Acetyl Glutathione questions

[DFams]

So I saw mention of Acetyl Glutathione in my other thread that I made and wanted to make a seperate thread asking about it specifically. Did some research after it was mentioned and sounds like something I really think I want to try... since it seems that my biggest issue atm is very likely glutathione deficiency.

So the questions are as follows...

1) Anyone actually try it? Seem like it was doing anything for you?
2) Best brand for it? Preferably one on Amazon, but if there's another that's particularly effective, I'd be interested... Also I know it's pricey, but I'm looking for effectiveness so whatever's best like $80 or under would be great.
3) Does it take a while to "build up" before it actually starts working, or works pretty fast?
4) My biggest complaint by far is... my digeston. It's awful... enzymes, acids, herbs, bitters, spicy stuff... all that stuff not only doesn't help, but makes my digestion and overall symptoms MUCH worse. And that goes for sour things... It seems to me that L-Glutathione is a 'bit' sour... (NAC is COMPLETELY out of the question, for instance, and doesn't help anyway).

So I'm wondering if anyone knows if S-Acetyl-Glutathione powder/tablet itself is also sour?

As long as it's something I can actually 'absorb' though, it seems that glutathione directly helps my digestion, and "protects me" further from things that cause these digestive issues... so I'm hoping it'll be a good outweighing the bad issue for once...
5) Has anyone have similar digestive issues, and improved with Acetyl Glutathione?

I feel like there's more I wanted to ask... but this was the main stuff. Would greatly appreciate any answers to these questions. Thinking about ordering it tomorrow.


EDIT: OH! I forgot... there was one more question...

There's a brand that uses "acid resistant caps". Does this actually in fact work... does it still absorb in the gut if these things are resistant like that? Or for that matter is the acid resistance even necessary?

They got good reviews, so I'm kinda thinking about buying them... but I already have very low stomach acid, so I hope it's still going to be ok?

 

[trishrhymes]

I'm curious about this too, having skimmed through some of the Maes papers posted earlier today, eg

The glutathione system: a new drug target in neuroimmune disorders.
Morris G1, Anderson G, Dean O, Berk M, Galecki P, Martin-Subero M, Maes M.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24752591

I gather there's a nasal spray and people with Parkinson's Disease are trying it.

Just found this with a quick google search:
Central nervous system uptake of intranasal glutathione in Parkinson’s disease
http://www.nature.com/articles/npjparkd20162

 

[DFams]

Right? It seems like extremely interesting stuff even regardless of glutathione deficiency.

I read about the parkinson's thing too, and it sounds great for people who have it. The nasal spray too sounds great but it seems to be something (at least in the US) that can only be gotten by prescription. I guess the prescribed treatments include nasal spray for at home use, a shot into the muscle for things like reducing chemo therapy side effects, and IV therapy for many chronic illnesses and extreme cases...

But the thing is, it seems like the IV treatment is given more commonly than even that. People with the money, and celebs even seem to be getting it as an "age and wrinkle reducer" or a "skin whitener". Most of which actually includes either the IV or shots...

Which is why it completely boggles my mind that I cannot get my primary care to properly look into this for me, much less actually test me for Glutathione deficiency (as I mentioned in my other thread), despite the fact that I've been clearly diagnosed with Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver disease, at least one (so far) polymorphism that can effect GSH levels, and very poor digestion and absorbtion. All of which can cause Glutathione deficiency, on their own.

So I have to take matters into my own hands, once again.

And atm I think the thing I'm worried the most about is whether I should get the "acid resistant caps" Acetyl Glutathione, or just normal Acetyl ones... I keep reading about problems people have with acid resistant caps (or enteric coating) just passing through their digestion completely intact. Or the opposite happening... low stomach acid meaning that they digest too soon anyway.

And me here with all my digestive issues, including low stomach acid, is thinking that these caps probably are a bad idea... if anyone cares to chime in on this particular point, I think it'd be the most helpful answer of all my questions.

 

[PeterPositive]

I have had digestive issues that sounds like yours, with low stomach acid, dysbiosis and chronic irritation ( but not inflammation according to multiple labs ). This in turn caused major abdominal discomfort, malabsorption, food intolerances (so many), low immunity etc... etc...

Initially I tried the classic remedies: bitters, probiotics, enzymes with no results and often times additional discomfort and misery.

I have found some supplements that help such as glutathione, L-Glutamine, zinc, B vitamins, vit E complex

As regards glutathione I have taken (and still take) regular GSH by Jarrow (1000-1500 mg/day). I have also tried the very expensive Acetyl form and it did nothing for me.

As a side note, the standard dosage for Acetyl-GSH is typically 300mg/day. I have tried pushing it up to 900mg and did not see any effect so I have gone back to Jarrow product.

I've also attempted the liposomal liquid form but the terrible smell of rotten eggs (due to cysteine, I presume) was just too much for me. Yuck!

I think there is a big connection with levels of nitric oxide as I had a pretty rough time when I was taking L-Arginine supplements. I got worse pretty quickly and was not able to recover until I stopped the supps.

So I guess part of the problem is excess NO and derivates causing chronic inflammation (or rather irritation, I think)

 

[DFams]

@ PeterPositive

Thank you for the response. Yes that all sounds very similar to my problems, except on top of it... I can't even digest or tolerate Zinc (anymore, it used to help... then it stopped), Glutamine, or Vit E at all. And almost all B vitamins now are giving me problems too... I have a hard time with pretty much everything there is.

Which is one of the many things that have lead me to conclude that I simply need more Glutathione (including the reason of trying it, and it actually helping ALL of my symptoms, digestion and otherwise, in ways nothing else ever has... until I was quickly unable to digest it too, being a type of fat (soy fat in liposomal GSH) that was particularly hard for me to digest to begin with). But yea, any type of "digestive aid", probiotics, enzymes, etc... either does nothing or makes it much worse. One more thing leading me to believe it's a Glutathione deficiency.

L-Glutathione from Jarrow does nothing for me at all, unfortunately... and being something that is slightly sour when I opened the pill and tried the powder, made me understand why it instead hurt my stomach just as bad as anything else sour does.

I'm curious though... What brand of Acetyl did you try? Maybe the brand itself just wasn't a very good one?

Or did you happen to use the ones with Acid Resistant caps that I mentioned? Trying to figure out if these would be of more benefit to me, or even less... And given all these digestive problems, seems far more likely to be less.

Matter of fact... have you ever tried 'any' acid resistant caps of 'any' supplement, or "enteric coating" to be precise, and noticed less benefit from it than the normal pill of the same supplement?

 

[PeterPositive]

@ PeterPositive

Thank you for the response. Yes that all sounds very similar to my problems, except on top of it... I can't even digest or tolerate Zinc (anymore, it used to help... then it stopped), Glutamine, or Vit E at all. And almost all B vitamins now are giving me problems too... I have a hard time with pretty much everything there is.

Well, I didn't go into the whole story, but I had the same issue. Could not tolerate even a few mgs of most supplements. For example zinc would give me lots of burning in the stomach at just 3-4 mgs. I was very frustrated and scared of taking anything.

The key for me was to start very low and go as slow as needed, no matter how slow it was. It took me almost 2 years to be able to tolerate B vitamins again. And 6 months for certain minerals.

Glutathione was not a problem when I started it, so I was able to take a decent dose from the get go.

I'm curious though... What brand of Acetyl did you try? Maybe the brand itself just wasn't a very good one?

Oh yes, that's possible. This is the product:
http://www.supersmart.com/en--Antioxidants--S-Acetyl-Glutathione-100-mg--0640
Being so expensive I wasn't very keen on trying another brand

Or did you happen to use the ones with Acid Resistant caps that I mentioned? Trying to figure out if these would be of more benefit to me, or even less... And given all these digestive problems, seems far more likely to be less.

No I believe this product uses regular caps.

Matter of fact... have you ever tried 'any' acid resistant caps of 'any' supplement, or "enteric coating" to be precise, and noticed less benefit from it than the normal pill of the same supplement?

Gee, I've tried so much stuff that I must have, at some point, stumbled upon those enteric coated ones
Unfortunately I don't remember having noticed anything specific. Most of the stuff I take uses standard capsules.

 

[Hip]

This is an interesting study on S-acetyl-glutathione:

Effects of S-acetylglutathione in cell and animal model of herpes simplex virus type 1 infection

Some excerpts (and note these abbreviations: glutathione = GSH, and S-acetyl-glutathione = S-GSH):

Intracellular glutathione (GSH) plays an important regulatory role in the host response to viral infections. Replenishment of intracellular GSH is a desirable yet challenging goal, since systemic GSH supplementation is rather inefficient due to a short half-life of GSH in blood plasma.

GSH is not taken up by cells directly, but needs to be broken down into amino acids and resynthesized to GSH intracellularly, this process often being impaired during viral infections.

These obstacles may be overcome by a novel glutathione derivative S-acetylglutathione (S-GSH), which is more stable in plasma and taken up directly by cells with subsequent conversion to GSH.

In cell culture, viral infection resulted in a significant decrease of intracellular GSH levels. S-GSH efficiently and dose-dependently (5 and 10 mM tested) restored intracellular GSH, and this replenishment was more efficient than with GSH supplementation.

In mice, S-GSH, but not GSH, significantly decreased HSV-1-induced mortality ( P<0.05). The data suggest that S-GSH is a suitable antiviral agent against HSV-1 both in vitro and in vivo, indicating that this drug may be of benefit in the adjunctive therapy of HSV-1 infections.

 

[PeterPositive]

Just noticed that Jarrow is now making the Acetyl form of GSH:
http://www.iherb.com/Jarrow-Formulas-S-Acetyl-L-Glutathione-100-mg-60-Tablets/70842
and it is sold at a reasonable price.

Over here in Europe it's not as cheap as in the US ... but I may try it again some day. I have seen bottles of Acetyl-GSH, 60 capsules at 120-140€ and a average of 60-70€! No way josè, unless it makes me feel so good that I can run half a marathon

Jarrow seems like a good brand, the products I've tried seems pretty effective and prices are not excessive. Unfortunately they keep using magnesium stearate in all their products... that's the only criticism I have with them.

 

[frederic83]

@DFams I have the same problem as you, I can't stand the supps with a lot GI problems, gastritis and IBS. I'm positive for EBV. I tried a small dose of copper a few days ago, and I felt depressed. But I have a reaction with most of the supps.

@PeterPositive Is there a difference between S-acetyl-glutathione and acetyl-glutathione? You are saying that it is the simple glutathione form that helped you, right?

@Hip Very interesting paper, so for HSV-1, and maybe other herpes virus, S-acetyl-glutathione should be better than glutathione. I want to try it.

 

[Hip]

@DFams I have the same problem as you, I can't stand the supps with a lot GI problems, gastritis and IBS. I'm positive for EBV. I tried a small dose of copper a few days ago, and I felt depressed. But I have a reaction with most of the supps.

You can try taking supplements transdermally. I few years ago I had problems with oral copper and zinc supplements: they would always cause a stomach ache. So I crushed the tablets into a fine powder, and applied the powder on my skin, adding a few drops of water to help the absorption process.

 

[PeterPositive]

@frederic83

@PeterPositive Is there a difference between S-acetyl-glutathione and acetyl-glutathione? You are saying that it is the simple glutathione form that helped you, right?

As far as I know only the S isomer (S-Acetyl-Glutathione) is available on the market.

Yes, for me the standard GSH by Jarrow provided tangible (and positive) effects while the S-Acetyl didn't. Maybe I will try it again in the future, if I can find the Jarrow S-Acetyl-GSH product.

 

[frederic83]

@DFams @PeterPositive Which brands of lyposomal glutathione have you used ?

 

[gbells]

SAG is an awesome supplement for adults because they made it when they were younger but it turns off in adult age. Glutathione is the most potent antioxidant in humans. I started taking it yesterday an it decreased my vitamin C intake about 66%.