How the antioxidant, glutathione, can be used to treat Covid-19
New research out of Baylor University's College of Medicine shows a disparity in glutathione levels amongst those hospitalized with Covid-19 and the uninfected. Hospitalized patients have a drastic glutathione deficiency which is correlating with health outcomes.
Glutathione is your body's most abundant antioxidant. Oxidative damage occurs all the time with normal bodily processes. However, levels of free radicals, which cause oxidative damage, are quickly rising due to damage done by over the counter and pharmaceutical medications, environmental toxins, and a lack of antioxidants in the diet.
A hallmark of the coronavirus is the cytokine storm. This cytokine storm produces an abundance of inflammation which is directly correlated with the amount of oxidative damage the virus produces.
It is believed in the allopathic medical community that younger humans cannot have a glutathione deficiency. This is simply not true due to the demand for glutathione in our modern world. It is very common for "healthy" individuals to be deficient in glutathione.
We found that patients in the 21–40 and the 41–60 year age groups had severe glutathione deficiency compared to uninfected age-matched controls. Older adults acutely infected with COVID-19 have the highest rates of hospitalization and mortality. In our study, we found that older adults hospitalized with COVID-19 had the lowest glutathione concentrations, with glutathione levels lower than uninfected age-matched controls suggesting that when older humans are infected with COVID-19, their glutathione levels decline even further.
Researchers found that supplementing with glycine-NAC for 2-weeks rapidly improves glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, and damage caused by oxidative stress.
In previous studies, glutathione has been reported to inhibit replication of the influenza virus which gives reason to speculate that boosting glutathione can also inhibit replication of the SARS-Cov-2 virus.
A small case study reported that increasing glutathione levels improved dyspnea (difficulty breathing) in two patients infected with COVID-19, and NAC supplementation is reported to have a beneficial impact in ventilated COVID-19 patients
The benefits of glutathione supplementation also improves inflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, endothelial vascular dysfunction, insulin resistance, genotoxicity, autophagy/mitophagy (normal cellular and mitochondrial turnover) and muscle strength as reported in human clinical trials.
Glutathione is made from the amino acids glycine, cysteine, and glutamic acid. These can be taken individually to boost glutathione levels but is not the most effective way. The study used glycine and N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) supplements to accomplish this as glutathione supplementation has been ineffective in the past. However, liposomal glutathione is now available which has been shown to be an effective means of raising glutathione levels.
For the best glutathione supplement, head here and click on Fullscript. Search for Trizomal Glutathione by Apex Energetics. This not only contains NAC but two forms of absorbable glutathione. 1-2 servings per day is a great starting place!
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