Why R+ALA?

Insulow® is not alpha lipoic acid that is sold in supplement stores.

If you're taking a conventional lipoic acid pill, then you need to know that the health-promoting, anti-aging benefits associated with this nutrient are only being delivered by half of your supplement. The other half is worse than useless: it actually antagonizes the effects of the good half of the supplement. To put it bluntly: the lipoic acid you're taking harbors both a good side and a bad side."

Many molecules used by the body have a specific "handedness" (chirality). For example, alpha-tocopherol, or essential fatty acids. In some cases, synthetic versions of these molecules have a different "handedness" than the natural molecule. You're probably familiar with some examples of this phenomenon, such as natural d- vs. synthetic dl-alpha-tocopherolor natural cis- vs. unnatural trans-fatty acids.

Some of these artificial molecules are merely less potent than the natural forms, such as in the case of dl-alpha-tocopherol. But others are actually harmful - for example, trans-fatty acids.

Unless they specify otherwise, "lipoic acid" supplements are a 50/50 mixture of the natural R(+)-lipoic acid, and the synthetic S(-)-lipoic acid. These mixtures are called "racemates." In some cases, S(-)-lipoic acid - or the racemate - is simply less effective than R(+)-lipoic acid. But in other cases, the S(-)-form actually acts in opposition to the R(+).

What researchers say about the two Lipoic Acids?

"We're finding - and others are, too - that the R(+)-form - the natural form - is much more powerful than the racemic mixture ... Hopefully ... companies are going to be producing on more of a clinical scale the R(+)-form of lipoic acid, because we're finding very significant effects using this, as opposed to the racemic mixture." [This is what Insulow has done]
Dr. Tory Hagen, in Mitochondrial Decay in Aging.

"We have presented in this study new information indicating that this enhancement of glucose metabolism is stereospecific, with the R(+)-enantiomer being much more effective than the S(-)- enantiomer."
Dr. Ryan Streeper and colleagues, in The American Journal of Physiology.

"Lipoic acid sold in a health food store is a synthetic mixture, a racemic mixture. And R[+]- is the natural form and S[-]- is an unnatural one ... And in our hands R[+]- works and S[-]- doesn't."
Dr. Bruce Ames, in Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence.

"R[+]-LA [that is, R(+)-lipoic acid], and not a racemic mixture of R[+]-and S[-]- LA, should be considered a choice for therapeutic applications."
Dr. Lester Packer and colleagues, in Free Radical Biology and Medicine.

"The S[-]-enantiomer … part of the racemate, which is present as about a 50% impurity, needs to be eliminated."
Dr. Guido Zimmer and colleagues, in Methods in Enzymoogy.