Supplements for Brain Health Support Series Week 28 Glutathione
Paul Holcroft
Ericksonian Hypnotherapist, Health Researcher, Nutritional Thriver, Fundraiser, Photographer & Actor at Players Theatre
Welcome to the Brain Health Support Series where each week we will bring you one scientifically studied nutritional supplement to help support brain function including stress and mood elevation.
This week we are looking at: L-Glutathione
One insidious way mood and stress affect your body and brain is by depleting essential vitamins and minerals just when you need those most. Stress consumes excessive key vitamins and minerals and, if you don’t replace them with the right foods and supplements, stress, anxiety and mood swings can worsen.
The production of stress hormones and neurotransmitters consume a big chunk of these nutrients’ reserves and because stress largely shuts down the digestive system, less of them get absorbed from the food you eat. Consequently, your supply of anti-stress vitamins and minerals is decreased … and your tolerance to stress is lowered.
Many bad habits that people gravitate to when they’re stressed and anxious, like alcohol, caffeine, smoking, sugar, and recreational drugs, also deplete ital nutrients and unfortunately, so do many prescription drugs. Ironically, this includes anti-anxiety medications!
How can you stop this downward spiral? You can start by eating a diet rich in the right vitamins and minerals as a first step, and then supplement with quality, high-purity supplements that will top-up any deficiencies.
The following nutritional supplementation information purported to help support stress and anxiety issues is based on my own research online through articles, medical papers, and online seminar events. You are welcome to do your own research.
L-Glutathione Health Benefits
Glutathione is an antioxidant produced in cells. It’s comprised largely of three amino acids: glutamine, glycine, and cysteine.
Glutathione levels in the body may be reduced by a number of factors, including poor nutrition, environmental toxins, and stress. Its levels also decline with age.
In addition to being produced naturally by the body, glutathione can be given intravenously, topically, or as an inhalant. It’s also available as an oral supplement in capsule and liquid form. However, oral ingestion of glutathione may not be as effective as intravenous delivery for some conditions.
May reduce oxidative damage in children with autism
Several studies, including a clinical trial reported in Medical Science Monitor, indicate that children with autism have higher levels of oxidative damage and lower levels of glutathione in their brain. This increased susceptibility to neurological damage in children with autism from substances such as mercury.
The eight-week clinical trial on children aged 3 to 13 used oral or transdermal applications of glutathione. Autistic symptom changes were not evaluated as part of the study, but children in both groups showed improvement in cysteine, plasma sulfate, and whole-blood glutathione levels.
Reduces oxidative stress
Oxidative stress occurs when there’s an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the body’s ability to fight them off. Too-high levels of oxidative stress may be a precursor to multiple diseases. These include diabetes, cancer, and rheumatoid arthritis. Glutathione helps stave off the impact of oxidative stress, which may, in turn, reduce disease.
An article cited in Journal of Cancer Science and Therapy indicated that glutathione deficiency leads to increased levels of oxidative stress, which might lead to cancer. It also stated that elevated glutathione levels raised antioxidant levels and resistance to oxidative stress in cancer cells.
May help fight against autoimmune disease
The chronic inflammation caused by autoimmune diseases can increase oxidative stress. These diseases include rheumatoid arthritis, celiac disease, and lupus. According to one studyTrusted Source, glutathione helps reduce oxidative stress by either stimulating or reducing the body’s immunological response. Autoimmune diseases attack the mitochondria in specific cells. Glutathione works to protect cell mitochondria by eliminating free radicals.
Glutathione: The Master Antioxidant and its Role in Brain Health
Glutathione has been labelled as the mother of all antioxidants and the ultimate free radical quencher and detoxifier. Research shows that as we increase in age our levels of glutathione gradually go down and deficiency of this antioxidant has been associated with Alzheimer’s and depression, as well as other chronic illnesses such as cancer.
Glutathione’s role in the body is multi-factorial; it helps to regulate and regenerate immune cells, as well as playing a vital role in cellular respiration, detoxification and provides a defence against oxidative stress. It is a coenzyme that plays a role in various enzymatic reactions and is unique in that it contains sulphur chemical groups, which act like traps for harmful free radicals and toxins, essentially sticking to them and carrying them into bile and into the stool to be excreted from the body.
When talking about glutathione in relation to the brain, it is important to address that the brain is especially sensitive to oxidative damage. One of the reasons for this is that it requires a large amount of oxygen to function normally, which as a consequence leads to a large production of free radicals, which is why our antioxidant status is vital in mental health and neurological conditions.
There are many factors that can contribute to a deficiency in glutathione, which diminishes our defences against toxins and oxidative stress. Research shows that poor diets that are high in refined sugars, processed foods, refined vegetable oils, low in antioxidants and essential nutrients, as well as other factors like exposure to pollutants, stress, frequent infections and a high intake of medications, can all negatively impact our glutathione levels.
Some medical professionals suggest that this may be because we have not evolved to function optimally yet in the environment most of us live in today. Our diets, which are unfortunately made up of nutrient-depleted foods, as well as exposure to high levels of pollution and other sources of environmental toxins, prevent the glutathione antioxidant system from working.
In addition, increasing your intake of the mineral selenium is also a key factor in improving glutathione status. It is a structural component of glutathione and a co-factor of the antioxidant enzyme glutathione peroxidase.
This mineral is commonly low in the typical Western diet that is deficient in good quality organ meats, seafood and nuts such as Brazil nuts, which are the richest source of selenium. Selenium depletion in farmed soils where our vegetables are grown and animals pasture can also play a factor in this.
Another simple and accessible way of increasing glutathione production is by having a good night’s sleep. Studies have shown how sleep deprivation can increase oxidative stress in the brain and deplete glutathione levels.
Glutathione is the master antioxidant and detoxifier of every cell in your body, if your Glutathione levels are low, your cells will weaken and your mitochondria will deteriorate more quickly.
Glutathione (GHS) is a crystalline, water-soluble peptide of glutamic acid, cysteine, and glycine, C10H17N3O6S, found in blood and in animal and plant tissues, and important in tissue oxidations and in the activation of some enzymes. It’s the body’s most important antioxidant because it’s within the cell.
Glutathione plays a critical role in the liver for getting chemical toxins out of the body. It is also responsible for pumping mercury out of the brain across the blood brain barrier into the blood so the body can then get rid of it, and also gets mercury out of the cells and eliminates the mercury you may have got from fish.
Glutathione has strong antioxidant properties, meaning that it protects cells from the damage that occurs when chemicals react with oxygen. These chemicals primarily include free radicals, but other reactive oxygen species include heavy metals, lipid peroxides and peroxides.
The primary use of glutathione is as an antioxidant. Support for the immune system and heart health are also significant benefits of glutathione. The body may not produce an adequate supply of glutathione under certain situations such as aging, poor diet, infections, radiation therapy, stress and trauma. Anyone experiencing these situations may benefit from glutathione supplements. Additional signs that indicate you may need glutathione include stress, poor immune function and heart health.
Oxidative stress predicts cognitive decline with aging in healthy adults: an observational study.
Background
Redox signaling, which can be assessed by circulating aminothiols, reflects oxidative stress (OS) status and has been linked to clinical cardiovascular disease and its risk factors. These, in turn, are related to executive function decline. OS may precede the pro-inflammatory state seen in vascular disease. The objective of this study is to investigate the association between aminothiol markers of OS and inflammation in cognitive decline, especially in the executive cognitive domain which is highly susceptible to cardiovascular risk factors and is an important predictor of cognitive disability.
Methods
The study design is that of a longitudinal cohort study within the setting of a large academic institution with participants being university employees (n = 511), mean age 49 years, 68% women, and 23% African-American. These participants were followed for four consecutive years with a yearly cognitive assessment conducted using computerized versions of 15 cognitive tests. Peripheral cystine, glutathione, their disulfide derivatives, and C-reactive protein (CRP) were measured.
Results
Lower levels of glutathione at baseline was associated with a decline in the executive domain over 4 years (covariate-adjusted relative risk (RR) for glutathione = 1.70 (95% CI = 1.02–2.85), p = 0.04). Furthermore, a longitudinal decline in glutathione level was associated with a faster decline in the executive domain (p = 0.03). None of the other OS markers or CRP were linked to cognitive decline over 4 years.
Glutathione plays a key role in the antioxidant defense of neuronal cells, and circulating glutathione levels are reduced in Alzheimer’s disease. Our findings show that the plasma glutathione levels predict future decline in cognition. Moreover, individuals who experience decreases in glutathione level over time also have a greater decline in their cognition. These findings potentially offer new targets for the prevention and treatment of cognitive loss with aging, especially that related to executive function where no therapy is currently available.
Conclusion
Oxidative stress reflected by a low or a progressive decrease in glutathione levels is associated with a decline in executive function with aging. Increased OS reflected by decreased glutathione was associated with a decline in executive function in a healthy population.
In contrast, inflammation was not linked to cognitive decline. OS may be an earlier biomarker that precedes the inflammatory phase of executive decline with aging. The role of OS in cognitive decline offers further insights into the processes of cognitive aging and the link with vascular risk factors and warrants further investigation.
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