Davey D (Bc) on 11/28/2015:

It's been a good 2 years since I started taking R factor ALA and said it didn't seem to be working that well. Was I ever wrong, It is a fact that the R-ALA does not work that good for me and that the people at the health food store told me that the R- ALA has a left spin on it, HUH.

Since then I found the R+ALA and life would be hell without it. I have been taking 200mg of the R+ALA by Prairie Naturals for about 2 years now and the difference is outstanding. The ingerdients are, Microcrystaline cellulose, Silicone dioxide, magnesium sterate in a vegetable capsule.

As I sit here typing I can feel the effects of my third dose for the evening giving me relief from a very bad attack. The Peripheral Neuropathy when acting up makes my right side mostly feel a lot of pressure in my leg and my feet feel tingly and have pressure on top where my foot feels like it has a tight shackle on it. My knee also feels a hot pressure above the knee cap on both knees but moree on the right side. Many nights I have sat up with a cold towel on my knees for relief from this condition. My doc knows about this and tells me to take it as needed.

I do find that my urine smells like amonia if I take to much.

I have type 2 diabetes and find it to be the problem for this Peripheral Neuropathy, also diagnosed about 2 years ago. I find that Cinnamon helps to control it and I don't take meds for it and avoid sugar at all costs.

Now on my bad days which I find some foods make it worse like today. So I start with 2 v caps of 200mg each right after supper. Then about 8pm I have another 2 caps. The pain starts to ease but then returns. 9pm I take another 2 caps, and then at 9:30pm another 2 caps. So that's a total of 1600mg in about 3.5 hours not to mention my regular 2 caps after lunch. That is on a bad day and for prevention I take it noon and supper at 2 caps per meal.

So in closing I am relieved that R+ALA seems to work well for me.

Liz (Boston, Ma) on 11/18/2015:

Alpha Lipoic Acid is wonderful for neuropathy. It virtually eliminated mine.

I know that mentioning brand names is discouraged here, but I think I've been around long enough that EC knows I'm not 'pimping' anything, so I'll give it a shot. :)

I used to take Trader Joe's brand (100 mg capsules). They were inexpensive and effective!

I said that I 'used to' take them, because after approximately 6-9 months of my feet feeling 100% better, I stopped taking them (one less supplement to pay for and one less to gulp-down every day) and they've remained fine. It's been over a year!

I hope others try it and find that it works equally well for them.

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Al (Alvena, Saskatchewan, Canada) on 03/04/2015:

Warning

Another update. I recently had surgery to remove the right lobe of my liver. This was due to matastatic colon cancer and as a result my blood pressure has gone up resulting in other problems including reduced energy and increased neuropathic pain. I noticed that when I had something sweet to eat like jam, cake, candy, etcetera that the neuropathic pain was reduced substantially so I started experimenting. When doing anything slightly strenuous my blood pressure and sugar would drop and my pulse would go way up so the first thing I tried was leaving out the diamacron and metformin. This allowed the sugar to increase and gave me back my energy without my blood pressure and pulse being significantly affected, but the sugar went too high so I added the metformin back in. Big surprise!!!! The neuropathic pain went way down, more than eating something sweet made it go down. As a result I typed "diamacron" into google and clicked on "diamacron side effects" and found out that it causes neuropathic pain, conflicts with metformin, is not supposed to be used if you have liver problems, are having or recently had surgery. None of this was covered in the pharmacy information sheet I was provided. The warning is not about alpha lipoic acid, but rather it is about the diamacron prescription medication and what it does. Eliminating it has made a huge difference. I have not as yet tried the nicotine but will be soon. Al

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Al (Alvena, Saskatchewan, Canada) on 03/04/2015:

Warning

Another update. I recently had surgery to remove the right lobe of my liver. This was due to matastatic colon cancer and as a result my blood pressure has gone up resulting in other problems including reduced energy and increased neuropathic pain. I noticed that when I had something sweet to eat like jam, cake, candy, etcetera that the neuropathic pain was reduced substantially so I started experimenting. When doing anything slightly strenuous my blood pressure and sugar would drop and my pulse would go way up so the first thing I tried was leaving out the diamacron and metformin. This allowed the sugar to increase and gave me back my energy without my blood pressure and pulse being significantly affected, but the sugar went too high so I added the metformin back in.

Big surprise!!!! The neuropathic pain went way down, more than eating something sweet made it go down. As a result I typed "diamacron" into google and clicked on "diamacron side effects" and found out that it causes neuropathic pain, conflicts with metformin, is not supposed to be used if you have liver problems, are having or recently had surgery. None of this was covered in the pharmacy information sheet I was provided. The warning is not about alpha lipoic acid, but rather it is about the diamacron prescription medication and what it does. Eliminating it has made a huge difference. I have not as yet tried the nicotine but will be soon. Al

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Prioris (Fl, US) on 10/01/2014:

Neuropathy:

FYI Stabilized R-ALA will likely be more effective than R-Alpha Lipoic Acid.

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