Glutathione: The Mother of All Antioxidants

Glutathione may be the greatest secret to slowing aging and preventing cancer, heart disease, dementia, and essentially every other degenerative afflication, as well as a preventative for everything from autism to Alzheimer's disease. There are more than 89,000 medical articles that support such a conclusion. It is considered to be the mother of all antioxidants, the master detoxifier, and maestro of the immune system and may be the most important molecule in our bodies for optimizing our health and preventing disease.

The good news is that our bodies produce their own glutathione. The bad news is that poor diet, pollution, toxins, medications, stress, trauma, aging, infections and radiation all deplete our glutathione. This leaves us susceptible to unrestrained cell disintegration from oxidative stress, free radicals, infections ,and cancer. Our liver gets overloaded and damaged, making it unable to do its job of detoxification.

Glutathione deficiency is found in virtually all very ill patients. These include people with chronic fatigue syndrome, heart disease, cancer, chronic infections, autoimmune disease, diabetes, autism, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, arthritis, asthma, kidney problems, liver disease and more. Our ability to produce and maintain a high level of glutathione may be critical to recovery from nearly all chronic illness - and to preventing disease and maintaining optimal health and performance.

Glutathione is a very simple molecule that is produced naturally in our body. It is a combination of three amino acids - cysteine, glycine, and glutamine. The secret of its power is the sulfur chemical groups it contains. Sulfur is a sticky, smelly molecule. It acts like fly paper and all the nefarious things in the body stick to it, including free radicals and toxins like heavy metals. Normally glutathione is recycled in the body - except when the toxic load becomes too great. That explains why modern humans are in such trouble.

We each have genes that produce enzymes that allow the body to create and recycle glutathione. These genes can become impaired in some people for a variety of important reasons. We evolved in a time before the 80,000 toxic industrial chemicals found in our environment today were introduced into our world, before electromagnetic radiation was everywhere and before we polluted our skies, lakes, rivers, oceans ,and teeth with mercury and lead. We survived as a species because of the basic genetic detoxification software encoded in our DNA, but that software may not be up to handling the insults we hurl at it in the modern world.

At the time humans evolved we didn't need anything more. Who knew we would be poisoning ourselves and eating a processed, nutrient-depleted diet thousands of years later? Because most of us didn't require additional detoxification software, almost half of the population has a limited capacity to get rid of toxins because they are missing one of the most important genes needed in the process of creating and recycling glutathione in the body. Unfortunately, perhaps one-third of our population that suffers from chronic disease is missing this essential gene.

Glutathione is critical for one simple reason: It recycles antioxidants. Dealing with free radicals is like handing off a hot potato. They get passed around from vitamin C to vitamin E to lipoic acid and then finally to glutathione which cools off the free radicals and recycles other antioxidants. After this happens, the body can "reduce" or regenerate another protective glutathione molecule and we are back in business.

Problems occur when we are overwhelmed with too much oxidative stress or too many toxins. Then the glutathione becomes depleted and we can no longer protect ourselves against free radicals, infections, or cancer, and we can't get rid of toxins. This leads to further sickness and soon we are in a downward spiral of chronic illness.

Glutathione is also critical in helping our immune system do its job of fighting infections and preventing cancer. That's why studies show that it can help in the treatment of AIDS. Glutathione is the most critical and integral part of our detoxification system. All toxins stick to glutathione, which then carries them into the bile and the stool and out of your body.

Lastly, it helps us reach peak mental and physical function. Research has shown that raised glutathione levels decrease muscle damage, reduce recovery time, increase strength and endurance and shift metabolism from fat production to muscle development. If you feel sick or old or are just not in peak shape, you likely have glutathione deficiency. In fact, the top British medical journal, the Lancet, found the highest glutathione levels in healthy young people, lower levels in healthy elderly, lower still in sick elderly, and the lowest of all in the hospitalized elderly.

Keeping yourself healthy, boosting your performance, preventing disease and aging well depends on keeping your glutathione levels high. Glutathione is so important because it is responsible for keeping so many of the keys to wellness optimized. It is critical for immune function and controlling inflammation. It is the master detoxifier and the body's main antioxidant, protecting our cells and making our energy metabolism run well.

The good news is that you can do many things to increase this natural and critical molecule in your body. You can eat glutathione-boosting foods. You can exercise. And you can take glutathione-boosting supplements. Let's review more specifics about each.

Following are nine tips to help improve your glutathione levels, improve your health, optimize your performance, and live a long, healthy life:

1. Eat foods that support glutathione production. Consume sulfur-rich foods. The main ones in the diet are garlic, onions and the cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, kale, collards, cabbage, cauliflower, watercress)

2. Try bioactive whey protein. This is great source of cysteine and the amino acid building blocks for glutathione synthesis. The whey protein MUST be bioactive and made from non-denatured proteins ("denaturing" refers to the breakdown of the normal protein structure). Choose nonpasteurized and non-industrially produced milk that contains no pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics. Immunocal is a prescription bioactive non-denatured whey protein.

3. Exercise your way to more glutathione Exercise boosts your glutathione levels and thereby helps boost your immune system, improve detoxification, and enhance your body's own antioxidant defenses. Start slow and build up to 30 minutes a day of vigorous aerobic exercise like walking or jogging, or participate in a sport. Strength training for 20 minutes three times a week is also helpful.

4. Take Glutathione supporting supplements. One would think it would be easy just to take glutathione as a pill, but the body digests protein so you wouldn't get the benefits if you did it this way. However, the production and recycling of glutathione in the body requires many different nutrients and you CAN take these. The main supplement that needs to be taken consistently every day to boost glutathione is N-acetyl-L-cysteine. NAC has been used for years to help treat asthma and lung disease and to treat people with life-threatening liver failure from Tylenol overdose. It is the precursor for production of new glutathione in the body.

5. Supplement with Alpha lipoic acid. This is a close second to glutathione in importance in our cells and is involved in energy production, blood sugar control, brain health and detoxification. The body usually makes it, but given all the stresses we are under, we often become depleted.

6. Supplement with Methylation nutrients (folate and vitamins B6 and B12). These are perhaps the most critical to keep the body producing glutathione. Methylation and the production and recycling of glutathione are the two most important biochemical functions in your body. Take folate (especially in the active form of 5 methyltetrahydrofolate), B6 (in active form of P5P) and B12 (in the active form of methylcobalamin).

7. Supplement with Selenium. This important mineral helps the body recycle and produce more glutathione.

8. Supplement with a family of antioxidants including vitamins C and E (in the form of mixed tocopherols); these work together to recycle glutathione.

9. Supplement with Milk Thistle (silymarin) which has long been used in liver disease in addition to helping boost glutathione levels.