Hi 30 year old guy here with neuropathic pains in feet, hands, face etc didn't get anywhere with various doctors. So I decided to give lipoic acid acid a go, just ALA not the r only form. I took 600mg in the morning two days running and it gave me nasty insomnia. Is it effective at much lower doses like 100mg? I get insomnia easily from supplements and some meds, b12 I'm having the same problem with. It's a little frustrating for me. I'm going to give benfotiamine a go next. Thanks. Chris.

Insomnia is listed as a side effect of lipoic acid.

From my own experience I found I would get jittery too, on high doses daily.

I suspect if one gets insomnia and is sure it is the ALA, then perhaps you don't need it. There are reports to of stimulation of the heart as well.

We are all different and ALA does work for some people. But others have less impressive results and/or side effects.

Choosing supplements really needs an understanding of your cause. ALA is mostly suggested for people with diabetic neuropathy. But there are many other causes, which might not respond to ALA much.

You need to pay attention to what you were doing when this started. Medications/drugs from your doctor? A viral infection? trauma? excessive exercise? Reactions from foods? exposure to toxins and solvents in your daily activities? There are many more triggers. Is your PN constant or does it come and go? Things like that.

Problem there is it could be infection, too much exercise, or reaction to foods, any of those. It doesn't come and go and doesn't respond to special diets or anti inflammatory medicines. I was told it may have been triggered by reactive arthritis while doing yoga and underlying hypermobility has resulted in chronic neuropathic pain. Well I think it is worth trying a few of these supplements anyway incase they do help the tingling and pain. Will give ALA a miss though. Thanks.

The tendons have nerves in them, so overstretching them can cause severe pain. This type of pain can be long standing as the tendons don't heal up quickly. This is why a sprain takes so long to heal.

It might be a good idea to stop the Yoga. However the breathing exercises are useful to reducing pain, as they prevent anxious breathing which creates a form of metabolic acidosis and may give PN symptoms.

This is my problem too. Underlying hypermobility disorder and now full blown small fiber poly neuropathy and dysautonomia. It's no where near as debilitating as it was when it came on, but my life has been difficult for the past 3 years. We should compare notes. Similar situation. I did intense yoga and interval training for years.

ALA was nightmare for me. After a two weeks, I was shaking like I was on steroids. My blood sugar was so low all the time that I was starving even while I was eating, couldn't eat enough protein. I'm hypoglycemic already, so it was a disaster. I can see why it would be extremely medicinal for diabetes and thus diabetes induced neuropathy, but not for whatever causes mine.

Yeah that does sound quite similar - I was always fine until I reached 28 (2 years ago) and maybe doing too much yoga, could be related to mild GI issue I was having, being in India at the time viruses and bacteria could be related. I'll never know quite why it happened then. Have you found anything that helps?

I was doing OK since it calmed down a bit, until a few months ago when it seemed to have spread to my butt and now I have sciatica which is nasty and have been working at home since then. It seems to be getting better, although it does frustate me that I haven't found anything that helps the condition aside from sleeping well. Not sure what to do - so I was looking for supplements that may help neuropathic pain. It seems most studies have been done on diabetic peripheral neuropathy, although there are a few on HIV drug related neuropathy. Lyrica and amitriptyline don't help the pain, but they sure knock me out in the evening which I like