What will a spoonful of glycine and N-acetylcysteine do when you are 75 years old?

Are you afraid that when you are 75 years of age or older, that it will go downhill with you and there will be no solution to prevent the constant deterioration of your health? I have a good news for you. This interesting pilot study shows a way to significantly slow down or even reverse a number of signs of aging. If your problems aren't too big, just the standard signs of old age associated with decreased glutathione (GSH, I've addressed it here), decreased fat metabolism, increased insulin levels, and insulin resistance, the study offers solutions with excellent results.

The study lasted 36 weeks in eight individuals around 75 years of age. First, important parameters were measured at the beginning before the change. These parameters were compared with the same parameters of young individuals with a mean age of 24 years. People in the study group of elderly individuals then regularly supplemented with the amino acids glycine and N-acetylcysteine ​​(NAC). If you don't know what amino acids are, then know that they are disassembled proteins, by another words well-digested food. That is all. They received the exact dosed amount in the tablets. A second measurement was taken after 12 weeks and a third measurement after 24 weeks. During this time, participants supplemented their two substances with their normal diet and stopped after the third measurement. Further measurements were taken after another 12 weeks without supplementation, to check whether the changes would remain or not.

The results are astounding. Blood tests were significantly closer to the parameters of young individuals. Cognitive abilities and brain activity also improved significantly, markers indicating inflammation decreased, but the pace also accelerated and muscle strength increased, genotoxicity decreased, waist circumference decreased, ie participants lost weight, but without loss of muscle mass. It just works, glycine and N-acetylcysteine ​​(NAC) supplementation restores the amount of glutathione (GSH) in all cells and they then start working as in much younger individuals. Processes to increase fat burning are restored. This will give the cells the energy they need and reduce their glucose consumption. However, the total glucose consumption will not be reduced, it will remain for use by the brain and nerves. This explains the improvement in brain activity. Malfunctioning body cells do not steal brain glucose, these are things, aren't they?

Let's show a few pictures with the results.

The restoration of glutathione levels, which is essential in the body for trouble-free fat burning. The first value is the condition of young individuals, the second value is the initial condition of older individuals. Furthermore, an improvement is seen after 12 and 24 weeks and the last value is a deterioration, because the supplementation was stopped after 24 weeks. The vertical lines show the variance of the values and the points of the measured values of the individual participants are also displayed. 

Resumption of fat burning associated with enough energy for cells and the brain (more glucose left for it). The condition was not determined after 36 weeks. 

Indicator of inflammation Interleukin-6. You can see how this indicator in older individuals in supplementation is practically comparable with young individuals. 

Imsulin resistance status. Do you see this amazing improvement? 

Physical condition measured as walking speed (Gait speed). 

And a few more tables for inquisitive readers who like to explore numbers.

You may be interested in the dosage used in the study. Both components of supplementation are commonly available as food supplements. Glycine was administered at 1.33 mmol / kg / day and N-acetylcysteine at 0.81 mmol / kg / day, i.e. by body weight. Converted to grams for a human weighing 80 kg, this is 8 g of glycine and 10 g of NAC per day. You may also find that the number of study participants was too small. This is of course true, but even with such a small number, the results are statistically significant (not random). This means only one thing that the effect of this supplementation is really very strong. 

I would like to add one more remark, which is not in the study. I myself recommend supplementing only the amino acid glycine. This is because NAC can cause faster cell division as a result of the high antioxidant capacity of NAC. The natural way to stimulate the production of cysteine is through oxidative stress from homocysteine, but NAC prevents this by creating reductive stress. Therefore, the long-term effects may not match the results reported in the study.

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References:

Glycine and N-acetylcysteine (GlyNAC) supplementation in older adults improves glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, genotoxicity, muscle strength, and cognition: Results of a pilot clinical trial Premranjan Kumar et al. Clin Transl Med. 2021 Mar.