LP E – Neuropathy Listicle (10 Reasons German Doctors)
Watching Life Pass You By Because Of Your Neuropathy? 10 Reasons German Doctors Have Prescribed Alpha Lipoic Acid Since 1966
For anyone whose neuropathy has cost them the walks, the trips, the time with the grandkids and a full night’s sleep. The 600 mg dose German doctors prescribe is now made by an American company, in the pure form your body makes.
When my uncle in Hamburg told his doctor that his feet burned every night, he walked out with a prescription I had never once seen in twenty years of writing about health.
It was not a painkiller. It was not gabapentin. It was alpha lipoic acid, a compound German doctors have used against nerve damage for decades.
So I spent three months reading the trials and asking one question: why do doctors there reach for it, and why are most American patients never told? Here are the ten reasons.
1. It Goes After The Damage Inside The Nerve. Gabapentin Only Mutes The Pain.
Gabapentin and Lyrica were developed for seizures. They work by turning down the pain signal your nerves send to your brain. That can take the edge off. It does nothing about why the nerve is sending that signal in the first place.
Underneath the burning, the damage keeps going. Nerve cells are being worn down by a chemical process called oxidative stress, and a pill that mutes the signal cannot touch it.
That is the first reason German doctors reach for alpha lipoic acid. It goes after the damage itself, inside the nerve, instead of only turning down the pain.
2. It’s The Universal Antioxidant That Protects Both The Watery And The Fatty Parts Of Your Nerves.
Every nerve has two very different parts. A watery core that carries the signal, and a thick fatty layer wrapped around it like the insulation on a wire.
Most antioxidants only work in one of them. Vitamin C works in water. Vitamin E works in fat. Alpha lipoic acid works in both, which is why the Berkeley researcher Lester Packer called it “the universal antioxidant.”
It also recharges your body’s other antioxidants, vitamin C, vitamin E and glutathione, so they can go back to work protecting the nerve.
3. The ALADIN Trial: 600 mg Cut Burning, Pain And Numbness By Nearly Two-Thirds In Three Weeks.
This was the first large trial, run in German clinics. 328 patients with nerve damage from diabetes, the most common kind of neuropathy, received alpha lipoic acid through an IV drip, or a placebo.
On 600 mg, burning, stabbing pain, prickling and numbness in the feet dropped by 63.5 percent in three weeks, compared with 38 percent on placebo. More than 8 out of 10 patients responded.
The trial also settled the dose. 100 mg did too little. 1,200 mg brought more side effects. 600 mg did the most, and it has been the standard dose ever since.
4. No Brain Fog. No Swollen Ankles. No Weight Gain.
Ask anyone who has taken gabapentin or Lyrica for a few years. Dizziness, sleepiness, a head that feels wrapped in cotton, swollen ankles, extra pounds. These are listed side effects, not rare surprises.
Alpha lipoic acid is something your body already makes in small amounts. In the trials, the most common complaint was an upset stomach, and mostly at doses far above 600 mg.
That is why doctors there are comfortable giving it to a 75-year-old who still drives and still wants a clear head.
5. It Stacks With Gabapentin, Lyrica, Metformin And Insulin. You Stop Nothing.
Most people with neuropathy already take a handful of pills. The last thing they need is a doctor telling them to stop one to start another.
Alpha lipoic acid works on a different part of the problem than any of them, so German doctors add it on top. Nothing gets swapped out. Nothing gets tapered.
One thing to know: it can nudge blood sugar down a little. If you take insulin or other diabetes medicine, tell your doctor you are adding it so they can keep an eye on your numbers.
6. The SYDNEY 2 Trial: As A Simple Daily Pill, 600 mg Cut Symptoms In Half In Five Weeks.
ALADIN used an IV drip. The obvious question: does a pill work too? SYDNEY 2 answered it. 181 patients took 600, 1,200 or 1,800 mg by mouth once a day, or a placebo, for five weeks.
On 600 mg, symptoms dropped by 51 percent, compared with 32 percent on placebo. Burning pain and stabbing pain improved, and patients rated the treatment clearly better.
And the higher doses? They did no better. They only caused more nausea, vomiting and dizziness. That is why the dose is 600 mg a day, and not a milligram more.
7. It Helps Restore Blood Flow To Starving Nerves.
Nerves are fed by blood vessels so small you would need a microscope to see them. When those tiny vessels are damaged, the nerve is starved of oxygen. That is a big part of the burning, and of the numbness that creeps up from the toes.
In a 1995 laboratory study, researchers found that alpha lipoic acid restored blood flow in damaged nerves and improved how fast they carried signals.
That is what treating the cause looks like. A nerve that gets its blood supply back has a chance to recover. A nerve that stays starved does not.
8. It Works On The Damage Behind Almost Every Kind Of Neuropathy.
Neuropathy has many causes. Diabetes is the most common. Chemotherapy, alcohol, vitamin deficiencies and age cause much of the rest, and for many people nobody ever finds a reason at all.
But when researchers look inside damaged nerves, they keep finding the same thing: oxidative stress, the chemical wear alpha lipoic acid is built to fight.
So the question is not only what caused your neuropathy. It is what is happening inside the nerve right now, and that part looks remarkably alike.
9. The NATHAN 1 Trial: Over Four Years, It Stopped Nerve Damage From Getting Worse.
Every neuropathy patient carries the same fear. It started in the toes, now it is at the ankles, and you know where it is heading.
NATHAN 1 is the trial that answered it. 460 patients with nerve damage from diabetes took either 600 mg of alpha lipoic acid every day or a placebo. For four full years.
On alpha lipoic acid, significantly fewer patients got worse, and more got better. The researchers’ own conclusion: “prevention of progression of neuropathic impairments.” Gabapentin was never designed to do that.
10. German Doctors Have Trusted It For Decades. This Is Not A New Trend.
Walk into almost any pharmacy in Germany and ask for it. You will find it as an approved medicine for nerve symptoms, not in the vitamin aisle between the gummies.
The trials above were led by Germany’s best-known diabetes researchers over more than fifteen years. Generations of patients have taken it every morning, and doctors there know exactly what to expect from it.
Outside Germany it sits in the supplement aisle instead, and most doctors have never been told about it.
What if you take this for 17 days?
Alpha lipoic acid is not a painkiller. It works on a timeline, and this is what people who take it report along the way.
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7Day 7
Nothing yet, and that is exactly right.
This is the week people start to worry that nothing is happening. Almost nobody feels a change this early. It is also the week most people quit.
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17Day 17
The burning and tingling start to quiet down.
This is where it changes. What people report most: it goes quiet at night first, in the hours that were worst. Some notice it sooner, some later.
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180Day 180
You feel like yourself again.
At six months, people no longer talk about their feet. They talk about sleeping through the night, and about not planning the day around it.
Why Your Doctor Never Mentioned It
Your body makes alpha lipoic acid on its own, and a molecule your body makes cannot be patented. Without a patent, no drug company pays the hundreds of millions it takes to get a drug approved here.
So nobody ever sent a sales rep to your doctor’s office for it. Gabapentin got the reps, the free samples and the brochures.
In Germany it was approved as a medicine decades ago. Your doctor is not hiding it. Nobody ever told them.
The German Dose, Brought To America
Root of Nature is an American company that built its entire formula around the German research: the 600 mg dose from the trials, in the pure R-form your body makes, released over about 8 hours. Here is what goes into every capsule.
Plain alpha lipoic acid is gone from your blood in about an hour. Our capsules release in waves over about 8 hours, so your nerves are supplied through the day, not for sixty minutes.
ALADIN, SYDNEY 2 and NATHAN 1 all used 600 mg a day. So do we, in three slow-release capsules. Not 100 mg. Not 300 mg.
Most bottles are a 50/50 mix of the natural R-form and a synthetic mirror image your body never makes. Ours is only the R-form, stabilized so what is on the label is what is in the capsule.
600 mg, like the trials. Supplied all day, not for one hour. Only the form your body makes.
$0.58 A Day. No Prescription Needed.
Four bottles. 120 days. $0.58 a day.
Less than a cup of coffee.
- Pure R-alpha lipoic acid, 600 mg a day, the dose from the trials
- Slow-release capsules that supply your nerves for about 8 hours
- Works alongside gabapentin, Lyrica, metformin and insulin
- Stabilized and third-party tested, every batch
- 60-day money-back guarantee, no questions
Take all three, every day, for 60 days. Then decide. If you do not want to keep going, email us inside those 60 days and every dollar comes back.
4.7 Stars From 480+ Verified Buyers
“I was on gabapentin for 4 years. Gained 35 pounds, could not think straight at work, and my feet were still burning every single night. Ordered Root of Nature, took it every night at 600mg. After about 3 weeks the burning started quieting down. I actually slept 6 hours straight for the first time in years. I stopped taking it for a month just to test it. Symptoms came back within 2 weeks. Started again and within 10 days I was sleeping again. That test told me everything I needed to know.”
“I spent three years thinking this was just my life now. I tried every supplement on Amazon. B vitamins, standard alpha lipoic acid, nothing touched it. I ordered Root of Nature and took it consistently for 5 weeks. The tingling in my feet started fading around week three. By week five I was completing full shifts without counting down the hours. I am not pain free, but I am functional again, and for the first time in three years I actually believe this is not going to keep getting worse.”
“I had not been down on the floor with my granddaughter in 3 years. The burning in my feet was so bad at night I barely slept. A friend mentioned Root of Nature R-ALA and honestly I ordered it thinking it would be the same story. Six weeks later I was sitting on the floor building blocks with her. I cried the whole time. My husband thought something was wrong. Nothing was wrong. Everything was finally right.”
Questions Readers Ask
Does it work for my kind of neuropathy?
The big trials were run in people with nerve damage from diabetes, the most common kind. The damage alpha lipoic acid works on, oxidative stress inside the nerve, also shows up in neuropathy from chemotherapy, alcohol, age and unknown causes. That is why people with all kinds of neuropathy take it. Give it the full 60 days.
Can I take it with gabapentin or Lyrica?
Yes. It works on a different part of the problem. Keep taking what you are prescribed and tell your doctor you are adding it.
I take metformin or insulin. Is that a problem?
No, but alpha lipoic acid can lower blood sugar slightly. Tell your doctor you are adding it and watch your numbers for the first few weeks.
I tried alpha lipoic acid before and felt nothing. Why would this be different?
Most bottles are a 50/50 mix at 100 to 300 mg, and it is gone from your blood within an hour. The trials used 600 mg a day. Ours is 600 mg of only the R-form, released over about 8 hours.
Why three capsules?
600 mg is the trial dose. Split across three slow-release capsules, it is gentler on the stomach and keeps your nerves supplied through the day.
How long before I notice something?
Most people notice the burning and tingling quieting down after two to three weeks, often first at night. Numbness takes longer. Give it the full 60 days.
Will it upset my stomach?
At 600 mg it rarely does. Take it with food. In the trials, nausea showed up mostly at two and three times this dose.
What if it doesn’t work for me?
Email us within 60 days and you get every dollar back. No forms, no questions.
60 Days. Every Dollar Back.
Sixty days. Every dollar back. German patients have had decades to find out what this does. You get sixty days, and if it is not for you, you do not pay for it.
Root of Nature Stabilized R-ALA is a dietary supplement. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease, and it is not a replacement for any prescription medication. The ALADIN, SYDNEY 2 and NATHAN 1 trials studied alpha lipoic acid in people with diabetic neuropathy; Root of Nature products were not part of these studies. Individual results vary. Talk to your doctor before starting any supplement, especially if you take diabetes medication. Root of Nature is compensated for sales made from this page.