Glutathione, or GSH, is an important antioxidant that can improve your life and prevent and treat many health conditions. In fact, GSH has the ability to prevent some of the most common and serious health problems of this century, like heart issues and cancer.
While your body can produce it, many health experts prescribe supplements if your body has lower levels of glutathione. You can also consume some natural food that is a good source of GSH. Want to learn more? Read further to understand why glutathione is vital for the body and several health issues it can treat.
What is Glutathione?
Glutathione, or GSH, is naturally produced by your body and found in natural food. These antioxidants comprise three amino acids: cysteine, glycine, and glutamine. It has some important jobs in your body. The primary and most critical is fighting free radicals, which are unstable molecules that damage body cells and lead to oxidative stress.
Free radicals are present in the environment as well as produced by the body when oxygen molecules are transformed into energy. However, these molecules are unstable because of not have more than one electron. Free radicals try to stabilize themselves by taking electrons from other molecules during the oxidation process. If your body produces too many free radicals that out space antioxidants, this creates an imbalance in your body, leading to oxidative stress.
This oxidative stress can lead to several health issues, such as cancer, heart problems, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, and much more. Note that there is a link between oxidative stress and most chronic health issues you can think of.
What does Glutathione do in the Body?
The main job of glutathione is to neutralize free radicals and prevent them from negatively affecting your body. Antioxidants like glutathione target free radicals in different ways. The most important thing they do is that they prevent the production of free radicals in the first place.
Glutathione also donates electrons to free radicals, so they don’t target DNA or cells. While all antioxidants perform this job, glutathione is the most generous in donating its electrons relative to others.
Besides that, GSH also helps to detoxify your body. The human body continuously interacts with dangerous compounds, natural by-products of things you believe can’t affect your body, such as medications. Some natural-by products are the result of modern life, such as pollution. GSH targets toxins and binds with them to make them water-soluble to remove them from the body.
The immune system also requires glutathione for proper function. Glutathione is critical to regulating the immune system and keeping them strong. Macrophages, responsible for eliminating foreign invaders, regulating immune cells, and removing dead cells from the body, require glutathione for proper function.
What to Expect When Your Body Has a Low Level of Glutathione?
Glutathione levels decrease as we age as our bodies lose the ability to generate GSH. It can happen due to a lack of exercise, a poor diet, severe health conditions like sleep apnea and diabetes, stress, infection, a weaker immune system, and others.
The lower level of GSH leaves you vulnerable to several diseases. Apart from age, alcohol consumption, inflammation, genetics, and illness can also lead to the depletion of glutathione. Here are a few health issues that are associated with lower levels of GSH.
- Cognitive impairment
- Asthma
- Alzheimer’s
- Diabetes
- Cystic fibrosis
- Leaky gut syndrome
- Infertility
- High blood pressure
- Cognitive impairment
Unfortunately, lower glutathione levels can also cause chronic health issues, such as autoimmune disease, heart disease, and cancer, severely impacting your health and lifestyle.
Free Radicals and Chronic Health Issues
Cancer
Oxidative stress plays a primary role in cancer hallmarks like metastatic ability, invasiveness, angiogenesis, and stemness. Reducing or eliminating oxidative stress becomes important to prevent or treat cancer. Powerful antioxidants like glutathione are used to prevent cancer.
Furthermore, cancer cells in your body try to keep oxidative stress in check. This also increases oxidative stress in your body. Therefore, experts also use cancer therapeutic strategies to disturb this check and prevent cancer cells from impacting your body.
Autoimmune Disease
This is a complex disease in which both environmental and genetic factors are involved. Excessive oxidative stress has been seen impacting the pathogenesis of autoimmune conditions by breaking down the immunological tolerance, increasing inflammation, and inducing apoptotic cell death.
In fact, many studies on patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and Sjogren’s syndrome (SS) show excessive oxidative stress that is leading to their condition. Not only this but a lower powerful antioxidant like glutathione is seen in their body, causing health issues. Patients with autoimmune diseases can resolve their health problems by regulating glutathione production.
Heart Disease
Oxidative stress or free radicals can lead to chronic heart conditions. Oxidative stress has been shown to place a critical role in the pathophysiology of heart failure and cardiac remodeling. They can result in cellular dysfunction and damage at higher levels, leading to stroke and other heart issues.
Oxidative stress can also cause hypertension which eventually affects your heart health. GSH is an antioxidant that can lower the risk of heart disease by preventing free radical production. Since GSH production gets low as you age, the risk of developing heart problems also increases.
Contact Nova Vita Wellness Centers
Contact an expert if you want to prevent chronic health issues and have low glutathione levels. At Nova Vita Wellness Centers, we have qualified, experienced professionals who can help you with different health problems. You can contact us to get any medical guidance.
At Nova Vita Wellness Centers, we have qualified, experienced medical professionals that can help navigate your health journey. From low glutathione levels to chronic disease diagnosis, or just wanting to get ahead of the game and ensure you have the right amount of antioxidants, we are here to help. We accept walk-ins, but recommend appointments to ensure you can be seen right away.
