What Is Glutathione?

Glutathione is a naturally occurring substance that acts as an antioxidant, an immune system booster, and a detoxifier and can help your body repair damage caused by stress, pollution, radiation, infection, drugs, poor diet, aging, injury, trauma, and burns, according to recent research.

"Glutathione is a very interesting, very small molecule that's [produced by the body and] found in every cell," says Gustavo Bounous, MD, director of research and development at Immunotec and a retired professor of surgery at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. "It's the [body's] most important antioxidant because it's within the cell."

Antioxidants -- the most well known of which are vitamins C and E -- are important for good health because they neutralize free radicals, which can build up in cells and cause damage. Because glutathione exists within the cells, it is in a prime position to neutralize free radicals. It also has potentially widespread health benefits because it can be found in all types of cells, including the cells of the immune system, whose job is to fight disease.

Glutathione occurs naturally in many foods, and people who eat well probably have enough in their diets, says Dean Jones, PhD, professor of biochemistry and director of nutritional health sciences at Emory University in Atlanta. Those with diets high in fresh fruits and vegetables and freshly prepared meats are most likely just fine. On the other hand, those with poor diets may get too little.

What Does Glutathione Do?

The strong antioxidant effect of glutathione helps keep cells running smoothly. Bounous and another glutathione expert, Jeremy Appleton, ND, say it also helps the liver remove chemicals that are foreign to the body, such as drugs and pollutants.

Appleton is chairman of the department of nutrition at the National College of Naturopathic Medicine in Portland, Ore., and senior science editor for Healthnotes, a database on complementary and alternative medicine available at newspaper stands and health food stores.

Evidence for the important role that glutathione plays in health comes from studies in people who are severely ill.

"If you look in a hospital situation at people who have cancer, AIDS, or other very serious disease, almost invariably they are depleted in glutathione," says Appleton. "The reasons for this are not completely understood, but we do know that glutathione is extremely important for maintaining intracellular health."

How Should Glutathione Be Taken?

Glutathione is probably not well absorbed into the body when taken by mouth. One way to get around that is to take it by vein. A more practical solution is to take the precursors -- that is, the molecules the body needs to make glutathione -- rather than glutathione itself. While there is no solid proof this works, the consensus among experts is that that doing so will increase the amount of glutathione in the cells.

Who Does Glutathione Help?

Animal and laboratory studies have demonstrated that glutathione has the potential to fight almost any disease, particularly those associated with aging, since free radical damage is the cause of many of the diseases of old age.

"Theoretically, there are many very strong arguments in favor of a therapeutic use of glutathione," says Appleton. "But when people have actually tried to use glutathione as an oral supplement, nasal spray, or intravenously, the results have been more of a preliminary nature. The amount of research on glutathione as a supplement ... is very limited."

Nevertheless, people have tried glutathione for the treatment of a whole host of conditions, including cancer, high blood pressure, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, cataracts, and male infertility.

The best studies have been conducted in cancer. One study involved women with ovarian cancer who were being treated with chemotherapy. Some of the women were also treated with intravenous glutathione. Those given the glutathione not only had fewer side effects from the chemotherapy but also had better overall survival rates.

What Are the Risks?

Overall, taking glutathione or its precursors in reasonable amounts appears to be quite safe, although it should be avoided in people with milk protein allergies and in those who have received an organ transplant. There is also some concern, however, about the safety of taking glutathione for the one condition for which there is the greatest evidence of its usefulness: cancer.

"People don't get concerned about these health-promoting [supplements] until they're in their 50s and 60s," says Emory's Dean Jones. At that point, they may already have the initial precancerous [cells]. Therefore, the supplements, just like they promote health in normal tissues, might promote health in the precancerous tissue."

Appleton recognizes this possibility but says "there's no evidence that supplementing with glutathione, even intravenously, is in any way going to make any cancer worse. In fact, the evidence we have suggests the opposite. It suggests that glutathione and other antioxidants, far from interfering with the activity of chemotherapy, appear to reduce side effects without decreasing efficacy and may, in fact, improve the efficacy of the chemotherapy in fighting cancer."

Bounous says his research has demonstrated that taking precursors actually lowers glutathione in cancer cells while increasing it in normal cells. As a result, the cancer cells are more vulnerable to chemotherapy, and the normal cells are protected.

The upshot? The experts disagree on who should take glutathione or its precursors. Bounous says everyone should take it in order to optimize overall health. Appleton would reserve it for people with cancer. Jones says it might only prove beneficial for those who eat poorly and are thus unlikely to be getting much glutathione or its precursors in their diet.

They all acknowledge that people with severe diseases known to be associated with low glutathione levels, such as AIDS, may well benefit from the supplement, although there is no proof to this effect.

Glutathione levels in the blood

Max GXL formulator, Dr. Robert Keller, developed a test to measure the Glutathione levels in the blood. Specifically, he looked at the lymphocytes (white blood cells) and found that people who take regular GSH or Glutathione supplements do not have any measurable difference in Glutathione levels intra-cellularly.

What does this mean for you and me?

Well, first, if you KNOW that Glutathione is good for you (which it is), don't rush down to your local vitamin store for a bottle of Glutathione. Why? You are wasting your money. You might as well send me a check right now for the $20-$40 you'll pay for Glutathione in the stores or on the Internet...because it will NOT work.

Why won't it work?

Well, as Dr. Keller, and many other reputable scientists, already know, the GSH-based supplements cannot get passed our stomach acid. The gastric juices destroy the GSH. But, even if some of it does (a tiny amount) manage to get through, the GSH molecule is too large to fit through the cell membranes of our bodies' trillions of cells. In other words, it's like trying to ride a camel through the eye of a needle!

So why is Dr. Keller offering another Glutathione supplement, then?

That's what is unique about Dr. Keller's MaxGXL. It is NOT Glutathione.

It contains no Glutathione.

Instead, it actually contains the right compostition of natural nutrients that are guaranteed and patented to cause the body to produce more natural Glutathione inside the cell. He has proven this and even tested many sick people who have very low levels of GSH in their system before beginning a steady MaxGXL regimen (HIV, Cancer, Chronic Fatigue, Hepatitis patients, etc.).

If you'd like to begin to see and feel the benefits of real Glutathione, contact Heather NOW.