Eye Exercises can be an amazing option for brain function and to rehabilitate from various brain injuries.

Here at GlutaSource we believe a solid program for brain recovery includes both Glutathione as well as therapeutics such as the one listed on this post. Please consult your health care provider before starting any brain based therapy.

Better Brain & Balance in 30 day’s is a multi-sensory program for improving brain function. It is an enjoyable activity, or “exercise,” which can be customized for all ages and skill levels for implementation in clinic, school or home.

GlutaStat for Chronic Upper Respiratory Infections

A product called GlutaStat which is Nebulized Glutathione along with a few key ingredients. Glutathione has been shown to up regulate the bodies immune system as well as fight fungus, bacterial and viral infections.

What is oxidative stress?

Your body constantly reacts with oxygen as you breathe and your cells produce energy. As a consequence of this activity, highly reactive molecules are produced known as free radicals. Free radicals interact with other molecules within cells. This can cause oxidative damage to proteins, membranes and genes. You have probably seen some rusty metal for example, like a tin can. This is called “oxidation”, or the process of oxygen reacting with metal. Oxidative stress is similar, the meal you had just a few hours ago is probably oxidizing in your digestive system and cells right now. Wouldn’t it be great if we could slow this “rusting” down inside our bodies? Well we can – with “anti” oxidants, such as glutathione.

It is essential to maintain a steady level of antioxidants from a healthy diet and proper supplementation, if we didn’t, we would literally “rust to death” in next to no time. In your body, the antioxidant process is similar to stopping an apple from browning. Once you cut an apple, it begins to brown, but if you dip it in orange juice, which contains vitamin C, it stays white.

Oxidative damage has been implicated in the cause of many diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s and has an impact on the body’s aging process. External factors such as pollution, sunlight and smoking also trigger the production of free radicals.

Oxidative stress describes the state of the body in which the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including free radicals, overwhelms the body’s antioxidant defenses (glutathione).Our body tries to maintain a constant balance between free radicals and antioxidants. 

Free radicals arising from metabolism, disease, exercise, and environmental factors like smoking, pollution, UV rays are being neutralized by the antioxidants (mainly glutathione) in our cells.

A free radical searches out other free radicals and starts a chain reaction that occurs at a frightening speed. In a recent publication by Caroline Bay who worked for the Committee on the Public Understanding of Science of the Royal Society in the UK, the author states that some free radicals react at a rate of more than 6 x 1021 billion molecules per second. Our bodies can, therefore, be exposed to billions and billions of damaging free radicals on a daily basis. No wonder that people who live for many decades start to develop degenerative diseases and other negative effects of aging. The presence of too many ROS/free radicals leads to oxidative damage to the molecules in our cells including lipids, proteins and DNA, and this in turn can destroy cell function. In this situation our body is under – “Oxidative Stress”. Oxidative stress leads to loss in cell function and eventually to cell death, and contributes to loss in organ function. This process leads to the development of most chronic diseases and exacerbates existing conditions. Clinical research has shown that glutathione can reduce oxidative stress in the body.

Reactive oxygen species (ROS)

Reactive oxygen species are small molecules that include oxygen ions, oxygen free radicals, and peroxides, both inorganic and organic. These molecules are highly reactive due to the presence of unpaired electrons. ROS form as a natural byproduct of the normal metabolism of oxygen and have important roles in cell signaling. However, during times of disease, exercise, or environmental stress (e.g. smoking, UV or heat exposure) ROS levels can increase dramatically, which can result in significant damage to cell structures. This accumulates into the situation known as oxidative stress (see above). Cells are normally able to defend themselves against ROS damage through antioxidant enzymes such as glutathione.

GlutaSource offers the most effective, reduced glutathione in easy delivery methods.  Glutathione from GlutaSource assists in preventing ROS damage by “scavenging” free radicals. To place an order please visit our products page or call us at 941.330.8553. 

Yours in health,

John Lieurance, ND, DC

Lifestyle Choices

Avoiding excessive intake of pro-oxidants such as smoke, excessive alcohol, exposure to noxious chemicals or ultraviolet light, are a good start in the quest to minimize oxidative stress.  The world in which we live, however, doesn’t always cooperate with us.

Most fruits and vegetables contain antioxidants, and should be a part of your daily diet. And whenever possible avoid processed or preserved foods, and charred meats, which all can have negative oxidative effects on your body.

But Life Gets Busy…

It’s no secret getting proper nutrition can be challenging in the best of circumstances. And who among us wants to worry if he or she is pushing too hard during exercise or play. Add to that, the increased nutritional demands on athletes and active people.  It is easy to find yourself behind in your body’s nutritional needs.

The Best Defense

Nothing is better for health than a diet of whole, fresh foods rich in antioxidants, adequate hydration, and plenty of sleep.  Unfortunately, the reality is that the harder we work and play, the more we try to pack into our lives, the more our diet and sleep typically suffer.

Proper Supplementation with Glutathione…

Proper supplementation can help you bridge the gap between a “perfect diet” and your diet, and help keep you at your optimal health and strength.

The role of vitamin C and vitamin E is mainly for protection against oxidative stress on the cellular membrane. The concentration of both vitamin C and Vitamin E decreases by age, due to the decline of an internal anti-oxidant called glutathione, which decreases by age. Glutathione activates the inactive (oxidized) vitamin C, which in- turn activates the inactive (oxidized) vitamin E. The role of vitamin E is to protect the cellular membranes from free radical damage.

While glutathione is found in food, but its concentration does not significantly increase, neither through conventional food nor through oral supplementation. This is why GlutaSource has developed two clinically effective routes of deliver: nebulization or suppository method. Each provides the body with stable, reduced glutathione that at the cellular level is highly absorbed and bio-available.

In 1996, an anti-oxidant researcher at University of Berkeley, California, Dr. Packer, a professor of molecular and cell biology discovered that R-Alpha Lipoic Acid, an anti-oxidant and an endogenous co-enzyme in the metabolism of glucose, significantly increases the internal production of glutathione, which re-energizes vitamin C and E. Increasing your levels of glutathione via proper supplementation can be your best defense against oxidative stress.

If you have any quastions regarding proper supplementation with glutathione or need to place an order, feel free to call us at (941) 330-8553

Glutathione is one of the body’s most power detoxifying agents, especially useful in chemical and metal sensitivities/toxicities. Recent clinical findings suggest that many individuals need it, although they do not test deficient in cysteine, glycine, or glutamic acid (its components).  In my experience, numerous patients, despite having the components, cannot synthesize it in adequate amounts. Perhaps a fogged-out patient is also fogged out internally and is having a rough time synthesizing glutathione until you have eliminated other factors. Glutathione is a tri-peptide with free thiol (-SH) groups, making it a very powerful antioxidant, anticarcinogen, and binder of xenobiotics (toxic chemicals) and toxic metals (especially mercury, gold, cadmium, and copper).  Selenium works synergistically with GSH, as does vitamin E and zinc. When there is an increased need for antioxidant activity, it is theorized that most cells will require GSH from the plasma (which gets it from the liver) as opposed to making it. When the liver’s synthesis capability is diminished (as it easily can be from chronic chemical and metal exposure), the body’s GSH requirement must be obtained by diet and supplementation. Dietary, raw fruits and vegetables (especially spinach and parsley) can raise plasma GSH levels, although it is wise to also supplement.

Supplementation with glutathione can be tricky business. Oral forms of glutathione are broken down in the gut and are not absorbed, making them worthless. The most efficacious routes of administration are nebulization, inhalant, suppository, and injectable (e.g., IM and IV routes) forms. For home usage, we have found nebulization and suppository forms to be the easiest routes of delivery. Both methods provide even, stable levels of reduced glutathione for the entire body.  Precursors are substances that upregulate the body’s ability to produce its own glutathione.  Supplementing with precursors in addition to reduced glutathione can be advantageous when taken in the proper amounts. One example of those is N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC). Interesting, is that animal studies have shown supplementation with glycine and glutamic acid had no effect on plasma and tissue GSH. Removal of chemicals, toxins, and heavy metals during excretion via the urine and bile is essential. This is promoted with increased hydration and a diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

If your body is harboring heavy metals, it is prudent to increase supplementation with high potency glutathione products. If you are interested in obtaining the highest potency, reduced form of glutathione, log on to GlutaSource.com or call and speak to one of the representatives at 941.330.8553.

The Many Benefits of Glutathione

It is the major endogenous antioxidant produced by the cells, participating directly in the neutralization of free radicals and reactive oxygen compounds, as well as maintaining exogenous antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, in their reduced (active) forms.

• Regulation of the nitric oxide cycle, which is critical for life but can be problematic if unregulated.
• Through direct conjugation, it detoxifies many xenobiotics (foreign compounds) and carcinogens, both organic and inorganic. This includes heavy metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic.
• It is essential for the immune system to exert its full potential, e.g., modulating antigen presentation to lymphocytes, thereby influencing cytokine production and type of response (cellular or humoral) that develops, enhancing proliferation of lymphocytes, thereby increasing magnitude of response, enhancing killing activity of cytotoxic T cells and NK cells, and regulating apoptosis, thereby maintaining control of the immune response.
• It plays a fundamental role in numerous metabolic and biochemical reactions such as DNA synthesis and repair, protein synthesis, prostaglandin synthesis, amino acid transport, and enzyme activation. Thus, every system in the body can be affected by the state of the glutathione system, especially the immune system, the nervous system, the gastrointestinal system and the lungs.
• 

An important ongoing debate in the field of psychiatry is whether inflammation in the body is a consequence of or contributor to major depression.

Inflammation in the body is common to many diseases, including high blood pressure, coronary artery disease, and diabetes. Depression has also been linked to an inflammation marker in blood called C-reactive protein (CRP).

Dr. William Copeland at Duke University Medical Center and his colleagues tested the direction of association between depression and CRP in a large sample of adolescent and young adult volunteers. By following the children into young adulthood, they were able to assess the changes over time in both their CRP levels and any depressive symptoms or episodes.

They found that elevated levels of CRP did not predict later depression, but the number of cumulative depressive episodes was associated with increased levels of CRP.

“Our results support a pathway from childhood depression to increased levels of CRP, even after accounting for other health-related behaviors that are known to influence inflammation. We found no support for the pathway from CRP to increased risk for depression,” said Copeland.

These findings suggest that, by this measure, depression is more likely to contribute to inflammation in the body as opposed to arise as a consequence of inflammation in the body. The highest levels of CRP were found in those who had endured the wear and tear of multiple depressive episodes. This suggests the possibility that long-term emotional distress, beginning in childhood, may lay the foundation for inflammatory processes that lead, in middle age, to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

“Depression is a recurring disorder for many people. Thus the finding that repeated episodes of depression contribute to inflammation in the body highlights an important role for untreated depression as a contributor to a range of serious medical problems,” commented Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry. “These data add to growing evidence of the medical importance of effectively treating depression.”

A promising treatment for both depression and inflammation is glutathione. Glutathione is a very straightforward molecule that is produced naturally all the time in your body. It is a combination of three simple building blocks of protein or amino acids — cysteine, glycine and glutamine. The secret of its power is the sulfur (SH) chemical groups it contains.

Glutathione is so important because it is responsible for keeping so many of the keys to wellness. It is critical for immune function and controlling inflammation. It is the master detoxifier and the body’s main antioxidant, protecting our cells and making our energy metabolism run well. And the good news is that you can do many things to increase this natural and critical molecule in your body.

One essential mechanism for raising glutathione in the body is viasupplementation. GlutaSource.info provides a variety of delivery methods that effectively increase glutathione levels in the body.

Sports-Related Traumatic Brain Injury

Nearly 300,000 sports-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) occur each year in the United States.1 Athletes involved in sports such as football, hockey and boxing are at significant risk of TBI due to the high level of contact inherent in these sports. Head injuries are also extremely common in sports such as cycling, baseball, basketball and skateboarding. Sadly, many sports head injuries lead to permanent brain damage or worse. Traumatic brain injury, or TBI, is the leading cause of death in sports-related accidents.

Players who have sustained a traumatic brain injury require immediate medical attention and, if permanent damage results, often need ongoing care, which can be very expensive. Many traumatic brain injury patients and their families suffer financial hardship due to injury-related expenses.

If you or someone you know suffered sports-related brain damage as a result of someone else’s negligence, you may be entitled to compensation for medical expenses and other damages. A traumatic brain injury lawyer can review your case and help you earn the compensation you deserve.

High School Sports and Traumatic Brain Injury

While moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries are usually obvious, seemingly mild head injuries often go undetected. Because they usually fall under the category of closed head injury, as opposed to open head injury (in which the skull has been penetrated), damage caused by these injuries is not visibly apparent — nor is it visible in computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging scans. As a result, doctors are often forced to rely solely on reported symptoms. Unfortunately, many players hide their symptoms or pain in order to continue playing, despite being injured. For this reason, some players do not reach full recovery and experience devastating brain damage.

The failure to detect and treat a TBI is particularly harmful to younger athletes. Because teenagers do not have fully developed brain tissue, head injuries sustained among high school athletes often lead to detrimental damage. Injuries suffered at this stage of development can cause longer-lived symptoms and create vulnerability to further damage if another injury occurs.

Approximately 21 percent of all traumatic brain injuries in people under 18 years old are a result of sports-related accidents, according to the American Association of Neurological Surgeons. Unfortunately, many high school players fail to recognize the signs of a traumatic brain injury, or downplay their symptoms in order to continue playing. The American Journal of Sports Medicine estimates three to four concussions occur each year in an average 50-player high school football team.

Traumatic Brain Injury in College and Professional Sports

Unlike the brains of high school athletes, college and professional sports players’ brains are fully developed. However, the blows they endure are much more powerful than those endured in high school sports. According to one study, the force to the head sustained by National Football League (NFL) football players is 98 times more powerful than the force of gravity.2

Most sports-related traumatic brain injuries come in the form of a concussion. The American Journal of Clinical Medicine defines concussion as “a trauma induced transient loss of normal mental function that lasts less than 24 hours.” Patients with concussions sometimes, but not always, lose consciousness.

The classification of concussions is an inexact science. However, for the sake of simplification, concussions are sometimes divided into three “grades.”3

Grade 1 concussion: A concussion in which alteration in mental status lasts less than 15 minutes. Patients experiencing a grade 1 concussion should cease participation in sporting activity immediately and be monitored for 15 minutes. Grade 1 patients should then see a physician and refrain from participating in sports until symptoms are absent for more than a week.

Grade 2 concussion: A concussion in which alteration in mental status lasts more than 15 minutes, not accompanied by loss of consciousness. Like grade 1 patients, grade 2 patients should cease participation in the sporting activity and see a doctor immediately. In addition, they should avoid returning to the activity until symptoms are absent for more than a month.

Grade 3 concussion: A concussion in which the patient loses consciousness for any period of time. Patients who lose consciousness should be immediately transported to an emergency facility. Some grade 3 patients will need to undergo a CT scan.

Athletes who experience multiple concussions will need to take extra measures to prevent undue brain injury. The measures taken depend on the severity of the concussions as well as individual circumstances.

Second Impact Syndrome

Following a concussion, the neurovascular system can struggle to respond to the body’s increased demands for energy. When a second injury occurs, the situation is compounded. One of the most dangerous potential aftereffects of TBI is second impact syndrome, or brain swelling that occurs after an athlete has suffered a second concussion before the first concussion has fully healed. This can result in the death of brain cells, in turn leading to severe and/or permanent brain damage. Second impact syndrome is often a fatal condition.

Patients who have sustained one concussion are four times more likely to sustain a second one.4 Some well-known football players have suffered several concussions over the course of their careers, including NFL quarterback Troy Aikman, who racked up more than 10 concussions.

Once an athlete has sustained a head injury, each subsequent traumatic brain injury needs more time for recovery. Subsequent injuries also cause more severe damage, often leading to devastating results. Brain damage caused by multiple concussions is called chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

Preventing Sports-Related Traumatic Brain Injury

Coaches and sports officials have recently taken several steps to encourage traumatic brain injury prevention. The National Athletic Trainers’ Association and the American Football Coaches Association have edited some of the regulations regarding head contact, including those aimed at regulating head-down and helmet contact more strictly.

Players are encouraged to purchase helmets that are approved by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). Players should also promptly replace any athletic equipment that is damaged, and rest if they have been injured or ill.

Coaches who fail to take the necessary safety precautions or allow for proper recovery after a head injury may be found negligent. To learn more about traumatic brain injury and TBI legal implications, continue reading All About Traumatic Brain Injury.

1Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
2The Denver Post
3American Journal of Clinical Medicine
4Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

March 29 2011
Glutathione and Detoxification

With so many man-made chemicals being released into the atmosphere and waterways, and added to foods and medications, you might wonder whether or not your body even knows what to do with such harsh materials when it comes into contact with them. After all, many of these toxic chemicals do not occur in nature, but are manufactured in the lab. Fortunately, your body has a natural, inborn detoxification system that relies primarily on glutathione for its activation and operation.

Glutathione is one of your body’s primary antioxidants (1). It is utilized by virtually every cell in your body, in its cellular enzymatic state (glutathione reductase), to maintain the cell’s healthy (redox) state and prevent the proliferation of harmful free radicals. Naturally, to aid detoxification, glutathione levels are highest in the liver and kidneys, which are the body’s primary detoxification organs.

Cellular detoxification is broken into three phases, and glutathione enhances these stages of detoxification in many ways:

Phase I (toxin modification) – Toxins are detected within the cell, and modified through oxidation and reduction reactions into forms the body can target.

Phase II (toxin conjugation) – Once a toxin is detected and modified, its activated metabolites are then bound to or “conjugated” directly to glutathione. There are other charged species in the body which may conjugate toxins, but glutathione is the primary contributor to this process. In fact, this process is termed “glutathione conjugation.” The conjugation of glutathione disables the toxic metabolites from diffusing across membranes, so that they are removed from the body in the next step.

Phase III (excretion) – This step relies upon enzymatic derivatives of glutathione, glutathione S-transferases (GSTs), to catalyze reactions in the body to metabolize and excrete the toxins.

All three building blocks of glutathione play important roles in the completion of the detoxification pathway.

As simple as this process may seem, your body unfortunately faces a number of challenges in maintaining effective and useful levels of glutathione, which may explain why there are so many toxicity-induced diseases prevalent in North America:

A bombardment of toxins causes your body’s stores of glutathione to be run down. Unfortunately, glutathione is part of the specific system designed to deal with environmental toxins! Therefore, as the body is exposed to harsh chemicals, heavy metals, and all xenobiotics, there is a negatively-spiraling wasting of glutathione, and subsequent accumulation of toxins in body tissues.

It’s very hard to obtain glutathione in the diet – or in supplementation form. Only a few vegetables such as spinach, broccoli, and carrots contain significant levels of dietary glutathione. However, it has been observed that the cooking of raw vegetables depletes their usable glutathione contents by nearly 100%. Similarly, the glutathione stores available in meat, dairy, and eggs, are only significant when the foods are in their raw forms (2). Oral supplementation with glutathione has not been proven to be effective, as it is largely destroyed in the body before it can be brought into the cells in usable form (3).

When we speak of environmental toxins, we are no longer just dealing with smoke from a wood-burning fire, fungal and mold toxins released from rotten food, rare poisons in the leaves of certain plants, or heavy metals found in water wells. Your body now has to ward off thousands of man-made chemicals used in food preservation (pesticides and herbicides), personal care products (petroleum bi-products), home cleaning products (benzene, chlorine, etc.) and much more.

Maximized Living’s DailyDetox relies on the enhancement of intracellular glutathione to accelerate detoxification, while taking these challenges into consideration to deliver a superior product:

DailyDetox is not an intense “flush” or “cleanse,” but rather a gentle and daily support system for the detox pathways, since not a day goes by that we are not bombarded by more chemicals.
CellDetox (step 1 of DailyDetox) supplies your body with the three building blocks of glutathione (L-cysteine through N-Acetyl cysteine, L-glutamic acid and glycine), plus the important vitamins (B2, B6, and selenium) necessary for glutathione synthesis in the body.
To enhance the body’s detoxification system beyond the glutathione pathways, BodyDetox (step 2 of DailyDetox) provides the body with super-activated carbon to bind any external toxins which may surpass the body’s limitations and to bind any toxins that may be trapped in fat-soluble bile, thereby preventing re-circulation of toxins into the body.

While the risks of many chemicals are well-documented, the dangers of many others are unknown. Although chemicals are often accepted to be “innocent until proven guilty,” this has not been their pattern in history. The North American epidemic of disease in the 21st century may have much less to do with nutrient deficiency and much more to do with chemical toxicity. For this reason, more North Americans are making DailyDetox their daily supplement of choice.

(1) Meister A, Anderson M (1983). “Glutathione”. Annu Rev Biochem 52: 711 – 60.
(2) Jones DP, Coates RJ, Flagg EW, et al. (1992). Glutathione in Foods listed in the National Cancer Institute’s Health Habits and History Food Frequency Questionnaire. Nutr Cancer 17: 57-75
(3) Witschi A, Reddy S, Stofer B, Lauterburg BH. The systemic availability of oral glutathione. Eur J Clin Pharmacol 1992;43(6):667-9.

Using nebulized Glutathione in GlutaCrine for Neurologic revitalization. Brain Power!

This is my video on how Nebulized GlutaCrine helped my knee arthritis pain and inflammation. It comes in Suppositories too. They really work!