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Dangers of Alpha Lipoic Acid IV Therapy !

Here is just one of the many dangers of ALA IV therapy:

This is from Pubmed which is considered to be very trustworthy by the medical community.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19616616

"We conclude that large doses of lipoic acid displace sulfhydryls from binding sites, resulting in depletion of serum cysteine, but also pose a methylation burden with severe depletion of liver S-adenosylmethionine and massive release of S-adenosylhomocysteine. These changes may have previously unrecognized deleterious (harmful) effects that should be investigated in both human disease and experimental models"
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Avatar universal
one Mistake above, was not Fibroscan what we did, but "Fibrotest"

One last thing I should mention is that my mother is very nutrition conscious (in the last 6-8 years), and I think this is helping her a lot.

her hcv Genotype is 1b.

Eric, one question, did you take ALA with Vitamin B complex?

From Dr. Burt Berkson
"...dehydrogenase complex, there are several B vitamins
that are depleted, especially thiamine and biotin. So you
really have to replace the B complex vitamins, otherwise,
you get very sick by taking lipoic acid by itself."


Also did you take  ALA, Sylimarin and Selenium together or ALA alone?

There is interesting research on Selenium role.
Here from Germany, unfortunately no results are published for free
http://prsinfo.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01355107

Free publication version from Pakistan :D  Hcv patients have lower Selenium concentration compared to healthy subjects
http://www.saudijgastro.com/article.asp?issn=1319-3767;year=2012;volume=18;issue=2;spage=106;epage=110;aulast=Khan

Silymarin speaks for itself I guess and needs no advocate.

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Avatar universal
one things I forgot to mention, mama NEVER smoked, drank alcohol or took recreational drugs all her life. But on the other hand, she used to take quite often drugs like paracetamol or anti-depressives. Not anymore though.
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Avatar universal
my mama is 57 and has supposedly got her hepc due to my birth (c-section blood transfusion).

I must say, last year mama got "Lichen planus". A couple of GPs told her it is due to lack of vitamins. She eventually did some laser treatment and was gone.

Now I understand what mistake we did, mama didn't take B-Vitamins along with ALA, hence she got depleted after consuming some 200 tablets of ALA.

The news of hepc was a shock to all of us family members. We had to scan through all kind of therapies allopathic and others.  

We went to several hepatologists and high caliber virologists. They all sing the same song, Intereferon/ribavirin and they offer no choice. When we tried to discuss with one doctor about alternative options, he rudely  told mama either you come next time and get the interferon, or don't come back.

Only one hepatologist (female) advised us against the treatment and having checked the results of all her tests, told her liver is doing 97% fine. I think the number is an oversimplified way of saying the liver function parameters are good.

The platelet count also increased from 170k to 225k. Red and White blood cells also came to normal levels, previously were low.

As for liver biopsy, I would not let anyone poke into my mama's liver as long as it is really really necessary.
We did some test, fibroscan if I am not mistaken or however it's called, some kind of proxy that highly correlates with biopsy results if not superior to. It takes some liver function parameters and uses some algorithm to come up with 0 to 1 value indicating the level of necroinflammatory severity and fibrosis, it was something like 0.35 ...  

I know the board is about Allopathic treatments. In fact, ALA probably is the first and only allopathic medication I am starting to get convinced about.

now that we filtered many information on hepc treatments conventional and non-conventional, we are about to start the triple antioxidant treatment, Sylimarin, ALA and Selenium. Previously it was like oh let's try everything all at once with tons of herbs and supplements, but was not a systematic approach.

The plan is to take ALA for 2 weeks every 2 month. I do not want her to get hooked on some miracle drug, but just boost her liver every once in a while.
Where as will keep her on Selenium and Sylmarin throughout the year (200mcg and 300 mg)

I'm not here to argue pro this or against that, but only to share my experience with this drug which undoubtedly we benefited from and would probably benefit others.

Again, we are doing it entirely independently without consulting any doctors. But probably we'll go to the nice lady doctor who advised us against interferon and share our experience with her.  

Personally, having seen the liver enzymes drop to almost normal levels, and having got rid of the hepc symptoms, it is a huge relief.

oh, by the way, one interesting observation, in the country mama lives in, although she is non insured (neither private nor public), the government pays the complete treatment costs for intereferon/ribavirin...although this same government would not buy you one cheese sandwich if you were starving in front of the parliament. What a corrupt world we live in!
Death will come to all of us sooner or later, I know my mama spent lots of nights crying alone about her ailment. I am the cause of her problem, doctors even had to remove her womb due to surgical complications, this also caused many hormonal problems to my mama which affected her health and liver status. And in her prime years, she used to loooove chocolate, I can remember the massive amounts of cadbury she used to eat, and it all piled up in her disturbed liver, add on top the high levels of unregulated DDT that was sprayed on veggies in the early 70's and 80's, all in all it is a recipe for disaster. At some point we have to contemplate on some liver flush.

I always emphasize to my mama to accept death. I even made her read Bardo Thodol to get rid of her fears. I think everytime she visited the doctor she got even more sick due to stress. Things like oh you are going to die if you don't take the treatment. I specially hate the 25 years to cirrhosis song. And when we got higher viral loads results, they put more pressure on her. They said the lower the VL the easier it is to cure you and that she is putting her life in danger by such gambling.

In 3 months I am willing to update with new results. hopefully positive ones.

  
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Avatar universal
you might also click on the link entitled "HepResearcher (doctor) on various topics" at the bottom of the page where you posted the question.  there are a collection of posts some of which contain info about supplements that may slow fibrosis.  HepResearcher helped formulate heptech.com products.  i never tried the products becaude the cost was too much. something like $400+ a month.

opps i misspelled allopathic in my first post.
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Avatar universal
you did not mention your mama's age.  most of us that are treating are in our 40s, 50s and 60s. i'm 57.  although there is at least one brave soul here that is treating in his 70s.  as you may have gathered from reading some of the posts here the current treatment is tough, but in 2 to 4 years there will likely be treatments that are much easier.
many blessings
eric
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Avatar universal
I used ALA everyday from  2007 when i was diagnosed with cirrhosis until 2011 when i started to treat.  i had been infected for 26 years in 2007.  it may have slowed my progressing but but the blood work including platelet count continued to show signs of progression towards liver decompensation.  and i progressively got more symptomatic prior to treatment.   there are stories about people reversing liver scarring also called fibrosis with supplements like ALA.  you might want to check out the heptech web site if it is still up.   unfortunately as we age the scarring process can rapidly accelerate and if i were in your mother's shoes i would want to know how far the scarring has progressed.  i would make an appointment with a hepatologist or a gastroenterologist that has extensive experience with this disease. in the US the most common test to determine the extent of scaring is a liver biopsy.  please understand that this board mostly deals with alleopathic treatments.  
blessings
eric
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