Alpha-Lipoic Acid reduces pain without known cause

Definition: "An ergogenic aid is any substance or phenomenon that enhances performance "

12.07.2023

A supplement with alpha-lipoic acid reduces pain complaints for which doctors have no explanation. A relatively high dose of 800 milligrams per day works just as well as half that.

A supplement with alpha-lipoic acid reduces pain complaints for which doctors have no explanation. A relatively high dose of 800 milligrams per day works just as well as half that.

Study

Italian pharmacologists, affiliated with the University of Naples Federico II, experimented with a group of about 200 test subjects. The subjects had in common that they had pain complaints - especially in the joints - for which there was no medical explanation. Idiopathic pain, doctors call this.

Apart from their pain complaints, the test subjects were healthy. So they were not diabetic or pre-diabetic. Diabetes can damage nerves, causing neuropathic pain, often in the feet. Some of the subjects had neuropathic pain, but this was not due to diabetes.

Some of the subjects took a placebo every day for 2 months. Another group took 400 milligrams of alpha-lipoic acid daily, another group took 800 milligrams of alpha-lipoic acid daily.

Results
Supplementation with alpha-lipoic acid reduced the pain reported by the subjects. It didn't matter which method the researchers used to determine the pain.

Both doses worked equally well.

Alpha-Lipoic Acid reduces pain without known cause

The Italians measured the concentration of the liver enzymes SGOT and SGPT in the test subjects' blood, so that they could detect any liver damage. They also measured the concentration of creatinine, a marker of kidney failure. Supplementation had no effect on these values.

Conclusion
"The management of idiopathic pain is a real challenge for physicians", write the Italians, "as they cannot treat the causes underlying this symptom but can only relieve the pain with the use of symptomatic drugs which generally have a good and rapid efficacy, although in some cases possess limited efficacy and considerable side effects."

"Thus, in the absence of a diagnosis of pain-causing disease, the use of an alpha-lipoic acid food supplement, [...] could be considered as a feasible option both in the context of general practice and in specialist settings where appropriate."

Source:
Biomed Pharmacother. 2021 Dec;144:112308.

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