N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC)

To help stop the pulling urges I am trying the latest suggestion for helping with trich which is an amino acid called N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). A trial was held where 56% of people saw an improvement after 9 weeks. The BBC wrote an article about it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8132387.stm

I have been taking 1200mg a day for the past 5 weeks and so fingers crossed I will see an improvement soon. If the urges are not as strong then hopefully I will be able to control myself more. I'm not betting on it but anything is worth a try! :)

Comments

  1. Peter Roy18 September 2009 at 08:35

    I'm so glad you're writing this blog, Maggie - I think it is wonderful that you're sharing your experiences with other people that might benefit.

    I can't believe how much the "volumiser" has cost of the last couple of years! I hope the NAC trial goes well!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Maggie Valentine20 September 2009 at 21:38

    Thank you :)

    I now have my volumiser done in Manchester at a place called Hair Solved. It is much cheaper than the place I went to in London and so the appointments aren't so bad any more! I have a bit of spare cash afterwards to go shoe shopping with!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Changed Priorities

My Trichotillomania has now taken a major back seat! I still pull everyday and wear a permanent wig to cover up the bald patches. It's annoying to live with a hair hat 'thing' fixed to my head all the time and it gets itchy but I'm used to it so it has become normal. I can't imagine not wearing a wig now. My hair follicles have been permanently damaged by all the years of pulling so the hope of growing a full head of hair now is pretty slim. But I think I have accepted that and now trich doesn't really bother me. I used to get upset about it and frustrated but now I think there are more important things to worry about and l can still enjoy life without proper hair!! Some people have it a lot worse so out of all of the problems you can have as a human, I think hair pulling is a pretty mild one to have been dealt. Found out my mum as incurable cancer recently - this is a real problem. I would pull my arms and legs off, as well as all my hair out to fix her.
Read more

Hair update

Since using twitter I haven't posted many updates. Twitter is quick and easily accessible from my mobile! My hair is still shit, the sides and front are bald. I'm now using tape at the front of my volumiser in an attempt to let it recover a bit. The connections used to pull my hair out and there was hardly any there anyway! I used to use Fullmore on the sides which helped but I have recently joined a hot yoga class and you sweat like a beast!! The dye in Fullmore would drip everywhere and I would get in a right state :/ I have no idea how to stop pulling my hair out. I have tried so many things!! I'm not pulling my hair right this second and so I know that I don't need to, or feel like doing it every second of the day! I just need to figure out the secret to the non-pulling state and keep it all day..... This is a bit weird but I sometimes think that if I broke my arms and couldn't touch my hair for several weeks then maybe that would break the spell! But I have n
Read more

Documentary

A few months ago a University student emailed me asking if I would take part in a short documentary on trichotillomania for her coursework. Her name was Jo, I said yes and so she came round to my house with a cameraman and list of questions. She found me via a hair forum along with a few others. We put a chair in the conservatory and practiced for a while before doing the real thing. I have never been filmed before and it’s amazing how self conscious it makes you feel, I made sure I wore black as apparently that makes you look thinner and noticed that I was purposefully pronouncing my t’s etc. Jo asked me how young I was when I started pulling, how it made me feel and what treatments I have looked into. We spoke a lot about Lucinda Ellery’s which is where I had my first volumiser fitted. Lucinda is the name of the lady that started the hair salon, she is a lovely bubbly lady, but unfortunately the cost of treatment just got too much there and so I had to leave. It was good to start wit
Read more