L-cysteine and ulcers.
Newsgroup: alt.folklore.herbs,misc.health.alternative,sci.med
From: asolovyo.nickel.ucs.indiana.edu (ariadna a solovyo
Date: 28 Feb 1996 01:04:25 GMT
Subject: FINALLY! Cysteine, a cure for peptic ulcer
Hi folks,
Some of you may remember me with my whining questions about treating duodenal ulcers. I'M FINALLY HEALTHY. I can't believe it. I finally found something -- in MedLine -- that cured me. I have tried Zantac, antibiotics with bismuth, licorice and other herbs. Licorice was great, but did not prevent relapses, and did not *really* cure: I was always tired, with this acidic taste in my mouth, unable to digest certain foods, etc. I didn't try any drugs other than Zantac for financial reasons and...well, I wanted to find a non-drug solution. And I did! L-CYSTEINE. Sold at every health food store. The week after I started I felt I was myself again. I'm appending the MedLine abstract that I was so lucky to stumble upon. There's A LOT more in MedLine; just search for "cysteine" and "ulcer" or "sulfhydril" and "ulcer". It is said to work for gastritis and ulcerative colitis as well, and for all kinds of ulcers, not just peptic. The other agent mentioned is Vitamin U. This is the stuff that makes cabbage juice effective (didn't do it for me, for some reason :-( most likely, I didn't take enough of it).
More details: I started taking L-cysteine a month ago, having a relapse with acute pain; I've been taking two 500 mg caps twice a day, before meals, with 1 glass of water. I've been taking 3 times as much vit. C as calcium ascorbate with it (it's recommended on the label as a preventative measure for side effects which involve kidneys; you can learn more about it in the library or the bookstore, or search MedLine for Cysteine-adverse-effects).
P. S. I'm not a doctor! Judge for yourself!
MEDLINE EXPRESS (R) 1990-1994 1 of 8 Marked Record
TI: Sulphydryl-containing agents and the prevention of duodenal ulcer relapse.
AU: Salim-AS
AD: University Department of Surgery, Medical City, Baghdad, Iraq.
SO: Pharmacology. 1993 May; 46(5): 281-8
ISSN: 0031-7012
PY: 1993
LA: ENGLISH
CP: SWITZERLAND
AB: This prospective randomized double-blind controlled study investigated whether sulphydryl-containing agents protect against the recurrence of duodenal ulceration. To this end, DL-cysteine (200 mg 4 times daily) and DL-methionine-methyl sulphonium chloride (MMSC, 500 mg 4 times daily) were administered orally. Three hundred and six consecutive smokers with previous symptomatic endoscopy-proven duodenal ulceration which had been shown endoscopically to have healed were randomized to receive for 1 year either placebo, cimetidine 400 mg at bedtime, cysteine, or MMSC. In 221 patients evaluable for efficacy, the cumulative relapse rate at 1 year was: placebo 64%, cimetidine 30%, cysteine 11% and MMSC 12%. Cimetidine was significantly effective in preventing ulcer relapse (p < 0.01), however cysteine and MMSC were more effective in this respect (p < 0.05). In the patients who relapsed, ulcer recurrence tended to occur early on placebo but to be evenly distributed over the year on active therapy. In all the study groups, the relative frequency of symptomatic to silent relapse was similar in the first and second halves of the year and was comparable among these groups. These results show that sulphydryl-containing agents significantly reduce the recurrence rate of duodenal ulceration.
MESH: Adolescence-; Adult-; Aged-; Cimetidine-therapeutic-use; Vitamin-U-therapeutic-use; Cysteine-therapeutic-use; Double-Blind-Method; Methionine-analogs-and-derivatives; Methionine-therapeutic-use; Middle-Age; Prospective-Studies; Recurrence-; Sulfonium-Compounds-therapeutic-use
