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A couple of years ago, I read in Discover magazine about a scientist who was seriously investigating two over-the-counter supplements that, together, seemed to have powerful effects on the brains of aging rats.

Basically, acetyl L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid are housekeeping drugs. Or, in this case, "brainkeeping." They help body cells get rid of chemical garbage that builds up and interferes with the real work of those cells.

In the brain, that rubbish can make our brains work more slowly, our memory function less reliably. Acetyl L-carnitine (ACL) works on the mitochondria, little factories inside every cell in our body; but the work it does there releases free-radical oxygen into the cell. So it is paired with alpha-lipoic acid (AL), an anti-oxidant.

The dosage they're testing with humans right now is 500mg of ALC and 200mg of AL, morning and night. When I first read about this work, I had to take one pill of ALC and two of AL in order to get that dosage. Now, though, several manufacturers have caught on and are putting the doses into a single pill.

I don't know what these remedies might do to you. I do know that for me, they have been effective. I haven't become a mental wizard -- ALC/AL doesn't make you smarter, it just cleans up some of the damage of age. The result is that I am able to access memory more effectively. I am far more likely now to be able to recognize names and faces, to recall where I left things, and to remember facts and sources when I'm writing.

I'm still as absent-minded and distractable as ever -- but I always was, even in my prime. ALC/AC don't make you better than you ever were, they just make old coots like me better than we've been recently.

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I'm not doing the alpha-linoic acid part, but I'm doing the acetyl-L-carnitine part, and it's always encouraging to read good things about something you're taking. (In my case, a chronic fatigue specialist I'm seeing recommended it for general cellular help, and I'm doing 1000 mg 2x/day; just started taking it this last week, so too early to tell if it's helping. But if the stuff helps to clear up my brain fog and me to think better again, I'll be WAY happy )

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