NAC for COPD

[jfh]

I've taken NAC for detox of metals such as iron. I still take on capsule daily. But high dose made my underarms and groin itch badly. After all, the skin is an escape for toxins too.

https://www.naturalmedicinejournal.co...=3&article=478

Study shows NAC reduces frequency of COPD exacerbations

This study is the latest in a growing body of research assessing the utility of NAC as a therapy for COPD. In theory, NAC is a perfect substance to prevent exacerbations and lung damage of progressive COPD. It is a mucolytic, it lessens oxidative damage (via glutathione), and it has low toxicity. However, the data thus far have been mixed on whether it can produce the expected clinical results of these actions. This latest study helps to clarify that NAC can be a beneficial treatment for COPD when administered in sufficient dosage and duration. This benefit is most clearly shown when the assessment parameters look specifically at small airway function.

NAC is well-known as a mucolytic agent. This is important in COPD because muco-inflammatory exudate obstruction in small airways is an independent factor in airway limitation.1 Treatment with mucolytic drugs has generally been shown to decrease the symptoms and frequency of exacerbations in COPD, so it would logically follow that NAC would be useful for this application and has been found to increase ease of expectoration.

Additionally, NAC’s antioxidant capacity could potentially decrease inflammation and damage to the airways over time. Oral NAC is deacetylated into cysteine, 1 of 3 amino acids that form glutathione, part of a potent antioxidative enzyme system in cells. Glutathione levels do increase in alveolar lavage fluid after administration with NAC. In the lungs, reduced glutathione (GSH) plays an important role in “immune modulation, remodeling of the extracellular matrix, apoptosis, and mitochondrial respiration.” Decreased levels of reduced glutathione (GSH) have been found to be a primary feature of inflammatory lung disease. NAC can also play its own role as an antioxidant by decreasing H202 in the lungs and protecting alveolar cells and bronchial fibroblasts against damage.