R-Lipoic acid always caused me to awaken at night with a fast heartbeat. I tried it three times and each time I had the same side effect.

I had a jittery effect in the beginning. I had to start at 50mg a day because of that reaction. It wasn't exactly an increased heart rate, just an unsettled feeling. I took it in the morning for that reason. R-lipoic is a mitochondrial enhancing supplement. Our mitochondria are the energy producers in our cells.

I used 50mg a day for a month, then increased to 100mg.
I am now trying 200mg a day, in divided doses. Perhaps in higher dose (using the RALA brand from Doctor's Best) I'll see some blood sugar improvements.

What time of day were you taking it? I take it in the morning, so I don't notice anything. My wife takes niacin for cholesterol (which works as well or better than prescription drugs w/o the many of the downsides) at night because in the morning she gets the flush much worse. At night she sleeps right through it.

I don't know if there are any time-release types of R-lipoic; that might help, or splitting the dose throughout the day as mrsD suggests.

I tried upping mine to 200 mg/day for a couple months, but didn't notice any difference at all, so I cut it back to 100 mg again. If it ever stops working or I get worse (my PN seems to be somewhat better right now) I wouldn't hesitate to up it again before going back to gabby....

Doc

Update on my 200mg a day ALA... Can't take it! I am so hyper and jived up.... I am going back to 100mg a day.