NAC makes you insensitive to alcohol

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world⁩ to ⁨youshouldknow@lemmy.world⁩

N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is a harmless compound which protects your liver, you can buy after searching like for 10 seconds

I ve been taking it for a week (1 pill, 600mg per day) before noticing that drinking doesn’t do anything. Went to a party, drank 3 pints of beer, one after another, with absolutely zero effect. Usually, just 1 pint is enough to get socially talkative, 3 pints of beer i am supposed to be very obviously drunk.

Another time, drank a third of a bottle of wine (at my place, so it cannot possibly be watered down), the only effect was nausea (which never happened before), again, zero drunk-ness effect.

Now, depending on people that anti-alcohol protection might be an advantage or drawback. I just found it interesting, so sharing here

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BananaTrifleViolin@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
So big mistake here: NAC is not harmless. It does have side effects and it also has toxicity at high doses.

It has not been studied in long term use orally or IV, it's main use b omg paracetamol overdose treatment. Inhalation is more studied but it is not absorbed into the body on the same way.

We think it is safe but we haven't actually done human trials to be sure. What we have found in mine is that high doses can cause lung and heart damage and also when it comes to alcohol it is protective iif taken before alcohol consumption BUT amplifies the toxicity to the liver if about 4 hours taken after alcohol. All of this is summarised on the Wikipedia page which looks to be good quality.

Overall it may be a useful drug but don't take it off label or self medicating. Medicine is littered with unexpected effects of drugs that only came out once it was too late. Thalidomide is a good example - a "wonder drug" for nausea used in pregnancy that was not tested and caused horrific birth defects.

Your body is not a lab, be careful experimenting with supposedly "safe" drugs.

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- livus@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  @BananaTrifleViolin
  
  What we have found in mice is that high doses can cause lung and heart damage
  
  NAC promotes cancerous tumour growth in mice, just FYI.
  
  @kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E
  
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  - kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Thank you, that’s an important note.
    
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- HopeOfTheGunblade@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Evident to end users. Thalidomide was well known to the makers to be godawful for pregnant people well before then - check out the behind the bastards episode on it.
  
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  - Cruxifux@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Are those the same dicks who made the fake breast milk that starved kids of nutrients or am I thinking of a The Dollop episode?
    
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- intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  What I use it for short term is removing middle aged smell.
  
  Middle aged smell is the result of the skin’s antioxidant properties declining, so whenever I start getting middle age smell going, I take an NAC and the problem’s gone for a month or two.
  
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- kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Yes, all good reminder here. You re right
  
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redballooon@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Cool. All the medical risks of alcohol for getting none of the things why I’d drink it. What a deal.

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- kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Lol again, i wasn’t taking it because, neither for, alcohol
  
  Just learned it coincidentally
  
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Hyperreality@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I was immediately imagining how I could use this knowledge to my advantage at a high stakes poker game or high level business negotiations, until I remembered I'm sat in my underpants talking shit on the internet.

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- KnightontheSun@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Hey, me too! We should collab.
  
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  - Steve@startrek.website ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I guess thats one way to ask for sex
    
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- CmdrShepard@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Bruh, you’re supposed to take your underpants off first.
  
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dataprolet@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Yes, that’s known and studied.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30019966/

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- kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I am surprised how well that works! I was taking it for completely different reason, so totally unexpected
  
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people_are_cute@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

Now, depending on people that anti-alcohol protection might be an advantage or drawback.

Yup. Please, please don’t drink too much regardless of how drunk or not it gets you. Alcohol is never good for your body.

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megrania@discuss.tchncs.de ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
As some people have pointed out, it protects the liver, but from personal experience, I can’t confirm the “not getting drunk” part … so I’d be really cautious about blanket statements as the one in the title of this post.

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- kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Interesting, thanks for your experience
  
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Uranium_Green@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
It’s also useful for other addiction treatment for things like meth, etc. IIRC it can also be used to cycle with ADHD meds to reduce tolerance, (though if taken with them, you don’t get any benefit from the ADHD med).

NAC is also useful for things like COPD, and weirdly is a pretty great chelation agent for heavy metals and I want to say is also used for paracetamol overdose.

Semi-related: is there a nootropic/drugnerds community on Lemmy yet?

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- KinNectar@kbin.run ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  @Uranium_Green let me know if you find one
  
  @kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E
  
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intensely_human@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
NAC is amazing and I highly recommend it, especially for long covid problems involving lung capacity.

But NAC does have one potential harmful effect that I am aware of. It is a powerful antioxidant, and too much antioxidant activity has been found to predict lung cancer.

So don’t take a lot of NAC for a long period of time.

I swear by it myself. It has done amazing things for me. But it is a powerful drug (I think it’s a drug and not a supplement because I don’t think it’s a nutrient but I could be wrong)

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Eheran@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Does it protect the liver or does it reduce the alcohol consumption?

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- kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It does protect the liver. That’s the whole point. Check the article
  
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  - Eheran@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    This paper presents a rationale for investigating the use of N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) to promote abstinence or reduce heavy alcohol consumption for patients with an alcohol use disorder, particularly in the presence of liver disease.
    
    No, that is not what the article is about. It is about reduced consumption.
    
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UprisingVoltage@feddit.it ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Cool, thanks for sharing!

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Never_Sm1le@lemdro.id ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
This is a common coughing medicine I believe. This is also used to cure paracetamol/acetaminophen poisoning

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whaleross@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I eat a lot of paracetamol because longtime unwell. Would NAC benefit my liver from the hit it takes from paracetamol?

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- kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Not a doctor myself, so you shouldn’t base your decisions on my comment
  
  But from I understand, NAC protects you by blocking damaging components. I would say if you take paracetamol + NAC, one will make the other useless
  
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cheese_greater@lemmy.world ⁨11⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Stick to naltrexone

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livus@kbin.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
@kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E

What we have found in mice is that high doses can cause lung and heart damage

NAC promotes cancerous tumour growth in mice, just FYI.

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