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After searching medline for human controlled double blind studies re ala and the effect on liver toxicity I was able to come up with only one. There are myriad studies for other areas but this was the only human study that I found re liver Tox. I am posting it to point out that the jury is not in on this substance and while it looks very promising and perhaps is in fact the magic bullet for liver protection, at this point with what we actually know from human studies it would be wise to continue to use a variety of supps for liver protection and not rely entirely on just one. It would be nice to see this study done with a higher dose.... BTW, I had hoped to post this to that interesting sticky thread but it seems to have disappeared. 
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: Gut 1982 Dec;23(12):1088-93 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut
Treatment of alcohol-related liver disease with thioctic acid: a six month randomised double-blind trial.
Marshall AW, Graul RS, Morgan MY, Sherlock S.
A randomised double-blind trial of thioctic acid (alpha-lipoic acid), 300 mg/day versus placebo was carried out in 40 patients with pre-cirrhotic alcohol-related liver disease over a six month period. Twenty patients received the active drug and 20 placebo. Twenty-two of the 40 patients (55%) abstained from alcohol and showed significant improvements (p less than 0.01) in mean values for serum aspartate transaminase, serum glutamyl transpeptidase, and mean corpuscular volume. Seventeen of the 22 (77%) showed overall histological improvement on liver biopsy. The remaining 18 patients (45%) continued to drink but significantly reduced their mean daily alcohol intake (p less than 0.001). No significant changes occurred in their laboratory indices, but five of the 18 (28%) showed overall histological improvement. Changes occurred irrespective of treatment with thioctic acid, which suggested that, over six months, this drug did not influence the course of alcohol-related liver disease.
=============================================
: Gut 1982 Dec;23(12):1088-93 Related Articles, Books, LinkOut
Treatment of alcohol-related liver disease with thioctic acid: a six month randomised double-blind trial.
Marshall AW, Graul RS, Morgan MY, Sherlock S.
A randomised double-blind trial of thioctic acid (alpha-lipoic acid), 300 mg/day versus placebo was carried out in 40 patients with pre-cirrhotic alcohol-related liver disease over a six month period. Twenty patients received the active drug and 20 placebo. Twenty-two of the 40 patients (55%) abstained from alcohol and showed significant improvements (p less than 0.01) in mean values for serum aspartate transaminase, serum glutamyl transpeptidase, and mean corpuscular volume. Seventeen of the 22 (77%) showed overall histological improvement on liver biopsy. The remaining 18 patients (45%) continued to drink but significantly reduced their mean daily alcohol intake (p less than 0.001). No significant changes occurred in their laboratory indices, but five of the 18 (28%) showed overall histological improvement. Changes occurred irrespective of treatment with thioctic acid, which suggested that, over six months, this drug did not influence the course of alcohol-related liver disease.
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