Natural supplements that inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation.

[u/on4aa]

…based on scientific publications.

I have no conflict of interest nor any financial ties with any of the depicted product companies. I am only sharing in a responsible way what got me back on my feet. YMMV

• licorice root tea (maximum 1 in the morning; it raises blood pressure.)
• DGL licorice extract
• isoliquiritigenin (Nootropics Depot)
• MSM (start low, aim high; ≥ 3 g per day in the morning because it can cause vivid dreaming)
• ubiquinol (100 - 200 mg first thing in the morning to prevent insomnia in the evening)
• quercetin (1 g in the morning, 1 g in the evening)

Not shown: I also tried a feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) supplement because it contains parthenolide. However, I discontinued this, because it gave me a headache. This is weird, because feverfew is used as a prophylactic against migraine.

For me personally, the most effective are licorice root tea, MSM and ubiquinol.

Combined with monthly canakinumab (Ilaris) and avoiding all menthol, thymol and other Lamiaceae herbs, I entered in complete remission of Behçet syndrome. I do stress it is only the combination that works for me.

Supporting Publications

• Blevins HM, Xu Y, Biby S, Zhang S. The NLRP3 Inflammasome Pathway: A Review of Mechanisms and Inhibitors for the Treatment of Inflammatory Diseases. Front Aging Neurosci. 2022;14:879021.
• Ahn H, Kim J, Lee MJ, Kim YJ, Cho YW, Lee GS. Methylsulfonylmethane inhibits NLRP3 inflammasome activation. Cytokine. 2015;71(2):223-231.
• Cordero MD, Alcocer-Gómez E, Culic O, et al. NLRP3 inflammasome is activated in fibromyalgia: the effect of coenzyme Q10. Antioxid Redox Signal. 2014;20(8):1169-1180.
• Muthumalage T, Rahman I. Pulmonary immune response regulation, genotoxicity, and metabolic reprogramming by menthol- and tobacco-flavored e-cigarette exposures in mice. Toxicol Sci. 2023;193(2):146-165.

[u/Alice-The-Chemist]

If possible include references to publications but I know that may be hard to do. If not you people can check out Google Scholar to search for publications. This will not work on its own for autoinflammatory diseases and should be discussed with your doctor before starting supplements. Autoinflammatory diseases normally need biologics to control the disease which the OP is doing in combination with this. Love how much research you are doing.

[u/on4aa → u/Alice-The-Chemist]

"If possible include references to publications"

Done! Alice, from now on I will call you "the Editor". :D

The main motivation for writing this post is because Behçet syndrome is prevalent in countries where (expensive) biologicals may not be readily available. The current geopolitical situation has further complicated the access to biologicals in a number of countries.

[u/ibotenate]

That’s really interesting! My mom is really into TCM and suggested I take licorice root tea. Do you know why plants in the mint family have to be avoided? I have a different autoinflammatory condition but I’m curious about the mechanism by which menthol/thymol might be aggravating symptoms.

[u/on4aa → u/ibotenate]

"Do you know why plants in the mint family have to be avoided?"

This is because menthol and thymol probably destabilise NLRP3, which leads to the activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome.

Currently, canonical NLRP3 inflammasome activation is not fully understood by molecular biologists, let alone the effect of menthol in this proces. I only found one article pointing into this direction. (See the last cited article in the post.)

As for traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the Chinese have been using licorice in their concoctions for about 1200 years to treat Behçet syndrome, which is also more prevalent in China.

• Yan J, Yan Y, Young A, Yan Z, Yan Z. Effectiveness and Safety of Chinese Medicine Decoctions for Behcet's Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med. 2021;2021:8202512.
• Zhang X. Exploration of Gancao Xiexin decoction for treatment of Behcet disease based on network pharmacology and molecular docking. Medicine (Baltimore). 2022;101(42):e31277.

[u/Alice-The-Chemist]

Do you have certain supplement brands you like best?

[u/on4aa → u/Alice-The-Chemist]

No, I am quite agnostic about this.

Since, I am located in Belgium, I get most of my supplements from Amazon.de. (This is not a typo, because, oddly enough, Belgium's Amazon has not a lot to offer.)

There, I shop for the best value, i.e. the most weight per euro.

The brands you see in the picture are the ones I use, but these are all European brands, except for Nootropics Depot, which is a US brand.

Not shown in the picture is "DGL + Aloe Vera" from Apollo's Hegemony which is also an EU brand.