Thread by @mjp39

went to the store for a new experiment

I am finally going to post some thoughts on ALA supplementation now that I've been taking it for a couple weeks! it is definitely one of the more interesting supplements I've ever tried. it has both positive and negative effects, but I'm settling on a dose that helps overall

the main effect I notice is that it 'activates' my skeletal muscles - releases them from spasm and allows me to consciously tense/release them - and it feels like more blood is getting into my tissue. it moistens my dry eyes, my skin is warmer (but without niacin-type flushing)

basically it feels like I live in a real body instead of a corpse 😅 which seems like a good thing, but the question is, does it actually improve my symptoms? I think the answer is indirectly yes, because the increased blood flow means my other supplements work better too

for example I've noticed that oral magnesium, which also has a muscle-loosening effect, works better than before, I suspect because the nutrients in my blood are now making it into my tissue. so ALA+magnesium is a combo that is working well for me

the negative effects: it made my standing intolerance MUCH worse for a few days and made me sleepy. I suspect the issue is that more blood throughout my body means less blood going to my head. sad tradeoff! however I think my body has adjusted to this (and I adjusted my dose)

when I first started with 300mg, I didn't notice any effects. I experimented with higher doses until I experienced very obvious effects. and personally this was helpful even with side effects so that I know how my body responds (don't go overboard - it IS possible to overdose)

but after initial experiments, I went back down to 300mg and I still get effects. maybe I just needed to know what to look for - though I wonder if the ALA itself is more effective now after doing some initial opening up of the blood supply to my muscles with the higher doses

the highest I've tried is 1500mg of regular ALA and 600mg of r-ALA. (comparing ALA and r-ALA, I would say r-ALA feels 'smoother' compared to ALA which takes effect extremely fast and also wears off quickly. the jarrow sustained release ALA is what I prefer most of all)

I doubt those higher doses are healthy to take regularly, but it did seem to help get it to 'work' for my body when starting out, and I will probably experiment with taking extra doses before high-exertion events (maybe the muscle activation helps) and with high lactate episodes

the routine I've settled on is taking 300mg sustained release ALA plus 125mg sustained release magnesium when I wake up and when I go to bed (sometimes a third time in between, depending on how long I'm awake that day)

while I tried this because I saw it as a treatment for high lactate from #TheAcidTest folks, it hasn't made any noticeable change to my daily lactate baseline (which generally varies from 1.5 to 2.5). next time I have an episode much higher than that, I'll see if it helps

the muscle activation effect is really unique for a supplement, to me. for comparison, I take gabapentin for my stiff muscles, and I find it energizing by making my body easier to move around in. but gabapentin doesn't do any neuromuscular activation or increased blood supply

the only treatments that have the same effect on my muscles as ALA are physical body work (sustained pressure or needling to activate muscles), or the PR lotion that I tried recently (topical bicarbonate, also recommended for lactate)

but ALA has an advantage of having that effect throughout my whole body rather than just specific muscles. and it seems helps my joint instability by engaging support muscles I don't normally use (eg. around my ankles), in contrast to gabapentin which makes me more wobbly

I can imagine reasons why restricting blood and energy to my muscles could be an ME/CFS compensation to help my body/brain, so I'm still not exactly sure this is 'helping' my body even though I like the way it feels. always an issue with any ME treatment...

but like I said above, it also seems to make other supplements more effective, which has renewed my interest in other mitochondria supplements I've tried. so far I've revisited choline and d-ribose and those seem to be helping with energy and counteracting the tiredness from ALA

oh and this is important: the jarrow ALA supplements include B7 (biotin) because ALA will deplete it. so this is important to take with ALA if it's not already included. I have heard B1 depletion (thiamin) can happen as well, though that was already part of my supplement regime.

next time I need to post something that requires more than 20 tweets, I should probably put it on a blog or something 😅 anyway this is everything I could think of for now, feel free to ask questions!