Posted on 2009-01-27 at 6:38 p.m..
The Mother Of All Antioxidants
Written by Dr. Mark Hyman, Edited by Phoenix
It's the most important molecule you need to stay healthy and prevent disease -- yet you've probably never heard of it. It's the secret to prevent aging, cancer, heart disease, dementia, and more, and necessary to treat everything from autism to Alzheimer's disease.
There are more than 76,000 medical articles about it � but your doctor doesn't know how to address the epidemic deficiency of this critical life-giving molecule. What is it? I'm talking about the mother of all antioxidants, the master detoxifier and maestro of the immune system.
It is Glutathione (pronounced "gloota-thigh-own"). The good news is that your body produces its own glutathione.
The bad news is that poor diet, pollution, toxins, medications, stress, trauma, aging, infections, and radiation all deplete your glutathione.
This leaves you susceptible to unrestrained cell disintegration from oxidative stress and free radicals, and to infections and cancer. And your liver gets overloaded and damaged, making it unable to do its job of detoxification. Then what happens? Well, let me tell you what I've learned.
In treating chronically ill patients with Functional Medicine for more than 10 years, I have discovered that glutathione deficiency is found in nearly all very ill patients.
These include people with chronic fatigue syndrome, heart disease, cancer, chronic infections, autoimmune disease, diabetes, autism, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, arthritis, asthma, kidney problems, liver disease, and more.
At first I thought that this was just a coincidental finding, but over the years I have come to realize that our ability to produce and maintain a high level of glutathione is critical to recovery from nearly all chronic illness � and to preventing disease and maintaining optimal health and performance.
And so have the authors of 76,000 medical articles on glutathione! So what exactly is glutathione?
Glutathione is a very simple molecule that is produced naturally all the time in your body. It is a combination of three simple building blocks of protein or amino acids � cysteine, glycine, and glutamine.
The secret of its power is the sulfur (SH) chemical groups it contains. Sulfur is a sticky, smelly molecule. It acts like fly paper and all the bad things in the body stick onto it, including free radicals and toxins like mercury and other heavy metals.
Normally glutathione is recycled in the body � except when the toxic load becomes too great. And that explains why we are in such trouble.
In my practice, I test the genes involved in glutathione metabolism. These are the genes involved in producing enzymes that allow the body to create and recycle glutathione in the body.
These genes have many names, such as GSTM1, GSTP1, and more.
So why are these genes impaired in some people? Well, humans evolved in a time before the 80,000 toxic industrial chemicals of today were introduced into our world, before electromagnetic radiation was everywhere, and before we polluted our skies, lakes, rivers, oceans, and teeth with mercury and lead.
That is why most people survived with just the basic version of the genetic detoxification software encoded in our DNA, which is mediocre at ridding the body of toxins.
We just didn't need more, and we still shouldn�t, but unfortunately, we do now.
Who knew we would be poisoning ourselves and eating a processed, nutrient-depleted diet?
Because of this, almost of half of the population now has a limited capacity to get rid of toxins � they are missing GSTM1 function.
Nearly all my very sick patients are missing this function. This is the one-third of our population that suffers from chronic disease. So why is glutathione so important?
Glutathione recycles antioxidants. You see, dealing with free radicals is like handing off a hot potato. They get passed around from vitamin C to vitamin E to lipoic acid and then finally to glutathione which cools off the free radicals and recycles the other antioxidants.
Then the body can regenerate another protective glutathione molecule. And we are back in business. The problem occurs when we are overwhelmed with too much oxidative stress or too many toxins. Then the glutathione becomes depleted, leading us toward illness.
We can no longer protect ourselves against free radicals, infections, or cancer and we can't get rid of toxins, leading to further sickness. But that's not all. Glutathione is also critical in helping your immune system do its job of fighting infections and preventing cancer. That's why studies show that it can help in the treatment of AIDS.
Glutathione is also the most critical and integral part of your detoxification system. All the toxins stick onto glutathione, which then carries them into the bile and the stool � and out of your body.
And lastly, it also helps us reach peak mental and physical function. Research has shown that raised glutathione levels decrease muscle damage, reduce recovery time, increase strength and endurance, and shift metabolism from fat production to muscle development.
If you are sick or old or are just not in peak shape, you likely have glutathione deficiency.
In fact, the top British medical journal, "The Lancet," found the highest glutathione levels in healthy young people, lower levels in healthy elderly, lower still in sick elderly, and the lowest of all in the hospitalized elderly.
Keeping yourself healthy, boosting your performance, preventing disease and aging well depends on keeping your glutathione levels high.
It is critical for immune function and controlling inflammation. It is the master detoxifier and the body's main antioxidant, protecting our cells and making our energy metabolism run well.
Now, the good news! You can do many things to increase this natural and critical molecule in your body. You can eat glutathione-boosting foods. You can exercise. You can take glutathione- boosting supplements.
Just remember the Chinese saying that food is medicine. That is, if it�s real food!
Foods
Exercise
Supplements
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