Supreme sulphur containing antioxidant, anti-inflammatory agent, drug overdose detoxifier and toxic metal chelator.
What is N-acetylcysteine (NAC)?
N-acetylcysteine (NAC), a derivative of the amino acid cysteine, is known for its antioxidant and free radical scavenging properties, and it also functions as a chelating agent, meaning it can bind to and help remove heavy metals from the body, including mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic.
NAC is considered ‘conditionally essential’ because your body can produce it from other amino acids. It becomes essential only when the dietary intake of methionine and serine is low.
Cysteine is found in most high protein foods, such as chicken, turkey, yogurt, cheese, eggs, sunflower seeds, and legumes.
Consuming adequate cysteine and NAC is important for various health reasons, including replenishing the most potent antioxidant in your body, glutathione. These amino acids also help with chronic respiratory conditions, fertility, and brain health.
Here are the top 10 health benefits of NAC
- Replenish glutathione, the body’s most potent antioxidant
- Eetox your body and chelate heavy metals
- Treat overdoses of Tylenol and protect your Liver & Kidneys
- Regulate glutamate & dopamine (neurotransmitters of mood)
- Relieve respiratory symptoms and mucous/congestion
- Support cognitive functions like memory and learning
- Reduce inflammation
- Support sugar regulation and reduce insulin resistance
- Protect against heart oxidation and boost heart function
- Improves your immune system by establishment of the innate immune responses to viruses
1. Essential for making the powerful antioxidant glutathione
NAC is valued primarily for its role in antioxidant production. Together with two other amino acids — glutamine and glycine — NAC is necessary to make and replenish glutathione.
Glutathione is probably your body’s most important antioxidant — compounds that help neutralize free radicals that can damage cells and tissues, which lead to aging and cancer. Antioxidants help support the body’s natural immune system and toxin-elimination processes. Research also suggests that antioxidant intake can reduce the risk of several chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease. (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source).
Summary
NAC helps replenish glutathione, arguably your body’s most powerful antioxidant. Therefore, it may help improve a variety of health conditions.
2. Detoxification to prevent or diminish kidney and liver damage
NAC plays an important role in your body’s detoxification process. It can help prevent side effects of environmental toxin exposure. Doctors regularly give intravenous NAC to people with an acetaminophen overdose to prevent or reduce kidney and liver damage (4Trusted Source). NAC has applications for other liver diseases thanks to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.
Tylenol (Acetaminophen) toxicity is a common cause of drug-induced hepatotoxicity in children and adults. NAC has been used for several decades to treat this and it has been proven as the best antidote in treating acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity.
Summary
NAC helps detoxify your body and can treat acetaminophen overdoses.
3. May improve mental health conditions and substance use disorder
NAC helps regulate glutamate levels, the brain’s most important neurotransmitter. While glutamate is required for regular brain activity, excess glutamate and glutathione depletion can cause brain damage. This may contribute to mental health conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and substance use disorder (5Trusted Source, 6, 7).
For people with bipolar disorder and depression, NAC may help decrease symptoms and improve quality of life. Moreover, research suggests that it may play a role in treating moderate to severe OCD (8Trusted Source, 9Trusted Source). Likewise, an animal study suggested that NAC may minimize the adverse effects of schizophrenia, such as social withdrawal, apathy, and reduced attention spans (10Trusted Source).
NAC may also have applications in managing substance use disorders. For example, preliminary studies show that NAC may decrease cannabis and nicotine use and cravings (11Trusted Source, 12Trusted Source).
Summary
By regulating glutamate levels in your brain, NAC may alleviate symptoms of mental health conditions and reduce substance use and cravings.
4. Helps relieve symptoms of respiratory conditions
NAC can relieve symptoms of respiratory conditions by acting as an antioxidant and expectorant, loosening mucus in your air passageways.As an antioxidant, NAC helps replenish glutathione levels in your lungs and reduces inflammation in your bronchial tubes and lung tissue.
People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) experience long-term oxidative damage and inflammation of lung tissue, which causes airways to constrict, leading to shortness of breath and coughing. Some studies suggest that taking NAC supplements can help improve COPD symptoms, exacerbations, and lung decline (13Trusted Source, 14Trusted Source).
People with chronic bronchitis can also benefit from NAC. Bronchitis occurs when the mucous membranes in your lungs’ bronchial passageways become inflamed, swell, and shut off airways to your lungs (15Trusted Source). By thinning mucus in your bronchial tubes and boosting glutathione levels, NAC may help decrease the severity and frequency of wheezing, coughing, and respiratory attacks.
In addition to relieving COPD and bronchitis, NAC may improve other lung and respiratory tract conditions — such as cystic fibrosis, asthma, and pulmonary fibrosis — as well as symptoms of nasal and sinus congestion due to allergies or infections (16Trusted Source).
Summary
NAC’s antioxidant and expectorant capacity can improve lung function by decreasing inflammation and breaking up mucus.
5. Boosts brain health by regulating glutamate and replenishing glutathione
NAC’s ability to replenish glutathione and regulate brain glutamate levels can boost brain health. The neurotransmitter glutamate is involved in a broad range of learning, behavior, and memory functions, while the antioxidant glutathione helps reduce brain cell oxidative damage associated with aging.Because NAC helps regulate glutamate levels and replenish glutathione, it may benefit those with health conditions affecting the brain and memory (4Trusted Source).
Alzheimer’s disease slows down learning and memory capacity. Animal studies suggest that NAC may slow the loss of thinking ability in people with Alzheimer’s disease (5Trusted Source, 17).
Parkinson’s disease is characterized by the deterioration of cells that generate the neurotransmitter dopamine. Both oxidative damage to cells and a decrease in antioxidant ability contribute to this disease. NAC supplements appear to improve both dopamine function and disease symptoms such as tremors (5Trusted Source). While NAC may improve brain health, more human research is needed to make firm conclusions.
Summary
By helping replenish the antioxidant glutathione and regulate glutamate, NAC has the potential to treat conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
6. May improve fertility in both men and women
In some cases, NAC has been shown to improve male fertility.
Approximately 15% of all couples trying to conceive are affected by infertility. In almost half of these cases, male infertility is the main contributing factor (18Trusted Source). Many male infertility issues increase when antioxidant levels are insufficient to address free radical formation in the reproductive system (19Trusted Source).
In addition, NAC may improve fertility in older women and those with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) by inducing or augmenting the ovulation cycle, although more research is needed (21Trusted Source).
Summary
NAC may help improve fertility in men by reducing oxidative stress that damages or kills reproductive cells. It may also aid fertility in women with PCOS.
7. May stabilize blood sugar by decreasing inflammation in fat cells
High blood sugar and obesity contribute to inflammation in fat tissue.This can damage or destroy insulin receptors and increase the risk of type 2 diabetes (22Trusted Source). Animal studies show that NAC may stabilize blood sugar by decreasing inflammation in fat cells and thereby improving insulin resistance (23Trusted Source). When insulin receptors are intact and healthy, they properly remove sugar from your blood, keeping levels within normal limits.
Summary
By decreasing inflammation in fat tissue, NAC may reduce insulin resistance and improve blood sugar regulation, but human-based research is lacking.
8. May reduce heart disease risk by preventing oxidative damage
Oxidative damage to heart tissue often leads to heart disease, causing strokes, heart attacks, and other severe conditions. NAC may reduce heart disease risk by reducing oxidative damage to tissues in your heart (24Trusted Source).
Studies show that NAC may protect heart function and heart health in people with diabetes and those recovering from certain heart surgeries (25Trusted Source, 26Trusted Source).
Summary
NAC can reduce oxidative damage to your heart, which can, in turn, decrease your risk of heart disease.
9. Ability to boost glutathione levels may improve immune function
NAC and glutathione also benefit immune health.
Research on certain diseases associated with NAC and glutathione deficiency suggests that supplementing with NAC might improve — and potentially restore — immune function (27, 28).
Summary
NAC’s ability to boost glutathione levels may improve immune function.
10. Chelation:
Besides its antioxidant effects, NAC has been shown to have metal-chelating capabilities. NAC forms complexes with metal ions, which can reduce their toxicity and facilitate their excretion. The strong chelating capacity of NAC is due to its thiol group in which Carbon, Sulphur and Hydrogen (C-SH) form a magnet-like attraction to toxic metals. Chelating agents are defined as compounds which are able to form complexes with metal ions and thus reduce their toxicity.NAC is used to treat both acute and chronic heavy metal poisoning—including against mercury, cadmium, or arsenic intoxication [13].
Even though this strong chelating function is well established, there is only limited information on how NAC affects essential metals such as Zn and Cu. Recently however, a human intervention study showed that NAC (200 mg three times a day) given to ten healthy volunteers for 2 weeks chelated the toxic metals, but did not affect plasma levels of healthy calcium, magnesium, iron, Zn, and Cu levels [14] Source: N-Acetylcysteine as Modulator of the Essential Trace …
Antioxidant Properties:
NAC also acts as an antioxidant and a free radical scavenger, which helps protect against oxidative stress caused by heavy metal exposure.
Heavy Metals:
NAC has been shown to be effective in removing heavy metals like mercury, cadmium, chromium, and arsenic.
Essential Metals:
While NAC can chelate and remove heavy metals, studies indicate that it doesn’t significantly affect the levels of essential trace metals like zinc, copper, iron, calcium, or magnesium.
Potential Benefits:
NAC’s ability to chelate heavy metals, combined with its antioxidant properties, suggests it may play a protective role against heavy metal toxicity and oxidative stress.
Research and Studies:
Research suggests that NAC can enhance the excretion of methylmercury and reduce tissue mercury levels. Furthermore, NAC has been shown to reduce blood chromium and cobalt levels in some cases.
Dosage
For your body to make the amino acid cysteine, you need adequate amounts of folate, vitamin B6, and vitamin B12. These nutrients can be found in beans, lentils, spinach, bananas, salmon, and tuna.
While most protein-rich foods — such as chicken, turkey, yogurt, cheese, eggs, sunflower seeds, and legumes — contain cysteine, some people supplement with NAC to increase their cysteine intake.
NAC has low bioavailability as an oral supplement, meaning your body does not absorb it well. The accepted daily supplement recommendation is 600–1,800 mg of NAC (29).
For best results, especially for acute overdose or toxic levels of Tylenol (Acetopminaphen), NAC can be administered intravenously at doses up to 15,000 mg, without adverse reactions.
Side effects
NAC is likely safe for adults and can be life saving in adults and small children when given by IV for acute liver and/or kidney toxicity.
However, oral doses in excess of 1200mg per day may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and constipation. Inhalation of NAC solutions can cause swelling in the mouth, runny nose, drowsiness, and chest tightness.
People with bleeding disorders or taking blood thinning medications should not take NAC because it may slow blood clotting. Taking NAC with nitroglycerine (used to treat chest pain) might cause low blood pressure and severe headaches. (30Trusted Source).
Notice: This is for informational purposes only. For medical advice or diagnosis, consult a professional.