Transcription
Glutathione is one of your body's most important antioxidant and detoxification molecules. Unfortunately, many people actually have a deficiency in glutathione. We're going to talk about ways to simply assess and measure your potential need for glutathione support and the conditions that are linked with glutathione insufficiencies, such as mitochondrial function, accelerated aging, and increased markers of oxidative stress. These are linked with all sorts of common conditions, unfortunately, like pre-diabetes, diabetes, heart disease, even certain forms of cancer, and neurodegenerative conditions that are characterized by insufficient glutathione levels.
Now, many people are supplementing with direct glutathione. However, that might not be optimal because your body's balance of oxidative versus redox stress is actually quite sensitive and specific. Scientific researchers are highlighting the importance of, instead of supplementing directly with glutathione, helping to support glutathione levels by allowing your body and your cells to auto-regulate their glutathione synthesis. This can be achieved by providing the two rate-limiting amino acids for glutathione production: acetylcysteine and glycine.
I think a lot of people forget about glycine, but if you look here, you can see how the glutathione tripeptide is comprised of glutamine, which is widely abundant in your body and in your diet. What is not so abundant is actually cysteine, and that's why people supplement with acetylcysteine as well as glycine. So, you can see the two rate-limiting amino acids. It's important to recognize that there are amino acids that are important in supporting something, but the rate-limiting amino acids for your cells to synthesize glutathione are cysteine and glycine. That's why many people have been supplementing with NAC, but it actually makes more sense, as this paper and many others, along with several recently published studies, have talked about supporting both NAC and glycine as a way to allow your cells to auto-regulate their levels of glutathione.
It turns out that various different cell types might need more glutathione than others, and when you take direct glutathione, you're not allowing your cells to auto-regulate; you're just hoping it goes where it needs to go. You might be wondering, well, where is glutathione working in the body? It's working within your immune system, within the lung tissue—there's a lot of glutathione need within the lungs—as well as the liver and possibly the brain. So, by giving your body the raw materials, the rate-limiting amino acids to make glutathione, it makes more sense to allow your cells to auto-regulate their own glutathione production to match their needs.
One of the papers that we're going to focus on today is important, and there's a new term that I really want to help influence people to better understand. This is a trend that I'm seeing in the science, moving away just from NAC to Glynac, which means glycine and NAC together. This Glynac supplementation improves glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, aging hallmarks, metabolic defects, muscle strength, cognitive decline, and body composition.
What was interesting in this particular study, which was an open-label study, is that there are some shortcomings, but what this study found was improvements in body composition, energy, and markers of oxidative stress in subjects that were given a combination of not just NAC, but NAC and glycine together. This was in aged individuals over the age of 65, and they didn't have these subjects change their diet or exercise programs; they just gave them a solid dose, which was a gram of each of these different amino acids. Again, these amino acids are naturally occurring in the diet, although some diets are lower in others, like a vegan diet, for example.
What they found was a myriad of different improvements in body composition, markers of mitochondrial health, and also markers of improved metabolism over the course of, I think it was an eight-week study. This has implications when it comes to healthy aging. A lot of us are just trying to feel better and age more gracefully. We want to be more functional as we get older, to play with grandkids, have more energy in our businesses and activities, travel, and do the creative endeavors that we want to do. This is a really affordable way to help support this key process of aging, which is to help support the levels of your cells to make more glutathione to help mitigate some of the toxins that are in your environment—in your air, food, water, clothing.
We know that there are endocrine-disrupting chemicals that are ubiquitous. We know polar bears in Antarctica, when their fat tissues are biopsied, have flame retardants and all sorts of plastics that they've never seen in their lifetime, but they're getting there through the water, through the rain, presumably also through the air, and much more. So, how can we safeguard against this? Well, supporting glutathione by way of NAC paired with glycine could be a nice combination.
Just a small plug: this is something that I personally formulated to help bring to you as a Glynac combination, the NAC Glycine Supreme by Myoscience. I'll put links below; check it out. I'm providing this content for you to help you better understand where the research trend is coming from—not just to make you aware of this unique formulation, although that is really beneficial. I'll put links so you can save with the code "podcast" at checkout. Supporting, again, the body's natural levels of glutathione with these precursor amino acids makes a little bit more sense than spending $70 or $80 on just straight-up glutathione.
As this paper talks about, there's a lot of conflicting evidence when it comes to direct antioxidant supplementation. We know that people who take beta-carotene, which is an antioxidant, and people who take vitamin E, another antioxidant, have mixed outcomes. For example, it's not suggested that you take antioxidants after exercise; it might slow down the adaptations that you get from exercise. There is some conflicting evidence with all the antioxidants, so it makes a little bit more sense to give your body the precursors.
The cells that have increased oxidative stress—for you, that could be cells around the endothelium; for other people, it could be cells in the heart; for others, it could be cells in the liver—allowing those cells to auto-regulate their glutathione production is more effective than just giving a direct antioxidant. That's kind of the take-home message from this video and from many of the papers that I've been reading, urging people to move away from direct antioxidant supplementation to giving the precursor amino acids to allow the cells that need to make glutathione to be able to do so—not just a shotgun approach. This is more of a targeted approach.
It's really important to recognize that glutathione is crucial. Studies have shown this, and it's important to recognize that these amino acids we're talking about have not been approved by the FDA to prevent, treat, or cure diseases. We're talking about supporting health, but we know that glutathione has been shown to help with the detoxification of various persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals, and it may help to mitigate some free radical stress and much more.
What I thought was fascinating about some of these studies is that this combination has been used in severe COVID-19 cases. Believe it or not, it's kind of interesting that NAC was pulled during the middle of a pandemic, but thankfully you can buy it now, which is nice. There was one study titled "Severe Glutathione Deficiency, Oxidative Stress, and Oxidant Damage in Adults Hospitalized with COVID-19." Some studies have used NAC-glycine combinations in these individuals and found improved outcomes.
This is just one example where we can help support people's immune response potentially and help decrease some of the stress on the body. You might be wondering, well, should I even consider glutathione? Is it worth it for me? Are there any biomarkers that I can look at? A commonly used biomarker to ascertain glutathione turnover in the body is a liver enzyme known as GGT (gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase). This enzyme helps with glutamine transport into cells. Remember, the glutathione tripeptide consists of glutamine and the two rate-limiting amino acids, glycine and cysteine.
Gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase, also known by the acronym GGT, is commonly tested in labs like Quest or LabCorp. When GGT is elevated over 30, that could be a proxy or an association suggesting that you might benefit from supporting your glutathione levels. We see this in diabetes, pre-diabetes, people with heart disease, and people with high blood pressure. Oftentimes, when their labs are run, their GGT levels are increased.
There was a Dr. Lee in South Korea who has been studying this for a very long time, and she found a strong correlation between higher blood levels of persistent organic pollutants and environmental toxins and how those correlate with elevated blood levels of GGT and also ALT. If we think about the liver, this is a key detoxification organ, so it makes sense that if your body is processing some of these compounds you're exposed to in your air, food, water, clothing, and furniture, as your liver is being more and more stressed by the accumulation of these compounds, it would increase its production of glutathione. That's why GGT might increase, as well as ALT, another liver enzyme.
So, next time you go to the doctor, make sure that they run GGT. Many of the doctors that I'm personally friends with and have known for the past 20 years will tell you that in medical school and residency, it was recommended to only run GGT when you suspect alcoholism. People who are alcoholics can have their GGT levels increase, sometimes into the hundreds, because we know ethanol is a hepatotoxin, as is acetaminophen or Tylenol. If you take Tylenol or drink alcohol, you should definitely consider supplementing with glycine and NAC because we know that those compounds are hard on the liver.
But that's a simple, non-invasive way. You need to get blood work once a year anyway for good health, so why not run your GGT next time? Remember, these are international units; I think it's international units per liter that characterize GGT. When that's over 30, that might suggest that you could possibly benefit from improving glutathione levels, so you should consider an NAC-glycine combination in that context.
Now, there are other complex biomarkers like F2 isoprostanes and myeloperoxidase that get a little more esoteric and need to be ordered from boutique labs. Those also get expensive very quickly, so I think it's more prudent to start with the basics. A Chem 24 CBC will have your GGT on it. A Chem 24 CBC is the acronym for a comprehensive metabolic panel with a complete white blood cell count. This is the blood test that you should be getting along with iron and ferritin and all that. We have our blood work cheat sheet over at High Intensity Health; definitely download that and bring it to your next primary care visit.
But definitely make sure to measure your GGT and ALT, and if they're over 30, then there might be a need for you to periodically support, especially in the evening time. This is one thing I think is not recognized: from a circadian rhythm perspective, antioxidants are more active while we're sleeping in the evening. So, if you are going to take NAC or glycine, you don't necessarily want to do that in the morning or with lunch; you might want to take that in the evening before bed to get the best benefit.
Hopefully, you found this content helpful. If you did, hit that like button, be sure to share this video with a friend, leave a comment below, and let me know what you think about this. Also, some of the articles that we talked about, I'll link them in the show notes, which will be in the links below as well. Hopefully, you found it helpful, and remember, when you think NAC, you also want to think about glycine because those are the two rate-limiting amino acids when it comes to increasing or supporting cellular formation of glutathione.
That's it for today, friends. As always, thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you on a future episode down the road.