/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>16465295
you're right.
i'll give you an abridged version. alcohol gets broken down to acetaldehyde and further into acetic acid (vinegar).
acetaldehyde is the nasty one. hangovers, cancer, etc. the problem is that the enzyme used in breaking down acetaldehyde to acetic acid can get used up, so the acetaldehyde sticks around longer.
glutathione is the compound used by your liver to break down alcohol. you can't supplement glutathione, because it gets broken down, but acetylcysteine acts as a precursor.
basically, the purpose of taking acetylcysteine is to buffer your glutathione, so your liver can fully metabolize the alcohol.

acetaldehyde is involved in hangovers. some east asians have a deficiency in their liver enzymes which leads to a buildup of acetaldehyde. disulfiram also blocks this enzyme, and is given to alcoholics to "force a hangover" whenever they drink.

however, the studies ive read show that when taking acetylcysteine, there is very little liver damage which occurs, and it's almost equivalent to not being exposed to alcohol at all.

there are many studies on this. many focus on hangover reduction, and reduction in alcohol cravings, but there is also good data on liver damage mitigation.

https://sci-hub.se/10.1007/BF02869573