The body’s health is based on managed balance. Free radicals, toxins, etc. enter our bodies daily, and we take in more with increased pollution, possible stress and diet factors to consider. The Master Antioxidant, glutathione, is essential to stopping the threat of free radical damage, as already explored. However, glutathione is also very powerful as a detoxifier and an immune system booster!

Detox

A lot of research has discovered how glutathione is fundamental in helping manage toxins. Whilst the body processes the many substances that we take in, toxic waste is often produced, and glutathione is there to bind to it. The binding action makes the toxins soluble, which means they are harmless as they can be passed out in the urine.

Pollutants from the environment, stress and a poor diet can lower GSH (glutathione) levels significantly, which means there is less GSH to mop up toxins being created or taken in. It is believed that this lowering of glutathione levels may lead to many diseases, from Parkinson’s disease to cystic fibrosis, and even some cancers. It’s no wonder that intense glutathione supplementation has been able to get some Parkinson’s disease patients to reduce or stop taking stronger medication that had various side-effects!

The necessity of glutathione in the body is made obvious in cases of paracetamol (acetaminophen) overdoses. Paracetamol produces toxic waste in the body as well, strong enough to kill cells if not neutralised by glutathione. An overdose produces too much toxin for the body’s glutathione to handle, and the body’s cells start dying. In such an emergency a medical drug is used to raise glutathione levels in the body.

Immune System Booster

When the body fights infection, cells called lymphocytes start to multiply at a large scale. This creates a growing amount of free radicals, which glutathione is more than capable of neutralising. Glutathione is also responsible for stabilising parts of the cell that power growth, which makes an immune response accurate and fast.

There are even signalling chemicals that the immune system uses that cannot be made without glutathione!

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Glutathione has been the core of intense antioxidant research for decades. It literally functions as the body’s master antioxidant: no matter how much you take in other antioxidants, your body cannot use them unless your glutathione levels are high enough. Increasing your glutathione count is not always easy. It is found in many foods, but the body absorbs little glutathione from food because the chemical is broken down in the gut.

Glutathione

Glutathione is a small protein found in all the body’s cells, where it performs so many vital functions, one of which is reducing oxidative stress. The liver is crucial for making glutathione (also known as GSH), even though all body cells can produce it.

Glutathione actually has 2 states it exists in, but in healthy cells it mainly exists in its active form. It is because it can shift between these 2 states that it gives such powerful protection against oxidative stress.

Oxidative Stress

Oxidative damage is very destructive in the body. A simple model for understanding oxidation is seeing how metal rusts when exposed to water and oxygen in the air. Highly reactive chemicals called free radicals are the cause of oxidative stress in the body. The body fights this kind of activity with its antioxidant systems, which convert free radicals into harmless by-products.

Low GSH contributes to oxidative stress, which plays a key role in aging and the creation of many diseases (including seizure, kwashiorkor, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, liver disease, cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anaemia, HIV, AIDS, cancer, heart attack, stroke, and diabetes). Without glutathione being that powerful an antioxidant, cells may be damaged or killed.

Antioxidant Activity

Antioxidants have been thoroughly explored, and are well known for their importance in sustaining health and disease prevention. Antioxidants are the body’s prime defence against oxidative stressors to which it invariably becomes exposed.

The most well known antioxidants are vitamins C and E. They are important for good health because they neutralize free radicals, which can build up in cells and cause damage. Glutathione reacts with these vitamins to activate their antioxidant activity. Instead of just working solo, glutathione has the unique ability to work with enzymes to reach and work on other areas. There simply is not much antioxidant activity in the body without Glutathione.

That being said, increasing your antioxidant intake with vitamin and extract supplements cannot be effective unless you have enough glutathione.