N-acetylcysteine, do you know the power of NAC?

This natural antioxidant, called N-acetylcysteine, which works by increasing glutathione levels, is your main health ally when you train hard.

Those of you with goals that include building muscle and strength will hopefully have your nutritional basics covered with whey protein, creatine, nitric oxide boosters, and branched-chain amino acids. But there is one supplement you are probably overlooking: N-acetylcysteine, or NAC.

This modified version of the amino acid cysteine is known for its powerful antioxidant properties, but research shows that it offers much more for bodybuilders.

What is N-acetylcysteine or NAC?

It is simply the amino acid cysteine with an acetyl group attached to it. Well, we hope those of you with a degree in chemistry know what an acetyl group is, but for the rest of you, just know that the acetyl molecule makes the compound more stable (which helps extend its shelf life), allowing the body to absorb and use it more effectively.

In fact, N-acetylcysteine, or NAC, is actually used as a compound to dissolve mucus, treat overdoses of certain chemicals, reduce the symptoms of bipolar disorder, and help those who are more irritable.

But beyond these trivial uses for athletes, let's see how it can benefit you as part of sports nutrition.

N-acetylcysteine: for recovery?

Unlike many vitamins and minerals, NAC is not your typical run-of-the-mill antioxidant. N-acetylcysteine provides its antioxidant benefits directly within muscle cells, and this is key in bodybuilding.

It not only acts directly to eliminate free radicals that damage muscles, but also increases the levels of one of the body's most important antioxidants: glutathione [1].

Glutathione, a molecule composed of three amino acids—cysteine, glutamine, and glycine—is a substance found in every cell of our body that basically acts as an antioxidant to neutralize free radicals. This prevents cellular damage.

One of the problems is the limiting factor of L-cysteine availability.

Supplementing with N-acetylcysteine will help with this rate-limiting step and essentially allow your body to produce more glutathione.

It does so by increasing cysteine levels within the muscles, and because cysteine is required to restore glutathione to its active form, this should explain why NAC was previously shown to increase activated glutathione levels before, during, and after training.

All this antioxidant protection is important for keeping muscle damage under control during intense training.

• Muscle pain and damage are reduced and muscle recovery is improved when you take N-acetylcysteine during sessions involving only eccentric exercises, which are designed to cause severe muscle damage.
• Essentially, NAC may improve muscle recovery by reducing the breakdown of muscle membranes and other important components of muscle cells.

N-acetylcysteine: also against fatigue?

The buildup of lactic acid used to be considered the main culprit behind fatigue during exercise.

The literature suggests that lactic acid may help muscles maintain strength and endurance.

Science is now paying more attention to sodium and potassium imbalances in muscle tissue as the main drivers of post-exercise muscle fatigue.

When muscles receive nerve signals to contract, sodium moves into the muscle cell while potassium flows out.

As you complete more repetitions and sets during your workout, sodium levels build up inside muscle cells, while potassium levels decrease.

To prevent this problem, muscle cells have sodium/potassium pumps to remove sodium and bring potassium back in.

But during intense exercise, free radicals disrupt these pumps, causing them to become overwhelmed and unable to keep up. This leads to a decrease in muscle strength and endurance, and fatigue begins.

It is definitive that N-acetylcysteine or NAC prevents the accumulation of free radicals, increasing the activity of sodium/potassium pumps during exercise, which helps maintain muscle strength and endurance to delay fatigue.

In addition, this remarkable antioxidant can improve your ability to tolerate cardiovascular exercise for longer.

This antioxidant goes beyond what we know, reducing respiratory muscle fatigue, which would help you obtain oxygen during exercise.

Therefore, taking a dose of NAC before cardiovascular workouts can also help you train harder and burn even more body fat.

N-acetylcysteine: as a detoxifier?

Continuing, we look at how it affects our liver, as this is one of the main reasons why many athletes supplement with N-acetylcysteine.

Looking at its effects on the liver, it does a good job of relieving toxic levels.

When liver enzymes are extremely high, NAC supplementation effectively reduces their levels.

The fact is that N-acetylcysteine does a very good job when hepatotoxicity could be a problem [2].

On the other hand, ethanol generally acutely suppresses glutathione, but N-acetylcysteine supplementation partially prevents this suppression and allows glutathione to continue being replenished, reducing oxidative stress in the liver.

N-acetylcysteine: does it promote nitric oxide?

If you are a bodybuilder, even an intermediate one, you should be very familiar with nitric oxide boosters. Most NO-promoting supplements work by supplying some form of the amino acid arginine.

This happens because, in the body, arginine is easily converted into nitric oxide (NO) with the help of the nitric oxide synthase enzyme. This enzyme controls the amount of NO produced in the body.

To some extent, advanced products that increase NO also contain supplements that boost NOS activity to produce the maximum amount of NO.

In this scenario, N-acetylcysteine or NAC works by increasing NOS enzyme activity and NO levels in the body.

• This leads to increased blood flow to the muscles, which improves energy levels during workouts,
• On the other hand, it helps you gain strength, promoting muscle growth or fat loss.

N-acetylcysteine and fat burning

If all these benefits were not enough, N-acetylcysteine or NAC has another trick up its sleeve: burning fat.

Of course, you already know that it can indirectly improve fat burning by allowing you to train harder for longer and by increasing NO levels, but it can also directly help you lose fat.

You may even lose an extra 5% body fat without a daily training protocol by reducing insulin's ability to interact with fat cells.

Normally, insulin reacts with fat cells to increase fat storage and stop fat release from fat cells.

By reducing insulin's effects on fat cells, NAC can further support your efforts to burn fat, especially if you take it while following a diet and training program for weight loss.

N-acetylcysteine and red blood cells

When we refer to the beneficial effects of NAC on red blood cell (RBC) counts, you should keep this in mind, because it is another common problem among elite athletes.

So, beyond the usual advice to donate blood as often as possible, taking 1,200 mg of N-acetylcysteine per day may help.

Red blood cell counts are reduced to normal ranges with the help of NAC.

The point is that the compound is exceptionally good at reducing red blood cell counts, anecdotally.

N-acetylcysteine: How much should you take?

To gain more energy, mitigate fatigue, build muscle, gain strength, burn fat, and maintain better health, you could take 600 to 2,400 milligrams of NAC per day, depending on your body composition.

N-acetylcysteine: How should you take it?

• We suggest taking it before your workouts with your pre-workout shake.
• On rest days, take it with your first meal of the day.

If you are healthy, you can achieve optimal performance, and that will indirectly improve performance. In general, NAC is recommended for the vast majority of people, including those who are not athletes.

Remember that NAC can work perfectly well to cleanse receptors and the entire cell because it can easily enter it and detoxify it, whether after a hard workout or when liver health—or even muscle and joint health—needs support.