N-Acetyl-Glucosamine (NAG) — Has Anyone Tried?

[Everyloop]

Some posts online say this is a powerful anti inflammatory. This supplement is different from glucosamine like you see in connective tissue pills.

You can buy it on iHerb and other sources.

Here are some mentions

I had hellish, unrelenting generalized anxiety disorder for several years, and, having tried hundreds of supplements (as well as SSRI drugs and TCA drugs) in my frantic efforts to treat it, I recently found 3 supplements that seem to pretty much eliminate my anxiety!

• The first and most potent anti-anxiety supplement is N-acetyl-glucosamine (NAG), taken at a dose of 700 mg twice daily on an empty stomach; the dose can be reduced once daily after a few weeks. NAG should not be confused with glucosamine sulfate, which will not work for this anti-anxiety purpose. Note that NAG is shellfish derived. NAG should not be taken if you are on the blood thinner warfarin (see here).

• The second most potent is flaxseed oil (aka linseed oil), one level tablespoon (15 ml) daily. 15 ml of flaxseed oil is 13,000 mg in weight. Flaxseed oil is best absorbed when taken with food.

• The third is the herb turmeric, at a dose of 1000 mg twice daily, best taken on an empty stomach (but if it causes irritation, take with food). This herb can be bought cheaply as turmeric powder for cooking. 1000 mg equates to just under one level teaspoon of powder. Turmeric is not to be confused with curcumin (turmeric contains 3% curcumin, but also many other active ingredients including demethoxycurcumin, bisdemethoxycurcumin, ar-turmerone, atlantone, and zingiberone).

My anxiety was so severe that on bad days it would often border on mild psychosis. So it is quite amazing that just by taking these 3 supplements together, I have pretty much eliminated my anxiety disorder symptoms. OK, I still have chronic fatigue syndrome, but ditching the anxiety is a great improvement.


Anti-Anxiety Effects — Mechanism of Action

It is not entirely clear why these 3 supplements work so well for me. They are all anti-inflammatories, and they may work by reducing inflammation in the brain. Recent research has shown that brain inflammation can cause many mental symptoms, including anxiety symptoms, depression, ADHD, and many others. So the anti-inflammatory properties of these supplements may be the mechanism by which they eliminate anxiety.

On a similar note: on days when my sinusitis was worse, my anxiety levels would shoot up. My theory is that in some people, sinus inflammation may be a prime factor causing anxiety symptoms. Perhaps inflammatory cytokines in the sinuses spill over into the brain (the brain is situated just next to the sinuses), precipitating brain inflammation, which in turn leads to the anxiety symptoms. I observed that that N-acetyl-glucosamine dramatically reduced my sinus inflammation, and so this may be the mechanism by which N-acetyl-glucosamine eliminates anxiety symptoms.

Another consideration is that these 3 supplements are all useful for irritable bowel syndrome (which I have), and it may be that their anti-inflammatory action in the gut helps lower overall body inflammation, which can help lower brain inflammation.

By reducing the inflammation causing your anxiety symptoms, you are treating the very source of anxiety, biochemical speaking.


Further Info

The full list of 29 supplements and drugs that, by trial and error, I found had a useful anti-anxiety effect on me is given here:

http://chronicsorethroat.wordpress.com/site-map/treatments/#anti-anxiety-treatments

The most potent anti-anxiety medications I placed at the top of the list (N-acetyl-glucosamine being the strongest, at least for me). I literally tested hundreds of supplements for their anti-anxiety effects, and this list only contains the medications that worked for me. And from the feedback I received, it seems that these supplements are often very effective for others too.


Being "Wired" Related to Anxiety?

I have the impression that the "wired" feeling in ME/CFS patients is related to anxiety. Feeling wired (as in "wired but tired") may be a mild version of anxiety, or be related to anxiety. I certainly find that I never feel wired when I take these anti-anxiety supplements. So these anti-anxiety supplements may also help people eliminate the "wired" state of ME/CFS.


Update February 2015:

People often ask me the question: "Are you still taking these anti-anxiety supplements, and are they still working?" The answer is yes: they are still working well, even after three years, and in fact if I stop taking these supplements, although there are no withdrawal symptoms as such, I notice that my anxiety soon returns, within days. So this indicates the supplements are still effective.

On this thread over the last few years there has been a lot of feedback from people trying this NAG / flaxseed oil / turmeric combination to treat their generalized anxiety disorder: roughly around 50% report very good or excellent results, but equally the other 50% say that this combo did nothing at all for them.


Supplement Sources:

N-acetyl-glucosamine (NAG) can be found online through iHerb.com. iHerb ships internationally. First-time customers get a $5 discount.

Buy now.

He said that the strongest of the bunch was N-Acetylglucosamine. On the theory that brain inflammation was a factor in my disorder, I tried it. After various adventures with N.A.G., I can say that it is, in most respects, the most effective treatment I've ever found for many of my issues. Normally, my shoulders and neck are very tense; it's like having a vice screwed tight on my spinal cord. In my brain, there's an equivelant level of agitation/anxiety/restlessness. The N.A.G. reduces all of that by, say, 30%. It doesn't sound huge, but it's more relief than I've ever gotten from flexeril, baclofen, magnesium, Valium, anti-depressants, Kava Kava, Taurine, Green tea, or any of the other hundred or so supplements and meds I've tried. And btw, this list includes two back-to-back morphine shots I received after an eye surgery a few years ago.

I started taking 2 grams of NAG per day in February, but quickly switched it to 2 grams every other day and, now, I stagger the dose to 2 grams every three days, 2gm/2days/2gm/3days...

This last schedule is by far the most effective. Currently, this is all that I take other than ultra LDN (a couple of nanograms) every 2-3 days

I initially switched to the 2 day schedule because taking 2 grams every day would cause me to only sleep a few hours each night. I actually didn't feel like I needed more sleep either, but getting only that much sleep is a red flag for me. NAG still causes me to wake up earlier than usual sometimes, but I can now go back to sleep for a full 8 hours most of the time. When I do wake up, I'm not jittery or wired. The effect is one of calm, rested clarity. Although if I do get up after only a few hours, fatigue catches up with me later in the day. I can frequently function on 5-6 hours now, which was before impossible for me. Although, I'll begin to get deeply fatigued at night after a day or two of that.

If starting from baseline, it takes a couple of doses for it to really kick in. The overall effect is one of marked anti-inflammation in the brain that continues through the next dose (even three days later). That's the major effect for me, although I'm pretty sure I have some measure of cognitive improvement as well. Although, that improvement could just be the robust anti-inflammation effect keeping me at a level where most healthy people are most of the time.

Whatever NAG does, it seems to do it potently and, once the dose is managed, I seem to get mostly benefit with little negative side effect.

The pancreatic islet cell warning is new to me, and a worrisome consideration. I wonder if that destructive process could account for increasing negative effects with regular dosing, and thusly my staggered schedule primarily works to mitigate the pancreatic effect (possibly amongst other processes that might lead to side effects). I'm not sure, but if NAG has the potential to negatively affect the pancreas and glucose metabolism, then staggering the dose would make the most sense to mitigate that effect because the body is allowed to regularly recover toward unmolested baseline glucose metabolism. The 2day/3day schedule may keep the brain from being able to predict the dose and adjust, keeping the effect at a consistently more beneficial level. This is just hypothesis.

I believe that I did try a lower dose before, but eventually found that 2 grams works best for me. I am overweight at the moment, though. Also, I didn't consistently use the lower dose. I only used it a couple of times.

NAG is one of the most potent substances that I've taken, if length of action can be partly equated to potency. Astragalus, which I didn't get along with, was probably the only substance that I can compare it to in terms of length and potency of action. Now that I think about it, NAG may very well likely have a lasting hormetic effect that accounts for its length of action rather than a continued direct action over a period of days. The latter circumstance is unlikely. This hypothesis, if correct, might be an anecdotal endorsement of NAG's action as a calorie restriction mimetic.

Last, if NAG was destructive to the pancreas and had a lasting negative effect on glucose metabolism, could the mice have lived an extra 10%? This question is not rhetorical.

I still feel great on NAG, but my dosing schedule has become even more spaced out. I'm not sure if the perceived benefits have become longer-lasting with time or if merely spacing out the dosing contributes to longer-lasting benefits. It's an average of 4-5 days between doses, but that started due to laziness/forgetfulness and not as a response to any effect. Fortuitously, I discovered that the anti-inflammatory and other effects were lasting and even becoming enhanced on a more spaced out schedule. I'm still at 2 grams, but will likely experiment with reducing that dose over a variety of dose schedules (shorter and up to 4-5 days). I may arrive at 2 grams, but it's clear that NAG requires significant dose and frequency experimentation to get right. The most I can say about anything that can be perceived as negative is that, in the first 2-3 days after dosing, I don't often require more than 4-5 hours sleep.

The posts on the Longecity forum have said that people get effects from chemicals that decrease inflammation so this might be something to check.