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Glutathione: A New Approach to Healing the Body
By Michelle Alpert, D.O.
New Life Magazine. 2005 Jan-Feb: 19.
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The world we’re living in today is a toxic minefield—from vaccines to pesticides, to antibiotic-laden foods, to mercury-poisoned fish ,to pollution both indoors and outdoors. It’s no wonder so many people are suffering from fatigue and chronic illness, as well as chronic infections with viruses, bacteria and fungi. In order to detoxify, I recommend a very effective detoxification “drip” to my patients with a special emphasis on glutathione.
THE DRIP
This specialized “detox” intravenous drip is one that has helped patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, lyme disease, multiple sclerosis and Guillan-Barre syndrome. It contains typical vitamins and minerals like Vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, B5 and b6, but more importantly, it contains precursors to glutathione, as well as preservative-free glutathione itself. The precursors include two amino acids, glycine and cysteine. Together with glutathione, they pack a powerful punch that truly assists the body in meeting the demands of modern life.
There is a remarkable amount of evidence that glutathione is hugely important in detoxification, and has so many benefits that it can help patients with a range of conditions. Glutathione is found in every cell in your body. Glutathione scavenges free radicals, detoxifies heavy metals, helps ferry amino acids into the cells, helps in bile production, and much more. Because of all its capacities, glutathione is crucial in maintaining immunity. We don’t get a lot of glutathione in our diet and even then, not much is absorbed directly into the blood. Glutathione is synthesized by our bodies from amino acids. If our bodies cannot make enough glutathione to keep up with the chronic toxic load from infections and poisons, we may end up with immune dysfunction. Stress can also deplete glutathione, because increased adrenaline suppresses glutathione production.
In animal studies, glutathione
has been shown to protect against liver cancer; it has also been used in
humans to protect them from kidney damage from chemotherapy drugs. It
protects kidney function in patients undergoing bypass surgery. In aerosol
form, glutathione quenches inflammation in cystic fibrosis patients. This
wonderful substance has even been shown to increase insulin production in
older individuals who have impaired sugar metabolism. Glutathione also
seems to inhibit herpes viruses and has been shown to help reduce viral
load in hepatitis C patients.
David Perlmutter, a Florida
neurologist, found that intravenous glutathione helps relieve the symptoms
of Parkinson’s disease. Glutathione increases sensitivity to dopamine,
which is depleted in Parkinson’s. It may also protect against neurotoxins
that may be implicated in the disease. Dr Perlmutter gave 1400 milligrams
of intravenous glutathione three times a week to his Parkinson’s patients,
whose symptoms improved while they were able to reduce the amount of their
drugs.
Similarly, Dr. Patricia Kane and Dr. Neil Speight developed an effective
approach to chronic fatigue, lyme disease and neurological illnesses by
detoxifying the body with intravenous glutathione and intravenous lipids.
As they write in the Townsend Newsletter,“GSH infusion by fast intravenous
push has been a remarkable tool to unload the body’s burden of heavy
metals and neurotoxins in both pediatric and adult patients.” In fact,
even mainstream medicine is beginning to recognize the importance of
glutathione. A recent article in Family Practice Magazine found that
people who regularly took Tylenol had a higher incidence of asthma and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This means that Tylenol was somehow
damaging lung tissue. The authors of the article hypothesized that Tylenol
does this by destroying glutathione levels in the liver. I believe it is
not just the lungs that suffer and that adequate glutathione is necessary
to protect all the organs in your body.
In my own practice, I either
give glutathione alone in a saline solution, or I add glutathione as a
“chaser” at the very end of a specialized detox drip, to help prevent any
oxidation—since glutathione oxidizes easily when exposed to air or in the
presence of certain minerals. I have given this to patients with multiple
sclerosis, chronic fatigue, HIV, lyme disease, Guillain-Barre syndrome,
hepatitis C, or just garden variety stress and fatigue. One hepatitis C
patient’s liver values returned to normal and she resumed a full teaching
schedule at her university after a series of detox drips. Another patient
with chronic lyme disease finds that weekly detox drips with glutathione
improve her neurological symptoms of buzzing, burning and fatigue. My own
nurse uses glutathione in fighting off colds. And
I myself take a detox drip with glutathione weekly.
Because oral glutathione is not normally well absorbed orally, I have also begun to experiment with nebulized glutathione, which requires a prescription. Patients can then take glutathione at home under professional guidance, between detox drips. According to a study in Alternative Medicine Review in 2000, nebulized glutathione has had remarkable success in emphysema and other lung disorders such as asthma and bronchitis. It appears that inhalation may have a systemic effect. Some patients are having even greater success with this combination.
For those who do not have access to treatment with intravenous glutathione at their doctor’s, whey protein has been found to increase cellular glutathione. Two popular whey proteins are ImmunePro and Immunocal. In addition, a supplement is now available from Wellness Pharmacy, a compounding pharmacy in Alabama, in a liposomal form for efficient oral absorption. I have begun recommending this to my patients for daily use.
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