GlyNAC Video of the Week

9.25.22    There are a number of aging influencers who have been busy producing content following the Baylor Study. This video by Dr. Brad Steinfeld is well- produced, I agree with the content, and I admire his nonprofit work in funding aging studies.

    Major point:  GlyNAC (unlike vitamins C and E)  is not an "antioxidant", it is simply two amino acids taken together.  We now know GlyNAC restores youthful levels in the serum and in specific organs-not high levels- of glutathione, the major component of your own antioxidant system, by combining with and neutralizing the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate.  

    We know glutathione  building blocks (the amino acids glycine and cysteine) become progressively deficient in aging, and the stress excitatory modulators are present in excess (glutamate, but also the stress hormones like cortisol).

Something I'm Pondering: The Bricklayer Analogy of chronic disease and aging.   When a brick wall falls down the bricklayer goes to work to build the wall back.  A bricklayer uses bricks, mortar, plans, and energy to lift up the bricks and put them in place. If the bricklayer isn't a robot they need to take breaks and recover their energy.

    In the body, walls are the surfaces of the lungs and intestines, the lining of the blood vessels, and even the walls of the cells, the walls of the organelles like the mitochondria,  and the chemical gradients that have to be maintained in the body;  walls are what hold the nutrients we eat, keep us from swelling or leaking, maintain the hurdle for the trigger of an immune or histamine reaction, and keep our sinuses from filling up with fluid. Walls are what keep magnesium and potassium and calcium where they should be.  

    In the body the bricks in the walls are largely glycine.  The energy for the bricklayer to recover from work- the bricklayer energy drink- comes from glutathione.  The plan is information stored in DNA, brain, and body structures built up with use; anabolic change, muscle and bone growth from your workouts at the gym, epigenetic changes to DNA, and learning changes in the brain.  That is, the body that you have now is its own plan for repair.  

  The bricklayer needs both energy and bricks to keep the walls in repair.  

Saying of the Week:     It isn't what supplements we take.  It's what our walls can hold.

What's Wrong With Medicine-Lemmings and quacks  The lemming says "You only have seven of the ten criteria you need for fibromyalgia, tests are negative so you don't have it and there is nothing wrong with you.  Here's an antidepressant and a patent medicine product that will get you out of my office and won't make you well but is FDA approved for your specific complaint."  The quack says, "Your whole system is out of whack!  Here's ten natural products to swallow for the rest of your life".   The physiologist says:  "Alas.  They used to teach physiology as a separate subject in medical school".

Pro Tip-  It's open season on people with sinuses!  Many have seasonal allergies, which lead on to sinus infections, and on to polyps, deviated septums, and impressively abnormal CT scans of the sinuses.  Miserable patients may be advised to try surgery, maybe it will help.  

    Some of my patients have been successful in  deferring surgery and trying one month of glycine and NAC for sinus problems first.  

    The NAC especially is an excellent mucolytic which may work at least partly  by barrier protection (e.g. the walls)  in the sinuses and lungs by restoring the glutathione energy system in the pulmonary system.  It may work even better with  glycine.   https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9046290/#:~:text=Conclusions%3A Decreased levels of both,E level seems less important.

Disclaimer:  The material in this site are my own opinions are not meant to be a personal medical recommendation.  

Easy Recipe:  NAC from either Life Extension or Nutricost brands now on Amazon, 600 mg capsules, four each night with 2 tsp of glycine powder from Bulk Supplies brand on Amazon.  Many take it with juice before bed.

     A few have noted stomach upset with NAC.  If NAC bothers you it could be a sign of glycine deficiency (reductive stress- bricklayer with too much energy drink and no bricks)..  Start with glycine for 2-4 weeks first and then gradually introduce NAC.  

Fun

What do pigs apply for dry skin? Oinkment.

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