This article will help to understand what NAC is and what the benefits of NAC for anxiety. Furthermore, the benefits of NAC will be explored concerning research articles. This article will also enable us to understand the types of anxiety for using NAC. Foods that are enriched with NAC will also be discussed. It will also help in understanding a comparison between NAC and Cysteine. Lastly, the most suitable NAC supplement will be discussed.
Table of Contents
Want to Fight This With Us?
The FDA is currently banning NAC as a supplement; the reasoning is unclear. However, as shown below, there is much research on the benefits’ effectiveness.
What Causes Anxiety?
Causes of anxiety include trauma, nutrient deficiencies, poor sleep hygiene, an inability to set boundaries, insecurities, distressing situations, unhelpful ways of thinking, upbringing, and more.
-How to Learn relaxation techniques you can do anywhere.
-Identify anxiety in yourself and others.
-Learn how to better react to situations and set a firm foundation for dealing with stressful situations.
Use Natural Supplements, Dietary, and Lifestyle changes to help you feel less anxious sooner.
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Conventional Treatments for Anxiety
SSRIs or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors are typically taken to increase serotonin levels in individuals with anxiety. However, side effects include blurred vision, low sex drive, anxiety, and feeling sick or dizzy. There are also natural ways to increase serotonin.
NAC or N-acetyl cysteine is a semi-essential amino acid. The human body can produce NAC from other amino acids such as serine and methionine. This is why it is referred to as semi-essential. When the dietary intake of serine and methionine is low, NAC supplementation becomes essential.
High-protein foods like chicken, yogurt, turkey, eggs, sunflower seeds, legumes, and cheese contain cysteine. N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) is a supplement form of cysteine.
There are various health-related reasons for the consumption of adequate NAC and cysteine. This includes restocking the dominant antioxidant known as glutathione in the human body. The amino acids are helpful with brain health, respiratory chronic conditions, and fertility.
If you don’t want to read more, here is the best NAC to buy because it is highly researched. Also, amazon has taken it off its site, despite its lengthy rap sheet of benefits.
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Benefits of N-Acetyl-Cysteine
NAC is a primary source for producing antioxidants in the human body. Which helps improve mental health conditions and alleviates the symptoms of anxiety. Antioxidants work to fight off brain inflammation that causes NAC and is required to produce Glutathione which is a powerful antioxidant as well.
NAC for Anxiety
According to the research, if you don’t have time to read the rest, here is the best NAC for anxiety. Take 2-3 of these daily for 12 weeks, a month minimum, before evaluating the supplement.
NAC helps regulate glutamate levels. Glutamate is one of the vitally essential neurotransmitters in the human brain. For a brain to function normally glutamate is essentially required.
Excessive use of glutamate along with glutathione depletion may increase the chances of a brain injury.
NAC is helpful with ruminations, with highly negative thought patterns that are hard to control.
OCD stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, which looks like ritualistic behaviors or persistent, unwanted thoughts. These uncontrollable thoughts are commonly found in disorders like depression and anxiety, schizophrenia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and eating disorders.
Researchers have found a relationship between anxiety conditions and Glutamate or GABA balance.
The use of psychotherapy combined with NAC can help an individual change their thinking patterns and get faster relief from the distress OCD or anxiety can cause.
OCD Causes:
Stressful Events
Substance or Alcohol Abuse
Family History, etc.
In recent times NAC has been used with a most complex type of anxiety disorder —the spectrum of compulsive disorders (including OCD).
It has been noted that anxiety is a rapidly spreading psychiatric disease (Kessler et al., 2005), which has affected hundreds of million of individuals worldwide.
NAC is now suggested as a prospective drug for managing anxiety. (Lafleur et al., 2006; Berk et al., 2009, 2014; Egashira et al., 2012; Bloch et al., 2013).
NAC for Excoriation Disorder
What is excoriation disorder? It is a skin-picking disorder.
A study was done on trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder), excoriation disorder, and NAC. The study said that the use of NAC should be considered at all severity levels.
Which forms of anxiety can it help?
NAC can be helpful with any form of anxiety, but mainly for compulsive behaviors.
Different Types of Compulsive Behaviors
Much of the research has shown that NAC for anxiety can help alleviate the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive behavior disorder related to different types of psychiatric conditions.
NAC supplements are significantly helpful in reducing compulsive skin-picking behavior during research on kids with an excoriation disorder. Another research conducted on kids has shown that using NAC for anxiety has significantly reduced their nail-biting behavior.
NAC for anxiety supplementation has proved beneficial for alleviating the abovementioned compulsive behaviors. Still, it is yet to be clear if these impacts of the NAC can apply to other types of compulsive behaviors, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.
What foods contain NAC?
Sulfur is a vital mineral primarily found in some protein foods and plants. In addition, sulfur is considered vital for the activity and structure of some significant enzymes and proteins in the human body.
Sulfur is needed for the synthesis of glutathione. The presence of sulfur is found in a couple of amino acids in food; cysteine and methionine. It mainly originates from nutritional proteins such as poultry, beef, and fish.
Nevertheless, sulfur can also be found in cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, brussels sprouts, mustard greens, and watercress.
Many studies conducted on human and animal populations have concluded that consuming sulfur-enriched vegetables helps reduce oxidative stress and increases glutathione levels.
Consuming NAC-rich foods make it also easily accessible for children and adolescents to reap NAC’s anxiety benefits.
Foods with Cysteine
Firstly, there are multiple functions of cysteine, such as it helps create antioxidants in the human body and improves hair health.
The foods with a higher percentage of cysteine are cheese, pork, sunflower seeds, beef, low-fat yogurt, fish eggs, lentils, and oatmeal.
Here is a list of foods with the highest cysteine;
Lean Pork Chops
Beef (Skirt Steaks)
Lean Chicken Breast
Tuna
Lentils
Oatmeal
Eggs
Swiss cheese
Seaweed, spirulina, dried
Consume protein-rich foods; since NAC is an amino acid, consuming foods high in fat, fiber, and protein is best. Balanced nutrition can significantly improve mental health concerns, including obsessive-compulsive disorder and other forms of anxiety.
NAC vs. Cysteine
NAC or N-acetyl cysteine is a semi-essential amino acid. The human body can produce NAC from other amino acids, such as serine and methionine, which is why it is pronounced semi-essential.
On the other hand, Cysteine is sulfur that contains the amino acid, which arises in keratins and other types of proteins, mainly in the form of cysteine. Cysteine is considered an integral part of forming most enzymes.
NAC Dosage for OCD
In recent studies, 2,400-3,000mg per day of NAC was administered for 12 weeks. NAC reduced the severity of symptoms of OCD and had minimal adverse effects. (Oliver et al., 2015)
This is the best NAC for anxiety because it is high enough to take at least 2 per day and gives you a 60-day supply.
As recommended by the study, it is best to take 2,400mg per day for 3 months to evaluate it fairly. This is the recommended NAC dosage for OCD sufferers, and it can also offer heart and brain protection.
Remember, it helps produce the antioxidant glutathione that helps detox your brain and protects the liver from inflammation.
In addition, studies show the use of NAC for anxiety, addiction, compulsive, and grooming disorders, in addition to schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. (Dean et al., 2011)
Bad News
NAC has mostly been removed from the market in many places because the FDA is questioning some brands. However, Life Extension has one available, a fantastic company with TONS of research to back up every single product they put out. They have many articles to support every product they sell down to supporting the dosage they make a product at.
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Other Treatments for Anxiety
Cognitive-Behavioral therapy is another treatment for anxiety that does not require increasing your medications. It is helpful for many forms of anxiety, depression, and a more positive outlook on life.
Since anxiety combines worries and irrational and rational beliefs that may not be helpful, it is essential to address multiple aspects. Addressing physical causes of anxiety may be nutrient deficiencies such as NAC, magnesium, and more, as well as excess environmental toxins, hormones in food, pesticides, poor gut health, excessive medication use, and more.
Then using, different therapies to address the root cause with talk and nutritional therapy.
In Conclusion
Furthermore, it is usually presumed that NAC supplements are better than cysteine as it is stable and more soluble. Also, NAC is thought to have great potential for supplying sulfur.
Here is a recommended NAC Supplement. This NAC supplement is a potent antioxidant amino acid and precursor in the body to the critical antioxidant glutathione.
It supports lung functions and the liver. This antioxidant supports the cell membranes and inside cells as well.
Unfortunately, it may be difficult to find NAC on the market anymore. It was pulled due to its many benefits; we live in a sick care system. If people are getting better without medications, there will be fewer customers.
There will be a denial of this, of course. However, NAC is an amino acid, the protein’s building block. So should we ban the consumption of protein? Not! People would starve, be weak, and be unable to repair their bodies without consuming protein.
This is your warning to stock up on NAC if it works for you or if you feel the above information describes you. Thankfully other nutrients are on the market that can be helpful for anxiety, such as niacin and magnesium.
References:
Dean, O., Giorlando, F., & Berk, M. (2011). N-acetylcysteine in psychiatry: current therapeutic evidence and potential mechanisms of action. Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPN, 36(2), 78–86. https://doi.org/10.1503/jpn.100057
Oliver, G., Dean, O., Camfield, D., Blair-West, S., Ng, C., Berk, M., & Sarris, J. (2015). N-acetyl cysteine in the treatment of obsessive compulsive and related disorders: a systematic review. Clinical psychopharmacology and neuroscience : the official scientific journal of the Korean College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 13(1), 12–24. https://doi.org/10.9758/cpn.2015.13.1.12
Hello! My name is Megan Santiago, B.S in Psychology, I have a Master's Degree in Mental Health Counseling and I am currently seeing clients as a Mental Health Counselor Intern. I am the Owner and Founder of Holistic-Momma.com.
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