Managing diabetes means controlling blood sugar. That’s why diet and exercise are prescribed by practically every doctor and diabetic educator. Yet there’s a growing frustration in the medical community at the lack of effective adjunct treatments in helping to stabilize blood sugar levels. Doctors acknowledge that they simply do not have enough tools. And they certainly understand the consequence. Today’s fluctuating blood-sugar levels are tomorrow’s diabetic complications. But there’s some good news. Recent clinical studies have demonstrated that a safe and natural compound, alpha-lipoic acid, helps improve insulin sensitivity and glucose utilization.

Effects of Glucotize on Insulin Sensitivity (IS) and Glucose Metabolism (GM)

Several double-blind placebo-controlled clinical studies now point to alpha-lipoic acid’s beneficial effect on blood sugar control. In one study, 20 subjects were given 500 mgs of alpha-lipoic acid for a period of 10 days. The insulin-stimulated glucose disposal and insulin sensitivity increased by 30%. The result was considered statistically significant (p<.05). In clinical terms, that means the improvement could not be attributed to any other factor(s) except the alpha-lipoic acid.

Effects of Glucotize on Muscle Uptake of Glucose in Type II Diabetics

The majority of glucose is stored in skeletal muscle tissue. That’s because skeletal muscle constitutes the bulk of body tissue. Any defect in the uptake of glucose by muscle contributes significantly to Type 2 diabetes, glucose intolerance, and sub-clinical hyperglycemia.

A clinical experiment was designed to see if lipoic acid would augment insulin mediated glucose disposal in 13 Type 2 diabetic patients. Seven patients received 1000 mg. of lipoic and six patients received a placebo. Both groups were comparable in age, body-mass index, duration of diabetes, and degree of insulin resistance.

A special experimental design called a "glucose clamp" was employed. The administration of lipoic resulted in a significant increase of insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. The metabolic clearance rate for glucose rose by about 50% whereas the control group did not show any significant change. The investigators note that "this is the first clinical study to show that alpha-lipoic acid increases insulin stimulated glucose disposal in Type 2 diabetes" (Jacob S; Henriksen EJ; Schiemann AL; Simon I; Clancy DE; Tritschler HJ; Jung WI; Augustin HJ; Dietze GJ, 1995).