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Alpha-lipoic acid benefits your health in a multitude of ways. It provides you with the best antioxidant protection. Despite its prevalence among everyday foods like spinach and broccoli, this particular compound is little known to most people.
Alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) may help shield you from the harmful effects of everyday pollution. It eliminates free radicals and prevents them from doing any damage. Alpha-lipoic acid may prevent cancer, inflammation, and diabetes before they begin to take hold and wreak havoc on your body. ALA may also improve your vision. The article discusses the importance of ALA, its recommended dosage, and its potential side effects. Take a look.
In This Article
What Is Alpha Lipoic Acid?
ALA is one antioxidant that is commonly found in plant foods. We humans also synthesize a small amount of ALA, and this amount drastically increases when we follow a healthy diet regularly. In fact, the natural form of this acid is lipoic acid (the one found in plants and synthesized in our bodies). When this acid is prepared in the lab, it is called alpha lipoic acid.
But why are we even reading about it? Why is it important? To know that, you need to understand the science behind free radicals.
ALA – The Free Radical Scavenger
The science is simple. Our bodies are made of atoms. And atoms are surrounded by electrons, in layers called shells. Each shell has a set number of atoms. If a shell is vacant, the atom bonds with other atoms to get electrons.
Such incomplete atoms are called free radicals. They are unstable and seek other atoms to bind with. In the process, they set off a chain reaction that is called oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress is a killer. It damages the body’s cells and is responsible for most of the deadly diseases that plague humanity today. Some of them include cancer, arthritis, inflammation, heart disease, Alzheimer’s,i XA condition in which a person loses memory and other essential mental abilities due to the degradation and death of brain cells. diabetes, cataractsi XA slow, progressive eye condition that turns the eye lenses cloudy, leading to blurred vision. , and other genetic diseases.
Antioxidants lend electrons to these incomplete atoms and help them stabilize. They stop oxidative stress. ALA is an antioxidant. In fact, we can say it is the most powerful of all antioxidants. This is because it is both water and fat-soluble – which means it can be properly absorbed by either of them, unlike other antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E. This is what makes ALA unique.
ALA also binds with heavy metals in the body (like mercury, arsenic, and lead) and flushes them out of your system. Heavy metals cause deadly diseases and, in worst cases, even death. ALA stops all of this.
Which is why it is important you know about it. If you pay some attention, ALA can save your health and life in several ways. We will discuss all of them now.
