August 13, 2024 • 11 mins
In this episode, Dr. Paul Anderson answers key questions about glutathione, often referred to as the "master antioxidant." He covers:
- What is Glutathione?: An introduction to glutathione, explaining its role as a critical antioxidant that protects cells from oxidative stress and supports detoxification processes in the body.
- Health Benefits of Glutathione:
- Antioxidant Defense: How glutathione helps to neutralize free radicals and reduce oxidative damage, which is linked to aging and various chronic diseases.
- Detoxification: The role of glutathione in liver detoxification, helping the body process and eliminate toxins.
- Immune Support: Its importance in maintaining a strong and responsive immune system.
- Cellular Health: How glutathione supports cellular repair and regeneration.
- How to Boost Glutathione Levels:
- Dietary Sources: Foods rich in glutathione precursors, such as sulfur-containing foods (e.g., garlic, onions, cruciferous vegetables), and foods high in vitamin C and E.
- Supplements: Discussion on the effectiveness of glutathione supplements, including reduced glutathione, liposomal glutathione, and N-acetylcysteine (NAC) as a precursor.
- Lifestyle Factors: The impact of sleep, exercise, and stress management on maintaining optimal glutathione levels.
- Who Might Benefit from Glutathione?: Identifying individuals who may particularly benefit from boosting glutathione, such as those with chronic illness, exposure to environmental toxins, or high levels of oxidative stress.
- Glutathione and Chronic Conditions: How glutathione can play a role in managing chronic conditions like autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and cardiovascular health.
- Safety and Dosage: Guidelines on the safe use of glutathione supplements, potential side effects, and how to choose the right form and dosage for your needs.
- Integrating Glutathione into Your Health Routine: Practical tips for incorporating glutathione-boosting strategies into daily life for enhanced health and well-being.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Medicine Health. I'm doctor Paul, and today we're
doing questions that I've received. So if I look a
little different than normal, I got this headset on and
this weird lighting.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is doctor a on the road. I'm doing some
government regulatory work in a different city that I live in,
and so I'm in a hotel room trying to do
the podcast for you with a little different equipment. So
that's how well I look strange today. But the topic
on this one is questions I've gotten around glue tothion.
So gluea ion occurs naturally in our body. It's also
(00:33):
a supplement and it can be given to you in
a number of different ways. And so we got a
bunch of questions from people on the various social media
platforms asking different glueathon questions. So let's go after it.
First thing, just to get out of the way, this
is not medical advice. This is background information for you.
You should run everything by a healthcare provider that you
(00:53):
are thinking of doing or taking, etc. Also, go over
to Durnow doctor noow dot com. That's a link to
all of the external media where this is going to
be housed. Et cetera, and please like, share, subscribe, and
do notifications and that way you can keep track of
what we're doing. We're getting a lot of new subscribers
(01:15):
on all the different platforms and we're really appreciative of that.
But glutathion, So glutathion, you've heard of amino acids, and
amino acids are the little pieces that make up a protein.
So we've all heard of protein. We eat protein and
food that protein goes in. We construct our body out
of amino acids and proteins, peptides and things, and so
(01:39):
the amino acid is the smallest constituent of a protein.
So any think of a string of them making up
a peptide and then a bunch of those making up
a protein. Well, there are certain constituents in the body
that are not a single peptide and not a single
amino acid, and glutethone is one of those. It's three
(02:02):
amino acids or a tripeptide. Tripeptide is three amino acids
put together that have a particular form based on what
the amino acids are and how they're stuck together chemically.
And so you have glycine and glutamine two of the
g amino acids, and then you have cysteine in the middle.
(02:26):
And cystine is a sulfury smelling amino acid. So if
you ever smell like nictyl systine the supplement, that's what
that is. Basically, it smells sulfury because it has a
thiol and has sulfur on the side. So you have
this sort of three part molecule with cystine in the middle,
and it is one of your body's primary antioxidant defenses. Now,
(02:47):
glutathone is produced in your liver, it is produced in
other cells, and it circulates around the body. Now we
say it's an antioxidant is and so what is an antioxidant.
Antioxidant encounters something like a free radical, and that free
radical will generally have an electron that could be transferred
(03:10):
somewhere and do damage. And the antioxidant is a lot
like a sink for that where the prooxidant, the bad
molecule with the extra electron floating around as a free radical,
will go to an antioxidant and the electron will be
(03:31):
taken off.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
The radical will be taken off.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And then that will stabilize as an oxidized antioxidant, So
an antioxidant has a reduced or active form and an
oxidized or inactive form, meaning it's done its job already,
so they never generally work alone. So if I send
(03:54):
the free radical in and glutathione takes the radical away
and becomes oxidized and it stable, the radical is more stable,
so it doesn't hurt me. That's great. But what I
do with that oxidized glutethione so I can use it again?
Because while it's oxidized just sitting there right, if you
build up a whole bunch of oxidized antioxidant, it actually
(04:14):
can be not great for you. Well, the body has
this cool way of recycling antioxidants. So if we say
glutathione was the active one and it's now oxidized because
it took on the free radical, it can either bump
into vitamin C and get recycled, or bump into a
(04:35):
fatty membrane to cofferalls the vitamin E family and get
recycled that way, And likewise, gluet to thione can recycle
either of them. So they all work together through oxidative
reductive action or redox to recycle each other after they
take away the bad radical part of a free radical.
(04:57):
So that's how they're so protective now because it's three
enzymes unless you have particular genetic problems. We have these
synthetic genes that code for synthetic enzymes which put glutathione together.
So there are numerous and they work around your body
(05:21):
all over, but especially in the liver. So when we
think about glutathon being produced, the first thing is we
need enough amino acids. The second thing is we really
would like the rate limiting amino acid, which happens to
be cysteine. So that's why in the past, before we
really had glutathion supplementation, we would just give people ancetyl
systeine and it would raise their glutedthone levels. Now you
(05:45):
can take glutathone as either acetyl glutathione supplement or glutathone
a liposomal glutathone, and those actually do absorb. If you
just take glutathione with no protection like acetyl glutathione or lyposomal,
it will likely get to your GI tract and be disassembled.
So that's why the liposomal helps it absorb. As glutathione,
(06:06):
the acetyl form of glutathione helps it to absorb as well.
So because your body makes it, you would think, well,
why would I ever need to supplement it. Well, you
might not, depending on what's going on with you. But
the places where we tend to recommend it or even
use it as a pharmacologic agent are people who have
(06:27):
had cell damage and inflammatory activity their body can't get
ahead of. We do this a lot, and people are
recovering from surgery sometimes and people recovering from other procedures,
radiation procedures, stuff of that nature, and other traumas, but
also people who are on chronically ill who may be
(06:50):
very inflamed as they go along, so their inflammation levels
are very high, they'll use up glutathione. So one way,
the most direct way to get it it would be
to supplement with glutathione as an oral supplement. You also
can nebulize it, so that's the it's like a vaporizer,
but it's got a face mask and breathe it in.
(07:13):
Usually we're nebulizing respiratory drugs, but actually glutathone is a
really great respiratory drug. And also if you nebulize it, it
will absorb into your bloodstream and then sometimes we inject
gluteth Glutathone is a common infusion that we would do
after other IV therapies to increase the glutathione levels in
(07:35):
your body. The other thing to keep in mind in
regard to glutathione is it's been researched in different areas,
and it's been researched around cell protection and synergy even
with certain types of chemotherapy. So, for example, although in
(07:57):
the United States and North America there are not that
many places doing this with certain types of chemotherapy like
platinum chemotherapies, what we have learned is that if they're
co administered so gluedithione and the chemotherapy, people will get
synergy with the chemotherapy and they get less tissue normal
(08:17):
tissue damage. So it turns out that was a good idea.
For a long time, it was thought that would be
a very bad idea because they seem like they're going
in two different directions, opposite directions, but they really aren't.
So that's another thing to consider and think about. Do
you need you know any of this well because your body.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Can make it.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
It might be that you know you're doing just fine
if you're super healthy and your diet's really good and
you get enough amino acids, and you get enough other
antioxidants to support it, getting enough vitamin CN and vitamin E,
et cetera, you know your needs are going to be less.
But if you're chronically ill, if you're in the middle
of detoxification program, if you're recovering from chemo, radiation, surgery, trauma, whatever,
(09:04):
you probably do need a little bit more. Remember it
runs with other antioxidants, so we always want to support
both in so more usually vitamin C, a little bit
of vitamin E if your doctor thinks that's a good idea.
And then are there other things that will increase glutathion? Well,
(09:24):
it turns out there are so because glutathion is also
a big factor in inflammatory disorders and diseases such as asthma,
cardiac problems, et cetera. There is research in the worlds
of respiratory cardiac medicine, et cetera showing that the predictor
(09:45):
of how much glutathione in your cells is going to
be active. A big one is how much magnesium is
in your cells. And you might think, well, that's a
little odd because magnesium is a mineral was to have
to do with glutathion. It turns out, and they've done experiments,
actually different types of experiments where if you raise the
(10:06):
magnesium level and the cells of the person, the body
will naturally without giving any glutathione, raise the glutathione level
and activity in the cells as well. So I would
always tell students, you know, if I got stranded on
a desert island, I could only take like one supplemental nutrient,
it would probably be magnesium because it does so many
(10:27):
things and it keeps the gludathone levels up to normal levels.
So the other thing about it is is you know,
if you're let's say you were chronically ill, you're getting better,
things are looking better, you know, everything's looking great, and
you can just never get off of the glutathione that
you're taking supplementally, or maybe you're getting an infusion every whatever.
(10:51):
One of the things that should be looked at is
your magnesium levels, especially red blood cell magnesium levels very
very critical there. But then there's also genes that control
enzyme formation that can be a problem. So the glutethione
synthetase enzyme, so anything with synth means make glutathon synthase enzymes.
(11:15):
You can't have polymorphisms in the genes that code for
those enzymes, and so you can put all of the
constituent in that you want and the glutathone would be
produced very slowly. So if you really having trouble getting off,
take a look at your other anaccidents, have your red
blood cell magnesium checked and then also, you know, consider
(11:37):
maybe some genomic testing too if it's a really big problem. Well,
that's all the time we have for glutathion doctor Paul
on the radio today. Please like, share, subscribe on whatever
channel you get this and we'll be right back with
the next one.
Welcome to Medicine Health. I'm doctor Paul, and today we're
doing questions that I've received. So if I look a
little different than normal, I got this headset on and
this weird lighting.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
This is doctor a on the road. I'm doing some
government regulatory work in a different city that I live in,
and so I'm in a hotel room trying to do
the podcast for you with a little different equipment. So
that's how well I look strange today. But the topic
on this one is questions I've gotten around glue tothion.
So gluea ion occurs naturally in our body. It's also
(00:33):
a supplement and it can be given to you in
a number of different ways. And so we got a
bunch of questions from people on the various social media
platforms asking different glueathon questions. So let's go after it.
First thing, just to get out of the way, this
is not medical advice. This is background information for you.
You should run everything by a healthcare provider that you
(00:53):
are thinking of doing or taking, etc. Also, go over
to Durnow doctor noow dot com. That's a link to
all of the external media where this is going to
be housed. Et cetera, and please like, share, subscribe, and
do notifications and that way you can keep track of
what we're doing. We're getting a lot of new subscribers
(01:15):
on all the different platforms and we're really appreciative of that.
But glutathion, So glutathion, you've heard of amino acids, and
amino acids are the little pieces that make up a protein.
So we've all heard of protein. We eat protein and
food that protein goes in. We construct our body out
of amino acids and proteins, peptides and things, and so
(01:39):
the amino acid is the smallest constituent of a protein.
So any think of a string of them making up
a peptide and then a bunch of those making up
a protein. Well, there are certain constituents in the body
that are not a single peptide and not a single
amino acid, and glutethone is one of those. It's three
(02:02):
amino acids or a tripeptide. Tripeptide is three amino acids
put together that have a particular form based on what
the amino acids are and how they're stuck together chemically.
And so you have glycine and glutamine two of the
g amino acids, and then you have cysteine in the middle.
(02:26):
And cystine is a sulfury smelling amino acid. So if
you ever smell like nictyl systine the supplement, that's what
that is. Basically, it smells sulfury because it has a
thiol and has sulfur on the side. So you have
this sort of three part molecule with cystine in the middle,
and it is one of your body's primary antioxidant defenses. Now,
(02:47):
glutathone is produced in your liver, it is produced in
other cells, and it circulates around the body. Now we
say it's an antioxidant is and so what is an antioxidant.
Antioxidant encounters something like a free radical, and that free
radical will generally have an electron that could be transferred
(03:10):
somewhere and do damage. And the antioxidant is a lot
like a sink for that where the prooxidant, the bad
molecule with the extra electron floating around as a free radical,
will go to an antioxidant and the electron will be
(03:31):
taken off.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
The radical will be taken off.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
And then that will stabilize as an oxidized antioxidant, So
an antioxidant has a reduced or active form and an
oxidized or inactive form, meaning it's done its job already,
so they never generally work alone. So if I send
(03:54):
the free radical in and glutathione takes the radical away
and becomes oxidized and it stable, the radical is more stable,
so it doesn't hurt me. That's great. But what I
do with that oxidized glutethione so I can use it again?
Because while it's oxidized just sitting there right, if you
build up a whole bunch of oxidized antioxidant, it actually
(04:14):
can be not great for you. Well, the body has
this cool way of recycling antioxidants. So if we say
glutathione was the active one and it's now oxidized because
it took on the free radical, it can either bump
into vitamin C and get recycled, or bump into a
(04:35):
fatty membrane to cofferalls the vitamin E family and get
recycled that way, And likewise, gluet to thione can recycle
either of them. So they all work together through oxidative
reductive action or redox to recycle each other after they
take away the bad radical part of a free radical.
(04:57):
So that's how they're so protective now because it's three
enzymes unless you have particular genetic problems. We have these
synthetic genes that code for synthetic enzymes which put glutathione together.
So there are numerous and they work around your body
(05:21):
all over, but especially in the liver. So when we
think about glutathon being produced, the first thing is we
need enough amino acids. The second thing is we really
would like the rate limiting amino acid, which happens to
be cysteine. So that's why in the past, before we
really had glutathion supplementation, we would just give people ancetyl
systeine and it would raise their glutedthone levels. Now you
(05:45):
can take glutathone as either acetyl glutathione supplement or glutathone
a liposomal glutathone, and those actually do absorb. If you
just take glutathione with no protection like acetyl glutathione or lyposomal,
it will likely get to your GI tract and be disassembled.
So that's why the liposomal helps it absorb. As glutathione,
(06:06):
the acetyl form of glutathione helps it to absorb as well.
So because your body makes it, you would think, well,
why would I ever need to supplement it. Well, you
might not, depending on what's going on with you. But
the places where we tend to recommend it or even
use it as a pharmacologic agent are people who have
(06:27):
had cell damage and inflammatory activity their body can't get
ahead of. We do this a lot, and people are
recovering from surgery sometimes and people recovering from other procedures,
radiation procedures, stuff of that nature, and other traumas, but
also people who are on chronically ill who may be
(06:50):
very inflamed as they go along, so their inflammation levels
are very high, they'll use up glutathione. So one way,
the most direct way to get it it would be
to supplement with glutathione as an oral supplement. You also
can nebulize it, so that's the it's like a vaporizer,
but it's got a face mask and breathe it in.
(07:13):
Usually we're nebulizing respiratory drugs, but actually glutathone is a
really great respiratory drug. And also if you nebulize it, it
will absorb into your bloodstream and then sometimes we inject
gluteth Glutathone is a common infusion that we would do
after other IV therapies to increase the glutathione levels in
(07:35):
your body. The other thing to keep in mind in
regard to glutathione is it's been researched in different areas,
and it's been researched around cell protection and synergy even
with certain types of chemotherapy. So, for example, although in
(07:57):
the United States and North America there are not that
many places doing this with certain types of chemotherapy like
platinum chemotherapies, what we have learned is that if they're
co administered so gluedithione and the chemotherapy, people will get
synergy with the chemotherapy and they get less tissue normal
(08:17):
tissue damage. So it turns out that was a good idea.
For a long time, it was thought that would be
a very bad idea because they seem like they're going
in two different directions, opposite directions, but they really aren't.
So that's another thing to consider and think about. Do
you need you know any of this well because your body.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Can make it.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
It might be that you know you're doing just fine
if you're super healthy and your diet's really good and
you get enough amino acids, and you get enough other
antioxidants to support it, getting enough vitamin CN and vitamin E,
et cetera, you know your needs are going to be less.
But if you're chronically ill, if you're in the middle
of detoxification program, if you're recovering from chemo, radiation, surgery, trauma, whatever,
(09:04):
you probably do need a little bit more. Remember it
runs with other antioxidants, so we always want to support
both in so more usually vitamin C, a little bit
of vitamin E if your doctor thinks that's a good idea.
And then are there other things that will increase glutathion? Well,
(09:24):
it turns out there are so because glutathion is also
a big factor in inflammatory disorders and diseases such as asthma,
cardiac problems, et cetera. There is research in the worlds
of respiratory cardiac medicine, et cetera showing that the predictor
(09:45):
of how much glutathione in your cells is going to
be active. A big one is how much magnesium is
in your cells. And you might think, well, that's a
little odd because magnesium is a mineral was to have
to do with glutathion. It turns out, and they've done experiments,
actually different types of experiments where if you raise the
(10:06):
magnesium level and the cells of the person, the body
will naturally without giving any glutathione, raise the glutathione level
and activity in the cells as well. So I would
always tell students, you know, if I got stranded on
a desert island, I could only take like one supplemental nutrient,
it would probably be magnesium because it does so many
(10:27):
things and it keeps the gludathone levels up to normal levels.
So the other thing about it is is you know,
if you're let's say you were chronically ill, you're getting better,
things are looking better, you know, everything's looking great, and
you can just never get off of the glutathione that
you're taking supplementally, or maybe you're getting an infusion every whatever.
(10:51):
One of the things that should be looked at is
your magnesium levels, especially red blood cell magnesium levels very
very critical there. But then there's also genes that control
enzyme formation that can be a problem. So the glutethione
synthetase enzyme, so anything with synth means make glutathon synthase enzymes.
(11:15):
You can't have polymorphisms in the genes that code for
those enzymes, and so you can put all of the
constituent in that you want and the glutathone would be
produced very slowly. So if you really having trouble getting off,
take a look at your other anaccidents, have your red
blood cell magnesium checked and then also, you know, consider
(11:37):
maybe some genomic testing too if it's a really big problem. Well,
that's all the time we have for glutathion doctor Paul
on the radio today. Please like, share, subscribe on whatever
channel you get this and we'll be right back with
the next one.
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