Quite simply, makes me feel extremely tired. A day of ALCAR without ALA, I feel great. A day of ALA with no ALCAR, I feel tired. A day of both, I feel tired. I'm taking 1g ALCAR each day. I've tried varying my ALA dose, but small or large, it makes no difference.
Are there any alternatives to ALA? Would a large amount of antioxidants be able to provide the same protection ALA does? Lots of green tea, vitamins, fruits, veggies, etc; my diet is extremely high in antioxidants. Additionally, I'm only taking 1g of ALCAR a day.
Should I stick with the ALCAR while using other antioxidants? Or should I just drop the ALCAR entirely?
ALCAR, ALA -- these are the only things I'm taking.
ALCAR can be taken alone unless you are overdosing it. The initial reason for including ALA in the regime was to counteract the purported increase in oxidative stress caused by ALCAR, but this side effect turned out to be a because too high an ALCAR dose was used in the initial rodent studies. Lower doses ALCAR were found to be more effective than higher doses in reversing signs of aging. Furthermore, lower doses of ALCAR alone was found to reduce, noit increase, markers of oxidative stress.
Ames et al. did an ALCAR dose-response study here:
Delaying Brain Mitochondrial Decay and Aging with Mitochondrial Antioxidants and Metabolites
JIANKANG LIU, HANI ATAMNA, HIROHIKO KURATSUNE, AND BRUCE N. AMES
From the study:
A previous study showed that feeding old rats ALCAR converted the mitochondria
of liver to a more youthful state, both structurally and functionally, and increased
ambulatory activity in the old rats, but caused an increase in oxidants.22 The
increased oxidants have now been found to be a side effect of the very high dose
used. We carried out a dose-response study on the effects of lower doses of ALCAR
on rat brain function, mitochondrial morphological change, and oxidative stress in
old rats.93 ALCAR was administered at 0.15%, 0.5%, and 1.5% in drinking water
for 4 weeks. We found that there was an age-related decrease in carnitine levels in
the brain and plasma (TABLE 1), with an age-related increase in the liver. The increased
level of carnitines in liver may suggest an impaired net transport of carnitine
from the liver to the blood in old animals, because there is an age-dependent decrease
in the plasma.
...
The lower concentrations of ALCAR (0.15% and especially 0.5%) ameliorated
the age-associated decline in ambulatory activity (TABLE 2) and mitochondrial cristae
loss in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus (FIG. 12) more effectively than the
1.5% dose. The lower doses had no effect on protein oxidation, in contrast to the
1.5% dose, which caused an increase in protein carbonyls in the brain. Furthermore,
lower doses (0.15%) also reduced the age-dependent increase in malondialdehyde,
an end product of lipid peroxidation, more effectively than the 1.5% dose (data not
shown). These results suggest (1) that oxidative stress in the brain, a side effect, only
occurs at very high dose of ALCAR administration to old rats, and (2) that a lower
dose of ALCAR administered to old rats can improve brain function by partially reversing
the age-associated mitochondrial decay, by repairing mitochondrial structure,
and by reducing oxidative stress
For some ideas on what counts as an overdose in humans, see this thread
http://www.imminst.o...showtopic=26055
Edited by andre, 13 April 2009 - 01:12 PM.
