Along your journey to a healthier, happier you, you may have heard a lot about antioxidants and how good they are for you. An antioxidant is a substance that is produced by your body and found in food that can prevent or slow damage to cells caused by “free radicals”. Essentially, they can help to protect us from cancer, inflammation, chronic disease, and more. Needless to say, antioxidants are really important! So, today I’m going to tell you all about the mother of all antioxidants - glutathione.

What is Glutathione?

Glutathione is vital to healthy living. It’s often referred to as the master antioxidant because of its capacity to enhance the utilization and recycling of other antioxidants. It’s your body’s strongest and most potent antioxidant that is primarily made up of three amino acids: glutamine, glycine, and cysteine. In a nutshell, glutathione fights the bad guys (free radicals) within our bodies, working to remove them before they can wreak havoc on our cells and our health. In case you need more convincing, here are 5 reasons why you need glutathione.

1. Boosts Your Immune System

Glutathione plays an important role in keeping your immune system strong and ready to fight infections. It does this in two important ways. First, it assists the frontline soldiers of your immune system (T-cells) to function properly and thereby increase in numbers. Secondly, it stimulates production of, and activitates, your natural killer (NK) cells, which enhances the overall activity of your immune system.

2. Reduces Inflammation

When you suffer from chronic health issues, your body may keep you in a state of constant inflammation in an effort to fight an infection from outside invaders, even when there aren’t any. This inflammatory response causes cells to secrete cytokines. Luckily, we have glutathione protecting us by working to block the production of most inflammatory cytokines, helping us to reduce the inflammation in our body.

3. Assists in Detoxification

When the liver is faced with too much oxidative stress, it leaves room for the development of liver disease. But, when we have enough glutathione in our liver cells, it supports healthy liver function by neutralizing the oxidative stress that has been placed on the liver. In turn, when we are faced with harmful substances, the liver works harder to produce more glutathione to prevent further damage to our cells. Glutathione also helps us to rid our body of external environmental toxins that we are exposed to on a daily basis. It uses its mercury-binding abilities to carry toxins to the urine for elimination. In a nutshell, without glutathione, we would simply not be able to neutralize and eliminate toxins effectively.

4. Anti-Aging

Have you ever tried the trick of squeezing some lemon juice over your fruit to prevent it from turning brown? Well, imagine that glutathione is the lemon juice to your cells. It prevents the damaging free radicals in your body from “browning” (oxidizing) your cells by neutralizing them so that your cells will not age or become irreparably damaged. The longer we can prevent browning, the slower our cells will age, keeping our body stronger for longer and contributing to the longevity of our lives.

5. Encourages Physical Wellness

Aside from all the amazing things glutathione is doing for us inside our body’s, glutathione can also support and encourage overall physical wellness. Glutathione can help boost athletic performance and assist you in recovering from a workout. It can also help to support your brain health and prevent the onset of diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. It can even help to support your gut health by encouraging growth of healthy gut lining. With so many amazing benefits, it’s easy to see why glutathione is considered to be the master antioxidant.

How to Get Glutathione

As we know, our body does make glutathione however the level that our body’s produce does decrease with age and our natural glutathione levels may become depleted over time due to factors such as poor diet, infection, and chronic stress. Plus, with all the great things it can do for us, it can’t hurt to have more of it. There are two possible ways in which you can get more glutathione in your life: diet and supplementation.

Diet

There are a handful of foods that naturally contain glutathione or glutathione-boosting nutrients, however, it’s important to note that cooking some of these foods can reduce their glutathione content by up to 60 percent. Some of the foods I’m talking about are leafy green vegetables, alpha lipoic acid-rich foods such as beef and organ meats, and selenium-rich foods such as seafood, eggs, and whole grains.

Supplementation

You can take glutathione as a supplement, however it is generally not metabolized well by the body. The supplement has to pass the liver before it reaches your bloodstream and the breakdown that occurs in the liver can cause it to leave behind most of the important parts. Instead, you can take NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine). NAC is much easier for the body to absorb and acts as a precursor to glutathione in that it assists your body to make it.

The Bottom Line

It’s true what they say - glutathione is the master antioxidant. As you now know, it carries so many amazing benefits for our body’s both inside and out. It can boost our immune system, reduce inflammation, support healthy liver function, and support general physical wellness. It’s incredible to know that our body will produce this antioxidant all on its own, but it’s also comforting to know that when we do want to help it along, we can do so through diet and supplementation.