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NAC and Pau d'arco for asthma
Following your advice, I recently started taking N-acetylcysteine (NAC) and pau d’arco for my asthma, which has been severe since childhood. I cannot believe the improvement, which has been so dramatic, I have significantly cut down on my inhalers and can even exercise more easily. My worry now is, can I take these long term and what happens if the EU directive bans them?
It is always encouraging to get letters such as yours showing that, despite wide-spread scepticism, the good quality remedies that we recommend each week on this page really can help alleviate the symptoms of everyday chronic problems including asthma.
There is no research investigating the longer term use of many of these remedies, herbal or nutritional, so we can only check contraindications and look out for anecdotal reports of adverse side-effects. If you are using any supplements, you need to monitor yourself for changes – good and bad – and tell your health advisors what you are using and why.
N-acetyl cysteine, which the body uses to make the super antioxidant, glutathione, should not be taken with prescription drugs for blood pressure or depression (including lithium) and can cause nausea and vomiting if taken in high doses. The recommended daily dose is 500-600mg so stay within this limit and you can continue to use it long term.
Again, Pau d’arco or lapacho is safe to use in the long term, as long as you do not take more than 1.5g a day, which you should divide into three doses to take throughout the day. And again, you should not take it alongside anticoagulant medication.
Nobody really knows which nutrients and herbs will go and which will stay when the new EU directives come into force, but in any event, individual consumers will still be able to source these unlicensed remedies from the Internet so you will not have to stop your very effective supplementation programme.