ALCAR + ALA restore function to blood vessels and lower blood pressure in patients with cardiovascular disease

Damage to the power plants of your cells (known as mitochondria) results in dysfunction of organs and systems throughout your body and it is an important aspect of the slowdown and disease process that occurs with aging. A great deal of the damage that occurs to these power plants is caused by accruing damage caused by oxidative free radicals (antioxidants are the antidote to free radical damage). Two well known and extensively studied nutrients are known to help restore energy production to the cellular power plants as well as defend them from free radicals; Acetyl-L-Carnitine (commonly referred to as ALCAR) and Alpha-Lipoic Acid (referred to as ALA).
Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine gave 36 patients with cardiovascular disease ALCAR + ALA or they gave them inactive placebo for 8 weeks. They were then crossed-over to the other treatment for an additional 8 weeks; those who took the nutrients now took placebo and vice versa for those who originally took placebo. The ALCAR + ALA worked both as antioxidants and also as rejuvenators for the mitochondrial power plants restoring their function. Those heart patients with high blood pressure or those who also had metabolic syndrome had a 9 point drop in systolic blood pressure on average. The supplements restored function to the arteries in all patients improving the dilation by 2.3%. This means that the arteries were able to do the job of opening more widely and not restricting blood flow; this is what medication for treating high blood pressure tries to achieve but in different ways, typically by blocking activities in the peripheral nervous system or that part of the nervous system outside of the brain and spinal column (this also explains the many side effects of the drugs). The study is published in the April 2007 issue of the Journal of Clinical Hypertension.

ALCAR or ALA for restoring mental function and nerve health

Damage to the power plant of our cells known as mitochondria results in decay and a decreased ability to supply energy resulting in diminished function in all things throughout our body. This is an important contributor to the loss of mobility, generalized slowing down, the decrease in power of the senses, and especially the pathologies that occur as we age.
Researchers at the Nutritional Genomics Center, Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Institute in California state that this leads to a loss of mobility and brain function in laboratory animals and in humans. Giving ALCAR with ALA to lab animals restores better mobility and brain function.
A recent meta-analysis looking backwards from 2004 found 21 human clinical trials showing that ALCAR is useful for restoring cognitive function in the elderly with the typical-mild cognitive impairment seen in just about everyone and even improved brain function in those with milder stages of Alzheimer’s disease demonstrating significant efficacy vs. placebo. A meta-analysis of 3 clinical trials shows that ALA improves neuropathy in diabetes vs. placebo (please note; there have been many additional studies since 2004 on both substances used independently or in conjunction). The review appears in the November 2004 edition of the Annuals of the New York Academy of Sciences.