Alpha Lipoic Acid. Is it dangerous or great?

If you’ve done any reading on mercury detox you’ve heard about alpha lipoic acid. It is both villain and hero depending on what you read. Well which is it? A little of both to be honest. Why I do I say that? There are a lot of people taking these pills for other ailments that may end up harming themselves if they have mercury fillings. It is not harmless. It’s tricky sort of like dynamite. Useful for excavation, mining and construction but really bad if it goes off on you. Personally I think it’s great and very powerful.

Here is why. Look at this ALA molecule. It is a dithiol meaning it has two sulfur for binding mercury. Good. And it has a hydrocarbon fatty tail making it fat soluble. Even better. It turns into DHLA when reduced. See ALA below.

DHLA below. Great! Two sulfur groups for binding.

So DHLA is the active form used in mitochondria for energy production and it is involved in detoxification together with glutathione. You know what else it looks like? DMSA a well know water soluble chelator. That also has two SH ends for metal binding so we know it works. This is DMSA below. It cannot get inside cells only hang out in the blood and fluids. It is not fat soluble. Note no hydrocarbon tail.

All good right. So theoretically ALA has all the makings of fat soluble mercury chelator AND a strong antioxidant.

That means it can cross cell membranes and get into the brain too. Cool. However what makes it so dangerous is exactly what makes it so good. It can cross membranes carrying things like mercury by diffusion. And molecules will move from high to low concentration. So if there is mercury in your blood and body it can carry that into your brain. Really bad! The active form is also unstable so it can convert from DHLA back to ALA and dump off the mercury somewhere else. That’s bad. Then it recycles between the active and inactive form.

What does ALA do that we know of?

1. Acts as a very strong and fat soluble antioxidant and it is one of the few substances that can get into the brain.
2. Encourages more GSH production by the cell. This is where the whey protein comes in. It is the raw material for GSH. So it kicks starts the internal glutathione production and encourages more raw material to come in which you are providing.
3. Regenerates other anti-oxidants like GSH,NADH and vitamin C
4. It can get into mitochondria to fix energy production
5. It can fix enzymes and other proteins
6. So it gets the cells own detox engine going
7. It may also chelate itself it by pulling off weakly bound mercury from thiols
8. By fixing redox it allows the cells own toxin exporters to work better. So the hg first has to get bound to GSH which ALA encourages the production of. Then this complex can be exported from the cell. Then a second transporter can move it from the brain into the bloodstream. Finally it gets to the liver and then out of the body.

How would one use ALA to detox and redox? Here is my guess

1. Pair it with liposomal glutathione maximum detox so it can stabilize redox in the body.
2. There is an excellent Penn State article that shows it boost blood GSH by 40%. See below.
3. Do use whey protein shakes daily to bring in the raw materials needed for intracellular GSH production, Cysteine is normally the rate limiting step.
4. Take vitamin C also but not at the same time as ALA or it will be converted to DHLA fast and you lose the redox benefit.
5. Go slow and low dose. This isn’t something one plays with. No mega doses. One ALA pill at a time and only the mixed form.
6. Only use the R/S mixed isomer to slow the usage and maybe get some extra binding.

So there is my theory on how ALA can potentially work as a mercury chelator INSIDE cells. GSH binds outside cells like in the blood.

So here are my rules of what NOT to do.

1. Never ever take this with mercury amalgam fillings in your mouth. It could move mercury from the blood to the brain.
2. Never ever take it if you have had fillings in the last twelve months. After that point you should be clean. So the gradient goes from brain to body and out. I would wait the full year.
3. Never ever take it while eating fish as you could move methyl mercury from blood to the brain. This is my POV not others.
4. Never take pure R isomer as it gets absorbed very fast and is used up by mitochondria potentially carrying in with what it has bound. Use the cheaper R and S isomer blend as while the R is useful and S wont be used but can maybe do some binding while there. Pure R is rapidly transported in I read. That makes sense. Dr. Cutler says anecdotally that only the patients that took the mixed form got better and those that took the pure R form got worse. Very interesting! That got me thinking. Why would that be?
5. Don’t take large doses of this as it could overwhelm your systems. Easy does it with small amounts at a time. One pill only with food and liposomal glutathione.
6. Never use this with something that mobilizes mercury like Cilantro. I’ve changed my opinion on cilantro. I think it’s too risky. Don’t use it. I got redistribution from it.

What about the the S isomer of alpha lipoic acid ?

The S racemic isomer is synthetic. It comes in a 50/50 mix with the R type in most ALA formulations unless is explicitly states R only. The mix blend is much cheaper to make and more stable. The S type stabilizes the R type. S has the wrong chirality to be used by mitochondria. The R type gets imported into mitochondria and put to work in the enzymes. It might also do some detox inside mitochondria and in the cell to so you get more energy. It also reduces GSH and C to make them active.

But the S type can’t react so the mitochondria don’t import it or use it. So it kind of just hangs out in the cell. However that is exactly what makes it interesting. If the S ALA gets reduced in the cell by vitamin C, GSH or some other enzyme to S DHLA it is a live dithiol with two sulfur binding ends. This makes it a strong mercury magnet. Mercury loves thiols with a single sulfur like on proteins and GSH but two sulfurs is super attractive. Or maybe it supports GSH so it can bind. Whatever it does it seems to work somehow. ALA actually cycles between DHLA and ALA many times.

See below redox

I think it is a legit detoxifier but one needs to be very careful. It has it’s purpose helping it to detox but it can hurt you if mishandled.

This is an interesting site from Dr. Cutler. I have not read this book or looked at his method but this is similar to my thinking on the subject. His dosing seems quite high and he does not pair it with liposomal glutathione. I don’t like that part. Too much could be mobilized and there is nothing to catch it like GSH. That’s a mistake. Slow and steady is the way. One ALA pill per day only with GSH.

https://www.maybeitsmercury.com/alpha-lipoic-acid-ala-mercury-chelation

I