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The Master Antioxidant

by Dr. Marcus Laux

Published 05/01/09

Glutathione is truly one of the wonders of Nature. This powerful antioxidant is multifunctional and indispensable to health, longevity, and even life itself. It is a significant component of our immune system, without which we could not survive.

It's a string of three amino acids-glutamine, cysteine, and glycine-and it's made by all the cells in our body (as programmed by our DNA). It affects prostaglandin and leukotriene metabolism, influences protein and DNA synthesis, and helps maintain proper structure and function of proteins and enzymes-including the protective antioxidant enzymes.

The important form is called "reduced glutathione" (or GSH), and it's vital to the proper function of our cells, and it's critical to minimizing attacks from free radicals that damage healthy tissues. For instance, as a powerful antioxidant, GSH protects our red blood cells from the very oxygen they were designed to carry. It can even ward off the hydroxyls from radiation-one of the most potent free radicals known.

Detox and Redox

When it comes to detoxifying the body, GSH is superb. It's used by the body to protect us from just about every toxic element-including pollution, poisons, drugs, and heavy metals. In this role, GSH effectively neutralizes contaminants, is a dominant player in phase two detoxification in the liver, protects against the ravages of DNA damage (whether in the skin, eye, blood, or brain), and is a chelating agent that helps remove heavy metals.

Another significant and rarely understood factor with GSH is that it's the primary powerhouse maintaining the oxidation-reduction (or "redox") potential that is a hallmark of healthy cells. The redox potential is essentially the cell's ability to reduce oxidation by neutralizing free radicals. This process is very real and necessary since a normal cell is subjected to thousands of free radical hits a day, so our cells have developed an intrinsic and intricate antioxidant recycling and regenerating system to handle these free radicals and their potential damage.

If the redox potential is fully functional, the hits are neutralized and the damage repaired-no problem. However, if proper redox potential is impaired, damage accumulates, DNA mutations are not repaired, and cell death, sclerosis, fibrosis, inflammation, and cancer are the likely results.

Concerning cancer, the redox balance within a cell is a critical influence on the functioning of the p53 tumor-suppressing protein that helps prevent and kill cancer cells. For example, if a cell develops a DNA mutation, this p53 suppressor protein slows down the growth cycle so that repair processes can mend any genetic damage. In essence, a potentially pre-cancerous cell is cured and made normal. If it can't repair the damage, it programs the cell for self-destruction-called apoptosis. However, if there is a lack of GSH, then the function of the p53 protein is actually altered so that it no longer suppresses tumor potential. In fact, it actually promotes tumor growth.

The role of GSH in cancer prevention and health promotion cannot be overlooked. Ensuring that you have adequate GSH levels can have a positive influence against tumor formation and progression. Test tube and animal studies bear out its potential in preventing carcinogens from creating cancer and in healing precancerous cells.

All normal and healthy cellular function is dependent on a balanced redox potential. The proteins that regulate gene expression are highly influenced by GSH levels and redox ability. As we know from the genome project, certain diseases are brought forth due to which sets of genes are being expressed-or which sets are "turned on." Under optimal conditions, cancer genes, diabetes genes, or heart disease gene sequences are turned off-but they may be activated under adverse conditions.

So, it's not about whether you have a gene for a particular disease or not, it's really a matter of whether that gene is expressing itself. When GSH is inadequate, the proteins shift and malfunction, and unhealthy and dangerous gene messages may be activated. We can create either health or disease with this primordial protein fragment.

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