Archive for the ‘Glutathione’ Category

Avoiding Blood Transfusions May Save Your Life!

Tuesday, December 1st, 2009

Avoiding Blood Transfusions May Save Your Life! That is right.

Consider this article in Digital Journal

There are a lot of Bad Blood Diseases. Transfusions can spread over 47 different diseases. Being properly treated with out blood could protect you from these and a host of new diseases that are not yet screen-able.

Science is saying that boosting your Glutathione is a viable way to not only improve blood counts, it may protect you from the many diseases seroverting within your body. A win-win treatment that can help you avoid blood transfusions, if, and only if, your doctor is trained and skilled in treating with out blood.

Good Health to you.

It’s Peak Persimmion Season: Boost Your Glutathione with this Fun Food

Friday, October 30th, 2009

Have you ever tried persimmons? They are a fun food.

They are also a glutathione boosting food too.

In addition to being a food with vitamin A, C, Copper and B6, they have lutein. Lutein is essential for eye health and may lower your risk for cataracts.

They also have more fiber than any other fruit except blackberries and raspberries.

If you count callories, they only have 120.

How do you know if it is ripe?

Hachiya persimmons should be deep red-orange in color and so soft that it might feel like it will be damaged if you pick it up. Oh yea, you eat them with a spoon.

If you find the Fuyu persimmons, they will still be firm when they are ripe.

Unlike supplements, it is unlikely you will overdose on the vitamins when taken as your food. The bonus is that it helps boost your glutathione as well.

In one study using rats, dried persimmons were found to increase the antioxidant glutathione levels. They should be a seasonal part of your glutathione boosting diet.

Enjoy.

Good health to you.

Cholesterol, Cafestol, Coffee, Cancer and Glutathione

Tuesday, October 20th, 2009

What do cholesterol, cafestol, coffee, cancer and glutathione all have in common.

They are an example of how a little knowledge can get you in trouble. Yes, there are some health benefits from coffee.

If you heard about a study from the Netherlands (and others) that when the hot water hits the ground coffee beans, a chemical called cafestol is released. Here is the good and bad news.

One cup of coffee can contain 4 mg of cafestol which could make the cholesterol rise by as much as one percent. The simple solution is to use a paper filter. Paper totally blocks the cafestol. Thus no raise in cholesterol.

However, another study found that cafestol and kahweol, both found in unfiltered coffee, act as antioxidants and may have a cancer protective effect.

To Be Coffee or Not to Be Coffee, Filtered That Is?

In my travels, it seems that paper filters are mostly used in the US. Most of the world does not seem to use paper filters. (If you know of data on this, please let me know).

Drinking coffee (most likely unfiltered) has been associated with reducing the risk of liver injury and cirrhosis. This is a major pathogenic step on the road to liver related cancers. Increased coffee consumption around the world is associated with a reduced number of cirrhosis although it has not been proven to be the reason for this.

One thing we do know, cafestol kicks the glutathione system into high gear.

Before you do or do not filter your coffee, think about this.

If you carried the negative aspects of this to its logical conclusion, if you drank a cup of unfiltered coffee daily and every day it raised your cholesterol by one percent where would you be in a month. Two months. What about six months.

So although it raises the cholesterol level, those levels must also go down. So if your otherwise eating a healthy diet, this should not cause any harm. If your trying to reduce your cholesterol, only drink coffee made with paper filters.

Expresso Health Benefits vs Risks

Like wise, if you drink five cups of expresso a day (which is not filtered), the overdosing of the various otherwise protective chemicals could possibly predispose you to increased risk of some diseases like Parkinson’s. The Parkinson’s connection was discovered in an 18 year study. There needs to be more testing on it to confirm the findings but this should be enough to, at the very least, be cautious as to how much coffee you give to your pet lab rats or your husband (depending on how you feel about them tomorrow morning).

The bottom line, all things in moderation.

TIP For Paper Filter Users: I found that by using two paper filters and two scoops (like come with the coffee) per the 8 cup marking of water, the coffee will end up tasting a bit stronger with out having to put more coffee in the hopper.

To really amp up the taste by buying some of the more expensive coffee and bending one scoop of the expensive with the less expensive it provide a better taste at a reduced price.

Want the benefits of cafestol in your coffee maker. Get a screen. You will save on the cost of paper filters and save the environment form a tiny bit of trash.

Green Tip: Use the coffee grounds as fertilizer for both plants and your shrubs. Just dump the used grounds at the base directly on the ground. I know my rhodendrum love this.

Good health to you (and your shrubs)

N-Acetylcysteine Side Effects of the NAC Glutathione Potentiator

Monday, October 19th, 2009

We have updated the side effects of n-acetylcysteine.

I am amazed at how may distributors of the various products, even in the health food stores will blindly tell how wonderful they are and there is nothing to worry about. They do not realize that they could be inadvertently practicing medicine with out a license. Even worse, their suggestions could harm their patients.

It is always wise to run anything you want to take by your doctor or pharmacist. Always.

Why?

One example is N-Acetylcyteine or NAC. Some people are potentially allergic to NAC. In the case of diabetics, NAC and its sulfhydryl metabolites, like other sulfhydryl-containing substances, could produce a false-positive result in the nitroprusside test for ketone bodies used in diabetes.

Check out some of the additional reasons to be careful in the link below.

First, this is not an anti-NAC post. NAC is a truly wonderful suppplement. Only be smart about how you use it, especially if you are already on other medications, end up in the hospital in an emergency, or are taking it for health reasons.

The glutathione boosting effect of NAC is associated with treating or helping over 69 different diseases or conditions. Don’t let it get a bad rap because of not using it right.

Good health to you.

side effects of n-acetylcysteine.

Health Care Politics, Glutathione and The Flat Earth Paradox

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

Healthcare politics is often bound by the flat earth thinking. The flat Earth thinking attributed to Christopher Columbus was actually based on a fictional writing. They knew the earth was round. But I digress. This is from GlutathioneDiseaseCure.com

I always recommend that when you hear the words, “What doctors do not want you to know” run in the opposite direction. They are often cons. However, there is still the question of why doctors do not embrace many of the natural ways of improving health. This is one theory and is only about a few, and certainly not all doctors.

Read on….

Even with over 80,000 studies showing benefits, there is still limited use of cysteine for building glutathione (GSH) by the health care profession. The thinking of those who refuse to consider the evidence is similar to those who continue to believe that people in the dark ages believed the earth was flat. It might be called the Flat Earth Paradox.

The flat Earth concept or more accurately, the ‘Myth of the Flat Earth’ (conceptions of a flat Earth actually did exist in ancient Babylon, Egypt, pre-Classical Greece and pre-17th century China) illustrates how mankind limits their thinking ability and structures their beliefs on what they hear and believe, not necessarily science. This kind of thinking influences health care politics.

Before looking at the Flat Earth Paradox, consider what GSH is.

Your good health is dependent on GSH levels. A number of the studies have found a commonality when the human body is in a disease state. Many conditions and diseases are associated with low cysteine and glutathione levels otherwise known as ‘Low CG Syndrome.

What is glutathione?

Glutathione is the body’s master antioxidant. What this means is that any antioxidant we supplement our body with will only be effective if our level of glutathione is sufficient. Reports in the media point to numerous ‘benefits’ relating to glutathione and cysteine. The only thing, research indicates that you cannot benefit from just taking GSH. The only way to boost the GSH in your body is to provide the building blocks in the diet to help your body make it.

Dr. Luc Montignier, who was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine, has drawn attention to the promising benefits of glutathione boosting supplements in treating AIDS. At this writing there are several products that claim to boost glutathione levels in North America and a few in Europe.

Elevating intercellular glutathione has been associated with successfully treating numerous diseases. This elevation is accomplished by taking in the foods or supplements that provide the building blocks, chief of which is cysteine. Some benefit has been found by taking the co-factors of glutathione.

What are cysteine and glutathione? What are their functions? Since they are associated with successfully treating diseases like HIV, AIDS, mesothelioma, Stage IV lung cancer and autism, why have few heard of them?

Health Care Politics and the Flat Earth Myth

The flat earth paradox can explain why glutathione and cysteine are not as common as the word cholesterol is today. It also explains why health care politics has not considered it as a modality.

Were you taught that in addition to sailing the ocean blue in 1494, Columbus also established that the earth was not flat?

Throughout the 20th century, the majority of us believed in this myth. It is actually a myth that men in the dark ages thought that the earth was flat. The fact is, that is not true. They knew the earth was round.

It is believed the ancient Hebrews of the Bible knew it to be a sphere. Scripture was later misapplied to say it was flat.

Several hundred years after the Bible indicated this scientific fact Aristotle (384-322 BC) said it was common knowledge. Then a few hundred years into the future (220 BCE), Eratosthenes of Cyrene accurately estimated the Earth’s diameter (He was off by about 4,000 Kilometers but who is counting when your measuring by a mans stride.)

Yet Columbus faced a daunting task to convince everyone he was not going to sale off the edge of the earth. At least that was the belief about the 19th century, thanks to Washington Irving’s fantasy, The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus, published in 1828. So either the myth (Irving’s fiction), belief in the myth (as we did last century), or lack of knowledge of what people held as truth is really a myth (ignorance that it was an urban legend on a global scale) all illustrate a paradox. In spite of the evidence to the contrary, people believed what they believed for various reasons.

Even if it was for a lack of accurate knowledge and or even if there was science to back it up, they still believed the Dark Ages held that the earth was flat. Why? Because that is what they believe.

They are Flat-earthers. The Flat-earthers did not go away.

Move into the future about 300 years. From the year 1747 until 1795 Dr. James Lind with super human effort worked to overcome the flat earth paradox of his time. The prejudice and antipathy of the political establishment was reluctant to consider anything other than what they believed to be true. With the first clinical trial in medicine, he proved that scurvy could not only be treated, but could be prevented with raw lemons.

Some wanting to hold on to their flat earth like beliefs cooked the lemons and with the subsequent failure said, “…see, they do not work.” Even though he had scientific proof, it still took years to change the thinking of the establishment.

What about today? Health care politics is often the reason scientific application lags behind scientific research. Where you find a lack of forward momentum, you will find flat-earthers.

You will stumble across them everywhere. Just ask your doctor what he thinks about Bloodless Medicine and Surgery (doing major surgery such as liver transplants with out blood transfusions). If he says he does not ‘believe in’ them, then he is a flat-earther.

First, bloodless medicine is a science, not a religion.

Thousands of medical journal articles and high level studies have demonstrated and proved that blood does not necessarily save lives. To quote Dr. Richard Spence, one of the modern day Dr. Lind’s, ” There are no high level studies that prove blood saves lives. The studies actually show the opposite. From any to the more blood you receive, the greater the morbidity and mortality.”

Flat-earthers are everywhere. They are especially notable in health care politics. You can find them in our most intelligent leaders in both health care, science and politics. Yet there are forward thinking mythical Columbus’s and Eratosthenes who can see beyond the health care horizon.

One method of boosting GSH has been scientifically proven and is currently medically approved. It is even listed in the Physicians Desk Reference. Interestingly, it is the only listing that prestigious book that is a food supplement, not a drug. The best way to boost GSH in the body comes from foods and natural supplements.

Numerous studies demonstrate that increasing glutathione through dietary means has benefits for over 67 diseases so far. Here we are on the frontiers of knowledge looking back to the words of Hippocrates. He said, “Let food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be thy food.”

Health care politics aside, the next time you think of Columbus, those who thought the earth was flat, those who do not know that it was only a myth or do not want to know, remember that you have a choice. Will future history can look at you as being among those who held on to the myth of the flat Earth thinking?

Or will you be one spoken of as one of those who can see beyond the horizon, farther than the frontiers of knowledge, past the Flat Earth Paradox? If you look carefully, there on the horizon of the future, you might just see it, the glutathione disease cure.

How do I Boost my Glutathione?

Why Conflicting Studies on Green Tea and Cancer Prevention? The Glutathione Key May be the Answer.

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

Are you skeptical or do you believe every health food thing you hear? What happens when there is conflicting information?

One study says green tea prevents cancer. Another says it does not. Yet another says it could promote cancer. Which do you believe? How can we know?

There is a mindless middle that we fail to think about. That middle is called balance.

Modern medicine is not good nor bad. Holistic and Natural are not good or bad. However, anything taken to an extreme can be bad. What if there was a middle in between the two extremes. A middle between modern medicine and all natural.

When looking at the natural cures, there needs to be balance. I have seen the extremes of natural health care, usually at 10 PM in the Emergency Room of one of the hospitals where I am a nurse. Using natural cures to an extreme can cause extreme health problems. This frustrates the doctors who have to try to rescue these folks.

Have you ever wondered why doctors don’t jump on the natural cures band wagon? When you see lives destroyed and you have to try to save them, wouldn’t you also think the natural to be a dangerous form of health care.

I have also seen patients be admitted with 27 different medications. The medical management doc will remove them from all but two or three. The patients feel better within a day or two. And I never see them for at least 6 months to a year when they are back on 27 medications.

What if there was a mindless middle that we are all missing?

Mindless because it is sometimes so simple we just do not think about it. Mindless because sometimes we are like the five blind scientist doing a clinical study of an elephant Read about them here. Each has their own definition of what an elephant is.

They fail to see the whole picture.

What is the green tea whole picture?

Consider one review of all the studies on Green Tea and cancer prevention. You can read the abstract online. It is called….Green tea (Camellia sinensis) for the prevention of cancer.

Based on this overview, there are some things we need to know. Apparently, too much of a good thing is not a good thing. Limit green tea intake to three to five cups a day.
Which is the best green tea we cannot say at this time. However, we are trying to research this further.

Does green tea prevent cancer?

The studies are conflicting. We do know that green tea is a powerful antioxidant. Science has also shown that the antioxidant system only works as good as our current glutathione levels are. Glutathione is the key that helps antioxidants work. Decreased glutathione means decreased effectiveness of antioxidants.

The studies were geographically local. So, if you consider that a diet in one part of the world is rich in glutathione co-factors and in another part it is not, then we could have another clue as to the differences in the studies.

Does green tea help? Most likely it does if you do not overdose and if it is part of an immune boosting diet or you use supplements that help build glutathione.

So, drink up and enjoy. Boost your glutathione and not only enjoy the tea, enjoy good health.

Good health to you and yours.

Black Strap Molasses: Iron Increases Glutathione and More

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2009

Iron is one of the elements that helps the body in numerous ways. Black strap molasses is one of the best dietary sources of iron. Iron increases the bodies ability to make glutathione.

Black Strap Molasses not only delivers the iron in the most absorbable form, it comes with a built in stool softener. This makes it the antithesis of iron pills which are poorly absorbed and bind up the gut. Also those little pills are responsible for the deaths of numerous children who think they are candy.

Iron For Increase

For those who want to avoid blood transfusions, it is one of the fastest and safest ways to increase your red blood cell count if used with other essentials.

In addition to providing the building blocks for red blood cell production, it is a unique cofactor of glutathione production. Although there are no studies to look at what to take when, what is known is that adding it to your diet will help your body to more efficiently turn cysteine into GSH.

Patients in the hospital where this is used get one table spoonful three times a day, and often with a spoon full of peanut butter mixed in.

Increase in Energy

The carbohydrates in blackstrap molasses can quickly be turned into energy, unlike any other supplement. If you want the ultimate energy drink with numerous other health benefits, try hot lemonade and sweeten with a spoonful of black strap molasses.

It will be a fraction of the cost of many energy drinks on the market. Warning, do not drink it after early afternoon or night time sleep will be difficult. Also, take it on the weekend when your free to see how your body reacts. It also will act as one of the most effective colon cleanses anywhere.

Other Increases….

The next posting will consider some of the other increases that iron promotes.

Glutathione Side Effects: There is Only One.

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

People often ask what are the glutathione side effects. There is only one that is known to science. It will be at the end of this post. First, there are a few things you need to know.

It is a bit of a wrong question as what they most likely want to know is what are the side effects of cysteine.

Glutathione is a naturally occurring antioxidant within our body. To take oral glutathione results in very little benefit. This is because studies show that the gut breaks it down and makes it into a form that the body is not able to absorb.

Oh yes, as to the skin whitening, There were no, not one high level studies that shows that glutathione whitens your skin. The thing that makes our skin dark actually is part of the mechanism that protects us and is part of the glutathione production.

If your red from sunburn, then cysteine can indeed whiten your skin from the red of the burn. This is because it helps the body heal the burn.

As to the side effects of glutathione, there is basically only one for oral glutathione.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1362956

A PubMed article: The Systemic Availability of Oral Glutathione has an interesting take on this.

It starts off by addressing what is now known as low CG syndrome. In HIV infection, alcoholics, and patients with cirrhosis, there is a decrease of glutathione.

So the hypothesis was presented that increasing the availability of circulating glutathione by oral administration might benefit such patients.

To check out if it would work, they gave a supplement of oral glutathione to 7 healthy volunteers.

The result….The researchers found that 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 glutathione.

Because the body does not absorb it, there are no side effects reported on.

It should be noted that sometimes when you read that foods have glutathione in them, this may be a marketing ploy. Actually these are often new findings as books over a few years ago do not list these foods as having glutathione.

So, why are they saying this. Well, some foods do have cysteine. This is one of the main precursors of glutathione.

The Glutathione Diet has the foods rich in the glutathione potentiatator cysteine.

Oh yes, the one side effect. Oral glutathione has been associated with extreme and needless pain in the wallet syndrome, also known as parting with your money for nothing syndrome.

In some circles it is viewed as a enabling and co-dependency problem. This is because those who are afflicted with this are often supporting a market that is taking their money and providing no benefit.

Can you spell con artist.

Most do not even realize the condition exists because they are experiencing a placebo effect. If your going to spend the money, why not go for the better quality cysteine supplements. There are several on the market. Two are even listed in the physicians desk reference and are used in the hospital.

If there were a better way, it would start with life style and diet changes.

Good health to you and yours.