Big Pharma doesn’t really like it when their products are threatened by these things known as “nutrients.”

I’m sure some of you don’t believe that’s true…

However,  given how much pharmaceutical companies (read: CEOs and investors) stand to lose if their drugs are displaced by natural cures, you can see why they’re anxious about people learning about the healing power of nutrients…

Especially when those nutrients can be found in ample supply in foods and/or low-cost supplements.

My job here today isn’t to stir the pot and expose the pharmaceutical industries’ devious practices…

You can use good ol’ Google to see just how deep that rabbit hole goes….

Instead, I wanted to talk about a certain nutrient (ironically found in “rabbit food”), and how it might help positively alter the quality of your life.

I’ve written about this nutrient before, but because it’s so powerful I wanted to help cast more light on it.

This is especially important if you’ve ever wanted to keep your inflammation in check, to help keep your hormone levels in line, and/or to even lose weight in the future. 

Why Alpha Lipoic Acid Has Scared Pharmaceutical Companies

If you pay attention to the ads for drugs on TV, you’ll notice some of the most popular drugs are designed for people who suffer from diabetes.

Again, while my attempt here isn’t to convince you that pharmaceutical companies are in on a vast conspiracy to keep you sick, you’ve got to understand they only make money when you’re ill.

If you get better, they stop making money.

This is especially true for people with type 2 diabetes.

Many of you already know what type 2 diabetes is…

For those who don’t know, I think it’s important you see the definition as it’s provided by the leading organization that’s helping “advance” the elimination of this condition.

“Diabetes is a problem with your body that causes blood glucose (sugar) levels to rise higher than normal. This is also called hyperglycemia. Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes.

If you have type 2 diabetes your body does not use insulin properly. This is called insulin resistance. At first, your pancreas makes extra insulin to make up for it. But, over time it isn’t able to keep up and can’t make enough insulin to keep your blood glucose at normal levels.”

Pharmaceutical companies love manufacturing drugs for type 2 diabetes.

As long as people continue to take them and keep their diet and exercise regiment the same, they remain in a “drug induced purgatory” – a purgatory where their diabetes is never “cured,” but they’re still able to function relatively fine.

The thing is, we know most people who deal with type 2 diabetes can eventually correct their blood sugar levels and overcome insulin resistance through diet and exercise…

Essentially curing type 2 diabetes.*

And that’s where the use of Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) comes into play.

Unfortunately, there aren’t tons and tons of studies supporting ALA’s ability to help regulate blood sugar as a means of treating diabetes.

But the ones we’ve got prove quite authoritatively the use of this nutrient is beneficial to blood sugar regulation.

This is why I wanted to take the time to introduce you to these studies; I believe introducing more ALA into your body via diet or supplementation can help treat insulin resistance and can get blood sugar back in line. 

These Studies On Alpha Lipoic Acid’s Ability To Regulate Insulin Resistance Are Quite Impressive

We know there are many instances where people are able to overcome insulin resistance and benefit from normalized blood sugar levels. 

Once this happens, the worries about diseases like diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and obesity pretty much evaporate.

However, the problem for many people (and why they rely on drugs to modify insulin production) is their bodies simply won’t use blood glucose correctly.

As a result, blood sugar levels never normalize.

This is where the use of Alpha Lipoic Acid comes in.

In a 2006 study published in Hormones, researchers were able to show how the introduction of Alpha Lipoic Acid positively affected how blood glucose was absorbed by the body and then converted into energy (also known as glycemic control-insulin sensitivity). 

To determine this, they selected 12 obese patients who had type 2 diabetes as subjects. They gave the subjects an oral dose (as opposed to IV doses, which other studies have used) of 600 mg twice a day for a period of four weeks.

Alongside these participants, the doctors followed 12 healthy subjects. This control group didn’t have type 2 diabetes, weren’t obese, and were deemed to have normal insulin and glucose levels.

And their findings on what ALA did were quite compelling.

As Nutrition Express wrote: 

“At the end of the study period, scientists found that the diabetics were able to clear glucose from the blood nearly twice as quickly—an average 85.8% increase in clearing rate—as before taking ALA.

The doctors also determined how sensitive the diabetics were to insulin—the natural hormone produced by the healthy body that regulates glucose—and found that insulin sensitivity increased 62.3% after taking ALA.

The scientists noted that there was no statistically significant difference in insulin sensitivity between the diabetics who had taken ALA and the healthy control group, leading the doctors to conclude that short-term oral ALA treatment increases insulin sensitivity in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus.”

So how does ALA work to improve insulin resistance?

When glucose is introduced into the body, insulin’s job is to find the glucose and then “suck it up” into fat and muscle cells for energy.

As food is digested and dissolved into blood sugar (glucose), insulin is released from the pancreas to help facilitate this process.

People with insulin resistance find their body won’t perform like it’s supposed to.

We think the reason ALA performs like it did in the study above is because ALA enhances the insulin signaling process.

So instead of insulin not being released to take care of the blood glucose (which happens in people with insulin resistance), the ALA triggers insulin to grab glucose and shuttle it into the cells to create energy, while simultaneously preventing it from being stored in the body as fat. 

That’s what another study published in 1996 in Diabetes noted.

Though this wasn’t a human study, it was conducted on cute little lab rats; and the findings were pretty conclusive.

The scientists took rats suffering from NIDDM (a chronic condition that negatively affects the way the body processes glucose) and gave them ALA to see what would happen to their ability to metabolize glucose. 

They administered high doses of ALA (100mg per kg of bodyweight) for an hour, and then 5-100mg of ALA per kg of body weight daily for 10 days, all the while assessing what happened to their glucose metabolization.

The scientists discovered this regimen of ALA therapy helped the rats metabolize glucose at a much better rate than before. This also led to lower plasma levels of insulin (down 15-17%), which is a promising treatment for severe insulin resistance. 

There are a few other studies showing how ALA helps out with diabetes (specifically with nerve pain) but more research needs to be conducted.

Truth be told, this is just one use out of a long list of uses for ALA. It’s one of mother nature’s most powerful antioxidants, and has proven uses for a wide variety of other conditions, including:

• Eye protection
• Neuroprotection
• Migraine prevention
• Metal chelation
• Weight loss
• Exercise improvement

ALA is available in abundance in a variety of natural food sources, but if you want therapeutic doses I recommend taking it in supplement form from a high quality, reliable source.

* There are many factors involved in “curing” type 2 diabetes. Some people will never be able to reverse the damage done by the disease and will remain dependent on pharmaceuticals to have the semblance of a normal life.