One side-effect of stopping NAC is increased anxiety. While taking NAC, it seemed like I was anxiety resistant. After stopping NAC, I find I am anxious about things I wouldn’t normally be. As NAC is mood affecting in regards to anxiety and depression, I should have expected this. I hope it goes away soon…
Fortunately, I don’t feel depressed.
Does NAC cause lung cancer or protect against it or do nothing? Which study is accurate? Seems like a wild crapshoot! Three studies, three diffferent results - prevents lung cancer in mice, does nothing for lung cancer in mice or increases chance of lung cancer in mice!
I miss the mental health benefit of NAC, so I am considering taking a low dose again. I will start with 1g daily. Also, I have had a history of pre-cancerous colonic polyps, and according to the study below, it appears NAC gets rid of them completely. I would love not having to have a colonoscopy every 2 years!
This investigation is part of an effort to develop chemoprevention for carcinogenesis of the large bowel. The agent investigated is N-acetylcysteine (NAC). We used as a predictive biomarker, the proliferative index (PI), in a short-term human study. Patients with previous adenomatous colonic polyps are a cohort with increased risk for colon cancer and an increased PI of colonic crypts. They were randomly assigned to an experimental group given 800 mg/day of NAC for 12 weeks or a placebo group. Using proliferative cell nuclear antigen immunostaining, the PI of colonic crypts was measured prior to and after the treatments. The PI of the NAC group was decreased significantly (P < 0.02) while the placebo group showed no difference (P > 0.45). Since this decrease in PI may be an indicator of decreased risk of colon cancer, more extensive studies of the potential of NAC as a chemopreventive agent for colon cancer appear warranted. >
In addition, there is this study that shows NAC protects against lung cancer in mice.
This study says NAC has no effect on lung tumor formation in mice:
The one thing most studies agree on is the positive mental effects of NAC on OCD, anxiety, and addiction. I agree as I found I had a much less anxious and peaceful attitude while taking NAC and was able to kick an addiction I had for about 30 years.
Possibly a stupid question, but if the purpose of Glynac is to boost Glutathione, why not just take a Glutathione supplement?
Is it because they have zero bio-availability?
When you take the precursors, your body can make as much or as little Glutathione as needed. If you directly take Glutathione it is easy to overdose and you could cause reductive stress. You can’t do that with precursors.
This video explains why NOT to take glutathione supplements. Also the Glutathione degrades quickly unless you use liposomal but then it could cause reductive stress which is bad.
The video mentioned above.
There is an enzyme that breaks down glutathione, so it was assumed that oral supplementation with glutathione would be ineffective. However, I found one paper in which volunteers were dosed with glutathione and their glutathione levels increased, so it does work.
I have been supplementing with reduced glutathione for a few years.
I have to wonder why there have only been a couple of studies showing these remarkable results from supplementing with very large amounts of NAC plus glycine. The studies all come from Baylor University College of Medicine, by the same people, and having an extremely small number of participants. I would think that something possibly providing such incredible benefits would be studied by other organizations and using much larger numbers of participants by now.
Thanks for all the replies.
I’m surprised more people aren’t talking, or drilling down more, on the veracity of the study linking NAC to lung cancer.
I can say that my 75 year old parents have been taking Glycine and NAC and have seen the same benefits to blood glucose as in the study. Their inflammation was already low though so there was not much change there. So far real life is consistent with the studies. N=2
But if you are also taking Rapamycin, it will suppress the potential of getting cancer. Just like taking metformin to neutralize the negative side effect of Rapamycin on blood sugar.
I hope you are correct. Rapamycin does seem to be effective against lung cancer.
One of the best and noticeable differences after taking NAC is that it appears to help with mood, anxiety and OCD.
I am not sure if this is a common side effect but when i take Glycin even at dose as low as 500mg, i get groggy and feel quite low the next day. I dont have any problems with NAC at a dose of 600mg daily.
Thanks for letting me know about the acidity of NAC. I was taking NAC and glycine with my morning coffee and the heartburn was miserable. Now I know why.
I have read that article and not too sure what to make of it. You must also realise that all mice tested come from a strain called Black 6 so they are biologically interbred that produces mice with exactly the same genetic profile. Not saying mice should not be used but laboratory mice are extremely different to wild mice. Only found this out a short while ago but it made me rethink about the mice used in genetic studies, which include cancer. I also read that a large percentage of laboratory mice become deaf after only one year. In the research community this is widely known
