Medical & Scientific Opinions on Glutathione
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Medical Professionals on the Benefits of Glutathione
"No other antioxidant is as important to overall health as glutathione. It is the regenerator of immune cells and the most valuable detoxifying agent in the body. Low levels are associated with early aging and even death." The Immune System Cure, Lorna R. Vanderhaeghe & Patrick J.D. Bouic, Ph.D.
"Without glutathione, other important antioxidants such as vitamins C and E cannot do their job adequately to protect your body against disease." Breakthrough in Cell Defense, Dr. Allan Somersall, Ph.D., M.D. with Dr. Gustavo Bounous, M.D. FRCS(C)
"Your life depends on glutathione. Without it, your cells would disintegrate from unrestrained oxidation, your body would have little resistance to bacteria, viruses and cancer, and your liver would shrivel up from the eventual accumulation of toxins." Glutathione: Essential Health AID - Antioxidant. Immune Booster. Detoxifier, Dr. Jimmy Gutman, MD, FACEP
"A review article published in the Annals of Pharmacology stated that glutathione is important in DNA synthesis and repair, protein and prostaglandin synthesis, amino acid transport, detoxification of toxins and carcinogens, enhancement of the immune system, and protection from oxidation and enzyme activations." The Immune System Cure, Lorna R. Vanderhaeghe & Patrick J.D. Bouic, Ph.D.
"Glutathione has potent anti-viral properties - if you raise the glutathione level you can stop the replication of most any, at least, intracellular pathogen....but glutathione deficiency produces a pro-viral effect." Dr. Paul Cheney, transcribed from a workshop presentation on the clinical management of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
"Glutathione levels also diminish as we age and many diseases normally associated with aging have been linked to glutathione deficiency." Glutathione: Essential Health AID - Antioxidant. Immune Booster. Detoxifier, Dr. Jimmy Gutman, MD, FACEP
"Clinical evidence links low glutathione levels to the most common illnesses of our time as well as newly emerging diseases." Glutathione: Essential Health AID - Antioxidant. Immune Booster. Detoxifier, Dr. Jimmy Gutman, MD, FACEP
"Because all other antioxidants depend upon the presence of glutathione to function properly, scientists call it 'the master antioxidant'." Glutathione: Essential Health AID - Antioxidant. Immune Booster. Detoxifier, Dr. Jimmy Gutman, MD, FACEP
"Healthy people also benefit from elevated glutathione levels through an enhanced ability to fight off toxins, infectious disease, pre-cancerous cells and the aging process itself." Glutathione: Essential Health AID - Antioxidant. Immune Booster. Detoxifier, Dr. Jimmy Gutman, MD, FACEP
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The Importance of Glutathione in Scientific Literature
It is well known that aging is accompanied by a precipitous fall in glutathione levels. Lower glutathione levels are implicated in many diseases associated with aging, including cataracts, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's, atherosclerosis and others.
Journal of Clinical Epidemiology 47: 1021-26 1994
Low glutathione levels have been associated with neuro-degenerative diseases such as MS (Multiple Sclerosis), ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, among others.
The Lancet 344: 796-798, 1994
Glutathione plays a role in eliminating many carcinogens and also maintains an optimized immune function, providing stronger anti-tumor defenses.
Cancer Letters 57: 91-94 1991
Low glutathione levels correspond to poor survival in AIDS patients. Much documentation demonstrates the role of enhanced glutathione levels in AIDS.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, USA 94: 1967-72, 1997
Raised glutathione levels fight the oxidation of circulating fats in the bloodstream, including cholesterol, retarding the process of plaque formation in the arteries - the underlying cause for most heart disease and stroke.
Nutrition Reviews 54: 1-30, 1996
Diabetics are prone to infections and circulatory problems leading to heart disease, kidney failure and blindness. Glutathione protects against the complications of diabetes.
Clinical Science 91: 575-582, 1996
Doctors have used glutathione-promoting drugs to treat many lung diseases including asthma, chronic bronchitis and emphysema. Newer potential therapeutic roles can be found for cigarette smoke damage, pulmonary fibrosis and other illnesses.
American Journal of Medical Science 307: 119-127, 1994
Glutathione protects the body from the inflammation of gastritis, stomach ulcers, pancreatitis and inflammatory bowel disease including ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease.
Gut 42: 485-492, 1998
The liver is the major storehouse for glutathione. Glutathione is impaired in alcoholic hepatitis as well as in viral hepatitis A, B, and C. Raised glutathione levels restore liver function.
American Journal of Gasteroenterology 91: 2569-2573, 1996
Glutathione detoxifies a variety of pollutants, carcinogens and poisons, including many found in fuel exhaust and cigarette smoke. It also retards damage from radiation exposure due to the eroding ozone layer.
Annual Reviews of Biochemistry 52: 711-760 1983
Raised glutathione levels help increase strength and endurance. Those interested in physical fitness can benefit from a definite athletic edge.
Journal of Applied Physiology 87: 1381-1385, 1999
Strong muscular activity, such as that experienced by athletes, generates oxyradicals [free radicals] leading to muscle fatigue and poorer performance. Glutathione neutralizes these radicals.
Sport Medicine 21: 213-238, 1996
Lymphocytes, cells vital for your immune system, depend on glutathione for their proper function and replication.
IMMUNOLOGY 61: 503-508 1987
Antioxidants are well documented and known to possess vital roles in health maintenance and disease prevention. Glutathione is your cell's own major antioxidant. Maintaining elevated glutathione levels aids the body's natural antioxidant function.
Biochemical Pharmacology 47: 2113-2123 1994
Find out More About Glutathione
PubMed is the U.S. National Library of Medicine's search service to access over 14 million citations in Medline and other related databases, with links to participating online journals. When you get into the PubMed site, enter your search word(s) into the form and press the "Search" button. A list of abstracts will appear. Click on the author's name to read one.
Narrow your search by entering "glutathione and [your health concern]" or you'll get over 84,000 abstracts!
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Enhancing Glutathione is the Natural Solution for Chronic Illness
By Dr. William Code
William Code, M.D., F.R.C.P.C. (Anesthesiology), studied in Saskatoon, Edinburgh and Calgary, including two years of full-time laboratory brain research. He helped to establish a Stroke Research Centre of Excellence. In 1996, he spoke at the World Congress of Anesthesiology in Australia about his clinical pain management research.
Shortly after he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and had to leave clinical practice. Dr. Code and his wife, Denise are the authors of Who Is In Control of Your Multiple Sclerosis? Pieces of the MS Recovery Puzzle.
Glutathione (GSH) is a small protein found in every cell of the body. It is produced naturally from three amino acids: glycine, glutamine, and cysteine. Glutathione is essential to life. Scientists have written over 50,000 articles about glutathione, yet many people are still not aware of its importance to health.
Most health professionals have only a vague idea of its significance. I believe its importance will soon be widely recognized, because our glutathione level indicates our state of health and how long we will live.
In 2004, the New England Journal of Medicine claimed that the presence of glutathione peroxidase, a related enzyme, serves as a predictor of heart attacks.
In the future, I expect the monitoring of glutathione levels will supersede cholesterol, C-reactive protein (ESR), as a way of alerting us to heart disease and impending heart attacks. Unfortunately, we can't raise our body's glutathione levels with ordinary foods, glutathione capsules, or even n-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) by mouth. Even though glutathione is present in many fruits, vegetables and meats, this protein is broken down during digestion into its three amino acids: glycine, glutamine and cysteine.
Alone in the gut after digestion, cysteine is treated as a free radical and rapidly oxidized to a charged molecule. Consequently, only a very small amount reaches our bloodstream and cells.
Almost no NAC, if given by mouth crosses the blood brain barrier. This is unfortunate, because many brain illnesses, such as Multiple Sclerosis of Parkinson's disease grow worse when glutathione is lacking. Patients diagnosed with these diseases only have about five percent of the glutathione they need in their systems.
Similarly, limited brain glutathione is key in the development of Amylotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Alzheimer's disease and can lead to greater severity of injury from stroke, brain injury or brain trauma. Glutathione is an important way for the body to store cysteine. In fact, Dr. Wulf Droge who is a world expert on cancer and aging, described in the journal FASEB (2001) how the cysteine molecule controls our production of energy and our healing process. Recuperating from "energy illnesses" such as chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and probably also the fatigue of MS, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and other debilitating conditions is dependent upon raising the level of glutathione inside the cells. In another published paper on the influence of bioactive cysteine on cancer cells, Dr. Droge states that bioactive cysteine strengthens the normal cells against cancer surgery, chemotherapy and radiation while weakening the cancer cells.
Several years ago, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and had to quit my clinical practice due to exhaustion and other factors. At my worst, I spent up to twelve hours in bed, too weak to move. This changed in later 2001, when I learned of a special whey protein isolate rich in bioactive cysteine. It was proven to raise glutathione levels in the body. This glutathione (GSH) enhancer had a profound and beneficial effect on my illness.
The main improvement was the reduction of the mind-numbing fatigue. Fortunately, within six months, almost all my pain and muscle spasms faded away as well.
Enhancing GSH is the cornerstone of my recommendations for any chronic illness - including MS, ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease), Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, osteoarthritis, and even cancer.
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The Science of Glutathione
By Patricia A.L. Kongshavn, PhD
Glutathione is a small molecule found in every cell. It cannot enter most cells directly and therefore must be made inside the cell, from its three constituent amino acids: glycine, glutamate and cysteine. The rate at which glutathione can be made depends on the availability of cysteine, which is relatively scarce in foodstuffs. Furthermore, the cysteine molecule has a sulfur-containing portion, which gives the whole glutathione molecule its ‘biochemical activity’, i.e. its ability to carry out the following vitally important functions.
Firstly, glutathione is the major antioxidant produced by the cell, protecting it from ‘free radicals’ (‘oxygen radicals’, ‘oxyradicals’). These highly reactive substances, if left unchecked, will damage or destroy key cell components (e.g. membranes, DNA) in microseconds. Oxyradicals are generated in the many thousand mitochondria located inside each cell, where nutrients like glucose are burnt using oxygen to make energy. (Mitochondria can be thought of as the batteries that provide the power for the cells to operate). Oxyradicals also come from pollutants, from UV radiation and other sources. In addition, glutathione recycles other well-known antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E, keeping them in their active state.
Secondly, glutathione is a very important detoxifying agent, enabling the body to get rid of undesirable toxins and pollutants. It forms a soluble compound with the toxin that can then be excreted through the urine or the gut. The liver and kidneys contain high levels of glutathione as they have the greatest exposure to toxins. The lungs are also rich in glutathione partly for the same reason. Many cancer-producing chemicals, heavy metals, drug metabolites etc. are disposed of in this way.
Thirdly, glutathione plays a crucial role in maintaining a normal balance between oxidation and anti-oxidation. This, in turn, regulates many of the cell’s vital functions, such as the synthesis and repair of DNA, the synthesis of proteins and the activation and regulation of enzymes.
Fourthly, glutathione is required in many of the intricate steps needed to carry out an immune response. For example, it is needed for the lymphocytes to multiply in order to develop a strong immune response, and for ‘killer’ lymphocytes to be able to kill undesirable cells such as cancer cells or virally infected cells.
The importance of glutathione cannot be overstated. It has multiple roles as indicated and, indeed, as one examines each system or organ more closely, the necessity for glutathione becomes increasingly evident. Glutathione values decline with age and higher values in older people are shown to correlate with better health, underscoring the importance of this remarkable substance for maintaining a healthy, well-functioning body.
Reference. Lomaestro B, Malone M. Glutathione in health and disease: Pharmacotherapeutic Issues. Ann Pharmacother 29: 1263-73,1995.
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