Your experiences with Glutathione supplement?

This occasionally pops up here, I don’t remember what most people here or take it for, reducing oxidative stress free radicals etc.?

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The part that interest me;
1)I recently read that it helps with energy and muscles when used as a fitness supplement. Or maybe even with energy in general...?
2)It’s also apparently good for the liver and pancreas, which might help some people with sugar levels.

Any experience with the above?

Thanks

I took liposomal glutathione for years for mold detox. Even after years of daily use, my Great Plains OAT test showed my glutathione levels at zero. I stopped using it. Very expensive stuff, but it definitely did increase toxin removal.

It never made me feel better. It made me feel somewhat worse, especially early on. When mold toxins started coming out, it caused burning sensations. Glutathione increased the burning. There were times when I would have to urinate within an hour after taking the glutathione, and my pee would burn as toxins were coming out in my urine.

I never did the IV’s. I suspected I could have a severe reaction to IV, and I am glad I never did anything via IV, as IV is far more potent, fast acting, and systematic than oral.

People who have notable intolerances or reactions to sulfur may not be able to handle glutathione, but I can’t remember why.

Recently, I have started taking Alpha Lipoic Acid, which is a precursor to glutathione. I take 250mg once a day. Years ago when I took ALA, I still had my amalgams and had increasing numbness in the roof of my mouth and back of throat until I stopped. A year later, the same thing happened. I’m fine with it now.

i have zero glutathione and near zero vitamin c on OAT tests

these 2 antioxidants are in a kind of pyramid of antioxidants in the body - as the one is used up it is recycled by the next one down in the tier - so it can be used again - and so this process repeats through the tiers in the pyramid

glutathione is the primary antioxidant inside cells in the body - its first and main job is to deal with the free radicals inevitably released from burning fuel in the mitochondria - vitamin C helps recycle it.

in people with chronic disease - low glutathione is common -
this seems to be to do with inflammatory processes causing excess free radicals and using up all the intracellular glutathione which can no longer do its job of mopping up free radicals from normal energy production - which causes further inflammatory damage - including to the mitochondria themselves - which results in even less efficient burning of fuel and even more free radicals - and hence a positive re-enforcement loop can be set up. there are some papers in the literature studying damage to the mitochondrial membrane - which is the critical boundary across which energy is produced inside cells.

a number of things are known to damage this membrane - aside from inflammation from chronic bacterial infections ( especially intracellular ones ). pesticides, heavy metals, mold, and probably all the "forever chemicals" we have allowed all the big corporations to pump into our environment and extract the profit from - while they outsource the real cost - eg the health impact to the general population.

supplementing with glutathione and or its precursors ( NAC, ALA etc ) has been shown in studies to raise base glutathione over time (Vimzor gave a good list of the effectiveness in terms of speed at which they do this) which is good and should be helpful - but if the root cause of the inflammation that triggered it is still present - you have a tug of war effect where one thing is fighting the other - and benefits will be limited

this i feel is a fair assessment of the situation in lyme disease ( including co-infections )
i take ALA and NAC myself and think they may help a little - but the effects are minor - as the infection is still present driving the antioxidant deficit and i don't think you can supplement your way out of it.

the secondary functions of glutathione are its involvement in the detoxification of various other toxins and compounds from the body - and this may be why people with Lyme seem particularly susceptible to toxins or getting chemical sensitivities - or not being able to detoxify mold toxins etc - as all their glutathione is already used up dealing with the free radicals from simply living - little is left to get rid of toxins the body would normally be able to deal with. This may also explain why many experience odd adverse effects from suddenly upping their intake of glutathione or its precursors - as they suddenly start moving these toxins around.

i think Horowitz is a big advocate of glutathione - and talks of some patients who are wheelchair bound with fatigue an pain walking out of his office after a single IV infusion - but i think these type of miracle effects are rare. More often i hear of people who say they have adverse symptoms even from oral forms, especially if they have been ill for a long time.

I started taking glutathione along with oral antifungals and ampeceritin B a few months ago to try to deal with my high mold numbers, after just using binders for several months prior due to my high sensitivity which seemed to abate somewhat over time. While I can't isolate the glutathione, I will say that this treatment led to a noticeable drop in energy over the previous binders-only mold regiment, and I ended up going off the antifungals and may drop the glutathione as well as my general condition has worsened over the past couple months with a flare in my bart symptoms and some sort of mystery cough/virus thing I can't shake. The Neal Nathan approach to mold detox - small amounts of binder such as optifiber lean - seemed to suit me better and did reduce my numbers though it was a slow road. I'm going to take another test soon to see what the more aggressive treatment did to my levels. Good luck.

After reading others’ comments, I wanted to add something about the glutathione precursors, NAC and ALA.

In the very beginning, after moving out of my parents’ moldy house and into my relative’s house and beginning to detox mold, I was put on liposomal glutathione and high dose EPA/DHA (?) and charcoal for a binder. After about a month, the doc said I could add NAC. I believe it was 500mg capsules and I was told I could work up to 2 capsules twice a day.

I was super green then and took one capsule at night as my first dose (mistake #1 - never start a new thing at night). I woke up with a headache but went ahead and took the second dose of 1 capsule (mistake #2 - never proceed when you’re already sick from the previous dose). I spent that afternoon feeling nauseous, sick and panicked and completely wigged out. I was convinced that the house had Stachybotrus (toxic black mold) and we were all gonna die, and sat outside in a chair fighting nausea, toxin pain, and panic for quite a while. I think I finally threw up and felt some relief. I can laugh now, but it wasn’t funny then.

The doctor explained that it was a detox reaction and to back off. A week or so later, I tried again and started with just one capsule per day. After 2 weeks of that, I noticed it helped clear my brain fog. I continued to increase to full dosage and took it for many years until the supplement was threatened after it was leaked that it could help C_v’d. Then I ordered a bottle and just held onto it for emergency use. I think you can get the NAC ok now. I never had any negative reactions to it that I recall beyond those first two doses.

Lastly, I remember Buhner said that he preferred ALA over NAC and thought it worked better, but he didn’t elaborate on how. I think I might start taking ALA twice a day.

I've taken glutathione , forgot which brand. I honestly saw a difference in energy levels because I wad always so fatigued. Also, now this going to sound odd, bt it took all of my acne and other scars away within 2 weeks. I guess because it's an antioxidant.