is ALA all its cracked up too be?

[MS]

100% correcto mundo NY Muscle. In the context of breast feeding and infants, ALA is used to mean "alpha linolenic acid" which is also pretty good for ya, but nothing like "alpha lipoic acid".

In a healthy infant/adult human the body can make all of the alpha LIPOIC acid it needs ("healthy" being an incredibly vague term which prolly applies to very few folks leading a standard western lifestyle/diet). However the body cannot make any alpha LINOLENIC acid, so it is even more crucial to make sure you get enough of this stuff.....Alpha LINOLENIC acid also increases insulin sensitivity in folks that are deficient.

 

[drveejay11]

Yes, I have to say that ALA is great....

 

[pryncess]

i've been reading thru this thread and noticed something pretty interesting--maybe because i'm a chick don't really know but what when the ALA puts me in ketosis, nothing knocks it out and effects of one dose lasts 6.5-7.5 hours (begins to taper off somewhere around the 7 hr mark).

i forgot had a pee test appt and my doc would shit if he saw me in ketosis so decided to eat every piece of sugar laden candy i could find to try and break (starting about 2hrs before appt). i couldn't break it--my doc went ballistic, i tried to tell him it was the ALA and he looked at me like i was an idiot because i thought some antioxidant could do this.

anyway--when i want to get in ketosis fast or stay in ketosis but have some carbs, i take 600mg prior to eating--1 hour prior, i've noticed if i see low on the ketostix then start eating, ketostix stay low--if i wait until stix say med-high then stays there. i think if you eat too soon, stops the effects at level started but if you let it reach a higher potential then will continue until next dose. you all are using extremely high amounts--i'm not a body builder though so i guess it depends on what you are using it for--i take 600mg every 7 hours and wait one hour before eating.

 

[luto199]

i think if you eat too soon, stops the effects at level started but if you let it reach a higher potential then will continue until next dose.

I think thats interesting, i usually end up taking my r-ALA 0-5 min before eating. I was wondering how long i should wait before eating, and was worrying that the r-ALA was'nt having enough time to act. Lately i have been taking it 10-15 min before eating, because it just made more sense to me.

 

[pryncess]

i think waiting is good--i'd say 15m to 30m; i'm probably overdoing it at one hour but it just works for me--i don't eat until i get to work so if i take about 30m before i leave home in the morning the timing works fine plus don't have to retake before lunch usually then take on the way home from work and ready for dinner. i used to take as a simple antioxident--so like vitamins i would take with food, well one day i took them and forgot to eat (got busy) and realized a couple hours later i was in really mild ketosis--it took me forever to make the association but when i did i started to experiment alot looking for the smallest amount of ALA to keep me in the state i wanted to be and how long it lasts.

 

[luto199]

Yea the way i see it now is, it cant be wrose waiting, but eating too soon could be problematic, so I just take it 15-30 min before meals now.
So where do you get your ALA from? I'm ordering some from iceman and anabolical.com to compare it against r-ala.

 

[pryncess]

I haven't tried the r-ala (think jarrow combo once). I've been ordering mine from iceman too--tried a few different brands to see how worked and which ones were good then thought for iceman's price i would try his--they work fine.

Curious how you'd like the regular stuff in comparison to the r-ala. If you are going for ketosis, pick a dose (over 500) then test with keto strips at 15 and 30m after taking and see how you register. I'm convinced it dose doesn't depend on size just becuase of all the diabetic studies with ALA that I've read so I would start with 600mg then up it if you don't see the reading you want--now if your dosing to get the most glucose into muscle????