has anyone tried n-acetyl-cysteine as an alternative to metformin?

[bellapcos]

I just received an email alerting to the fact that NAC works like metformin (and even better) minus the side effects, have you tried it? has i helped? has it helped with sugar cravings? what company did you order it from? how many did you take a day?

[dazlebell]

I received the same e-mail. I haven't tried it, but I am going to. I checked my local CVS but they didn't carry it. I think I'm going to try to order it online.

[cmschapp]

I have been taking it but I have no idea if it is working.

[CindyRB8603]

Puritan's pride website has the best deal on them. If you have a vitamin shop/health shop near you, they should carry it. Thats the only place I was able to find it locally. I just started it, so I can't say if it's helped or not.

[bellapcos]

Puritan's pride website has the best deal on them. If you have a vitamin shop/health shop near you, they should carry it. Thats the only place I was able to find it locally. I just started it, so I can't say if it's helped or not.

Thanks for your replies! I'll look it up on Puritan's site

[CindyRB8603]

I took 1 pill (600mg) last night for the first time.. And I've had a horrible headache since! I hope it doesn't do this every day/night!

[SamSquared]

They recommended 5 pills a day for me. I got a burning sensation in my throat. I might try it again. Just build myself up slowly. I didn't notice much difference. Maybe I wasn't on it long enough.

[BookAddict]

Ive been taking it for awhile, I didnt know it worked like metformin.

[leahbear]

I've been taking it as part of a research study on women with pcos. They have me taking 3 x 500mg a day and the brand is Organika. I've been taking it for almost a month now and I think it is helping with my weight. For the past few months I've been working out 6 days a week and noticed if I took a few days off I would gain a few pounds right away. I pulled something in my back and took a whole week off last week and haven't gained any weight at all. In fact I have tons of pre-period water retention happening right now so I'm probably even still losing weight. My diet has been the same this whole time but the NAC is new and at the same time I started eating a scoop of virgin coconut oil with most of my meals. So one of those 2 things is speeding up my metabolism. I stopped craving sugar when I decreased the amount of sugar and carbs I was eating and tried to eat some protein anytime I ate anything. I used to get bad crashes after I ate carb only snacks and would crave carbs and sugar like mad. I changed my diet before I started taking the NAC so I'm not sure what effect it has on sugar cravings.

[misskaileigh]

I ordered gymnema sylvestre which is supposed to act as metformin as well. Hopefully it will work.

[bellapcos]

leahbear: I looked the NAC up at the organika website but I coudn't find it, does it come under a different name? does it make a big difference whichever brands we use? your progress is encouraging, I hope that this and others work out for us!

[leahbear]

I'm in Canada I'm not sure if different brands are more effective. This is the only brand I've tried. Good luck! I'll try to remember to post about this again in a few months. And I'll let you know what the results of the research are. They took some blood and urine at the start and they're repeating that after I've been taking the NAC for 3 months. They'll also be measuring my bone density to see if women with PCOS have worse bone density than their control group.

[bellapcos]

oh ok , ,thanks! good luck! keep us posted

[Mitzi]

Hi there, I've been taking NAC for around 5 months - three (if I remember to take all three!) 600mg pills a day that I ordered from VitaCost. I definitely FEEL better - I can tell my blood sugar isn't dipping as low as it used to. I haven't lost any weight, but I haven't been very good about sticking to my diet either... I am back on it now (IR Diet) so hoping that combined with the NAC will have good results. I didn't have any side effects from the NAC which is great, I did kind of ease into taking it though, one pill a day for a few days, then two a day, etc.

[Maddy]

I tried NAC for a while some years ago but never noticed any difference.

Just to add to the gymneve sylvestre comment - something that made a difference to me was Hyponidd which contains this amongst other things.