Our original focus was offering
Effervescent N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) for people with lung
issues, because it was so effective for our founder's own lung problems.
He had scoured the internet to find help for himself and discovered
hundreds of medical studies that convinced him to give NAC a try. His
next task was to find the most effective form, which he did with the
effervescent tablets. But in the course of that investigation,
we found that it had powerful benefits for
so much more.
The
Problem With OTC N-Acetyl Cysteine
All over America, NAC is
sold in health stores in pill or capsule form. The problem there, is
that the manufacture and packaging is unregulated, since
it is considered a nutraceutical, and not a drug. A study done at Stanford
University has shown that N-Acetyl Cysteine will start to degrade
and destabilize in the presence of air. If care isn't taken
during manufacture to minimize the oxidation of NAC to its dimeric form,
di-NAC, which even at low concentrations has the opposite effect of
NAC, the content and purity is not reliable. Unfortunately, that kind
of proper processing is much more costly and not required by law, so
it's unlikely that those pills and capsules were produced at a higher
standard. Then, they sit in warehouses and on shelves, so there's no
way of knowing what potency, purity and efficacy you'll get. Often,
because it dissolves slowly in your stomach, people report gastric discomfort.
Effervescent NAC, shipped
from Germany, is processed with very limited exposure
to air, and then each wafer is individually sealed
in airtight material. This is the most effective form outside of pharmaceutical
injections. Dissolve a fizzy tablet in water, and it is quickly and
completely absorbed, at full potency without the gastric
issue or the risk of 'spoilage.'
When you're facing a serious
health threat, like our founder was, you want the assurance that you're
getting the best there is.
With the recent spread of
influenza, enhancing your immune system with NAC is a proven protection.
Many studies have shown its benefit against colds and bronchitis, but
there is additional benefit against flu.
Here is a study published
by the European Respiratory Journal that shows people taking NAC who
are exposed to a flu virus have significantly reduced
presentation of symptoms:
http://www.erj.ersjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/10/7/1535
Attenuation
of influenza-like symptomatology and improvement of cell-mediated immunity
with long-term N-acetylcysteine treatment
S De Flora, C Grassi, and L Carati
N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an analogue and precursor of reduced glutathione,
has been in clinical use for more than 30 yrs as a mucolytic drug. It
has also been proposed for and/or used in the therapy and/or prevention
of several respiratory diseases and of diseases involving an oxidative
stress, in general. The objective of the present study was to evaluate
the effect of long-term treatment with NAC on influenza and influenza-like
episodes. A total of 262 subjects of both sexes (78% > or = 65 yrs,
and 62% suffering from nonrespiratory chronic degenerative diseases)
were enrolled in a randomized, double-blind trial involving 20 Italian
Centres. They were randomized to receive either placebo or NAC tablets
(600 mg) twice daily for 6 months. Patients suffering from chronic respiratory
diseases were not eligible, to avoid possible confounding by an effect
of NAC on respiratory symptoms. NAC treatment was well tolerated and
resulted in a significant decrease in the frequency of influenza-like
episodes, severity, and length of time confined to bed. Both local and
systemic symptoms were sharply and significantly reduced in the NAC
group. Frequency of seroconversion towards A/H1N1 Singapore 6/86 influenza
virus was similar in the two groups, but
only 25% of virus-infected subjects under NAC treatment developed a
symptomatic form, versus 79% in the placebo group. Evaluation
of cell-mediated immunity showed a progressive, significant shift from
anergy to normoergy following NAC treatment. Administration of N-acetylcysteine
during the winter, thus, appears to provide a significant attenuation
of influenza and influenza-like episodes, especially in elderly high-risk
individuals. N-acetylcysteine did not prevent A/H1N1 virus influenza
infection but significantly reduced the incidence of clinically apparent
disease.
http://www.erj.ersjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/10/7/1535