Business In A BoxWhat is glutathione, and why is it called the master antioxidant?
Key takeaways
- Glutathione is an antioxidant your cells make themselves, present in nearly every cell in the body.
- Levels decline with age, and research links that decline to reduced synthesis rather than faster breakdown.
- Cysteine is the hardest of its three building blocks to come by, which is why precursors matter more than swallowing glutathione itself.
What is glutathione?
Glutathione is a small molecule your body builds inside its own cells from three amino acids: cysteine, glycine and glutamate. It is the most abundant antioxidant produced within human cells, which is why researchers often call it the master antioxidant.*
What does it actually do?
Its best-known job is neutralising free radicals, the unstable molecules produced as a by-product of normal living, and more of them under stress, pollution or hard exercise. When free radicals outpace the body's defences, the result is called oxidative stress. Glutathione also supports normal immune function and the liver's everyday detoxification work.*
Why do levels fall as we age?
They do, and the reason is specific. Research published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that glutathione deficiency in older adults happens mainly because the body makes less of it, not because it uses it up faster, and that the shortfall traces back to low availability of its building blocks. In that study, supplying those building blocks restored glutathione levels and lowered markers of oxidative stress to levels seen in younger adults.
Can you just take glutathione as a supplement?
You can buy it, but the body treats it like any other protein in the digestive tract and breaks much of it down before it reaches your cells. This is why researchers focus on precursors instead: give the cell the raw material and let it build its own supply, at the rate its own feedback system decides. That precursor approach is the subject of our next article.
Which building block is the bottleneck?
Cysteine. Glycine and glutamate are relatively easy to come by in a normal diet, while cysteine is the limiting one, and the form matters, since ordinary cysteine is fragile and degrades with heat and processing. A specially prepared whey protein that protects cysteine in its bonded form is precisely what Immunocal was developed to be.*
Where can I read the research?
Immunotec publishes the studies behind its formulation, and our research page links to them along with the sources for the patent and study counts.
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. Immunotec products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Nothing here is medical advice; talk to your doctor about your own health.