Lipoic acid, antioxidant activity, anti-inflammatory activity, hypolipidemic activity, cardio protective activity, hypoglycemic activity and role on metabolism
Description : Lipoic acid is an important organic compound that exerts potent antioxidant activities. It plays
Article Details :
Lipoic acid is an important organic compound that exerts potent antioxidant activities. It plays vital role in promoting the metabolic process of body and helps in energy production. It offers various other health benefits as well.
Chemistry
- Lipoic acid is an organosulfur compound, obtained from octanoic acid
- It has the general formula of C8H14O2S2
- It is solid in nature
- It is yellow in colour
- Body requires lipoic acid for aerobic metabolism
What is the difference between lipoic acid and alpha lipoic acid?
Natural form of lipoic acid is generally termed as R lipoic acid, whereas, alpha lipoic acid is a form of lipoic acid that contains 50% natural and 50% of unnatural lipoic acid
How does lipoic acid work in body?
Body mainly utilizes lipoic acid for energy purposes. It is associated with breaking down carbohydrates and makes energy available for other organs that support them to perform in an effective manner.
Sources
Human body can synthesize alpha lipoic acid but in smaller amounts thus it is better to consume lipoic acid from diet or supplements for optimizing its intake.
Below list will give an overview of foods, which are rich in lipoic acid –
- Red meat
- Organ meat especially liver and kidney
- Spinach
- Broccoli
- Yeast, mainly brewer's yeast
- Brussels sprouts
- Tomatoes
- Peas
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Yams
- Rice bran
Health benefits
Antioxidant activity
- It exerts strong antioxidant activity that helps to lessen the risk of developing degenerative diseases by preventing oxidative stress
- It helps to react with reactive oxygen species (ROS) thus helps to neutralize them as a result it helps to spare various important biological substances of the body (like DNA, RNA, proteins, lipids) from oxidative damages that ultimately help to maintain the structure as well as functions of these respective biological substances
- It has seen that ROS has been implicated in the progression of neurodegeneration, carcinogenesis, ageing, atherosclerosis, diabetes etc. As lipoic acid is responsible for decreasing the concentration of ROS in body hence it helps to delay the progression of above stated conditions and promotes well being
- It helps to prevent lipid peroxidation too
Anti-inflammatory activity
- It plays significant role in decreasing the concentration of inflammatory mediators especially the level of C reactive protein in body thus helps to prevent inflammation
- It also helps to prevent swelling as well as pain
- Individual suffer from chronic inflammatory diseases like arthritis or gout or rheumatism or asthma or allergy or autoimmune disease should include lipoic acid in their diet for early recovery
Role on nervous system
- It helps to promote the functionality of both central nervous system and peripheral nervous system
- It also helps to sustain the functionality of nerve cells by protecting them from oxidative damages hence reduces the susceptibility of developing neurological disorders
- It plays significant role in delaying the progression of carpal tunnel syndrome, which is characterized by tingling sensation or numbness especially in hand. It has seen that taking lipoic acid especially alpha lipoic acid before or after surgery for carpal tunnel syndrome significantly improves the rate of recovery
Role on skin
- Its antioxidant activity is closely related with preventing ageing
- It has seen that application of cream containing lipoic acid on skin is associated with incorporating the lipoic acid within the inner layer of skin and helps to protect the skin from the harmful effect of UV radiation by offering antioxidant protection
- Lipoic acid also helps to increase the concentration of glutathione, which is another important antioxidant that helps to protect the skin from oxidative damages and reduces the risk of developing skin disorders
- It is very effective for reducing the prevalence of wrinkles, acne, dryness of skin etc
Other health benefits
- It exhibits chelate activity especially for iron as well as for copper
- It helps to improve vascular function as well
- It acts as cofactor for various mitochondrial enzymes and helps in the catalysis of alpha keto acid
- It is also associated with increasing the activity of other antioxidant like CoQ10 or glutathione, which help to fight against several degenerative diseases
