Chronic infections, stress, fatigue and unhealthy lifestyle habits may leave our bodies depleted of one of the most important antioxidants needed to keep us healthy: glutathione.
If you’ve never heard of glutathione, you may want to listen up. Restoring depleted levels of this powerful antioxidant in your body may help you live longer and reduce your risk of serious disease.
If you are looking for one supplement to help keep you healthy in the long run, a glutathione supplement is where it’s at.
What is Glutathione?
You may have never heard of it before, but thousands of scientific studies have been dedicated to this amazing antioxidant over the past few decades.
Glutathione is a peptide made up of three different amino acids: L- glutamine, L-cysteine and L-glycine.
Because every single cell in our body produces the stuff, you may think there is abundance of it in your body right now. But if you have experienced unusual fatigue, an infection, taken antibiotics within the past few weeks or even been eating too many genetically modified foods, your levels could well be depleted.
Glutathione is considered one of the most important antioxidants because it is made within our body’s cells to defend against any harm. It is not considered essential nutrition, but it is absolutely needed for the protection of cells and the immune system.
Some of its very important functions include boosting the immune system, protecting against the harmful effects of environmental toxins, acting as a natural detoxification agent, promoting liver and gallbladder health, killing tumour cells and binding with certain drugs to better help the body digest them.
Glutathione for Heavy Metal Detoxification
As glutathione is made inside cells, it has the power to deeply detoxify the body from the inside out. Heavy metals such as mercury can accumulate in the body by eating and drinking the wrong foods, being injected with certain vaccinations, and even from silver fillings put in by your dentist.
Mercury is especially dangerous to the brain as it can affect neurological functions. Removing it from your body is important for avoiding kidney damage, respiratory problems and nervous disorders.
Glutathione is the best way to eliminate heavy metal toxins from the body because it binds to mercury and other heavy metals and escorts it out of your body’s tissues, where it would otherwise accumulate and increase your risk for much harm.
To reduce the amount of mercury you ingest, read our blog here about what it is often hidden in. You may even find that your favourite chocolate bar has heavy metals hidden inside!
Glutathione for Liver Support
Owing to its heavy metal detoxification power, glutathione helps lighten the load on your liver, enabling it to continue working hard to detoxify other harmful agents in the body.
Glutathione also takes stress off the gallbladder by helping the liver detoxify fat before bile is emitted, so that’s one less thing your natural detoxification organs have to do.
Foods That Boost Glutathione
Because glutathione is so important for preventing cellular damage and assisting in the natural detoxification process, it’s a great idea to incorporate more foods into your diet that boost glutathione levels. Doing so can help your body process medications and build proteins and DNA.
Although rare, deficiency is characterised by neurological symptoms such as seizures, lack of physical reactions, movement and speech, cognitive decline and impaired coordination. Bacterial infections are also common in people with severe glutathione deficiency.
The following foods will help restore your levels.
- Sulfur-containing foods such as broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and Brussels sprouts
- Foods that are high in B vitamins and biotin such as chickpeas, pinto beans, avocado, beets, spinach and lentils
- Foods that are high in selenium such as antibiotic-free chicken, grass-fed beef, tuna, eggs and Brazil nuts
- Foods that are high in vitamins E and C such as citrus fruits, kale, sweet potatoes, nuts and sunflower seeds
While these foods may help boost your levels of glutathione, taking a glutathione supplement is the ultimate way to ensure you get what you need.
S-Acetyl Glutathione contains a free form of the potent tri-peptide antioxidant that is exactly what you need to replenish intracellular GSH levels. S-Acetyl Glutathione features a new form of glutathione that won’t leave you with a nasty taste in your mouth.
It’s stable enough to withstand the harsh gastrointestinal acids in your stomach, meaning it’s fully intact when absorbed. Once it reaches your bloodstream, it is protected by an acetyl group from being broken down before it reaches your cell membranes. Two capsules per day is all you need to help support a longer, healthy life.
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