Enlighten me please.

Shirley,

I take it with my vit. C each day, 100 mgs because I don't know how much is too much, so I stay on the low side. It's an antioxidant which regenerates the antioxidants we eat and it also regenerates the C we take, and in turn the C regenerates E.

"· R-Lipoic acid is the only form of lipoic acid that is proven to improve memory, reduce brain damage, reverse cognitive dysfunction, and protect the brain from neurodegeneration associated with aging. (8,9,22)"

Well I must be taking the wrong kind. It figures there's two different kinds, and this one is the best, of course.

I guess we should check it out. I'll go look at consumer labs see what they have to say. Thanks Shirley

Alpha lipoic acid has two forms--R & S. When it's made, both come out in the mix about equally. The only place I can recall seeing that sells only the "R" form is Life Extension (www.lef.org), however, I'm sure it's carried elsewhere. I've tried the LEF brand and found that it burns my throat even when I take it with a lot of water. Then there's the burping....I went back to a mixed form. Right now I'm using NOW Foods, 600 mg, (so that would be 300 mg of the R form), and it comes with grape seed extract at 30 mg and Bioperine for absorption.

ALA is both fat and water soluable and helps prevent the degradation of both C (water soluable) and E (fat soluable) vitamins as Rosemary said. It also works synergistically with silymarin (milk thistle) to help the liver.

Hi, Shirley,

the 'dihydro' means it has 2 extra hydrogens over the plain old R-Lipoic Acid. Life Extension explains why they think this is a good thing:

R-dihydro-lipoic acid is the reduced (or active) form of R-lipoic acid. R-dihydro-lipoic acid produces the majority of the results attributed to R-lipoic acid and alpha-lipoic acid. When R-dihydro-lipoic acid reacts with a free radical, it is oxidized back to R-lipoic acid, thus making possible the redox cycle of R-lipoic and R-dihydro-lipoic acids at the cellular level. (NADH then reduces R-lipoic back to R-dihydro-lipoic acid.)

By consuming R-dihydro-lipoic acid, you are obtaining the form of R-lipoic acid that is immediately available to cells, without first having to be reduced. R-dihydro-lipoic acid is only available in softgel capsules, because it is a liquid and must be kept sealed from air."

I'm not convinced this is an important difference....

You might try the Source Naturals Brand of R-Lipoic Acid for $4 more (100 mg, 60 capsules):

http://www.iherb.com/ProductDetails.aspx?c=1&pid=1507&at=0