Transcription
Now, there are other reasons that a person might want to consider supplementing with N-acetylcysteine (NAC). Again, depending on where you live, maybe some of you are watching from countries where NAC is considered a drug. That's where, again, you can talk to your doctor about a prescription.
Several different things here: one would be acetaminophen overdose. This is why the FDA has approved NAC as a drug; it is to treat acetaminophen (Tylenol) overdose. How many of you pop Tylenol on a regular basis? As a matter of fact, one of the drugs that we know depletes glutathione is acetaminophen. Regular use of Tylenol, not even necessarily overdosing, is because the liver has to process that drug, and in order to process it, it's using cysteine to do that.
We also know that cold and flu upper respiratory infections can benefit from NAC. There are a number of human trials that have shown benefits in that regard. We also see it with bronchitis and asthma. Again, there are a lot of reasons why a person might have asthma or might have bronchitis—smoking, inhalation of gluten, exposure to other food allergies, environmental allergens, etc. But NAC can be used as a mucolytic, and this is where it helps to alleviate some of the breathing pressure.
Then we also have research studies on PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome). You remember I showed you a moment ago how NAC helps with insulin sensitivity, and this is one of the reasons why it helps PCOS. In essence, PCOS is a form of diabetes; basically, it's diabetes of the ovaries. If your doctor never told you that, ladies, and you're being treated for infertility, you might want to look at a gluten-free diet and consider a lower carbohydrate, higher fat, closer to a keto-type diet to overcome that blood sugar problem.
We see this a lot; there are many times when women are infertile because of PCOS, and when they dial their diet in, that diet change alleviates the PCOS because, again, it's a form of diabetes. We see that women with bacterial vaginosis have been studied, showing that when women have a history of bacterial vaginosis and are about to give birth, there can be problems with the delivery. In these cases, OB-GYN doctors and some research studies are giving these women NAC to offset the complications of delivery.
We also see the same thing in women with a history of pre-term births. If you've had two children and you're pregnant with a third, and both of your deliveries were pre-term, there's now evidence showing that using NAC during pregnancy actually helps diminish the risks associated with that pre-term delivery. We see it being used in ulcerative colitis; I'll show you some research on that in a moment, as well as liver cancer, exercise muscle performance, and there's also new evidence coming out on the nervous system and how NAC helps to block the damage that can be done—the free radical damage that can be done to nerve cells in patients with Alzheimer's or Parkinson's.
Then there's also research on male fertility problems. As a matter of fact, let's dive into some of this research. I'll shrink that down and pull these studies up for you.
Okay, so this first one here is on NAC supplementation on sperm quality, chromatin integrity, and levels of oxidative stress in infertile men. As I was just talking about, in this study—a human trial—50 infertile men received 600 milligrams a day of NAC for a three-month stint. What they found as an outcome was that after NAC treatment, these patients' sperm count and motility increased significantly.
Sperm count is the quantity of sperm these men are making, but motility has to do with how well their sperm are capable of swimming upstream. So again, if a man has an adequate sperm count but poor motility, it reduces the chances of impregnating his wife. NAC treatment significantly improved both of those parameters.
The conclusion here is that NAC oral supplementation can improve sperm parameters and antioxidant status in infertile males. I say that because so many times, women are blamed for infertility issues, and it's not always the case. If you're seeing an infertility doctor, he or she is going to look at both the husband and the wife and rule out the different variable potentials. But a lot of times, women get blamed, and it's not always the woman that's responsible for the infertility issue.
In this one, we didn't talk about yet, but this is a meta-review on major clinical trials that were done using NAC as a treatment to improve outcomes in people trying to overcome addiction. There's a lot of data on NAC in people that have drug addictions, whether those drugs are pharmaceuticals that were prescribed or, in many cases, illegal drugs like cocaine. We've seen studies on NAC being effective for alcohol addiction, marijuana addiction, methamphetamine addiction, as well as pain medication addictions.
This is just a meta-analysis of multiple trials, and a total of 16 trials were analyzed. Some of the outcome conclusions show that NAC provides certain noticeable benefits in attenuating substance craving and might help alleviate depressive symptoms and withdrawal syndrome. A lot of the reason why people are addicted is that they try to get off, and then the withdrawals keep bringing them back. So, NAC is very beneficial in that regard. If you're struggling or battling drug addiction or illicit substance addiction, you might also consider looking into NAC as a tool to help you overcome those problems.
Now, here was another review paper. This one was reviewing multiple different mechanisms, but we'll just go through a few of these. In liver cancer, you see here that NAC is an enhancer of glutathione biosynthesis. Remember, that's the antioxidant; it's one of the frequently used antioxidant drugs for the treatment of liver disorders. Cell culture and animal models have shown that NAC can preserve normal cells against the toxicity of radiation therapy and chemotherapy. Administration of NAC may play a role in the treatment of some forms of cancer, while induced damages in DNA can be completely blocked by NAC, protecting your DNA and your liver—key aspects, especially when that's where the cancer is. It also protects you from chemotherapy and radiative damage.
In ulcerative colitis, you can see here that NAC may not only protect against the direct detrimental impacts of oxidants but also advantageously modify inflammation events in colitis. If you're dealing with an inflammatory bowel disease like colitis, there are other forms of inflammatory bowel diseases as well; you might consider NAC. The beneficial influences of NAC were related to changes including:
1. Softer colonic injury or less injury.
2. Decreased oxidative stress.
3. Lowered cell apoptosis, in other words, preserving the integrity and lifespan of cells in the colon.
4. Increased recovery of the injured colon.
5. Increased formation of tight junctions.
Remember tight junctions? I'm sure you've probably heard that term somewhere. If you've ever heard the term "leaky gut," what prevents leaky gut is having intact tight junctions. If those are not intact, then your poop leaks into your bloodstream and creates all kinds of nefarious systemic inflammation that can become very problematic. We don't want leaky gut; it's a driver of autoimmune disease.
You can also see in this review that acetaminophen toxicity is a common cause of drug-induced liver damage in children and adults. NAC has been used for several decades and has been proven as a counter-poison choice in treating acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity. So again, all great functions to consider talking to your doctor about with NAC.
Let's talk about a few more studies. I pulled a few more studies for you today on other beneficial effects of NAC, and this one's on exercise performance. Some of you may be looking to incorporate exercise back into your life. I know a lot of you listening to this are struggling, maybe historically with years of autoimmune disease or years of chronic fatigue or illness or muscle pains and aches, and you've tried exercising but don't tolerate it well. This is for you. This is also for those of you who are athletes trying to improve or enhance your performance.
As a potential possibility, consider NAC. They investigated whether NAC supplementation would enhance exercise performance by increasing glutathione concentrations and reducing oxidative stress. They did this study on individuals who had low levels of glutathione. The indicator here was that if somebody had low resting levels of glutathione, NAC was tremendously beneficial. Now, if they had normal levels of glutathione, taking more NAC didn't do much.
So, if you're considering this for exercise, you might also consider getting your levels of glutathione tested. This is a simple test that can be performed by nutritionally trained doctors. You can see here that the individuals were supplemented with NAC. The dosing structure here was 600 mg twice a day for 30 days, which totals 2400 mg a day in divided doses (1200 mg x 2). This was done for a month, and they found that the low glutathione group improved after NAC supplementation in their V02 max time trial.
Individuals with low glutathione levels were linked with decreased physical performance, increased oxidative stress, and impaired redox metabolism of erythrocytes (meaning their blood vessels). Having low levels of glutathione impaired their ability to exercise and their delivery of oxygen. Remember, exercise is oxygen-dependent, at least aggressive exercise. So, NAC supplementation restored both performance and redox homeostasis. Again, if your glutathione levels are low and you're trying to exercise, NAC can enhance your performance and your recovery—one more reason to consider using it.
Let's talk about one more research study here, and this is on NAC performance for the skin. This is a review—a major review of multiple studies published in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology. This is again something you can find at the National Institute of Health. In their results, they found in their review of multiple clinical studies in humans that acne vulgaris (acne) was improved as a result of using NAC.
Investigators found significant superiority results among patients treated with NAC compared with the placebo group in the reduction of comedone counts, which is again acne, suggesting that NAC might be an effective treatment option for mild to moderate acne vulgaris. Now, it's important to note that this study was done using a topical cream of NAC. This was not done using an oral supplement; this was actually done using a topical application.
So, if you're struggling with acne, one of the more common treatments today that doctors give for acne is a synthetic form of vitamin A called Accutane. In my opinion, it has a very high side effect profile. If I had a daughter with acne, there's no way I would want to put her on it. This might be a better option. Talk to your dermatologist about whether or not NAC is right for your acne.