Become disease-free

Besides being the major antioxidant that you produce as protection from free radicals, glutathione is also a very important detoxifying agent, enabling you to get rid of undesirable toxins and pollutants.

by Dr. Howard Peiper — 

Imagine you are a cell. Inside your body runs the machinery that creates life itself. But as that machinery keeps running, day after day, you begin to wear out. The friction and processes that cause damage — free radicals, pollutants, UV radiation and other sources — start to create havoc and you begin to lose the battle to diseases, old age, and ultimately, death.

In fact, your battle would be over much sooner were it not for the numerous mechanisms that you and other mammalian cells evolved over million of years, as protection from the injury that can result from your normal functional processes. The foremost among these internal protective systems is the “glutathione antioxidant system.”

Glutathione, a small molecule composed of three amino acids — glycine, glutamate and cysteine — acts as your cellular “super-mop,” soaking up free radicals and protecting your cellular membranes and internal organs from the cascading destruction they can cause.

Besides being the major antioxidant that you produce as protection from free radicals, glutathione is also a very important detoxifying agent, enabling you to get rid of undesirable toxins and pollutants. If you were a liver, kidney or lung cell, you would contain high levels of glutathione, as you would be exposed to the greatest levels of toxins.

Glutathione also helps you dispose of many cancer-producing chemicals, heavy metals and drug metabolites that invade the pristine recesses of your cellular world. Mother Nature, the first recycler, also designed you to use glutathione to recycle other well-known antioxidants such as vitamins C and E, keeping them in their active state.

If you were a cell delegated to the immune system department, you would require glutathione for many of the intricate steps needed to carry out your essential immune response functions — such as multiplying to make many clones of yourself to mount a full-bodied immune response or neutralizing undesirable elements of the cellular community, like cancerous or virally infected cells. But your finicky cell membrane does not allow whole glutathione molecules to cross directly into your cellular spaces. And every time a molecule of glutathione neutralizes a destructive free radical or toxin, it fatally binds with the undesirable element and is washed out with the bile or the urine.

So how do you replenish your stores and get your daily fix of glutathione? Simple. You manufacture it in your cellular factory, from its raw materials — glycine, glutamate and cysteine. If your human eats a diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables, and freshly prepared meats, you will get enough glutamate and glycine. But cystine comes mostly from eggs, milk, and cheese. And when eggs, milk and cheese are cooked or processed, the composition of cystine is changed to cysteine. While still a valuable protein, it can no longer feed your glutathione levels.

If you can get a sufficient supply of cysteine, which determines the rate at which you can make glutathione, your arsenal is well stocked. If not, you and your human are at a strategic disadvantage in the battle of “cell vs. free-radical destroyers.” As a normal healthy cell, increasing your glutathione levels will help you and your human maintain their strategic advantage in the battle against free radicals.

If you are not really in your prime, boosting your levels will tip the scales in your favor and help you fight the cellular damage that causes disease and aging.

Dr. Howard Peiper, N.D., who was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize, has written many best-selling books on nutrition and natural health, including New Hope for Serious Diseases, the Healing Power of Glutathione. www.safegoodspub.com.

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 27, Number 3, June/July 2008.