Glutathione: The Holy Grail of Good Health

13 min read

Essential Takeaways

  • Glutathione has three key functions in preventing disease:

    – It is the CEO antioxidant in the chain of free radical removal.
    – It is the essential factor in detoxifying the body.
    – It is a critical immune system builder.

  • What are the benefits of a detoxified body?

    – You live longer
    – Risk of illness and disease is reduced.
    – Restored body weight
    – Energy gain
    – Clear thinking
    – Increased vitality

The first pharmaceutical scandal rocked society in 1961. Thalidomide was a tragedy of major proportions, and set into motion a number of laws to protect the public. However, it seems that with such big money interests involved, scandals were bound to be the order of the day, as one after the other left the public confused, dismayed and suspicious about the efficacy of the drugs themselves, due to a sense of cynicism about why they had been developed in the first place. Many people started to question allopathic medicine, and the basic premise of its healing philosophy. Was it there just to serve the interests of Big Pharma? The public really wanted to know.

This debate happened around about the same time as a global crisis of “contaminated everything” had gained momentum: contaminated water, contaminated food chain and contaminated living spaces.

It had become evident that the technological drive to create the smartest smart phone, and progress at any cost, had left the Western world with a sick environment, and poor judgment about life-style issues.

The increased stress factors mounted and led to a health crisis of frightening proportions. People woke up, smart toy in one hand, and data about the prevalence of chronic diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes in the other. They woke up to the fact that, despite all the science, they were still getting sick – and in epidemic proportions.

Suddenly, the technology didn’t seem as important as seeking out issues that would lead to longevity and a desirable quality of life. Pharmaceutical scandals had become more and more frequent. The thinking public began to realize that there must be more to health than pharmaceutical solutions. They could recognize that while drugs could, but sometimes just might, help out in certain cases (usually critical); but to treat chronic diseases, which were the focal point of the health crisis, they needed to look into the root causes – including life-style factors.

Alternative medicine had first appeared in the West in the 60’s. However, the people who usually sought out these practitioners, were usually considered just that – alternative. In 1991 the term functional medicine was coined when the Institute of Functional Medicine was formed by Jeffrey and Susan Bland. This proposed a path to healing which carefully investigated the underlying causes of disease (diet, environment and numerous other factors), on a personalized, case by case basis, and suggested a holistic course of healing. 

In places like Europe, folk medicine, especially herbals, had always had a significant place in the culture. In Asia, food -based cures, had been around for centuries. They didn’t need Hippocrates to tell them that. 

What happened in the West was an awakening to the real truth behind the Hippocratic philosophy, which promoted supporting the self-healing ability of the body, as opposed to the allopathic model, which hoped to trick it into kicking in. You can’t help wondering how they had missed that before. 

Natural health issues became viral and mainstream. Many health heroes came, and most stayed. Some of the heroes were even outlaws turned hero – like cannabis. 

However, there was a lurking, and often very vocal, mistrust expressed in serious medical circles, that all of this was maybe a bit “quickie”, and not really science-based. 

Recently, something has happened to cause a quantum change in this attitude. It was the entrance of the first health super hero; called Glutathione. In a world where prospects about remaining healthy had become very uncertain, even “healthy” people suddenly began asking; ” Why do I need Glutathione if I’m healthy?” 

This is why: 

Once you had got around the buzz words, it had become fairly easy to understand the basic ABC of good health – water, exercise, fresh fruit and vegetables (with an intake of appropriate supplements, and a line -up of the latest super foods and herbals), and the necessary life-style changes.

However, until Glutathione, all the others had become just ways of approaching health, the functional way. Glutathione seems to be the very key to longevity, from scientific point of view: the first breakthrough that has merited this serious question, even amongst natural health cynics: ” Why do I need Glutathione if I’m healthy?”

Good health now seems to be definable in more than just its basic elements; there has been a shift in definition to its essential element. It has provoked so much interest and enthusiasm in scientific medical circles, that it has been the subject of nearly 117 000 scientific articles which have been peer reviewed. This means it is really science, not just conjecture.

As most people know, the key to good health lies in the cells, and how they are maintained and perform.

Glutathione is a peptide which consists of three key amino acids. It is an integral part of each cell, is naturally occurring, and the strength of presence of which is directly related to health and longevity. It has been called the most important antioxidant in the body due to the fact that it is found within the cell itself. All of this, so far, seems to be scientifically indisputable; and not just a random “hope this works, because someone else tried it” phenomenon, so common in the alternative medicine sphere. It’s a very simple molecule, but one which deserves the closest attention paid to it.

This is a true eureka moment in the world of maintaining good health and medicine; the moment when the building blocks of health can finally be analysed, and understood, in terms of their most essential ability to perform effectively in the interests of ongoing and predictable good health. And guess what? Hippocrates was right all along. It seems that it has taken science this long to conclusively arrive at this conclusion.

This is why so many people are asking the question; ” Why do I need Glutathione, if I am healthy?” right now.

And here’s why…

As I said, central to understanding the process of healing and maintaining good health is the cell, and its role in the body. Cells are the basic building blocks of life. If your cells are healthy, so will your body be. Achieving good health is really that simple. What happens in the cell is what activates the self -healing process of the body.

What improves cell health is essentially dietary factors. Effective cell nutrition involves an intake of dietary protein, essential vitamins, essential minerals, and carbohydrates and fats. The domino effect of weak cell health which carries the body into a vortex of ill health is well known by now.

People have approached this knowledge in various ways: some quite creative, like NASA , which uses LED lights to strengthen the cells of astronauts; and some more simple, like eating whole grains.

What was not know until recently, was the role Glutathione played in predicting and controlling cell health. Dr Hyman, the functional medicine practitioner, has recently noted on various Internet news channels, that the absecne of Glutathione was found in all his patients. All of them. That’s quite a compelling reason to look into this.

Dr Hyman further noted that Glutathione was not only essential in healing the body, but also in preventing chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer and diabetes, amongst others.

While it is important to know that you heal yourself through correct guidance of the Glutathione function, it’s even better to know that you don’t have to get to this point, and that you can prevent it.

Glutathione also supports the maintenance of the cellular mitochondria. Why is this important? The mitochondria are responsible for energising the cells into efficient action. They are also the key organelles in your body to support metabolic efficiency. When they are weakened, the onset of various chronic diseases is inevitable.

If the cells become weak and debilitated, illness is an almost predictable and inevitable consequence. In most cases it’s just a matter of time, and continuing with the wrong life-style choices.

Broadly speaking, cell health can be maintained through diet, exercise and supplementation.

However, Glutathione has now made it possible to understand, and laser target the solution to good cell management and health.

Leaving aside discussions about how Glutathione can heal diseases, or even what diseases it can prevent, let’s focus on how it acts in preventing them and look at its mechanism for protecting against disease in a general sense – in answer to your question: ” Why do I need Glutathione if I’m healthy?”

Important to note is that it controls the body mechanisms which prevent the onset of chronic disease. Since we are already quite comfortable with the idea that allopathic medicine and procedures are the quick acting heroes in critical medical emergencies; the area which is still in critical need of being addressed, is that of chronic disease prevention and control. Revealing the role of Glurathione as the new super hero, could almost be described as a new frontier in medicine: a frontier which has brought about the long awaited handshake between natural and conventional medicine, at last.

Glutathione has three key functions in preventing disease:

  • It is the CEO antioxidant in the chain of free radical removal.
  • It is the essential factor in detoxifying the body.
  • It is a critical immune system builder.

As an aside, it also prevents inflammation, which is often a predictor of the onset of disease.

It is not only disease preventing, but also life sustaining.

Even though it is produced naturally in the body, its effective production and maintenance these days is severely hindered by various issues. The modern life-style leaves you susceptible to cell degeneration due to factors like free radical attacks, infections and cancers. Your body comes complete with the DNA encoding to produce Glutathione naturally. However, it will not do so if the toxic overload is too great. What was not forseen when this design for natural Glutathione production was set in place, was the change in human environment, in all its aspects. Natural Glutathione production i sjust not designed to cope with a toxic environment.

Understanding the role of the genes is critical in resolving this potential health crisis. There are various genes necessary for the process of metabolism. These are the genes which produce enzymes which allow the body to process Glutathione. They have various names, like GSTM1, GSTP1, and more. These genes have now become impaired in their functioning.The original encoding in our DNA is no longer sufficient to deal with this new toxic world we find ourselves in, with its nutrition depleted food chain.

As a direct result, most people are missing a key gene which is essential for creating and regulating Glutathione in the body; namely, GSTM1. It has been claimed that as many as one third of the population suffering from chronic disease have this deficiency.

How Exactly Does Glutathione Protect the Body?

The secret of its power lies in the sulphur chemical group which is sticky- so the villans of the body’s inner fight for survival in an increasingly hostile world, attach to it and are expelled.

It recycles antioxidants. In the chain of removing free radicals from antioxidant to antioxidant (from Vit C to Vit E , for example), the buck ends at Glutathione, which cools the free radical down, and then recycles the next antioxidant. It is the CEO of the antioxidant chain. The body is then able to regenerate, and produce new antioxidants: and so the cycle of health is set in continual motion. Isn’t it quite reassuring to find the key in these times of uncertain health and health under attack? This also explains the heightened degree of enthusiasm the medical community has expressed towards this discovery. Most health issues today revolve around the epic proportions and runaway increase of chronic disease. It’s like suddenly having a friendly cop show up at the scene of a disaster, ready to take control – and just in time.

The Liver and Glutathione Alliance for Good Health

Particularly in this modern environment, your liver gets easily overloaded and consequently may be unable to do the job of detoxification, which is central to good health.

What are the benefits of a detoxified body?

  • You live longer
  • Risk of illness and disease is reduced.
  • Restored body weight
  • Energy gain
  • Clear thinking
  • Increased vitality

All clear indicators of glowing good health.

The liver enjoys the reputation of being the most vital organ in the body.

  • It is in charge of over 50 essential functions.
  • 13% of the blood supply is held in the liver at any given moment.
  • It produces over 13,000 chemicals and maintains over 2000 internal enzyme systems.

This is just scratching the surface of its capabilities and functions.

If that did not convince you, this will; without your liver you would cease to live within 24 hours. Does this sound like an organ worth caring for?

How exactly does it work, and what has this got to do with Glutathione, anyway?

It detoxifies the body in a two-phase system.

Phase1: the toxins are neutralised. They are then released into bile, or rendered water soluble for later excretion by the kidneys. The process is more complicated than this, but this is broadly what happens. In this phase it is important for the body to get rid of free radicals. This happens with the help of various antioxidants and phytochemicals. Glutathione plays a chief role as an antioxidant in this process, as explained earlier.

This is why the medical world is saluting Glutathione right now, and writing so much research about it. It has also validated the world of natural medicine in the claims that they have made about the healing properties of foods. Needless to say, our favourite medical sage had already made these observations in ancient times; and then been unceremoniously pushed aside in the dizzying advent of one miracle-promising pharmaceutical drug after another. Sometimes its just worth listening to the elders and rethinking the old ways. Maybe that’s what science and progress have mistakenly left behind. You spent years looking for it, and then found it had already been there. We need to develop the habit of standing on the shoulders of those ancient giants, to progress in a more sane, healthy and intelligent way.


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