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Acetyl-L-Carnitine and R-Alpha Lipoic AcidR-Alpha Lipoic Acid Plus
Acetyl-L-Carnitine A Combination Pack Sale Price $43.91 & Acetyl-L-Carnitine (120 vcapsules) Sale US$43.91 (Reg. $82.27)
Suggested usage: Take 2 - 3 capsules of each daily. |
5-HTP Acetyl-l-carnitine Alpha-GPC BioAssimilate Enzyme BioDiet Plus™ BioEndurance™ CoQ10 100 mg CoQ10 60 mg with Omega-3 CoQ10 Ubiquinol DHEA GABA Glucosamine Chondroitin MSM Hyaluronic Acid with MSM L-theanine LIBIDOBLAST® Melatonin NEURO CLEAR™ Omega-3 Fish Oil Double Strength Omega-3 Fish Oil Enteric Coated Pregnenolone R-Alpha Lipoic Acid Resveratrol St. John's Wort |
Source: University Of California - Berkeley(http://www.berkeley.edu/)Date: Posted 2/19/2002
Dietary Supplements Make Old Rats Youthful, May Help Rejuvenate Aging Humans, According To UC Berkeley Study
Berkeley - Two dietary supplements, straight off the health food store shelf put the spark back into aging rats, and might do the same for aging baby boomers, according to a study at the University of California, Berkeley, and Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute. A team of researchers led by Bruce N. Ames, professor of molecular and cell biology at UC Berkeley, fed older rats two chemicals normally found in the body's cells and available as dietary supplements: acetyl-L-carnitine and an antioxidant, alpha-lipoic acid.
In three articles in the February 19 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ames and his colleagues report the surprising results. Not only did the older rats do better on memory tests, they had more pep, and the energy-producing organelles in their cells worked better.
"With the two supplements (acetyl-l-carnitine and alpha lipoic acid) together, these old rats got up and did the Macarena," said Ames, also a researcher at Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI). "The brain looks better, they are full of energy - everything we looked at looks more like a young animal."
"The animals seem to have much more vigor and are much more active than animals not on this diet, signaling massive improvement to these animals' health and well-being," said former UC Berkeley post-doctoral fellow Tory M. Hagen, now an assistant professor at the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University, Corvallis. "And we also see a reversal in loss of memory. That is a dual-track improvement that is significant and unique. This is really starting to explode and move out of the realm of basic research into people."
One of the three PNAS articles probes the reasons behind this rejuvenation, concluding that the two chemicals "tune up" the energy-producing organelles that power all cells, the mitochondria. Both chemicals are normally used in mitochondria.
Ames calls mitochondria the "weak link in aging." Evidence has been piling up, he said, that deterioration of mitochondria is an important cause of aging. A significant cause of this deterioration, he believes, is the accumulation of destructive free radicals - byproducts of normal metabolism - that disable enzymes and other chemicals.
The combination therapy targets mitochondria to get rid of destructive radicals and to boost the activity of a damaged enzyme, carnitine acetyltransferase, that plays a key role in burning fuel in mitochondria. The researchers hoped that the anti-oxidant alpha-lipoic acid would do the former, and that flooding the cell with acetyl-L-carnitine, one of two proteins that the enzyme acts on, would achieve the latter.
Experiments showed that this regimen worked. Associate researcher Jiankang Liu of CHORI, UC Berkeley postdoctoral fellow David W. Killilea and Ames demonstrated that the enzyme carnitine acetyltransferase is less active in old rats than in young rats, and that it binds less tightly to acetyl-L-carnitine in older rats.
Supplementation with acetyl-L-carnitine or a combination of acetyl-L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid restored the enzyme's activity nearly to that found in young rats and substantially restored binding to acetyl-L-carnitine.
"The acetyl-L-carnitine is protecting the protein and the higher levels are enabling the protein to work, while alpha-lipoic acid knocks down oxygen radicals," Ames said. "Each chemical solves a different problem - the two together are better than either one alone."
Ames and Hagen have long had an interest in mitochondria as they relate to aging, and they were intrigued by a 1999 Italian study that showed acetyl-L-carnitine, when fed to old rats, improved mitochondrial activity.
The two thought this might be a way to reverse the effects of aging on mitochondria, and in various trials found it to work to some degree. Free radicals were still damaging the cell, however, so they decided to pair it with one of the few antioxidants that gets into mitochondria, alpha-lipoic acid. Lipoic acid is produced by mitochondria and boosts levels of other antioxidants.
In the second of the PNAS studies, Hagen, Ames and colleagues compared 2- to 4-month-old rats to 24- to 28-month-old rats, all fed acetyl-L-carnitine in their water and alpha-lipoic acid in their chow.
After as much as a month on the supplements, the old and lethargic rats became more peppy, Ames said.
"We significantly reversed the decline in overall activity typical of aged rats to what you see in a middle-aged to young adult rat 7 to 10 months of age," Hagen said. "This is equivalent to making a 75- to 80-year-old person act middle-aged. We've only shown short-term effects, but the results give us the rationale for looking at these things long term."
They found also that the combination of lipoic acid and acetyl-carnitine improved mitochondrial activity and thus cellular metabolism, and increased levels of various chemicals known to decline with age, including ascorbic acid, an antioxidant.
In a third study, Liu, Hagen, Ames and colleagues fed old rats a similar diet of the two supplements and looked at memory function as measured by the Morris water maze test and a peak procedure for assessing temporal or time-based memory developed by Seth Roberts, professor of psychology at UC Berkeley. They found that supplementation improved both spatial and temporal memory, and reduced the amount of oxidative damage to RNA in the brain's hippocampus, an area important in memory. In electron microscope pictures of cells from the hippocampus, mitochondria showed less structural decay in old rats that had a supplemented diet.
"We did two different tests for cognitive activity in rats, and in both it made a big difference to feed them this mixture," Ames said. "Memory degenerates with age, and this makes them better."
The analysis of nucleic acid damage in the brain was performed with post-doctoral researcher Elizabeth Head and Carl W. Cotman, professor of neurobiology and behavior, at the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at UC Irvine. UC Berkeley psychology graduate student Afshin M. Gharib worked with Liu to conduct the peak performance tests.
"In aging, you're oxidizing the proteins in mitochondria and they lose activity," Ames explained. "If some of that lost activity is due to binding for substrate or coenzyme - like binding of acetyl-L-carnitine by carnitine acetyltransferase - and you can raise the level of those, then you can reverse some of the loss.
"We showed, in fact, that that is what's happening with acetyl-L-carnitine. Aldehydes from lipid oxidation are glomming onto that protein, and that is what appears to cause the reduction in binding activity. But if you raise the level of acetyl-L-carnitine, now it works."
Hagen added, "With aging, we see so many different things that are occurring to mitochondria that then lead to consequences in the cell. If you tune up mitochondria you may have a means of at least delaying the onset of a number of age-related problems that we encounter, or we can in some ways, hopefully, reverse what has already taken place."
The work was supported by grants from the Ellison Foundation, the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health, the Wheeler Fund of the Dean of Biology at UC Berkeley, the Bruce and Giovanna Ames Foundation and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences Center at UC Berkeley.
R-Alpha Lipoic Acid
You will notice the difference in energy levels and general well-being.
Each 1 capsule contains:
R-Alpha Lipoic Acid 100 mg
Suggested usage: Take 2 - 3 capsules daily.
Biosynergy's pure natural R-Alpha Lipoic Acid (R-ALA), and active isomer of Lipoic Acid, is easily synthesized and metabolized by the body. R-ALA is 2 times more effective than regular (RS) Alpha Lipoic Acid and is a key component of mitochondrial dehydrogenase, which may help to slow the natural aging process in animals. Alpha lipoic acid is known as the "universal antioxidant" because of its unique solubility in both water and fat. It has the ability to conserve and prolong the life of vitamins C & E in the body, increasing their effectiveness. Alpha lipoic acid is also an excellent metal detoxifier, particularly for mercury and cadmium, which it binds to and neutralizes for excretion.
Alpha Lipoic Acid serves as a coenzyme in the energy production process in the cells which can provide quick bursts of energy. Alpha Lipoic Acid is unique in that it is both water and fat soluble which allows it to enter all parts of the cell to neutralize free radicals. Alpha Lipoic Acid contributes to invigorating mental and physical energy and a reduction in muscle fatigue. Dr. Lester Packer, a leading researcher in the area of antioxidants and a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California at Berkeley says "Alpha-Lipoic acid could have far-reaching consequences in the search for prevention and therapy of chronic degenerative diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease" .... "and because it’s the only antioxidant that can easily get into the brain, it could be useful in preventing damage from a stroke".
Common uses for supplemental alpha Lipoic Acid:
Suggested dosage for R-Alpha Lipoic Acid is 100 mg two to three times daily.
Other product related news:
October 11, 2002. The incidence of inflammatory diseases such as arthritis increases with age. Free radicals promote inflammatory reactions, which antioxidants have been successful at diminishing. Scientists recently stimulated the inflammatory response of white blood cells, resulting in an increase of Intracellular Adhesion Molecule 1 (ICAM-1), which encourages white blood cells to stick to other cells, thereby inflaming tissues. Alpha-lipoic acid, a potent antioxidant, was then added to the mix. Researchers said the acid reduced the activity of ICAM-1 to levels in normal, un-stimulated cells in a dose-dependent manner. It also lowered the activity of NFkB (NFkB can increase the activity of genes responsible for inflammation). According to the study, these changes suggest that alpha-lipoic acid may help reduce the effects of inflammatory diseases such a rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis.
Supplement Facts
Serving Size 1 Capsule
Servings Per Container 120
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ONE CAPSULE PROVIDES: Biotin R-Alpha Lipoic Acid |
Amount Per Serving 100 mcg 100 mg |
% Daily Value 33% * |
| Acetyl-L-Carnitine |
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Acetyl-L-Carnitine 500 mg
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Acetyl-L-Carnitine (ALC) Acetyl-l-carnitine is a molecule that occurs naturally in the brain, liver, and kidney. Natural levels of Acetyl-l-carnitine diminish as we age.
Common uses for supplemental Acetyl-l-carnitine:
Alzheimer's
The acetyl group that is part of acetyl-L-carnitine contributes to the production of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is required for mental function. Several double-blind clinical trials suggest that acetyl-L-carnitine delays the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and enhances overall performance in some people with Alzheimer’s disease. Alzheimer’s research has been done with the acetyl-L-carnitine form, rather than the L-carnitine form, of this nutrient.
Several clinical trials have found that acetyl-L-carnitine supplementation delays the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, improves memory, and enhances overall performance in some people with Alzheimer’s disease. Overall, most short-term studies have shown clinical benefits, and most long-term studies (one year) have shown a reduction in the rate of deterioration.
Brain
One double-blind trial has found that acetyl-L-carnitine may be helpful for people with degenerative cerebellar ataxia, a loss of muscular coordination caused by disease in the cerebellum (the hind part of the brain that controls muscle tone and balance).
Several clinical trials suggest that acetyl-L-carnitine delays onset of ARCD and improves overall cognitive function in the elderly. In a controlled clinical trial, acetyl-L-carnitine was given to elderly people with mild cognitive impairment. After 45 days of acetyl-L-carnitine supplementation at 1,500 mg per day, significant improvements in cognitive function (especially memory) were observed. Another large trial of acetyl-L-carnitine for mild cognitive impairment in the elderly found that 1,500 mg per day for 90 days significantly improved memory, mood, and responses to stress. The favorable effects persisted at least 30 days after treatment was discontinued. Controlled and uncontrolled clinical trials on acetyl-L-carnitine corroborate these findings.
Depression
Acetyl-L-carnitine may be effective for depression experienced by the elderly. A preliminary trial found that acetyl-L-carnitine supplementation was effective at relieving depression in a group of elderly people, particularly those showing more serious clinical symptoms. These results were confirmed in another similar clinical trial. In that trial, participants received either 500 mg three times a day of acetyl-L-carnitine or a matching placebo. Those receiving acetyl-L-carnitine experienced significantly reduced symptoms of depression compared to those receiving placebo. At least two other clinical studies of acetyl-L-carnitine for depression in the elderly have reported similar results.
Drug interactions:
Are there any drug interactions? A. Didanosine (Depletion or interference) Didanosine is a drug that blocks reproduction of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). HIV is the virus that infects people causing acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Didanosine is used in combination with other drugs to treat HIV infection.
Acetyl-l-carnitine suggested dosage is 500 mg two to three times daily.
Other product related news:
Carnitine Supplement Helps Sperm Swim By David Douglas NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Taking carnitine supplements seems to improve sperm mobility in men with poorly active sperm, a problem known as asthenozoospermia, Italian researchers report.
However, for carnitine to work, tiny structures within the cell called mitochondria must function properly. Mitochondria are important because they provide the energy needed for sperm to move their tail and "swim."
Senior investigator Dr. Carlo Foresta told Reuters Health that "it is well known that in some asthenozoospermic subjects an improvement of sperm (motion occurs) after carnitine administration...However in other asthenozoospermic patients this effect is not present."
To investigate further, Foresta of the University of Padua and colleagues studied 30 asthenozoospermic men divided into two groups depending on whether they had normal or abnormal mitochondria function. The researchers' findings appear in the medical journal Fertility & Sterility.
In patients with normal mitochondria function, movement rose from 29.3 percent before treatment to 41.1 percent after 3 months of carnitine. However, in those with abnormal function, movement held steady at about 24 percent.
Thus, Foresta concluded that carnitine treatment is useful "in ameliorating sperm motility only when optimal...mitochondrial function ... is conserved." SOURCE: Fertility & Sterility 2005.
Acetyl-L-Carnitine, ALC, Acetylcarnitine, ALCAR
Supplement Facts
Serving Size 1 Capsule
Servings Per Container 120
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One Vegetarian Capsule Provides: Acetyl-l-carnitine HCL (BiosintTM) |
Amount Per Serving 500 mg |
% Daily Value * |
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