Are commercially available lipoic acid supplements identical to the substance that you use experimentally?
There are slight differences. The commercially available forms are made synthetically, which results in a mixture of molecules that have different chirality, or “handedness.” In spatial orientation, if you were to look at the molecular structure like Dr. Pauling would have, there is a left-handed form and a right-handed form of the molecule. The commercially available lipoic acid is a mixture of right-handed and left-handed forms, about 50% of each, although both forms have exactly the same chemical composition. This mixture of different forms is called a racemic mixture. When we make lipoic acid in our body we make the right-handed or R form of the molecule, which is the one that the body utilizes. The R form is used biologically in energy production from raw fuel sources. The left-handed or S form of the molecule seems to be much less able to be reduced to the very powerful antioxidant form. It also doesn’t seem to be absorbed in the body in the same way. If you take a commercial sup
