Dr. Jeremy Lam, MD: Benefits of glutathione supplement.
Glutathione is your body's most important, most powerful
antioxidant. It really helps keep your body healthy, in a
number of ways and there's nothing better than glutathione
in helping to detox your body to actually regenerate some of your
vitamin C. And also to help just get your body back on the right
track. A number of factors actually affect glutathione
levels in your body. For example, stress, toxins in the
environment, and inadequate nutrition can all lead to lower
levels of glutathione. In addition, glutathione actually
decreases as we age. So it is important sometimes to
supplement with glutathione as we get older. Now again,
glutathione is a powerful antioxidant and is made up of
three amino acids, glutamine, cysteine, and glycine. It is
made in your liver. And a couple of things on how it helps us
actually helps make DNA the main building block of proteins and
cells. It also helps the liver and the gallbladder to
metabolize fat, also aids in transporting mercury away from
the brain. It supports a healthy immune function, aids in helping
to break down free radicals and free radicals do a lot of damage
in your body. It's caused by stress, caused by toxins, so you
want to make sure that your glutathione levels are at a good
level to get rid of these free radicals. Glutathione helps to
regenerate vitamin C and vitamin E, aids in metabolizing toxins
and carcinogens helps prevent oxidative cell damage, and also
helps in the synthesis of some proteins as well. Research show
that glutathione supports antioxidant activity like I
mentioned before. It helps to fight free radicals and the
damage they can cause to your cells. This means it contains
properties that can actually slow down the aging process and
the progression of some health conditions. Oxidative stress can
set the stage for multiple health issues. And so that's why
glutathione really helps you reduce this stress load on your
body. It's also been shown to decrease and slow the
progression of some cancers. However, it makes tumors less
sensitive to chemotherapy. So be aware of that. Glutathione has
also been shown to decrease the damage to cells in the liver.
And so several factors that lead to damage to liver cells,
include alcohol abuse, hepatitis and fatty liver disease.
Research suggest one of the benefits of glutathione is
helping and reduce liver damage through supporting
detoxification as well as its antioxidant properties.
Glutathione is also very good and non-alcoholic fatty liver
disease. Now where can you find glutathione? You can get in a
supplement form but it's also found in a lot of natural foods.
Foods high in sulfur appear to actually increase the production
of glutathione in your body. Some of these foods includes
eggs, legumes, nuts, vegetables like garlic and onions,
cruciferous vegetables like bok choy, brussel sprouts,
cauliflower and broccoli. And also lean protein such as fish
and chicken. You can also find supplementation in the form of
pills and liquids. I find that liposomal versions of
glutathione is the best. Liposomal technology means you
actually encapsulate the glutathione in fat. So actually,
it's able to get absorbed through your small intestine
much easier as well as able to penetrate the cells across the
blood brain barrier and also able to penetrate your liver
cells as well. Potential side effects of glutathione is more
fatigue, more brain fog. You can also have bloating, allergic
rash, abdominal cramping. This happens because your body can be
detoxing too much too fast. So if your body's especially
sensitive, you have to take glutathione very slowly and go
from there because I've seen it too often where people self dose
and they actually end up worse. So not all supplements are good
for you. It has to be done at the right time, at the right
dose and at the right duration. So in conclusion glutathione is
a very powerful antioxidant with a wide variety of benefits. You
just have to make sure that you are using glutathione correctly.