Slow down premature ageing with glutathione - NL-059
Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant that protects cells and tissues from oxidative damage. It is an endogenous antioxidant, meaning it is produced by the cells internally. While it is found in almost all the tissues, your liver contains very high amounts of glutathione. This is hardly surprising as glutathione plays a crucial role in removing toxins from the body.
Why glutathione is called as a master antioxidant?
Like all other antioxidants, it protects the body from the damage caused by free radicals and reactive oxygen species. But glutathione is often called a master antioxidant, as what makes it different is that unlike most other antioxidant such as vitamin C, it is produced by the body and is present within the cells, which makes it readily available to protect the cells from oxidative damage.
It also recycles other important antioxidants, such as vitamin C, vitamin E and alpha lipoic acid. This means glutathione not only calms the damaging free radicals, it also stabilizes other important molecules. Interestingly, these other antioxidants also recycle glutathione in return. By doing so, glutathione improves the body’s overall ability to control oxidative damage and the resulting inflammation. Glutathione also protects immune cells from the oxidative damage that happens when immune cells respond and fight the foreign invaders, releasing free radicals in the process.
Glutathione is indispensible when it comes to the process of removing toxins such as metabolic waste, hormones, alcohol and drugs from the body. It binds with toxins and makes them water-soluble, so that they are easily flushed out of the system through skin, intestines and kidneys. In addition, it also protects liver from the oxidative damage during the process of detoxification.
Glutathione deficiency can negatively affect the body’s ability to destroy free radicals and remove toxins from the body. This results in excessive damage to cellular structures and build-up of toxins in tissues. Excessive accumulation of toxins can come up in the form of allergies, muscle weakness, pain, hormonal problems and fatigue. Since your immune cells need glutathione to function properly, low levels can cause poor immunity and increased risk of infections and disease. All this chaos increases overall inflammation in the body and speeds up the process of ageing. Research also shows that low glutathione levels in the body can increase your risk of chronic diseases.
What depletes glutathione in body?
Many internal and external factors cause shortage of glutathione. For example, age, depression, anxiety, chronic infections, exposure to environmental toxins, smoking, heavy use of alcohol and certain drugs deplete glutathione from the body more quickly than it can be produced by the body. In addition, our body’s demand for additional antioxidant supply increases during stressful situations. Magnesium deficiency also leads to reduced production of glutathione because you need magnesium for glutathione synthesis. While some of these risk factors can be managed, addressing every risk factor is not possible. Taking a high quality glutathione supplement can help you prevent glutathione deficiency and premature ageing, and to live a good life.
References:
1. Boris D Hristov. The Role of Glutathione Metabolism in Chronic Illness Development and Its Potential Use as a Novel Therapeutic Target. Cureus. 2022
2. Teskey et al. Glutathione as a Marker for Human Disease. Adv Clin Chem. 2018