This information was recently published on our MS board by one of the automatic RSS feeds here.

This thread discusses it:
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread158393.html

This form of glucosamine, may and I emphasize MAY help those here with inflammatory types of PN, especially those attacking the myelin sheath.

The link I have to it here, discusses dosing and absorption, and also not for use by those with shellfish allergy.

I am going to try it for 2 months.

Have you seen any results from the N-acetylglucosamine, Mrs D? Maybe you've not been on it long enough to tell.

Haven't done it yet.... my symptoms are quiet now...wouldn't know if it were working or not.

I do think the R-lipoic...the stabilized form is working at least for my circulation. Combined with the benfotiamine, my feet are not so cold this winter like last year.

I will get around to the NAG... next order I make for supplements.

When I do I'll post. Maybe it will help my arthritis to some extent? I've returned to my SAMe for that. I've also gone back to my Light Visor.... to help me stabilize my night time cortisol and perhaps lower my dawn phenomenon blood sugar effects.
I am not waking up during the night so much this week!
I use it for 30minutes around 4pm. With sick Oreo and the new kitten, I really got my sleeping out of whack this fall. When Houdini arrived, he was so forlorn for his siblings and mother and cried all night. I stayed up cuddling him and he really appreciated that. 3 nights. One thing that the light visor does for me, at least, is minimize my arthritis pain.

Amazon has it for very reasonable prices! I'll probably make an order soon. I've been using Amazon lately because you can get free shipping for $25 and can add most anything that qualifies to get it. I got some inexpensive cat toys, last order with my theanine!
3 bucks for toys that would cost a bundle in local stores!
Now that Weez and Houdini play alot together, toys seem important to keep them busy (not going outside).

There are some things to watch out for if you want to try NAG...

http://www.medicinenet.com/n-acetyl_...s-vitamins.htm

Warfarin, is one interaction.

However, there is not much information out there for other risks, yet.

This is an excellent site explaining leaky gut.

http://www.drkaslow.com/html/leaky_gut.html

And I have now received my NAG I recently ordered and have started it.

NAG is mentioned twice as being depleted by alcohol consumption and NSAID use.

I am hoping it will help my knee, ankle, and also improve my GI issues which the Kefir is working on well.

I am giving it a month... before reporting back. I am taking 750mg twice a day of Jarrow brand capsules. It is not expensive, about the same price as Doctor's Best R-lipoic, only with 120 count --double.

My N-A-G trial is not going well.

First off it seems to increase my pain... my arthritis pain!

Secondly it is raising my blood sugars!

I am going to discontinue it... and see if the blood sugars come back down.

I searched glucosamine and NAG quite a bit on the net.
There is even a study to show that glucosamine does NOT raise sugars, but actually there is very little other evidence of this effect studied well. So it is possible at least for me, this is not going to work in my metabolic state.

I'll stay off it for 2 weeks, and retry. If I get elevated again, well, that will be the end of NAG for me!

edit to add: I've just researched amitriptyline now, and find it also can affect blood sugar! So DRAT... helping me sleep but now I have to stop it too? I am NOT happy about this!

What do you think of melatonin? I'm thinking of starting it not so much for the potential sleep benefit as its antioxidant power. My cell membranes are getting trashed while I sleep, I believe, because of the unmitigated PN heat stress and resultant oxidative damage.

Antioxidant

Besides its function as synchronizer of the biological clock, melatonin also exerts a powerful antioxidant activity. . . . Melatonin is an antioxidant that can easily cross cell membranes and the blood-brain barrier. . . . Melatonin's antioxidant activity may reduce damage caused by some types of Parkinson's disease. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melatonin#Antioxidant

"Patients receiving melatonin during taxane chemotherapy had a reduced incidence of neuropathy. Melatonin may be useful in the prevention or reduction of taxane-induced neuropathy and in maintaining quality of life."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2883241/

There's been some success with tests on rats:

"Results suggest that oxidative stress contributes to appearance of pain in diabetes and melatonin, as an antioxidant, is effective in reducing the acute and chronic pain in diabetic rats."

http://www.ijem.org.ir/browse.php?a_...=1&slc_lang=en

I've been using melatonin for several years now. 3mg at bedtime.

It is also implicated in glucose control and exists in the pancreas.
However its link to functions there are not proven yet.

Melatonin is depressed by age, low B12 levels, and some drugs.(SSRIs and beta blockers, and drugs that depress B12)
Methylcobalamin is a cofactor in melatonin synthesis from the serotonin precursor. Melatonin doses in some studies are quite high. I wonder if many people could tolerate that.

I had a low grade inflammation along the gum line which was just fixed. It might be this low grade infection was causing my elevated sugars. I just had the crown fixed that caused that.

Three things piling up on each other. I am going to wait 2 weeks and reintroduce the NAG. And see if my sugars increase again.
In any event the NAG was not doing much positive as it was, at the time. But that was only a week or so. Maybe too soon for it.

I have also stopped the amitriptyline too.

I've just started this, too.

I just read that "magnesium stimulates the biosynthesis of melatonin," (The Magnesium Factor, p. 172), so I'll probably take Mg at the same time. Seelig and Rosanoff also noted: "magnesium has a protective effect against oxidative stress."

So, I think I'll try to combat the oxidative stress of sleep deprivation with melatonin, magnesium, and vitamin C all at the same time. They are the only calming/non-stimulative anti-oxidants I know of.

Let me know how it goes.

I use the magnesium at night, the melatonin at night and the Vit C, at night too.

Really high Vit C at night may make you get up to urinate, though. I use Ester C with bioflavinoids, 500mg.