Yo Monstar! wsup bro? Haven't seen you here in the longest. From the study I read it indicated that Vanadryl was effective but at a doseage that was very near toxic levels. So that supplement to me is out of the question. Ribose has not impressed me at all, effective dose that I know of is around 20-30mg/day. You're best off w/ what you got, Arginine, Glutamine, and best of all the ALA. Here's a few posts showing that you can hold about 50% more carbs in your muscle by using ALA. To be even more effective you can try upping the dose. Cheapest place you can get it is Nutriteam.com 180caps, 300mg each for $26.
What follows is a lot of excerpts from several threads that I cut out and saved. Feel free to quit reading if you get sick of it, but this explains in detail some of the many uses for this highly valuable supplement. This thread probably belongs in the supplement forum, but I wanted to put it here since it ties into anabolics and since this forum gets a lot of traffic. I'll probably have to cut this into several pieces. Alpha Lipoic Acid (ALA) is a unique nutrient shown to have a potent effect on glucose disposal. It is also a natural antioxidant with free radical scavenging abilities as well as the ability to regenerate oxidized antioxidants. This actually makes other antioxidants more potent. ALA also increases the levels of intra-cellular glutathione. Glutathione has been shown to enhance recovery from heavy training by reducing intra-cellular damage. ALA's ability to enhance glucose uptake is a very exciting effect that could enhance other nutrient distribution. By mimicking insulin, ALA increases uptake of glucose into the muscle cell by 65%. This glucose transport stimulation is accomplished through Lipoic Acid's participation in the insulin signaling pathway. Lipoic Acid provokes an upward shift of the glucose-insulin dose-response curve. This is an important function that enhances muscle cell nutrient uptake and protein turnover. ALA may also increase creatine's ability to enter the muscle cell further enhancing creatine's muscle building effects. Alpha-Lipoic acid treatment decreases serum lactate and pyruvate concentrations and improves glucose effectiveness in lean and obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Konrad T; Vicini P; Kusterer K; H¨oflich A; Assadkhani A; B¨ohles HJ; Sewell A; Tritschler HJ; Cobelli C; Usadel KH Department of Internal Medicine, J.W. Goethe-University, Frankfurt, Germany. Diabetes Care, 22(2):280-7 1999 Feb Abstract: OBJECTIVE: We examined the effect of lipoic acid (LA), a cofactor of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex (PDH), on insulin sensitivity (SI) and glucose effectiveness (SG) and on serum lactate and pyruvate levels after oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs) and modified frequently sampled intravenous glucose tolerance tests (FSIGTTs) in lean (n = 10) and obese (n = 10) patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: FSIGTT data were analyzed by minimal modeling technique to determine SI and SG before and after oral treatment (600 mg, twice a day, for 4 weeks). Serum lactate and pyruvate levels of diabetic patients after glucose loading were compared with those of lean (n = 10) and obese (n = 10) healthy control subjects in which SI and SG were also determined from FSIGTT data. RESULTS: Fasting lactate and pyruvate levels were significantly increased in patients with type 2 diabetes. These metabolites did not exceed elevated fasting concentrations after glucose loading in lean patients with type 2 diabetes. However, a twofold increase of lactate and pyruvate levels was measured in obese diabetic patients. LA treatment was associated with increased SG in both diabetic groups (lean 1.28 +/- 0.14 to 1.93 +/- 0.13; obese 1.07 +/- 0.11 to 1.53 +/- 0.08 x 10(-2) min-1, P < 0.05). Higher SI and lower fasting glucose were measured in lean diabetic patients only (P < 0.05). Lactate and pyruvate before and after glucose loading were approximately 45% lower in lean and obese diabetic patients after LA treatment. CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of lean and obese diabetic patients with LA prevents hyperglycemia-induced increments of serum lactate and pyruvate levels and increases SG. -Stew Last edited by Stew Meat on 02-May-2001 at 02:19 AM Stew Meat Pro Bodybuilder Registered: Jul 2000 Location: Louisiana Posts: 1195 I recomend 500mg/day. ALA mimics insulin. It works in the same way that insulin does by shuttling glucose into the muscle cells. It doesn't matter if you are a diabetic or not, it works like insulin. There's no difference in the cells of a diabetic and non-diabetic. -Stew