Alpha-Lipoic Acid Beneficial To Treating Obesity, Promoting Weight Loss

Medically speaking, not all overweight people are obese. Obesity is defined as weight that exceeds 15 percent of normal weight for height and body type. "Morbid" obesity exceeds 20 percent of optimum weight.

The long-term health implications are well known, in fact, obesity is considered an outright disease. Life expectancy may be decreased in overweight and obese individuals. An obese or overweight person is at high risk for a number of serious health problems, including heart disease, high blood pressure, varicose veins, dementia, psychological stress, depression, osteoarthritis, high cholesterol, psoriatic arthritis, and diabetes.

Many scientists believe that alpha-lipoic acid is an important antioxidant. One of its most key is that it is

both fat-soluble and water-soluble. This enables it to provide antioxidant protection in a much wider range of body systems, which has resulted in some scientists referring to alpha-lipoic acid as the "universal" antioxidant.

Red meat is the best dietary source of alpha-lipoic acid. Smaller amounts occur in the leaves of some plants and in potatoes, carrots, yams, and sweet potatoes.

A study published in the journal, Current Pharmaceutical Design, sought to investigate the effect of alpha-lipoic acid in pre-obese and obese adults. The study included 1,127 men and women between the ages of 18 and 60 years. The researchers measured the BMI of each participant and found that 53 percent were obese and 43 percent were classified as pre-obese.

The subjects were then treated for four months with 800 mg per day of alpha-lipoic acid. The results revealed that pre-obese participants saw an average weight reduction of 8 percent, a two point drop in BMI and significant reductions in waist circumference and blood pressure.

The obese participants saw an average weight loss of 9 percent, a three to four point drop in BMI and also significant reductions in waist circumference and blood pressure. These results suggest that alpha-lipoic acid may be useful in treating adults with obesity related diseases although further studies should be considered to confirm these findings.

Source: Current Pharmaceutical Design
" Alpha-lipoic acid supplementation: a tool for obesity therapy? " 2010;16(7):840-6.
Article courtesy of Vitamin Power