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Originally Posted On: https://holistic-momma.com/nac-for-anxiety/

 

This article will help to understand what NAC is and what the benefits of NAC for anxiety are. Furthermore, the benefits of NAC would be explored with reference to 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 would be discussed.

Want to Fight This With Us?

The FDA is currently banning the use of NAC as a supplement, the reasoning is unclear. However, as shown below there is a lot of research on how amazing the benefits are.

What is NAC?

NAC or N-acetyl cysteine is a semi-essential amino acid. The human body is capable of producing 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 in this case.

High protein foods such as 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.

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 is required to produce Glutathione which is a powerful antioxidant as well.

NAC for Anxiety

If you don’t have time to read the rest, here is the best NAC for anxiety according to the research. Take 2-3 of these per day for 12 weeks, a month minimum before evaluating the supplement.

Click Here to Buy: Now’s NAC Supplement 1,000mg

NAC is helpful in regulating glutamate levels. Glutamate is one of the vitally important neurotransmitters in the human brain. For a brain to function normally glutamate is essentially required.

Excessive use of glutamate along glutathione depletion may increase the chances of a brain injury.

NAC is helpful with ruminations, with those thought patterns that are extremely negative and are hard to be controlled.

NAC For OCD

OCD stands for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and it looks like ritualistic behaviors or persistent, unwanted thoughts. These types of uncontrollable thoughts are commonly found in disorders like depression and anxiety along with schizophrenia, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, and eating disorders

Researchers have successfully unearthed a relationship between anxiety conditions and Glutamate or GABA balance.

The use of psychotherapy combined with NAC can help an individual be able to change their patterns of thinking 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).

Researchers have concluded that such an inexpensive and simple nutritional supplement is remarkably effective for treating various types of anxiety disorders.

It has been noted that anxiety is rapidly spreading psychiatric disease (Kessler et al., 2005), which has affected hundreds of million 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), and excoriation disorder, and NAC. The study said that the use of NAC should be considered on 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

Many of the researches have shown that NAC for anxiety can be helpful in alleviating the symptoms of obsessive-compulsive behavior disorder which are related to different types of psychiatric conditions.

NAC supplements are significantly helpful in reducing compulsive skin-picking behavior during research on kids who were having an excoriation disorder. Another research conducted on kids has shown that the use of NAC for anxiety has significantly reduced their behavior of nail-biting.

NAC for anxiety supplementation has proved to be beneficial for alleviating above mentioned compulsive behaviors but it is yet to be cleared that if these impacts of the NAC can be applicable for other types of compulsive behaviors including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

<img class=”entered exited” src=”data:;base64,” alt=”Cheese NAC Foods” width=”258″ height=”387″ data-lazy-srcset=”https://holistic-momma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NAC-Rich-foods-1-200×300.jpg 200w, https://holistic-momma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NAC-Rich-foods-1-scaled-600×900.jpg 600w, https://holistic-momma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NAC-Rich-foods-1-682×1024.jpg 682w, https://holistic-momma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NAC-Rich-foods-1-768×1153.jpg 768w, https://holistic-momma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NAC-Rich-foods-1-1023×1536.jpg 1023w, https://holistic-momma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NAC-Rich-foods-1-scaled.jpg 1706w” data-lazy-sizes=”(max-width: 258px) 100vw, 258px” data-lazy-src=”https://holistic-momma.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/NAC-Rich-foods-1-200×300.jpg” />What foods contain NAC?

Sulfur is considered a vital mineral that is mostly found in some protein foods and plants. In addition, sulfur is considered vital for the activity and structure of some major 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 is mainly originated from nutritional proteins such as poultry, beef, and fish.

Nevertheless, sulfur can also be found in vegetables such as 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.

Foods with Cysteine

Firstly, there are multiple functions of cysteine such as it is helpful in creating antioxidants in the human body and also improving 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 it is best to consume foods that are high in fat, fiber, and protein. Balanced nutrition can greatly 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 is capable of producing NAC from other amino acids such as serine and methionine which is why it is being pronounced as semi-essential.

On the other hand, Cysteine is sulfur that contains amino acid which arises in keratins and other types of proteins mostly in the form of cysteine. Cysteine is considered as an integral part of forming most of the 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 has high enough to take at least 2 per day and it gives you a 60-day supply.

As recommended by the study it is best to take 2,400mg per day for 3 months to fairly evaluate it. This is the recommended NAC dosage for OCD sufferers and it can offer heart and brain protection too.

Plus remember it helps produce the antioxidant glutathione that helps with liver detoxing and protects your brain 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, but it is a precursor for glutathione.

What is the best NAC supplement?

The Best NAC Supplement is:
Now NAC Supplement for Anxiety

• High dose (enough to support the study)
• 120 Tablets lasting 2 months taking 2 per day
• Affordable
• 3rd-party tested

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, which is the building block of protein. So should we ban the consumption of protein? Absolutely not! People would starve, be weak and not be able to repair our bodies without the consumption of protein.

This is your warning to stock up on NAC if it works for you or if you feel like the above information describes you. Thankfully there are other nutrients that are on the market that can be helpful for anxiety as well such as niacin and magnesium.