Comment · Wed, February 5, 2014 · Ceretropic
ALCAR without ALA?
Original post in this thread
oconn · 3 points
I have been taking ALCAR on it's own for a few months now without ALA and curious how important/beneficial it is to include ALA into your stack? Any advice or insight would be appreciated. Thanks!
What they were answering
Bean_Ender · 2 points
it prevents the necessary mechanisms for muscle recovery.
This is the first I've heard of this, would you mind going into more detail? I just googled "ala prevents muscle recovery" to see if there were any obvious hits and most of them are speaking to it benefiting muscle recovery, but of course being pushed by supplement companies, you'll see any claim for any supplement.
ALA also mimics insulin to a certain degree, and insulin is one of the most anabolic hormones there is, though I'm not sure if ala captures those exact characteristics. It does help absorb creatine I've read so that is another perk for muscles.
Also when I say ALA I mean R-ALA/NA-RALA for the most part since ALA isn't really worth taking for me.
(Someone did mention this: The problem with R-ALA is that it reduces skeletal muscle gain because it activates AMPK and lessens activation of mTOR.)
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
It inhibits nitric oxide synthase, which your body uses as a signaling pathway to initiate muscle rebuilding. When your muscle breaks down, it releases oxidative substances that tell the body the sites that it needs to send nutrients to so that it can start rebuilding muscle. Without that oxidative signaling, the body never sends the nutrients to the site, and does not start the process of rebuilding.
It does improve insulin signaling in muscle, though. It does this by inhibiting stress kinase activation. And ALA is definitely good for the heart. However, the reduction in nitric oxide synthase activity is going to impede skeletal muscle recovery.
And everyone should be using Na-R-ALA instead of the others, as it reaches much higher plasma concentrations and AUC than the other forms. Nobody should just use R-ALA, as it is even less bioavailable than racemic ALA.