Archives of Biochemistry and Biophysics, a professional journal, has recently published the results of a study done with laboratory rats which shows that alpha lipoic acid supplementation can significantly reduce triglyceride levels.
WHAT ARE TRIGLYCERIDES AND WHY DO THEY MATTER?
Triglycerides are a type of fat found in your blood. They come from the calories that you eat and which are not used right away by your body. Between meals, hormones release triglycerides for energy. If you constantly eat more calories than you burn, your triglycerides level may be high.
Along with cholesterol levels and blood pressure, triglycerides are one of the key risk factors in cardiovascular disease.
WHAT THE STUDY CONSISTED OF
Laboratory rats were under supervision for four weeks. Various previous studies have shown alpha lipoic acid supplements to be an appetite suppressant. That is why control groups of lab animals were used in this research to ensure that the cause of lower triglyceride levels was not just less food intake. The animals used in the experiment were obese to begin with, and their triglyceride levels increased as the experiment proceeded and as they aged, but the difference between the animals given alpha lipoic acid and those that were not given supplements was huge. At the end of the four weeks, the blood triglyceride levels doubled in the animals given the alpha lipoic acid supplement, but went up more than 400 percent in the group that was not given lipoic acid.
Alpha Lipoic Acid supplements reduced the triglyceride levels by up to 60 percent in the animals under study.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS STUDY RESULTS
Regis Moreau, an assistant professor with the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University and a member of the team that conducted this study, said that “The extent of triglyceride reduction was really dramatic, we didn’t expect it to be this profound. (…) The potential is good that this could become another way to lower blood triglycerides and help reduce the risk of atherosclerosis. It’s pretty exciting.”
While medication used to treat hypertriglyceridemia has unwanted side effects which still remain a concern, alpha lipoic acid has been used by thousands of people for years as a dietary supplement and found to be safe.
"We believe that a novel means of controlling triglyceridemia in this animal model has been revealed," researchers wrote in their report. "Given its strong safety record, lipoic acid may have therapeutic applications for the treatment or prevention of hypertriglyceridemia and diabetic dyslipidemia in humans."
Click here to see a good picture illustrating this article. On the left you can see the blood plasma of the rats that were fed a normal diet. It is murky and with higher levels of fat. In the vial on the right you can see the plasma from rats supplemented with lipoic acid. As you can see, it is much clearer and with lower levels of triglycerides.
