N-Acetyl Cysteine May Support Dopamine Neurons in Parkinson's Disease: Preliminary Clinical and Cell Line Data

Compared to controls, the patients receiving NAC had improvements of 4-9 percent in dopamine transporter binding and also had improvements in their UPDRS score of about 13 percent.

PLOS ONE: N-Acetyl Cysteine May Support Dopamine Neurons in Parkinson's Disease: Preliminary Clinical and Cell Line Data

https://www.sciencedaily.com/release...0616141630.htm

Life Extension Mix, which I have taken for years, has a daily dose of 600 mg of NAC. Maybe that isn't enough or maybe a 13% improvement isn't noticeable given the vagaries of daily PD symptoms.

According to this image, 13% should be noticeable!

https://images.sciencedaily.com/2016..._1_540x360.jpg

I need to bump my intake from 1x to 2x daily.

If I am reading the article correctly, patients were given 1200 mg. Per day. Is this correct? Wonder if improvement coninues with NAC over the course of a year or longer. Whats a good brand ??

The results from this trial appear to be very good. But:
- the sample size is very small (12 in the NAC group, 11 in the control group, see Table 1);
- the trial is not blinded, and the size of the reported improvement is similar to the placebo effect reported in other studies;
- the confounding issues of gender, age and C/L use possibly favour the NAC result.

Still, the results are encouraging enough to justify a more powerful trial quickly. In the meantime, it may be worth taking NAC as a "therebo" (possible THERapy or placEBO).

John

Hi, I have been taken NAC (Free Form) for more than a year and I should say it made me feel some improvement at least in tremor and overall stable. At very beginning I started with 600 mg per day, then, as I read the articles and reports which suggest that for PWP should take 2,400 mg per day in order to see therapeutic effect. I gradually built the dosage. When I hit 1,200 mg per day, my tremor was reduced noticeably. But, when I hit 2,400 mg per day, severe and very painful constipation came. Because of the bad constipation, I quitted NAC for two weeks and now go back to the starting point of 600 mg. Anyone has the similar experience that can better deal with the constipation caused by NAC in large dosage? Or, the dosage itself is questionable at 2,400 mg? Another side effect is running nose, but that is quite easier to deal with...

N-Acetylcysteine for Neuroprotection in Parkinson's Disease | Smart Patients

This an interesting trial of phase 1 and2 testing nac and PD. If this trial began in 2012 and lasts 30 days, why does the trial conclude in July 2016?

although the trial for each subject lasts only 30 days, and the number of subjects required took a year or two to recruit. This allows the researchers to begin the 30-day trial for each subject as soon as they are recruited. That, plus the time needed for trouble-shooting data aquisition and processing of each subject's data could easily take 2 or 3 years.