, Div. of Allergy, U. Ursan College of Med., S. Korea. Only attenuated address given.
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Reducing Cell Death and Arteriosclerosis with Alpha Lipoic
"Atherosclerotic plaque contains apoptotic [programmed cell death] endothelial [cells lining blood vessels] implicated in [the process of unwanted cell death.] Vitamin E and alpha-lipoic acid are a potent antioxidant combination with the potential to prevent [endothelial cell death]...
"Cultured bovine endothelial cells incubated for 24 hours with vitamin E and/or alpha-lipoic acid showed the combination of the two antioxidants increased a [gene that is anti-cell death, Bcl-2] to a greater extent than cells incubated...[without them.]
"In summary, vitamin E and alpha-lipoic acid increase the endothelial cell Bcl-2, which may provide increase protection against [the death of these cells.]"
They also found that although exercise increases protection of the heart, it does not affect the improper cell death of endothelial cells.
In: Journal Mol. Cell Cardiology, March 2005; vol. 38, pgs. 445-451. By: Drs. Marsh, Laursen, Pat, Gobe, Coombes, School of Human Movement Studies, U. of Queensland, Q4072 Brisbane, Australia.
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