On December 13, 2016, I wrote a blog about Alpha Lipoic Acid and multiple sclerosis.

Alpha Lipoic Acid and multiple sclerosis

On July 3, 2017 this article was published in medical news today.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318225.php

Ive been talking alpha lipoic acid now for 7 months. I still take 2 600mg pills a day. One in the morning and one at night. Alpha lipoic acid started about 3 months after starting high dose biotin. Another Vitamin shown that in high doses has stopped disease progression.

High dose biotin in multiple sclerosis month 3

Since both biotin and alpha lipoic acid are supposed to do the same thing for people with secondary progressive multiple sclerosis, I can’t specifically say if one is doing better than the other. This is what I can tell you from my doctor visits and my own point of view.

1. I’ve walked 7 seconds faster and maintained that timed walking at my doctor’s office.
2. My MRI showed no new lesions and no significant change compared to prior MRIs.
3.  My good days are really good but they are few, my bad days are as bad as they always were.
4. 7 seconds faster means nothing and doesn’t make my life different in any way.
5. I have still slowly declined however that rate could have been dramatically faster if I wasn’t taking the alpha lipoic acid or biotin, that I can never know for sure.
6. My hair grew about 8-10 inches last year instead of a normal 6.
7. The vitamin had NO side effects
8. For some reason at 3-4 o’clock my eyes seem to want to close no matter what I did or didn’t do that day. I need a nap and I wasn’t napping. This is new. What is even newer is if I close my eyes for 10 minutes that usually is enough. I use to nap for 2 hours.
9. My twitches in my legs have lessened, a plus especially when trying to sleep at night.

Is all or any of this because of the alpha lipoic acid? I can’t say for sure. It could be the biotin. It could even be the Rituxan. It could be the flow of my MS symptoms at this current time. It could be a combination of things. What I can say is I usually give the credit to biotin and it was my neurologist who said “what about the alpha lipoic acid? It had the same results in their clinical trial.”