Hi all,

quick question. I think I read somewhere but the search engine doesn't help: which kind of alpha lipoic acid is recommended? L? R?

Cheers
Paul

Lipoic acid occurs in two forms which are enantiomers ("mirror images") of each other.

One form, R-lipoic acid is biologically active because it is a cofactor for some enzymes. The other enantiomer, S-lipoic acid, is biologically inactive.

[Edited]
Sorry, I used a different nomenclature to yours. In mine "R" is the same as "D" in yours (did you mean to type "D" rather than "R"?) and "S" is the same as "L" in yours.

So, what you want is R-lipoic acid (D-lipoic acid in your system) not S-lipoic acid (L-lipoic acid in your system).

Thanks Kiwi. I was confused by the lettering. What confuses me more is that the same brand (Doctor's Best) markets both Alphalipoic acid and R-Lipoic acid.

I am using the former, but confused as to which is the best one.

From their Web site what they sell as Alpha Lipoic Acid contains a 50:50 mixture of active R-lipoic acid and inactive S-lipoic acid (what chemists call a racemic mixture) but what they sell as R-Lipoic Acid only contains the active form.

Thanks a lot Kiwi. I wouldn't have been able to work that out myself. I'll order the R-Lipoic version.

Paul