TREATMENT DATABASE

Glutathione is a tripeptide composed of glycine, cysteine, and glutamic acid. It is found in high concentrations in every tissue in the body. Glutathione is one of the three most powerful antioxidants and detoxification agents in the body, protecting tissues against damage from oxygen radicals such as hydrogen peroxide and superoxide. It also helps reduce injury caused by radiation, chemotherapy, heavy metals (mercury), and drugs (including cigarettes and alcohol). NAC (N-acetyl-L-cysteine), a precurser to glutathione, is an antidote to acetaminophen poisoning and helps deter the toxic effects of naphthalene, benzene, and anthracine. Low glutathione levels are associated with cataracts and muscle wasting diseases.

USES IN ME/CFS. A relationship between glutathione, muscle fatigue, low natural killer (NK) cell activity and ME/CFS was first proposed in 1997 by Droge and Holm, two scientists researching HIV in Heidelberg, Germany. Droge and Holm suggested cysteine supplementation as an adjunct to antiviral therapies to correct low glutathione. Expanding on their idea in 1999, two researchers at McGill University proposed that competition for glutathione between the immune system and skeletal muscles might be the cause of fatigue, muscle weakness, and pain in ME/CFS patients. More recently, Shungu et al found that glutathione levels were low in the cerebrospinal fluid of ME/CFS patients.

Some physicians have noted a striking improvement in their patients' symptoms, especially headache, within days of initiating glutathione treatment.

Treatment rating for Glutathione