Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine tested whether supplying two of its raw ingredients, glycine and N-acetylcysteine together, could restore levels in older adults whose cells had fallen behind on making it themselves.
In a peer-reviewed pilot trial of eight older adults compared with eight younger adults, 24 weeks of combined glycine and N-acetylcysteine supplementation corrected the red blood cell glutathione deficiency seen in the older group, alongside improvements in oxidative stress markers, mitochondrial function, inflammation, and grip strength.
When the supplement was stopped for twelve weeks, several of the gains receded, suggesting the two amino acids were addressing an ongoing shortfall rather than fixing it permanently. The trial was small, open-label, and run by one research group, so a larger randomized trial is the next step before the approach could be considered established.
Read the original study
Kumar et al., Clinical and Translational Medicine, 2021 · doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.372
A shortfall in old cells, corrected.
Source
- Kumar, P., Liu, C., Hsu, J. W., Chacko, S., Minard, C., Jahoor, F., & Sekhar, R. V. (2021). Glycine and N-acetylcysteine (GlyNAC) supplementation in older adults improves glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, genotoxicity, muscle strength, and cognition: Results of a pilot clinical trial. Clinical and Translational Medicine, 11(3), e372. https://doi.org/10.1002/ctm2.372