N-Acetylcysteine
ALSUntangled #82: N-acetylcysteine While NAC has theoretical therapeutic promise in ALS due to its antioxidant properties and ability to modulate oxidative stress and restore mitochondrial function, several case studies failed…
Risk: B
Grade B: More than 0% but less than 10% of exposed patients experienced harms (no hospitalizations or deaths)
Alpha Lipoic Acid
ALA has several plausible mechanisms for slowing ALS progression, including enhancing energy production, reducing oxidative stress as a potent antioxidant and anti inflammation. Preclinical studies demonstrated better motor function and…
Ashwagandha
WS appears reasonably safe, has plausible mechanisms by which it might slow ALS progression, and has promising data obtained in multiple different clinical models of ALS. While there are also…
Lions Mane
While Lion’s Mane may have neuroprotective, neurotrophic, antioxidant, and anti inflammatory properties that could, at least in theory, potentially help ALS, there are still no studies in ALS relevant cell…
Caffeine
Caffeine is inexpensive, reasonably safe at doses of under 400 mg daily, and has plausible mechanisms by which it could slow ALS progression. However, data from pre-clinical models are contradictory…
Astaxanthin
There are theoretical mechanisms supporting the potential role of astaxanthin in the treatment of ALS, however, there are no ALS specific preclinical data exploring this treatment. One verified “ALS reversal”…
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is safe and inexpensive. As an antioxidant, it has a plausible mechanism for influencing the course of neurodegenerative diseases. Two flawed preclinical studies by the same group showed…
Proprionyl-L-Carnitine
There are good theoretical mechanisms for carnitines, some preclinical evidence for LC and ALCAR, and a single clinical trial that suggested ALCAR could slow disease progression in PALS. All three…