GLUTATHIONE

Glutathione is a natural, sulfur-containing peptide (very small protein). The roles of glutathione in the body are numerous and varied. Historically, most of the research interest has been in the role of glutathione in amino acid transport across cell membranes. Recently, biochemists have been excited by glutathione's role as an antioxidant, detoxicant, and the possible reversal of malignant cells to healthy cells.

Glutathione is formed by linking three amino acids together; glutamic acid, cysteine and glycine. Glutathione is highly soluble in water and largely absorbed intact with approximately 80 percent of an oral dose reaching the bloodstream within three hours.

Glutathione, cysteine, and certain sulfur-containing proteins form an important "pool" of compounds that are responsible for maintaining the proper oxidation state in the body. These particular sulfur-containing compounds return (reduce) certain oxidized compounds back to their normal forms. Glutathione itself is an important water-soluble antioxidant and free-radical scavenger. Additionally, glutathione, via enzymic reactions in cells, can reduce oxidized vitamin C back to vitamin C, and vitamin C can reduce oxidized vitamin E back to the stabilized form of vitamin E.

You can see that glutathione is a key antioxidant factor, but there still is much more to the glutathione-antioxidant story. Glutathione teams with a selenium- containing enzyme called glutathione peroxidase which directly deactivates free radicals, especially of the lipid peroxide type. This important enzyme does not function in the absence of glutathione.

Glutathione aids in detoxification by forming conjugates with epoxides, alkenes, halides and heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury. Thus glutathione helps detoxify many carcinogens, blood pressure-elevating heavy metals and many other harmful substances. Of special interest is the liver protection provided by glutathione against alcohol.

In addition to glutathione's direct chemical detoxifying reactions and its indirect detoxifying reactions teaming with glutathione peroxidase, it also improves the immune system's ability to destroy bacteria and remove "debris". Special white blood cells called phagocytes have improved function and are less subject to chemical inhibition when well-nourished with glutathione.

The detoxifying properties of glutathione, especially its ability to destroy highly carcinogenic epoxides and peroxides, have drawn attention by those experimenting with cancer protection. Research is examining the possibility that glutathione may destroy liver cancer. An article was published in Science in 1981 that indicated glutathione destroyed aflatoxin-induced liver cancer in laboratory rats. Other scientists are now duplicating this research for confirmation. As Dr. A. Novi, a German scientist reported in Science, "the effect of glutathione, a harmless natural product, on (induced liver cancer) in rats strongly suggests that this antioxidant merits further investigation as a potential anti-tumor agent in humans."

Glutathione's synergism with the antioxidant nutrients vitamin E and selenium has attracted experimental interest in aging research. It is interesting to note that glutathione levels of aged cells are 20-30 percent lower than young cells. Research efforts are underway to attempt to discover if there is a cause and effect relationship.

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