NAC is a highly absorbable form of cysteine that boosts glutathione, your body's primary antioxidant. Cysteine is the rate-limiting amino acid for glutathione synthesis, so when it runs out, glutathione production stops. Supplementing with NAC supports glutathione formation and enhances antioxidant capacity.
One of the big jobs of cysteine going in the body— so N-acetylcysteine is a very absorbable form, you take it orally, of cysteine. It's also a drug actually that can be injected or breathed in through a nebulizer or given in a number of ways. So it's a very versatile substance, but it's basically an amino acid. But as we've mentioned in other videos, cysteine is in the middle of and is the rate-limiting amino acid for the formation of glutathione. Glutathione, we got tons of content on glutathione, but it's a primary antioxidant in the body. And by rate limiting, what that means in biochemistry is if I run out of the other amino acids that make up glutathione, it doesn't really slow down the production as much. If I run out of cysteine, the production pretty much stops. So if we're thinking about benefits of N-acetylcysteine, one of them is it can help your body in the formation of glutathione.
