Question for Immortal or anyone else: zinc and NAC

Just wondering if I should be supplementing with zinc while on NAC. Taking 600mg jarrows sustained release NAC, 1/day

Shouldn't be a problem from my perspective. Just an amino acid and a mineral. They occur together, although not the acetyl form of cysteine, in animal meats. In my mind these are two very important supplements, especially if you aren't consuming a great deal of animal meats. I'll be on both until the day I die.

Well, I have just read multiple places that cysteine causes the body to expel excess zinc OR *something* along those lines. Seeing it multiple places had me start to wonder..

I've seen a lot of conflicting data like that over the years. To be honest, I don't believe half of it, unless things are consumed in excess or in an unbalanced fashion. For example, zinc can cause serious copper deficiency if the intake of copper isn't balanced along with zinc. Its one of the better reasons (from a general standpoint) to get the better of your nutrition from food where these minerals tend to come balanced. Either this or through some concentrate of sea salt like concentrace.

It's when people start taking loads of a single mineral that they get problems. Make sure you are hitting targets for all of the vitamins and minerals, not just a few and you should be okay. For example, manganese in excess can decrease iodine uptake by the thyroid. Like you said, perhaps cysteine in excess can reduce zinc retention. Taking them together would be a good idea.

Looking at the body like a system in this way, its hard to try and treat one condition without creating another because everything you do has multiple interactions with the system. Take one mineral to treat a condition, create a deficiency in another. That's the beauty of whole food nutrition: sea salt, liver, organ meats, bone/broth.