Mon-11-07-2016, 10:26 AM
A quick update. I am now fairly sure that cysteine (currently ~3 grams) taken at least a half hour prior to a DMF dose greatly reduces the gastric side effects for me. I suspect that this is because DMF causes a depletion of glutathione (GSH) in the tissue it is absorbed into. I also wonder whether GSH depletion is the main factor in DMF harming the liver. Taken long term, DMF stimulates the production of GSH, so provided the body can produce enough GSH this could explain why liver toxicity subsides after a time. Cysteine availability tends to be the limiting parameter for GSH production. Who knows?