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Glutathione Side Effects and Drawbacks
I've been doing a lot of writing on glutathione, it's health benefits, some of the functions it provides in the body, and the confusion surrounding glutathione especially in the realm of side effects. Why is there confusion? The reason is because of the definition of side effect. Glutathione has a particular "side effect" on the skin that some people don't count as a side effect at all, but rather as the reason for taking it. Glutathione has the effect of blocking melanin and reducing the color of skin pigmentation. Certain cosmetic products have begun adding glutathione in order to enhance this "side effect" on the skin. They claim that glutathione, in reducing pigmentation, returns a youthful rosiness to the cheeks, reduces blemishes and dark spots, among other things.
So it really depends on a person's opinion as to whether glutathione has negative side effects or not. But what about taking glutathione in pill form through supplements and not inside of a cosmetic product? Does glutathione have side effects this way as well? That is what we'll talk about in the next section. It takes a little bit of understanding about glutathione in order to answer that question.
Glutathione has been shown in clinical trials not to be very bio-active in supplement form, meaning that the body can't absorb very much of it into the bloodstream. In fact, some clinical studies have indicated that it's impossible to increase glutathione levels just from taking it as a supplement. That's the reason that most glutathione supplements you'll see contain compounds such as Alpha Lipoic Acid and Milk Thistle, because chemicals like these have been shown to also raise levels of glutathione in the body. So you can see then that it's difficult to answer the question of what are the possible glutathione side effects, because a lot of it depends on what other chemicals are taken with it, and what glutathione is taken for.
Most people take glutathione for its antioxidant properties. Glutathione has been called a master antioxidant because it's the most abundant antioxidant used in the cell. But most of the time, the cell produces glutathione in ready supply. In fact, each cell in the body is able to create glutathione. It's a very simple compound, being made of a string of only 3 amino acids and very small. Glutathione has also become popular due to its cleansing properties. It helps to detoxify and support the liver, ridding the body of harmful toxins and heavy metals such as lead and mercury. Milk Thistle, which is often taken along with glutathione, is also known to be a liver supporting compound and is often taken by itself for that very reason. So it isn't surprising that the two compounds are related.
If you're worried about glutathione side effects, you probably shouldn't be. The only reported side effect is the lightening of the pigmentation of the skin. But this is actually quite difficult to achieve. Those who take glutathione supplements expressly for this purpose often have to take high doses of glutathione in conjunction with large amounts of vitamin C for up to 6 months before seeing any effect. Since glutathione is so abundant inside the body and since it's so difficult to absorb through supplementation, there aren't any reported side effects when taken at normal, recommended levels. I've left you a link to a supplement that has both Milk Thistle and Alpha Lipoic Acid along with it to help raise glutathione levels in the body. Best of luck!
By Ben Mester
I've been doing a lot of writing on glutathione, it's health benefits, some of the functions it provides in the body, and the confusion surrounding glutathione especially in the realm of side effects. Why is there confusion? The reason is because of the definition of side effect. Glutathione has a particular "side effect" on the skin that some people don't count as a side effect at all, but rather as the reason for taking it. Glutathione has the effect of blocking melanin and reducing the color of skin pigmentation. Certain cosmetic products have begun adding glutathione in order to enhance this "side effect" on the skin. They claim that glutathione, in reducing pigmentation, returns a youthful rosiness to the cheeks, reduces blemishes and dark spots, among other things.
So it really depends on a person's opinion as to whether glutathione has negative side effects or not. But what about taking glutathione in pill form through supplements and not inside of a cosmetic product? Does glutathione have side effects this way as well? That is what we'll talk about in the next section. It takes a little bit of understanding about glutathione in order to answer that question.
Glutathione has been shown in clinical trials not to be very bio-active in supplement form, meaning that the body can't absorb very much of it into the bloodstream. In fact, some clinical studies have indicated that it's impossible to increase glutathione levels just from taking it as a supplement. That's the reason that most glutathione supplements you'll see contain compounds such as Alpha Lipoic Acid and Milk Thistle, because chemicals like these have been shown to also raise levels of glutathione in the body. So you can see then that it's difficult to answer the question of what are the possible glutathione side effects, because a lot of it depends on what other chemicals are taken with it, and what glutathione is taken for.
Most people take glutathione for its antioxidant properties. Glutathione has been called a master antioxidant because it's the most abundant antioxidant used in the cell. But most of the time, the cell produces glutathione in ready supply. In fact, each cell in the body is able to create glutathione. It's a very simple compound, being made of a string of only 3 amino acids and very small. Glutathione has also become popular due to its cleansing properties. It helps to detoxify and support the liver, ridding the body of harmful toxins and heavy metals such as lead and mercury. Milk Thistle, which is often taken along with glutathione, is also known to be a liver supporting compound and is often taken by itself for that very reason. So it isn't surprising that the two compounds are related.
If you're worried about glutathione side effects, you probably shouldn't be. The only reported side effect is the lightening of the pigmentation of the skin. But this is actually quite difficult to achieve. Those who take glutathione supplements expressly for this purpose often have to take high doses of glutathione in conjunction with large amounts of vitamin C for up to 6 months before seeing any effect. Since glutathione is so abundant inside the body and since it's so difficult to absorb through supplementation, there aren't any reported side effects when taken at normal, recommended levels. I've left you a link to a supplement that has both Milk Thistle and Alpha Lipoic Acid along with it to help raise glutathione levels in the body. Best of luck!
By Ben Mester