Fifteen years ago, I had rapid improvement (within a few weeks) after several years of being bedbound, when I did several interventions at once, none involving any supplements. I can only remember two: starting an all-raw-food diet, and lying down resting until I didn't feel tired before and after any activity (three or four hours at a stretch, if necessary). This was the beginning of a ten-year remission and I'm wondering whether either of these things makes sense in terms of glutathione.
I've just watched Rich's excellent talk in Sweden in which he says (if memory serves) that some ME specialists had success with some PWME supplementing glutathione, but only as long as the supplementation continued. He also said that at the beginning of the SMP, glutathione may go down before it starts to come up and while that is happening, it may help to supplement with glutathione.
I googled a bit on raw food and glutathione and found this abstract (my bold):
Oddly enough, on the (commercial) NutritionAdvisor site where I found this, it says:
That page goes on to explain that glutathione in food is largely destroyed by cooking, and lists the cooked and raw glutathione content of some fruits and vegetables. There's a more extensive analysis of foods in this 1989 paper, which says that some glutathione does make it through the digestive system but it's unknown how much is aborbed.
I've just picked out a couple of papers from a swift google and they're over 20 years old, so they could be unrepresentative.
But, my questions:
*Is it worth eating lots of raw fruits and vegetables in an attempt to supplement glutathione, even if it's just to tide the body over the start of the SMP?
*Is it worth eating raw fruits and vegetables to get a glutathione boost anyway, even if it's not resolving the block in the methylation cycle?
*Is there a folic acid issue with green vegetables (I think Fred warned about this)?
*Does supplementation with glutathione really not raise levels in the body? If not, why were the ME clinicians having some temporary success with it?
*Presumably resting a lot means that glutathione isn't being used up as quickly and is putting less strain on a body with a methylation block. In theory, could you rest enough for the methylation block to fix itself, even without the SMP? Or at the very least, would a lot of rest be expected to help the SMP be a success?
I've just watched Rich's excellent talk in Sweden in which he says (if memory serves) that some ME specialists had success with some PWME supplementing glutathione, but only as long as the supplementation continued. He also said that at the beginning of the SMP, glutathione may go down before it starts to come up and while that is happening, it may help to supplement with glutathione.
I googled a bit on raw food and glutathione and found this abstract (my bold):
Eur J Clin Pharmacol. 1992;43(6):667-9.
The systemic availability of oral glutathione.
Witschi A, Reddy S, Stofer B, Lauterburg BH.
Source
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Bern, Switzerland.
When the plasma glutathione concentration is low, such as in patients with HIV infection, alcoholics, and patients with cirrhosis, increasing the availability of circulating glutathione by oral administration might be of therapeutic benefit. To assess the feasibility of supplementing oral glutathione we have determined the systemic availability of glutathione in 7 healthy volunteers. The basal concentrations of glutathione, cysteine, and glutamate in plasma were 6.2, 8.3, and 54 mumol.l-1 respectively. During the 270 min after the administration of glutathione in a dose of 0.15 mmol.kg-1 the concentrations of glutathione, cysteine, and glutamate in plasma did not increase significantly, suggesting that the systemic availability of glutathione is negligible in man. Because of hydrolysis of glutathione by intestinal and hepatic gamma-glutamyltransferase, dietary glutathione is not a major determinant of circulating glutathione, and it is not possible to increase circulating glutathione to a clinically beneficial extent by the oral administration of a single dose of 3 g of glutathione.
The systemic availability of oral glutathione.
Witschi A, Reddy S, Stofer B, Lauterburg BH.
Source
Department of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Bern, Switzerland.
When the plasma glutathione concentration is low, such as in patients with HIV infection, alcoholics, and patients with cirrhosis, increasing the availability of circulating glutathione by oral administration might be of therapeutic benefit. To assess the feasibility of supplementing oral glutathione we have determined the systemic availability of glutathione in 7 healthy volunteers. The basal concentrations of glutathione, cysteine, and glutamate in plasma were 6.2, 8.3, and 54 mumol.l-1 respectively. During the 270 min after the administration of glutathione in a dose of 0.15 mmol.kg-1 the concentrations of glutathione, cysteine, and glutamate in plasma did not increase significantly, suggesting that the systemic availability of glutathione is negligible in man. Because of hydrolysis of glutathione by intestinal and hepatic gamma-glutamyltransferase, dietary glutathione is not a major determinant of circulating glutathione, and it is not possible to increase circulating glutathione to a clinically beneficial extent by the oral administration of a single dose of 3 g of glutathione.
Oddly enough, on the (commercial) NutritionAdvisor site where I found this, it says:
Dietary forms of glutathione are efficiently absorbed into the blood, however the same is not true for glutathione supplements in humans.
That page goes on to explain that glutathione in food is largely destroyed by cooking, and lists the cooked and raw glutathione content of some fruits and vegetables. There's a more extensive analysis of foods in this 1989 paper, which says that some glutathione does make it through the digestive system but it's unknown how much is aborbed.
I've just picked out a couple of papers from a swift google and they're over 20 years old, so they could be unrepresentative.
But, my questions:
*Is it worth eating lots of raw fruits and vegetables in an attempt to supplement glutathione, even if it's just to tide the body over the start of the SMP?
*Is it worth eating raw fruits and vegetables to get a glutathione boost anyway, even if it's not resolving the block in the methylation cycle?
*Is there a folic acid issue with green vegetables (I think Fred warned about this)?
*Does supplementation with glutathione really not raise levels in the body? If not, why were the ME clinicians having some temporary success with it?
*Presumably resting a lot means that glutathione isn't being used up as quickly and is putting less strain on a body with a methylation block. In theory, could you rest enough for the methylation block to fix itself, even without the SMP? Or at the very least, would a lot of rest be expected to help the SMP be a success?