Posted by bleauberry on March 16, 2011, at 16:50:18
In reply to Getting placebo effect from NAC?, posted by former poster on March 16, 2011, at 0:36:58
What does NAC do?
Well, among many other mechanisms, it helps to increase glutathione levels. That has implications in all kinds of causes of mood disorders....immune dysfunction, low grade chronic systemic infections, toxin accumulation of metals, plastics, etc. Basically NAC is a necessary ingredient to help the clean-up crew get junk out of the cells. So a mood improvement is not a surprise. Takes time though. Months or longer. The damage took a long time to happen and isn't easily reversed in short order.
ALA is another one and goes well with NAC. I take ALA at 12.5mg every four hours (in respect of its half life for a steady blood level so I don't redeposit the toxins).
My doctor who has an additional license in psychiatry and naturopathy suggests NAC frequently. I have some but haven't added it yet. When I do it is likely to be far lower than your dose and probably more frequent.
Some people try NAC and get a bad reaction. That is probably one of two things:
1) The dose was too much.
2) Something similar to a Herxheimer reaction....too many toxins being released all at one time and causing a traffic jam.Some people have tried it but after a month or two gave up on it, thinking that maybe t should work in the same time frame as a clinical trial of pharmaceuticals. Natural approaches take longer generally, but in contrast to meds can offer a permanent fix that stays.
My best mood improvements have come from detox. That's one of the things NAC helps to do. Just a pure guess, since it is one of those substances that does so many different jobs. It isn't as potent or specific at detox as are ALA or DMSA, but it's in the clean-up family.
I don't think it is placebo. If you experience hills and valleys, troughs in your improvement, relapses, whatever, I wouldn't be too quick to throw in the towel. Roller coaster rides where you have random intermittent moments of improvement surrounded by other moments that aren't so good....common pattern in healing deeply at the cellular level.
With all natural approaches, combinations often work better and more wide spectrum than single substance approaches. There are excellent companions for NAC.
poster:bleauberry
thread:980514
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/alter/20110214/msgs/980547.html