Can one molecule really be a game-changer for your health and wellness? Discover the remarkable powers of glutathione on this episode of "Inflammation Nation" with Dr. Stephen Noseworthy. We break down the science behind this tripeptide, composed of cysteine, glycine, and glutamine, and reveal how its antioxidant capabilities make it indispensable for liver detoxification. Find out the unique secret of glutathione's ability to extend the half-life of nitric oxide, allowing it to behave like a hormone and magnify its benefits throughout your body. Understand the journey of glutathione synthesis in the liver and its vital role in maintaining cellular health.
Join us as we delve into the multifaceted role of glutathione in cellular health and metabolism. Learn how the liver's synthesis process, aided by the enzyme GGT, breaks down glutathione for cellular uptake. Discover its functions as a signaling molecule and an intracellular antioxidant, combating oxidative stress and boosting blood flow, tissue oxygenation, brain signaling, and immune responses. We also touch on the incredible ability of glutathione to recycle itself after neutralizing toxins or free radicals, reaffirming why it holds the title of a 'miracle molecule' in health and wellness. Don't miss this episode if you want to grasp why glutathione is absolutely essential for sustaining life and overall well-being.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
One of the greatest obstacles to crafting health and
wellness is identifying andcontrolling inflammation.
It's at the core of all complexand chronic diseases and it's
the driving mechanism thatunderlies the most common
symptoms that people like youstruggle to overcome.
Join us as we explorecutting-edge science and
research to give you theinformation and tools you need
to create the quality of lifeyou want and deserve.
(00:24):
To give you the information andtools you need to create the
quality of life you want anddeserve.
And now here is the host ofInflammation Nation, dr Stephen.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Noseworthy.
Hey guys, welcome back to thepodcast.
We're in this mini-series wherewe're talking about miracle
molecules, and we started withnitric oxide and I did a
three-part series on howincredibly important it is to
have not just adequate levels ofnitric oxide but to have
(00:56):
control of how that is beingproduced through dietary factors
as well as specific enzymesthat are found in your brain,
your immune cells and your bloodvessels.
Go back and listen to that, ifyou missed it.
Today we're going to go to thenext miracle molecule, the
second miracle molecule, andthat is glutathione.
And I know that I've talkedabout this, about glutathione,
on the podcast before indifferent contexts, and maybe
(01:16):
you've heard of it somewhere.
I'm not the only person talkingabout how useful it is to have
adequate glutathione levels.
So what I want to do is I wantto cover the basics first, give
you kind of a bird's eye view ofwhat glutathione is and what it
does.
But as a reminder and toconnect this discussion back to
the last one, I mentioned in thesegments of nitric oxide that
(01:41):
it has a very, very shorthalf-life, but I also mentioned
that glutathione can connect tonitric oxide and extend its
half-life from a few seconds toa couple of hours, and this
allows nitric oxide produced inone area of the body to
circulate to another one andhave its effect in a different
place than where it was produced, and by that standard, nitric
(02:03):
oxide functions as a hormone,really essentially no different
than your thyroid hormones orcortisol or insulin, for example
.
Now, first and foremost,glutathione is best known as an
antioxidant, but it also playskey roles in detoxification of
the liver, as well as handlingspecific toxins that actually
(02:24):
don't get processed by yourliver, and that is maybe a
distinction that not a lot ofpeople are making.
So we're going to tackle theseone at a time, and then we'll
talk about how you can getdirect access to the same tests
that I use with my personalcoaching clients.
We'll come back to that a littlebit later, but let's talk about
what glutathione is at amolecular level.
(02:46):
Let's start with the very, verybig picture, and essentially,
glutathione is a tripeptide, andwhat that means is that it's a
very short molecule, or let'scall it a short protein, made up
of three amino acids, which arecysteine, glycine and glutamine
, or you may see or hear peoplerefer to the third one as
(03:08):
glutamic acid.
Now, if you have a backgroundin biochemistry don't crucify me
on the details.
Like I know that proteins arelonger than peptides and
technically, proteins are madeup of 50 or more amino acids.
We're just talking about three.
So it's a peptide, not aprotein.
But I might use the wordprotein or perhaps refer to
(03:28):
glutathione as a protein-likesubstance.
But again, don't crucify me onthe details.
So glutathione has these threedifferent amino acids and we
have enzymes in our bodies thattake these amino acids, which we
get from our diet, of course,and connects them together to
make glutathione.
And if we look inside our cellsbecause essentially this is
(03:52):
where we want glutathione to endup and to do most of its work
if we look inside the cell,about 85% of the intracellular
glutathione is contained in thecytosol.
That's the general space, thegeneral interior part of the
cell, and in that interior partof the cell we have other things
(04:13):
like organelles, like themitochondria.
So about 85% is in that openspace, that general space, and
about 15% is inside themitochondria.
Now, interestingly, while thecell in the cytoplasm does have
enzymes to make glutathione, themitochondria don't, and so the
amount of, or the glutathionecontent of, the mitochondria is
(04:37):
derived specifically fromglutathione that's made inside
the cell and then transferredinto the mitochondria or
imported into the mitochondriaBecause, again, the mitochondria
themselves cannot makeglutathione, and glutathione is
pretty much made by all cells,but it's made in varying amounts
, so certain cells and certainorgans will make more than
(04:58):
others, and unique in all ofthem is the liver, and in fact
the liver makes most of theglutathione we have in our
system and it uses glutathionefor its own cellular protection,
also to participate in oneaspect of liver detoxification.
But the liver also stores andreleases glutathione that can
(05:23):
then transport through the bodyand be used by other cells.
And in fact, if we ask thequestion about if we look inside
the cell and see how muchglutathione there is at an
intracellular level, most of theglutathione that's there was
initially made by the liver andthen transported into the cell.
So, ignoring that for a moment,I think it's important to know
(05:48):
that glutathione in its nativeform, where these three amino
acids are already connectedtogether, can't get into the
cell simply on its own.
There has to be a transportmechanism that allows that.
And so, again ignoring for themoment that the liver makes,
stores and releases most of yourglutathione, we need a way to
(06:12):
get that glutathione made by theliver into the cell right, and
the only way we can do that isby disassembling glutathione
into its three individual aminoacids and then shifting those
amino acids into your cell,where enzymes in the cell's
cytoplasm then can reassemblethe glutathione, or I should say
(06:35):
the amino acids that make upglutathione.
So the liver makes it,transports it out into the
peripheral body.
But because glutathione can'tget into your cells easily, we
have an enzyme that breaks itdown into the three amino acids
and then those amino acids gointo the cell and get
reassembled by another enzymeinside the cell itself.
And here's where we can look atlabs.
(07:01):
There's two ways that we can geta handle on what your
glutathione levels are.
One is to do direct labmeasurement, and by all means
that's the gold standard,measuring things directly.
But there is a laboratorymarker that can be used as an
indirect marker and that is atest called GGT.
(07:22):
Now, I have taught bloodchemistry analysis in
postdoctoral seminars for about16 years now and we talk about
GGT all the time and we oftentalk about it or I should say
the context in which we usuallytalk about GGT as being a marker
for gallbladder disease orgallbladder dysfunction.
(07:44):
But what I want you to knowabout GGT as a lab test is that
number one most doctors only runit if they think you have a
gallbladder issue, or maybe theyrun it if they think you might
be an alcoholic.
So it's not part of routinelaboratory analysis, when it
probably should be.
And second, ggt is described inthe medical literature as a
(08:07):
marker for glutathionesufficiency, and again, it's not
the same as measuringglutathione directly in the
blood and comparing theproportions of what's called the
reduced and oxidized forms,which is important We'll talk
about that later but as a quickscreening tool, ggt is a simple
and inexpensive way to get anidea as to whether or not you
(08:27):
have an increased need forglutathione.
And third and finally, ggt isalso described in the medical
literature as an indicator ofmorbidity and mortality.
Now, it doesn't mean if yourGGT is high, you're going to die
.
It doesn't mean that.
It doesn't mean if GGT is high,you're going to get a disease
(08:48):
or you have a disease.
Just, these are associations,not causations.
But nevertheless, depending onyour GGT level, we can get an
idea of whether or not you haveactive medical issues or health
issues that are affecting yourquality of life and, at worst
might predict your mortality,and that's an entirely different
(09:10):
discussion, right?
But suffice it to say right nowthat, number one, you should be
testing your GGT levels, oryour doctor should be, and you
want your GGT levels to be inthe bottom fourth of the
laboratory range.
I mean, just look at whateverthe lab range is and this is
pretty standard from lab to labmay not be entirely the same
from one lab to the next, butthere'll be pretty close you
(09:33):
want to be in the bottom quarterof that laboratory range.
The higher GGT is within thelab range, the more likely it is
that you have active metabolicissues that require more
glutathione, and higher GGT mayindicate that your glutathione
levels are insufficient tohandle the toxin load and the
oxidative stress of whatever isgoing on with you and your
(09:55):
health.
So next time when you get yourlabs done, ask your doctor to
(10:15):
run GGT, and if he or she won'tplay nice, you can always use
the link in my lab shop.
Ggt is always part of myroutine lab analysis.
I understand how important itis.
I look at this in every singleone of my clients and I
typically run this on everysingle lab.
So back to how we makeglutathione.
First and foremost, adequateprotein intake in your diet is
absolutely critical, becausethat's where we get the raw
materials to make glutathione.
And if we recognize that theliver makes, stores and exports
glutathione for other organs andother cells to use, we quickly
(10:36):
get a picture that the liver'srole in whole body glutathione
balance is critical.
Quickly get a picture that theliver's role in whole body
glutathione balance is criticaland in fact, research says that
the liver controls your systemicglutathione balance, which has
implications for how our toxicburden can tax not only the
liver but literally every cellin your body.
Essentially, your liver takesthese three amino acids cysteine
(10:59):
, glutamate or glutamine andglycine and uses this enzyme
system to repackage them intoglutathione and again that gets
exported to your bloodstream,floats around as a stable
molecule that resistsdegradation and when it
encounters a cell that needsmore glutathione than it already
has, the glutathione getsbroken down into its three
(11:20):
constituent amino acids by thisenzyme called GGT, and GGT sits
on your cell membrane of allyour cells, but it also lives
inside the cell in that generalopen space called the cytosol.
The mitochondria don't have it,but the cytosol does and the
cell membrane does.
Now, once glutathione is brokendown into its amino acids, they
(11:44):
get transported individuallyinto your cells, where enzymes
reassemble it on demand.
And if your cells have plentyof glutathione, it won't do that
as much.
If it's running at a deficit,it will do it more.
And so how do your cells dothat?
Well, when there's a mismatchbetween the level of toxin load
and oxidative stress that youhave, when there's a mismatch
(12:09):
and the levels of glutathioneneeded to quench that goes up,
this mismatch signals the cellto make more GGT, which then
increases the rate of breakdownof glutathione in the blood, so
that it can take the amino acidsinto the cell and then turn it
back into glutathione.
It's actually a very elegantsystem.
(12:29):
Now here's another little tidbit.
Remember that I said thatglutathione can connect to
nitric oxide and extend itshalf-life and extend its
half-life.
Well, it turns out that GGT canalso break the bond, releasing
both glutathione and nitricoxide, so that cells can get the
benefit of both of thosemolecules at the same time.
(12:50):
Another reason why knowing yourGGT level is incredibly
important.
That means better blood flow,better tissue oxygenation,
better brain signaling, improvedimmune responses and so on.
And so, really, again, whatwe're talking about here is the
function of glutathione as asignaling molecule, just like
(13:11):
nitric oxide, and as anintracellular antioxidant.
Now, remember, an antioxidant issomething that can donate one
of its own electrons to preventa free radical from causing
tissue damage through this thingcalled oxidative stress.
And when it comes toantioxidants, glutathione is the
mac daddy of them all.
Right, not necessarily becauseit has special characteristics
(13:36):
that other antioxidants don'thave, although antioxidants
actually are graded as to theirpotency and some are stronger
than others.
Rather, the main reason whyglutathione is such a powerful
ally in health and in cellularprotection and metabolism is
because it's so abundant insidethe cell.
Under normal, healthyconditions, in fact, it's
(13:57):
present in your cells in roughlythe same concentration as other
critical things like glucose orpotassium and even cholesterol.
So once inside the cell, oncein the cytoplasm, glutathione
can then, once it's beenreassembled, can interact with
toxins and free radicals andcontrol them.
(14:20):
It can also handle the oxidativestress from the free radicals
that are being produced by yourmitochondria as they make energy
or ATP, and you may have heardme say in the past that the
number one source of freeradicals being produced in our
body is actually from ourmitochondria.
As our body is going throughnormal biochemistry.
We make free radicals oroxidants as a natural course of
(14:46):
being alive, but we have to beable to control that.
One of the main reasons or waysthat we do that is through
glutathione, is throughglutathione.
Now, on top of all this,glutathione can easily enter the
outer membrane of themitochondria itself and it gets
transported completely intact tothe inner core of the
(15:07):
mitochondria.
So getting glutathione into themitochondria is easy, but
getting glutathione from thebloodstream into the cell is a
little bit more difficult.
So in the big picture, there isthis constant flow and flux
from the amino acids, from theprotein in your diet, to the
(15:29):
production of glutathione inyour liver and how that controls
the level of glutathione inyour bloodstream, to how the
toxins and oxidative stress loadthat your cells are
experiencing increases ordecreases the level of GDT, so
that you can tune up or tunedown the amount of glutathione
that gets inside your cells.
(15:50):
And once inside your cells,there is a flow of glutathione
into and out of yourmitochondria, all designed to
protect your cells from damagein an effort to support and
preserve function.
Now let me hit one more concept,because it's clear.
I think I need to split thistopic into a couple of different
(16:12):
episodes.
One of the greatest features ofthis entire glutathione system
is that once you've usedglutathione to stop a free
radical or to neutralize a toxin, it's not lost forever.
It's not like and forgive theanalogy, but it's not like a
bullet, where you fire thebullet and you can't fire that
(16:34):
same bullet again.
A bullet where you fire thebullet and you can't fire that
same bullet again.
It's not like a match Maybethat's a better example.
It's not like a match where,once you strike it and use it to
light a candle, you can neveruse that match again, unless you
light it from a second match,obviously, but you can't use it
as an original match.
Glutathione actually has arecycling system that allows
(16:55):
your cells to take glutathionethat has been expended, that has
already donated one of itselectrons, sacrificing itself
for your well-being, and toreconstitute it so that you can
use it again.
And it's just one more reasonwhy glutathione sufficiency is
so critical and another reasonwhy glutathione is what I call a
(17:17):
miracle molecule.
So how does this glutathionerecycling work?
Well, let's start with thisyour total pool of glutathione,
what we call total glutathione.
Obviously, it's made up of bothglutathione that is ready to be
used and glutathione that hasalready been used and can be
(17:38):
recycled and used again.
So let's say, all of thematches that you have in your
matchbook is made up of thematches that you can use to
light a fire and matches thatyou've already used to light a
fire because they've been spentand used.
When you're healthy, more than98% of the glutathione you have
(17:58):
in your body is in thisready-to-use form and that means
that less than 2%, or let's say2% or less, is in the
already-used form that can bepotentially recycled and this
recycling capacity adds to thetotal that you have.
(18:18):
So our cells can run into issueswith glutathione in a couple of
different ways.
Number one your totalglutathione levels can be too
low, which might come from lowproduction, and we might see
that in someone who has like alow protein diet might see that
in someone who has like a lowprotein diet, we might see low
(18:39):
total glutathione because we'vehad acute depletion or even
chronic depletion of glutathionefrom a toxin load where you use
up more glutathione than youcan make and recycle.
Or you can have normal totalglutathione but for some reason
can't recycle it efficiently,such that even though your total
(19:00):
number is fine, you have toomuch that you've already used
that you can't recycle and reuseagain.
Run by enzymes that essentiallytake two different spent
glutathione molecules,essentially stitches them back
(19:21):
together and then breaks themapart so that you now have two
glutathione molecules that areready to go, it's a truly
amazing system.
So let me leave it there forthe moment.
We'll still have to talk aboutthe rules of glutathione beyond
its core role as your majorintracellular antioxidant, and
(19:41):
that is, its role indetoxification and chelation, as
well as a critical role as aprotector and healer of things
like leaky gut and leaky brain,and we'll talk about its role as
a potent supporter of immunebalance and control.
Thanks for listening, guys, andwe'll do all that the next time
(20:02):
, right here on the InflammationNation podcast.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Thanks for listening to Inflammation Nation.
If you enjoyed this episode,make sure you subscribe to our
podcast.
Be the first to know when a newepisode drops, so you can stay
on top of your game.
It also helps others like youfind the answers they need.
You can use the links in theepisode description to check out
Dr Nosworthy's self-learningprograms for thyroid detox and
(20:26):
gut health, or you can submit aquestion for the podcast and
even reach out to Dr Nosworthydirectly.
One of the greatest obstacles to crafting health and
wellness is identifying andcontrolling inflammation.
It's at the core of all complexand chronic diseases and it's
the driving mechanism thatunderlies the most common
symptoms that people like youstruggle to overcome.
Join us as we explorecutting-edge science and
research to give you theinformation and tools you need
to create the quality of lifeyou want and deserve.
(00:24):
To give you the information andtools you need to create the
quality of life you want anddeserve.
And now here is the host ofInflammation Nation, dr Stephen.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Noseworthy.
Hey guys, welcome back to thepodcast.
We're in this mini-series wherewe're talking about miracle
molecules, and we started withnitric oxide and I did a
three-part series on howincredibly important it is to
have not just adequate levels ofnitric oxide but to have
(00:56):
control of how that is beingproduced through dietary factors
as well as specific enzymesthat are found in your brain,
your immune cells and your bloodvessels.
Go back and listen to that, ifyou missed it.
Today we're going to go to thenext miracle molecule, the
second miracle molecule, andthat is glutathione.
And I know that I've talkedabout this, about glutathione,
on the podcast before indifferent contexts, and maybe
(01:16):
you've heard of it somewhere.
I'm not the only person talkingabout how useful it is to have
adequate glutathione levels.
So what I want to do is I wantto cover the basics first, give
you kind of a bird's eye view ofwhat glutathione is and what it
does.
But as a reminder and toconnect this discussion back to
the last one, I mentioned in thesegments of nitric oxide that
(01:41):
it has a very, very shorthalf-life, but I also mentioned
that glutathione can connect tonitric oxide and extend its
half-life from a few seconds toa couple of hours, and this
allows nitric oxide produced inone area of the body to
circulate to another one andhave its effect in a different
place than where it was produced, and by that standard, nitric
(02:03):
oxide functions as a hormone,really essentially no different
than your thyroid hormones orcortisol or insulin, for example
.
Now, first and foremost,glutathione is best known as an
antioxidant, but it also playskey roles in detoxification of
the liver, as well as handlingspecific toxins that actually
(02:24):
don't get processed by yourliver, and that is maybe a
distinction that not a lot ofpeople are making.
So we're going to tackle theseone at a time, and then we'll
talk about how you can getdirect access to the same tests
that I use with my personalcoaching clients.
We'll come back to that a littlebit later, but let's talk about
what glutathione is at amolecular level.
(02:46):
Let's start with the very, verybig picture, and essentially,
glutathione is a tripeptide, andwhat that means is that it's a
very short molecule, or let'scall it a short protein, made up
of three amino acids, which arecysteine, glycine and glutamine
, or you may see or hear peoplerefer to the third one as
(03:08):
glutamic acid.
Now, if you have a backgroundin biochemistry don't crucify me
on the details.
Like I know that proteins arelonger than peptides and
technically, proteins are madeup of 50 or more amino acids.
We're just talking about three.
So it's a peptide, not aprotein.
But I might use the wordprotein or perhaps refer to
(03:28):
glutathione as a protein-likesubstance.
But again, don't crucify me onthe details.
So glutathione has these threedifferent amino acids and we
have enzymes in our bodies thattake these amino acids, which we
get from our diet, of course,and connects them together to
make glutathione.
And if we look inside our cellsbecause essentially this is
(03:52):
where we want glutathione to endup and to do most of its work
if we look inside the cell,about 85% of the intracellular
glutathione is contained in thecytosol.
That's the general space, thegeneral interior part of the
cell, and in that interior partof the cell we have other things
(04:13):
like organelles, like themitochondria.
So about 85% is in that openspace, that general space, and
about 15% is inside themitochondria.
Now, interestingly, while thecell in the cytoplasm does have
enzymes to make glutathione, themitochondria don't, and so the
amount of, or the glutathionecontent of, the mitochondria is
(04:37):
derived specifically fromglutathione that's made inside
the cell and then transferredinto the mitochondria or
imported into the mitochondriaBecause, again, the mitochondria
themselves cannot makeglutathione, and glutathione is
pretty much made by all cells,but it's made in varying amounts
, so certain cells and certainorgans will make more than
(04:58):
others, and unique in all ofthem is the liver, and in fact
the liver makes most of theglutathione we have in our
system and it uses glutathionefor its own cellular protection,
also to participate in oneaspect of liver detoxification.
But the liver also stores andreleases glutathione that can
(05:23):
then transport through the bodyand be used by other cells.
And in fact, if we ask thequestion about if we look inside
the cell and see how muchglutathione there is at an
intracellular level, most of theglutathione that's there was
initially made by the liver andthen transported into the cell.
So, ignoring that for a moment,I think it's important to know
(05:48):
that glutathione in its nativeform, where these three amino
acids are already connectedtogether, can't get into the
cell simply on its own.
There has to be a transportmechanism that allows that.
And so, again ignoring for themoment that the liver makes,
stores and releases most of yourglutathione, we need a way to
(06:12):
get that glutathione made by theliver into the cell right, and
the only way we can do that isby disassembling glutathione
into its three individual aminoacids and then shifting those
amino acids into your cell,where enzymes in the cell's
cytoplasm then can reassemblethe glutathione, or I should say
(06:35):
the amino acids that make upglutathione.
So the liver makes it,transports it out into the
peripheral body.
But because glutathione can'tget into your cells easily, we
have an enzyme that breaks itdown into the three amino acids
and then those amino acids gointo the cell and get
reassembled by another enzymeinside the cell itself.
And here's where we can look atlabs.
(07:01):
There's two ways that we can geta handle on what your
glutathione levels are.
One is to do direct labmeasurement, and by all means
that's the gold standard,measuring things directly.
But there is a laboratorymarker that can be used as an
indirect marker and that is atest called GGT.
(07:22):
Now, I have taught bloodchemistry analysis in
postdoctoral seminars for about16 years now and we talk about
GGT all the time and we oftentalk about it or I should say
the context in which we usuallytalk about GGT as being a marker
for gallbladder disease orgallbladder dysfunction.
(07:44):
But what I want you to knowabout GGT as a lab test is that
number one most doctors only runit if they think you have a
gallbladder issue, or maybe theyrun it if they think you might
be an alcoholic.
So it's not part of routinelaboratory analysis, when it
probably should be.
And second, ggt is described inthe medical literature as a
(08:07):
marker for glutathionesufficiency, and again, it's not
the same as measuringglutathione directly in the
blood and comparing theproportions of what's called the
reduced and oxidized forms,which is important We'll talk
about that later but as a quickscreening tool, ggt is a simple
and inexpensive way to get anidea as to whether or not you
(08:27):
have an increased need forglutathione.
And third and finally, ggt isalso described in the medical
literature as an indicator ofmorbidity and mortality.
Now, it doesn't mean if yourGGT is high, you're going to die
.
It doesn't mean that.
It doesn't mean if GGT is high,you're going to get a disease
(08:48):
or you have a disease.
Just, these are associations,not causations.
But nevertheless, depending onyour GGT level, we can get an
idea of whether or not you haveactive medical issues or health
issues that are affecting yourquality of life and, at worst
might predict your mortality,and that's an entirely different
(09:10):
discussion, right?
But suffice it to say right nowthat, number one, you should be
testing your GGT levels, oryour doctor should be, and you
want your GGT levels to be inthe bottom fourth of the
laboratory range.
I mean, just look at whateverthe lab range is and this is
pretty standard from lab to labmay not be entirely the same
from one lab to the next, butthere'll be pretty close you
(09:33):
want to be in the bottom quarterof that laboratory range.
The higher GGT is within thelab range, the more likely it is
that you have active metabolicissues that require more
glutathione, and higher GGT mayindicate that your glutathione
levels are insufficient tohandle the toxin load and the
oxidative stress of whatever isgoing on with you and your
(09:55):
health.
So next time when you get yourlabs done, ask your doctor to
(10:15):
run GGT, and if he or she won'tplay nice, you can always use
the link in my lab shop.
Ggt is always part of myroutine lab analysis.
I understand how important itis.
I look at this in every singleone of my clients and I
typically run this on everysingle lab.
So back to how we makeglutathione.
First and foremost, adequateprotein intake in your diet is
absolutely critical, becausethat's where we get the raw
materials to make glutathione.
And if we recognize that theliver makes, stores and exports
glutathione for other organs andother cells to use, we quickly
(10:36):
get a picture that the liver'srole in whole body glutathione
balance is critical.
Quickly get a picture that theliver's role in whole body
glutathione balance is criticaland in fact, research says that
the liver controls your systemicglutathione balance, which has
implications for how our toxicburden can tax not only the
liver but literally every cellin your body.
Essentially, your liver takesthese three amino acids cysteine
(10:59):
, glutamate or glutamine andglycine and uses this enzyme
system to repackage them intoglutathione and again that gets
exported to your bloodstream,floats around as a stable
molecule that resistsdegradation and when it
encounters a cell that needsmore glutathione than it already
has, the glutathione getsbroken down into its three
(11:20):
constituent amino acids by thisenzyme called GGT, and GGT sits
on your cell membrane of allyour cells, but it also lives
inside the cell in that generalopen space called the cytosol.
The mitochondria don't have it,but the cytosol does and the
cell membrane does.
Now, once glutathione is brokendown into its amino acids, they
(11:44):
get transported individuallyinto your cells, where enzymes
reassemble it on demand.
And if your cells have plentyof glutathione, it won't do that
as much.
If it's running at a deficit,it will do it more.
And so how do your cells dothat?
Well, when there's a mismatchbetween the level of toxin load
and oxidative stress that youhave, when there's a mismatch
(12:09):
and the levels of glutathioneneeded to quench that goes up,
this mismatch signals the cellto make more GGT, which then
increases the rate of breakdownof glutathione in the blood, so
that it can take the amino acidsinto the cell and then turn it
back into glutathione.
It's actually a very elegantsystem.
(12:29):
Now here's another little tidbit.
Remember that I said thatglutathione can connect to
nitric oxide and extend itshalf-life and extend its
half-life.
Well, it turns out that GGT canalso break the bond, releasing
both glutathione and nitricoxide, so that cells can get the
benefit of both of thosemolecules at the same time.
(12:50):
Another reason why knowing yourGGT level is incredibly
important.
That means better blood flow,better tissue oxygenation,
better brain signaling, improvedimmune responses and so on.
And so, really, again, whatwe're talking about here is the
function of glutathione as asignaling molecule, just like
(13:11):
nitric oxide, and as anintracellular antioxidant.
Now, remember, an antioxidant issomething that can donate one
of its own electrons to preventa free radical from causing
tissue damage through this thingcalled oxidative stress.
And when it comes toantioxidants, glutathione is the
mac daddy of them all.
Right, not necessarily becauseit has special characteristics
(13:36):
that other antioxidants don'thave, although antioxidants
actually are graded as to theirpotency and some are stronger
than others.
Rather, the main reason whyglutathione is such a powerful
ally in health and in cellularprotection and metabolism is
because it's so abundant insidethe cell.
Under normal, healthyconditions, in fact, it's
(13:57):
present in your cells in roughlythe same concentration as other
critical things like glucose orpotassium and even cholesterol.
So once inside the cell, oncein the cytoplasm, glutathione
can then, once it's beenreassembled, can interact with
toxins and free radicals andcontrol them.
(14:20):
It can also handle the oxidativestress from the free radicals
that are being produced by yourmitochondria as they make energy
or ATP, and you may have heardme say in the past that the
number one source of freeradicals being produced in our
body is actually from ourmitochondria.
As our body is going throughnormal biochemistry.
We make free radicals oroxidants as a natural course of
(14:46):
being alive, but we have to beable to control that.
One of the main reasons or waysthat we do that is through
glutathione, is throughglutathione.
Now, on top of all this,glutathione can easily enter the
outer membrane of themitochondria itself and it gets
transported completely intact tothe inner core of the
(15:07):
mitochondria.
So getting glutathione into themitochondria is easy, but
getting glutathione from thebloodstream into the cell is a
little bit more difficult.
So in the big picture, there isthis constant flow and flux
from the amino acids, from theprotein in your diet, to the
(15:29):
production of glutathione inyour liver and how that controls
the level of glutathione inyour bloodstream, to how the
toxins and oxidative stress loadthat your cells are
experiencing increases ordecreases the level of GDT, so
that you can tune up or tunedown the amount of glutathione
that gets inside your cells.
(15:50):
And once inside your cells,there is a flow of glutathione
into and out of yourmitochondria, all designed to
protect your cells from damagein an effort to support and
preserve function.
Now let me hit one more concept,because it's clear.
I think I need to split thistopic into a couple of different
(16:12):
episodes.
One of the greatest features ofthis entire glutathione system
is that once you've usedglutathione to stop a free
radical or to neutralize a toxin, it's not lost forever.
It's not like and forgive theanalogy, but it's not like a
bullet, where you fire thebullet and you can't fire that
(16:34):
same bullet again.
A bullet where you fire thebullet and you can't fire that
same bullet again.
It's not like a match Maybethat's a better example.
It's not like a match where,once you strike it and use it to
light a candle, you can neveruse that match again, unless you
light it from a second match,obviously, but you can't use it
as an original match.
Glutathione actually has arecycling system that allows
(16:55):
your cells to take glutathionethat has been expended, that has
already donated one of itselectrons, sacrificing itself
for your well-being, and toreconstitute it so that you can
use it again.
And it's just one more reasonwhy glutathione sufficiency is
so critical and another reasonwhy glutathione is what I call a
(17:17):
miracle molecule.
So how does this glutathionerecycling work?
Well, let's start with thisyour total pool of glutathione,
what we call total glutathione.
Obviously, it's made up of bothglutathione that is ready to be
used and glutathione that hasalready been used and can be
(17:38):
recycled and used again.
So let's say, all of thematches that you have in your
matchbook is made up of thematches that you can use to
light a fire and matches thatyou've already used to light a
fire because they've been spentand used.
When you're healthy, more than98% of the glutathione you have
(17:58):
in your body is in thisready-to-use form and that means
that less than 2%, or let's say2% or less, is in the
already-used form that can bepotentially recycled and this
recycling capacity adds to thetotal that you have.
(18:18):
So our cells can run into issueswith glutathione in a couple of
different ways.
Number one your totalglutathione levels can be too
low, which might come from lowproduction, and we might see
that in someone who has like alow protein diet might see that
in someone who has like a lowprotein diet, we might see low
(18:39):
total glutathione because we'vehad acute depletion or even
chronic depletion of glutathionefrom a toxin load where you use
up more glutathione than youcan make and recycle.
Or you can have normal totalglutathione but for some reason
can't recycle it efficiently,such that even though your total
(19:00):
number is fine, you have toomuch that you've already used
that you can't recycle and reuseagain.
Run by enzymes that essentiallytake two different spent
glutathione molecules,essentially stitches them back
(19:21):
together and then breaks themapart so that you now have two
glutathione molecules that areready to go, it's a truly
amazing system.
So let me leave it there forthe moment.
We'll still have to talk aboutthe rules of glutathione beyond
its core role as your majorintracellular antioxidant, and
(19:41):
that is, its role indetoxification and chelation, as
well as a critical role as aprotector and healer of things
like leaky gut and leaky brain,and we'll talk about its role as
a potent supporter of immunebalance and control.
Thanks for listening, guys, andwe'll do all that the next time
(20:02):
, right here on the InflammationNation podcast.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
Thanks for listening to Inflammation Nation.
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podcast.
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(20:26):
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