Glutathione & the Immune System

December 2, 2020 Ashley Turner

While the primary topic of this blog is regarding glutathione, we’re going to begin with a brief introduction to the human immune system. With it’s vastly complex processes, it can be a little exhausting to understand specific parts when there isn’t any given context.

The Immune System

On a macro scale, the human immune system is broken up into two separate components, the innate immune system and the acquired immune system. The innate portion is what we are born with – aspects of the immune system that don’t require any pre-exposure to a pathogen in order to be activated. An example of the innate immune system would be our stomach acid, which is responsible for not only digesting proteins, but also destroying any bugs that may be hiding in the foods that we consume.

The acquired immune system is just that – acquired. It’s required that we are pre-disposed to some pathogen prior to our body creating immune biochemical mediators that can attack and overcome that pathogen. An example of this would be the antibodies created to fight off the common cold. Ever wondered why it is that you might get the cold once a year, recover, and then never get it for a significant amount of time? That’s not due to you NEVER being exposed to the cold that year (also called rhinovirus), it’s because your body has created what are known as memory cells to fight off viral cells any time you come in contact with them, preventing you from being harmed.

Now, while there are other aspects of the immune system, such as cell mediated and humoral mediated immunity, the complement system, kinin system, and much more, there is one aspect that is responsible for our body’s ability to fight off the inflammatory consequence of our immune system – known as the antioxidant system.

The antioxidant system is comprised of several pathways and molecules, one of which being glutathione! Glutathione itself is the body’s primary antioxidant, having the job of clearing out large amounts of inflammation and damage from oxidative free radicals.

Free Radicals

What are free radicals though? These are compounds produced (under normal, physiological conditions) from the body that are essentially waste products. These waste products do not typically have any vital function for the betterment of our body, therefore we require the use of antioxidants such as glutathione to eliminate them. This is an essential process – the elimination of oxidative free radicals – because when they remain, they are able to cause further damage to surrounding tissues.

Oxidative free radicals are a pretty common occurrence in the body, so the mere presence of them does not necessarily indicate disease. However, it is the presence of excessive amounts of free radicals that we begin to see damage. In conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, Lyme disease, mold illness, and autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus, all have markedly increased levels of free radicals resulting in significantly more inflammation and damage. Even more pressing is the new growing body of literature showing how important supplementation with glutathione may be for minimizing the severity of inflammation and damage from COVID-19!

So What Exactly Does Glutathione Do?

Glutathione is a naturally formed antioxidant that is capable of removing inflammation and damage from oxygen based free radicals as stated before, but also heavy metal toxicity, peroxides, and even lipid peroxides. Glutathione is naturally synthesized in the liver and is considered an essential molecule for the body. It is formed through a two step process including the formation of gamma-glutamylcysteine (GCL)from L-glutamate, followed by the addition of glycine to GCL. The system that glutathione acts to eliminate oxidative stress from free radicals is called the glyoxalase system. While it’s not necessarily important to know the name, simply understand that this process involves glutathione deactivating free radicals, thus preventing them from damaging tissues.

Aside from elimination of damaging free radicals, glutathione is also required for the formation of other immune biochemicals such as leukotrienes (produced by white blood cells by oxidation of arachidonic acid to regulate immune responses) and prostaglandins (lipid compounds produced in every tissue for vasodilation and inflammation mediation). In addition, glutathione also plays a role in recognition of glutamate, a potent neurotransmitter to its receptors while also potentially acting as a neurotransmitter itself!

Overall, glutathione is capable of enhancing immune function by the elimination of oxygen based free radicals while also enhancing neurotransmitter function. Because of it’s many uses in conditions such as cancer, diabetes, COVID-19, and autoimmune diseases, we highly recommend many of our patients supplement with glutathione.

Have more questions about glutathione? Give us a call! We’d love to help you out in any way we can.