Success with NAC for Trichotillomania/skin picking

[SSS]

Without making this too long: my dd8 had been off all antibiotics and herbal treatments for months-

successfully ended 2nd grade with a beautiful report card (and hard work.)

Not 'cured', not 'perfect', she is 'she'.

 

We had an uptick in OCD with getting stuck on topics, and while she has always picked any scab on her body, she began earnestly picking skin MOLES on her body- off, and bloody, about 7 total and going.

Of course, I found this alarming- tried band-aids, positive incentive if she could stop, skin cancer conversations about Dr.s = no stopping, seemed a true compulsion.

Tried an Azithromycin Z-pack = no change.

Read up on Trich. and NAC- older posts from this board, and here are a few studies:

 

http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/may/nac.html

http://www.trich.org/treatment/NAC_Trichotillomania.html

 

I began using a 600 mg pill 2x a day, and now

PharmaNac 1x a day (900 mg) and 1 600 mg day capsule.

Within 1 week, ALL of the skin/mole picking stopped, they are almost entirely healed.

Too soon to tell, but it seems the repetitive thoughts are reducing.

She said this morning out of the blue: I'm no longer afraid of my bedroom window, yeah, I can just lay there.

 

She is double A1298C, and Epsom salt baths and magnesium sulfate cream massages have always been beneficial in the past. NAC may pose issues for sulfur challenged folks.

However, it raises glutathione.

[LNN]

Yay!! So happy for you!!! I hope it's a good omen for a great summer of no issues!

 

Like you say, NAC is not good for those of us who can't handle sulfurs or have CBS mutations. I took it for a few months this winter for a chronic cough, since it's a great mucus thinner. But I slowly became depressed and had no idea why. My liver enzymes became elevated. So I stopped it and the depression went away and the liver enzymes went back to normal. So it's definitely not for everyone, but it sounds like it might be just what you guys needed! Fingers crossed for you!

[searching_for_help]

How do I determine if my kids are sulfur challenged? My son has done the 23andme and genetic genie, but I'm having trouble figuring all of this out. Is there something in these tests that will tell me how he reacts to sulfur?

[LNN]

You'd look at your son's CBS and SUOX status as the biggest indicator of sulfur tolerance.

[4Nikki]

Without making this too long: my dd8 had been off all antibiotics and herbal treatments for months-

successfully ended 2nd grade with a beautiful report card (and hard work.)

Not 'cured', not 'perfect', she is 'she'.

 

We had an uptick in OCD with getting stuck on topics, and while she has always picked any scab on her body, she began earnestly picking skin MOLES on her body- off, and bloody, about 7 total and going.

Of course, I found this alarming- tried band-aids, positive incentive if she could stop, skin cancer conversations about Dr.s = no stopping, seemed a true compulsion.

Tried an Azithromycin Z-pack = no change.

Read up on Trich. and NAC- older posts from this board, and here are a few studies:

 

http://med.stanford.edu/ism/2012/may/nac.html

http://www.trich.org/treatment/NAC_Trichotillomania.html

 

I began using a 600 mg pill 2x a day, and now

PharmaNac 1x a day (900 mg) and 1 600 mg day capsule.

Within 1 week, ALL of the skin/mole picking stopped, they are almost entirely healed.

Too soon to tell, but it seems the repetitive thoughts are reducing.

She said this morning out of the blue: I'm no longer afraid of my bedroom window, yeah, I can just lay there.

 

She is double A1298C, and Epsom salt baths and magnesium sulfate cream massages have always been beneficial in the past. NAC may pose issues for sulfur challenged folks.

However, it raises glutathione.

 

What does that mean? I understand that too much of anything can be toxic to the body. Take oxygen for example. Too much oxygen can cause oxygen toxicity which can wreak havoc on the nervous system. So what happens of there is too much glutathione in the body?

[SSS]

Here is an article that explains glutathione:

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/glutathione-the-mother-of_b_530494.html

[SSS]

Furthermore, I think it's the NAC's ability to block excess GLUTAMATE in the brain the is really helping my dd right now.

If you use the search function on this board, there are a lot of intelligent conversations about this subject.

 

The ability to help her body produce more glutathione is an added benefit tho, not to be minimized.

Isn't our whole goal of the genetic MTHFR testing to learn how to help the body detox more efficiently and produce more glutathione?

The mother lode of the MTHFR.

I'm sorry, I don't communicate well with scientific explanations- but the articles I posted are gems at it, IMO.

One last comment:

One might think: Heck, can't I just bypass all this testing and work, and buy a glutathione supplement instead?

And, I have done this, for both my dd and myself, while treating heavy infection loads, to help, and found it beneficial.

But LLM, and I'm butchering this, pointed out that no, it's much better to get the body to be able to produce it on it's own,

by correcting the cogs out of place.

[susieq22]

You'd look at your son's CBS and SUOX status as the biggest indicator of sulfur tolerance.

So my child is:

+/- for the CBS C699T,

-/- for the other two CBS mutations,

-/- for SUOX

 

How impaired would her sulfur tolerance be? I don't even know the symptoms of sulfur intolerance.

 

Thank you!

[pr40]

You may want to post this question as a separate thread just to make it more visible.

what I learned is that with one mutation, +/-, you are at 50%, with two, it multiplies geometrically.

since you have only one, i would venture a guess that your child is not sulfur intolerant at all.

[Mayzoo]

I want to try NAC for kiddo but she is +/- for two CBS and SUOX unknown. I tried NAC and it made me verbally aggressive/agitated (my DNA status is unknown).