N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)

Lane, thank you for the concern. It's really nice of your part to point this.

I am now at 1,800 mg daily but I tapered up from 600 mg. I am taking because it supposedly helps with OCD and I don't want to updose Luvox.

I am having a spike right now but it's difficult to pinpoint the cause: I am tapering Diazepam and did a cut 15 days ago. It might be that I am feeling just now the effects of the cut since Diazepam has a long half life and Fluvoxamine seems to prolong it.

I think there are more extreme use cases for NAC for OCD like 3,000 mg but I would need to do some research to affirm.

 

Update: I stopped the daily use of 1,800 mg of NAC today cold turkey and in the same day by the night I got a spike. Bad idea, I stopped it due to the cancer associations that scared me. I don't know if it's a coincidence or if I should have tapered the NAC. I feel guilty.

I will pray to God that this will pass.

 

@juliob, are you doing all this under a doctor's supervision?

 

Yes, a psychiatrist was OK with keeping the NAC supplement as an additional OCD treatment but, to be honest, his knowledge about the supplement seemed superficial, like based in few Google searches.

Reading out that NAC can hinder the gene expression P53 that is responsible for recycling cells got me scared because you want your body to discard potentially harmful cells. After all this, I feel alone again and, like tinnitus, doctors don't seem to know much about these nootropics. It's like still on the fringe area.

 

Hi @juliob -- Just to mention, it's common for health publications to put out various kinds of "warnings" on supplements that are mostly benign. When you think about it, prescription drugs cause all kinds of serious injuries and death, but you hear little about it. But when (often) fairly dubious results come back on fairly benign supplements, it always seems to make the major news media outlets. Not to say supplements shouldn't be taken with caution, but I think it's important to recognize some of the scare tactics that are often used by mainstream medicine to steer people away from them, often without good reason.

In your situation, I personally wouldn't have gone cold turkey on quitting the NAC, especially with a dosage that was pretty substantial to begin with. So the fact that you got a spike from doing this doesn't surprise me a lot, though I doubt it will be a long-term spike. If you are interested in taking a supplement for OCD, I think you'd be much better off looking into Inositol. It's been proven to be helpful for OCD, and has a lot of clinical evidence to back up it efficacy. I'm pretty sure I mentioned this to you before, but I'll post a link here in case you're interested: -- Take care!

LISTENING TO INOSITOL: CLINICAL NOTES

BTW, I don't have OCD, but I do find supplementing with Inositol to be relaxing.

 

@Lane, I was interested in looking at Inositol, however, the link to the published studies cited in the article returns no results?

I found one small study with modest benefit:

Inositol treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder

The 2nd issue is getting pure pharma grade stuff.

In the UK there is a company called Lamberts that make pharma grade supplements. They donated products to the tinnitus Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) 2019 clinical trial.

 

I hope you are right about this not being a long-term spike. I was stupid. I got over obsessed with the cancer thing given that I smoke a few cigarettes sometimes and the stuff about recycling I mentioned above.

I will taper off NAC I guess. Like, two weeks tapering with 600 mg cuts. There are some reports of anhedonia that kinda scares me. But I wonder: in my case, with the Glutamate excess, wouldn't NAC be ideal?

I will give Inositol a ty, which I avoided because it seems to boost Serotonin but I am running out of options and it surely seems more safe and symptom free compared to raising Fluvoxamine.

Pre-existing OCD, benzo withdrawal and tinnitus together is a combo that I don't wish to anyone, I am not sure if I can endure with all the symptoms and I am almost giving up the benzo taper and updosing until feeling good and taking them for life. I really wish I could max out Luvox but the two times I tried, it made my tinnitus more piercing until I got to the previous dose.

I hope I get lucky with Inositol and maybe Taurine.

 

@Nick47 -- I'm curious, have you decided whether or not to give Inositol a try? Good luck if you do!

 

Hi @Lane, not as a standalone. I am replicating this study at the moment:

The Effect of Antioxidant Supplementation in Patients with Tinnitus and Normal Hearing or Hearing Loss: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo Controlled Trial

Currently on day 7.

 

@juliob, I was watching a presentation by Dr. De Ridder on trauma, CPTSD, OCD and various diseases of the mind. NAC 1200 mg was one of the treatments he uses.

ANSA Conference 2022 - Dirk de Ridder

It's around 48-50 minutes before he discusses treatments.

 

Thank you! I wonder about the long tail/rare cases that present persistent anhedonia or histamine intolerance and I get a little scared, but I am considering continuing NAC as it seems to help me.

 

@juliob, rare things can happen to all of us. Fight naked!

 

I am not lucky lately I guess. 5 days ago I had an episode of hypoglycemia induced by stress that caused severe dizziness and the day after it my tinnitus started feeling more piercing.

As NAC is a powerful antioxidant, should I in this case continue to use it? I've read that it can hinder the process of cell recycling, something about the gene expression P53, so I wonder if using it can be an obstacle for the tinnitus to go back to the baseline level.

What are your thoughts?

 

Does everyone's NAC taste truly awful, or is it something that differs by brand? I'm already almost through my bottle of 100 and most of the time I had to first take a sip of water or juice and then add the pill, to prevent just not being able to keep it down.

I will have to buy a new bottle soon so I'm considering another brand, but am wondering if NAC maybe just naturally has that authentic sewage and rotten egg taste.

 

Mine are in capsules, so they have no taste. But they do stink like sulfur. I get mine from the Vitamin Shoppe.

 

Thanks! Yes, that's the smell. Mine are capsules too, so it looks like it can differ. Good to know!

 

Yep, tastes even worse than HPN-07.

 

Ameliorative Effects Of N-Acetylcysteine As Adjunct Therapy On Symptoms Of Painful Diabetic Neuropathy

Ninety patients completed the eight-week course of the study. The decrease in mean pain scores and mean sleep interference score in pregabalin (lyrica) + NAC group was greater in comparison with pregabalin + placebo group (p value<0.001 in both conditions). Moreover, more responders (defined as ≥50% reduction in mean pain score from baseline to end-point) were observed in the pregabalin + NAC group, in comparison with pregabalin + placebo group (72.1% vs 46.8%). More improvement in PGIC (Patient Global Impression of Change) and CGIC (Clinical Global Impression of Change) from baseline to the end of the study was reported in pregabalin + NAC group. Oral NAC had minimal adverse effects and was well tolerated in almost all patients. Furthermore, in respect to OTS biomarkers, adjuvant NAC significantly decreased serum level of MDA (malondialdehyde) and significantly increased serum levels of SOD (superoxide dismutase), GPx (glutathione peroxidase), TAC (total antioxidant capacity), and TTG (total thiol groups).

Ameliorative effects of NAC on OTS (oxidative toxic stress) biomarkers demonstrated that NAC may alleviate painful symptoms of diabetic neuropathy, at least in part by its antioxidant effects.

 

I was exposed to noise this Christmas. It was a loud motorcycle revving the engine as it pulled away from the gas station I stopped at. My noise tolerance has come a long way. At first the motorcycle didn't actually bother me but following it up with visiting loud family members the rest of the day did me in.

Would taking NAC be worth it? I've read some accounts of it having made people's tinnitus worse. I even came across one cryptic post online saying just one 600 mg dose "permanently" made the poster's tinnitus worse.

I picked up a bottle but I've been hesitating to take it since yesterday. This is probably the last day I have left to take it in time for noise exposure.

 

You should not be afraid of trying a small dose of medication. Even if it causes a temporary spike, it usually subsides later in the day or evening. The worst thing you could do to yourself is live in fear of taking a pill because you might find one that lowers your ringing. Take it!