Glutathione Basics
What is your most important molecule that you rarely hear about? I will give you some clues. It helps slow aging, helps prevent cancer, heart disease, dementia and is an essential component in the prevention and treatment of autism spectrum disorder and Alzheimer's disease. The research community knows it well having published more than 150,000 articles on its benefits. Your doctor probably doesn't know a lot about it because there is no magic drug to increase its production although you can increase it with natural means.
Our Master Antioxidant
We are talking about master antioxidant, the primary agent of detox and principle immune regulator. The level of this molecule in your blood is the best predictor of your resistance to disease and death. Well you already know the answer as the title gives it away, it is glutathione.
Because you are alive, your body is making glutathione. The bad news is that glutathione levels suffer from common every day insults like stress, medications, environmental toxins like heavy metals and herbicides and pesticides, infections and even radiation.
Low Glutathione=Decreased Resistance to Aging and Disease
Decreased levels of glutathione will leave your body susceptible to damage from these stressors, the rate of detox decreases and you are even more susceptible to further cell damage.
If you are fighting any chronic condition, the odds are high that low glutathione is part of the problem.
Deceptively Simple Molecule
On the face of it, glutathione is too simple to be that effective. It is just a small, 3-amino acid peptide consisting of cysteine, glycine and glutamine. The magic component is sulfur. Sulfur acts like a powerful magnet, sticking to items your body wants to get rid of like mercury, lead, environmental chemicals and free radicals. Glutathione binds to these poisons and escorts them out of the body and then heads back for another round.
All is well and good as long as you have enough glutathione to be an effective toxin bouncer. But if the toxin load is too great and your glutathione production drops off, disease is developing.
Testing Is Possible but Not That Convenient
How do you know your glutathione levels? Blood testing is pretty much relegated to research products as simple, cost-effective means of testing are not available at this time. You can also do some genetic testing to look for problems with some of the glutathione-related enzymes.
Chronic Condition? Probable Low Glutathione
In lieu of testing, you can just assume that if you have any chronic condition, you can benefit from taking steps to increase your glutathione reserves. To do that, you can take the following simple steps.
Eat sulfur-rich foods like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, garlic and onions daily or at least several times a week. This will give your body the crucial sulfur your body craves.
Vote with Your Dollars at the Store
Avoid toxins by eating free-range, organic foods whenever possible. Remember you vote a few times a decade for politicians and propositions, but you vote each day with your dollars. Selecting organic food sends a strong message to our economy.
Supplements Can Make All the Difference
Supplements can help your body make and recycle glutathione. NAC or n-acetyl cysteine has been shown to effectively help in the rate limiting step of helping the body make glutathione. Other supplements that contribute to production or recycling are alpha lipoic acid, milk thistle (silymarin), folate and B12, vitamins C and E.
Just to be sure, we like to add a little L-cysteine. L-cysteine crosses the blood brain barrier more easily than NAC making it more available to brain cells which will help glutathione production in that neural tissue.
see: Now Foods L-Cysteine 500mg
Add L-cysteine to these products:
BetterGenix NAC 500 mg
Protocol for Life Balance Alpha-Lipoic Acid 250 mg
Hopefully this will stimulate your interest in glutathione, and you will do your own research so you will appreciate its importance so you and your family can have longer, healthier lives.
