Glutathione, often referred to as “the mother of all antioxidants,” is one of the most talked-about supplements in the healthcare industry. It has a range of purported benefits that include enhancing heart, liver, and brain health. Read on to learn about the science behind glutathione and how to naturally increase it for optimal health.

What is Glutathione?

Why do Some Call it “the Master Antioxidant?”

Glutathione (GSH) is your body’s strongest antioxidant. It has an enormous capacity to combat oxidative stress and neutralize harmful free radicals. Chemically speaking, glutathione is a tripeptide made up of 3 amino acids [1]:

• Glutamic acid
• Cysteine
• Glycine

The body uses glutamic acid to make glutamine [2, 3].

When these three amino acids are combined into glutathione, they gain the power to detox dangerous free radicals, toxic drugs, and heavy metals. This mechanism protects your entire body from dysfunction and disease [1, 4, 5].

At first glance, glutathione is similar to other well-known antioxidants such as vitamin C and vitamin E. What’s remarkable is that unlike most antioxidants – think resveratrol and quercetin – your body can make its own glutathione. It just needs the right building blocks.

In fact, your body needs to make glutathione in order for you to live a healthy life. Scientists have even suggested its levels as a great predictor of one’s lifespan [6, 7].

Glutathione deficiency increases susceptibility to oxidative stress, which may be the underlying cause of many diseases including cancer, heart disease, Parkinson’s, and Alzheimer’s [8].

Snapshot

Proponents:

• Great antioxidant
• Enhances detox
• Supports the liver
• May help with diabetes
• Supports the brain, gut, kidneys, and lungs

Skeptics:

• Unpleasant taste
• Poor absorption and bioavailability
• May disturb digestion
• Insufficient evidence for medical use of supplements
• Incomplete safety profile and possible unknown side effects

Functions & Benefits of Glutathione

Glutathione is a broadly beneficial compound that the human body makes on its own. It is available as a supplement, but supplemental glutathione has poor bioavailability, meaning that not a lot of it is absorbed from the gut to the bloodstream. Plus, the FDA has not approved glutathione supplements for any medical purpose.

Thus, this section focuses primarily on the benefits