NAC supplements for IPF mentioned in studies.

[Steve Dragoo]

@jbrollo

Hey James,

I have used NAC for a few years because an internal medicine/pulmonologist/professor at Loma Linda on the daily front lines with covid highly recommends it for energy and it is essential for making glutathione among several other benefits.

Stay well,
Steve

[Bruce Hawn]

I am currently participating in a phase II trial of NAC. I was told that there was an older study that tried 3 different drugs. Some people got a cocktail of all three, some got only one. In any event, the trial did not go well at all and was stopped. However, review of the results for the NAC portion indicated that it might help people with a certain genetic trait. A trait that only 25% of the population has.  The study I am in is only those who have the trait.   I was also told that that there is some indication that NAC could be harmful to people who don’t have the trait.  So if you decide to take be cognizant of that fact and be careful.

[Carol Rush]

What is NAC and what is the difference be PF and IPF

[Charlene Marshall]

Hi Carol,

Thanks for your questions, I’ll try to answer in short but if you search some credible websites for the following information, they might be even more informative.

NAC stands for N-acetylcysteine, which is a dietary supplement and is an antioxidant. There are some studies suggesting it is helpful in IPF and other lung diseases, but nothing has been proven to be effective with certainty. We strong encourage anyone to speak with their doctor before starting NAC, because as Bruce mentioned above, there are some risks to it.

Both pulmonary fibrosis (PF) and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are part of the interstitial lung disease family, which include 200+ different types of lung diseases. There are different types of PF and different causes (environmental, radiation-induced etc) and ‘idiopathic’ is just a fancy way of saying they don’t know what caused IPF. Hope that helps, but there is an abundance of information on this and other websites as well.

Take care,
Charlene.