Glutathione May Have Major Benefits For Your Skin, Nails, And Hair
You’ve probably heard at some point that antioxidants are important for your overall health and for protecting your body from inflammation. But you may be a little fuzzy on specific antioxidants, and that's fair. There’s one in particular that has a lot of buzz surrounding it right now: glutathione. It’s been dubbed the “master antioxidant,” and everyone is raving about glutathione benefits.
Glutathione is a protein made in the liver and is involved in several processes. “One of the things it does is neutralizes free radicals. It also detoxifies drugs and other toxins in your body,” explains Jamie Alan, PharmD, PhD, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University. (Free radicals, ICYMI, are unstable atoms that can damage your cells.)
When everything is working the way it should, your body can make its own glutathione to support bodily functions, says Jaclyn Tolentino, DO, a functional medicine doctor at Parsley Health. Basically, this is an important antioxidant to have in your body. “This is known as glutathione recycling,” she says. “When done right, it’s a virtuous cycle: Create the optimum conditions for glutathione recycling and the glutathione will help keep you healthy.”
But, in certain situations, glutathione levels can decline. those can include:
aging
chronic disease
poor nutrition and GI health
exposure to high levels of certain pollutants or toxins
chronic alcohol use
ongoing stress of everyday life
certain medications
In some cases, you may benefit from supplementing with glutathione. And, in general, it’s considered safe to take a glutathione supplement every day, Alan says. Also, notes that supps are not regulated by the FDA, so what's in a bottle may not be the same as what's marketed on the label.
Meet the experts: Jamie Alan, PharmD, PhD, is an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Michigan State University. She is cross-trained in genetics, biochemistry, cell biology, and more. She also specializes in drug targeting, development, and design.
Jaclyn Torentino, DO, is a family medicine physician with a subspecialty certification in hormone optimization. She is also deeply interested in nutrition and using it to prevent diseases.
So what can glutathione do for your health, exactly? Here’s a breakdown of the major perks.
1. It can reduce oxidative stress.
Oxidative stress is a condition in your body that happens when there is an imbalance between free radicals and antioxidants. When there are not enough antioxidants, free radicals are left to run wild and can wreak havoc in your body, including damaging your DNA and impeding normal cell function. Oxidative stress has been linked with a slew of chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes, according to research.
“Glutathione is a potent free radical scavenger,” Alan says, which means it can hunt down free radicals before they cause oxidative damage and oxidative stress.
2. It can support your body’s healing process.
Glutathione has been proposed as a potential treatment for COVID-19 to prevent the severe inflammatory process triggered by the virus, but more research is needed to look into whether it can really help.
3. It may mitigate cell damage in the liver.
Your liver sees almost everything that comes into your body, Alan says, making it an incredibly important organ. “Glutathione will reduce free radicals, which can directly damage cells,” she explains. “Glutathione can also be added to toxins and compounds to detoxify them, which is done in the liver.” So, taking glutathione may help support good liver function.
4. It may alleviate symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.
“The hallmarks of conditions like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease include progressive damage to brain tissue with higher levels of oxidative stress and inflammation,” Dr. Tolentino says. Increasing levels of glutathione in the body may help slow down the rate of progressive neural tissue damage in these conditions, a 2014 study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease found. But Dr. Tolentino notes that more research is needed on this one.
5. It can lessen the impact of uncontrolled diabetes.
Uncontrolled diabetes can create oxidative stress and damage to tissue in organs like your eyes, kidneys, nerves, and more, Dr. Tolentino says. And, she says, people with diabetes can have low levels of glutathione due to the increased demand of its use for antioxidant support. Some studies have shown that glutathione supplementation may be beneficial in limiting tissue damage in diabetes.
6. It may support your skin’s elasticity.
This goes back to glutathione’s ability to fight oxidative stress, Dr. Tolentino says. “Our skin, which is the largest organ in our body, is often our first line of defense against our environment,” she points out. In a 2017 study in Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology, supplementing with 250 milligrams of glutathione a day tended to increase skin elasticity compared with controls.
7. It can lower your risk of developing fine lines and wrinkles.
Glutathione has also been associated with a lower risk of developing fine lines and wrinkles and even helping with getting rid of existing wrinkles. One study found that people who took 250 milligrams of glutathione a day had a significant reduction in wrinkles compared to people who took a placebo.
8. It may strengthen your nails and hair.
Similar to glutathione’s potential ability to boost your skin health, the antioxidant may also help support healthy nails and hair. Why? Dr. Tolentino again cites its ability to fight oxidative stress.
9. It could help with insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance is what happens when the cells in your muscles, fat, and liver don't respond well to insulin and can't use glucose (i.e., sugar) from your blood for energy, per the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK). This can lead to prediabetes, a condition that can happen before you develop full-blown diabetes. “Studies have shown that glutathione supplementation may be beneficial in diabetes prevention,” Dr. Tolentino says.
10. It may boost your energy levels.
One study showed that older people living in a community setting (like nursing homes or assisted living) who had higher levels of glutathione were in better health, and that lower levels of glutathione was associated with energy depletion.
All that said, there needs to be a lot more robust research to say for sure whether glutathione delivers on all of these benefits. The good news is the supplement is quite safe to take, according to experts. Just make sure to check with your primary care doctor before adding one to your regimen, especially if you're taking medications on a regular basis.
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