Medicine Description
Indication For nutritional supplementation, also for treating dietary shortage or imbalance. Mechanism of action Lipoic Acid is generally involved in oxidative decarboxylations of keto acids and is presented as a growth factor for some organisms. Lipoic acid exists as two enantiomers, the R-enantiomer and the S-enantiomer. Normally only the R-enantiomer of an amino acid is biologically active, but for lipoic acid the S-enantiomer assists in the reduction of the R-enantiomer when a racemic mixture is given. Some recent studies have suggested that the S-enantiomer in fact has an inhibiting effect on the R-enantiomer, reducing its biological activity substantially and actually adding to oxidative stress rather than reducing it. Furthermore, the S-enantiomer has been found to reduce the expression of GLUT-4s in cells, responsible for glucose uptake, and hence reduce insulin sensitivity.