The nutritional supplement α-lipoic acid could be a potential therapy for the prevention of cystine urolithiasis say researchers. Cystinuria is characterized by recurrent stone formation as a result of defective urinary cystine reabsorption and the effectiveness of current therapies for stone prevention is limited. Now, Zee et al. report that α-lipoic acid strongly suppressed stone growth in a mouse model of cystinuria. They found that this treatment — which is widely available and has few adverse effects — increased the solubility of cystine in the urine of these mice compared with untreated controls.