Some practical things about the recipe, sharing glycine recipes, and a deep dive on metabolic syndrome

 The Baylor study used 100 grams/kg/day of glycine and NAC each, not specified as to time of day.  I have been using the glycine powder rather than capsules, which is easy  to do- it tastes like sugar to most (but not all) people, and the powder doesn't contain any additives.

     However, the NAC powder is too tart for many tastes and so I had been  taking this as capsules from Life Extension.

    A problem that has come up is that the additives in the capsules can cause some stomach discomfort.  (Taking the higher dose of 8 capsules daily caused some stomach discomfort for me and some others).  I now use the  NAC powder from Nutricost through Amazon. It has a 1.2 gram scoop and I use three scoops together with three scoops of glycine powder twice daily (7.2 grams daily total dose of each).

 Mixed together I think the taste is acceptable;  the glycine sweetness brings down the tartness of the NAC.   This can be taken with juice and/or carbonated water for taste.  

    A once daily dose may be sufficient for maintaining glutathione levels for most people;  for those wishing to replicate the Baylor study, twice daily dosing is needed.  Two weeks may be enough time to decide whether your dose is sufficient, and the Baylor study noted significant further improvement at four months.

    Another approach some have taken, which seems very reasonable to me, is to take the full dose twice daily dose for one month, and then try reducing to a once daily dose and see if any improvement is maintained.

Glycine cookbook?:   One of our readers with type 2 diabetes and hypertension is working on recipes substituting glycine for sugar in her diet.  She enjoys desserts and cooking,  and was interested in exploring substituting glycine in her diet.  How would it be if the sugar bowl was emptied, and glycine put in its place?

    She reports that acorn squash with glycine instead of sugar was delicious and that it tasted like sugar.  This may not be true for everyone. I am hoping she and other readers will send in recipes for glycine substitution for sugar in their diet, and how glycine performs in baking and other cooking activities.  

   Remember that these are not personal medical recommendations which can only come from your health care provider.  

Deep dive: Metabolic syndrome is a clustering of at least three of the following five medical conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL).  

     Perhaps these conditions don't exist independently.  In other words, perhaps there is no hypertension or type 2 diabetes or abdominal obesity without, to some degree, the others.  Those labels came about because they are easy to measure and  and develop and sell patent medicines for.

From  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metabolic_syndrome:

    "Recent research indicates prolonged chronic stress can contribute to metabolic syndrome by disrupting the hormonal balance of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis). A dysfunctional HPA-axis causes high cortisol levels to circulate, which results in raising glucose and insulin levels, which in turn cause insulin-mediated effects on adipose tissue, ultimately promoting visceral adiposity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and hypertension, with direct effects on the bone, causing "low turnover" osteoporosis. HPA-axis dysfunction may explain the reported risk indication of abdominal obesity to cardiovascular disease (CVD), type 2 diabetes and stroke."

    Could you have"metabolic syndrome"?

    Again from the same article: "Metabolic syndrome affects 60% of the U.S. population older than age 50. With respect to that demographic, the percentage of women having the syndrome is higher than that of men. The age dependency of the syndrome's prevalence is seen in most populations around the world."

    I think if you are over 50, the answer is "Yes you have at least a little metabolic syndrome.  That is what aging is".  

    The Baylor study and GlyNAC offer a possible rational approach to metabolic syndrome and aging, and suggests that much of what bothers us from ages 50 to 100 are due to a correctable deficit of glutathione.

Fun

    This one illustrates my feeling about the use of many patent medicines.

    A man goes into a drugstore and asks the pharmacist if he can give him something for the hiccups. The pharmacist promptly reaches out and slaps the man's face."What did you do that for?" the man asks."Well, you don't have the hiccups anymore, do you?"The man says, "No, but my wife out in the car still does!"