What is Glutathione

It’s almost impossible to overstate the importance of glutathione for optimum health and it plays a key role in The New Science of Longevity. A sulphuric tripeptide, glutathione consists of cysteine, glycine and glutamic acid and is found in high dosage in every cell of our bodies. Life cannot exist without it!

Produced by the liver, glutathione plays a major role in detoxification even of heavy metals such as mercury. The sulphur component is sticky allowing for toxins and heavy metals to stick to it and in this way be eliminated by the body in the bile or stool. 

As the body’s master antioxidant, it is critical in reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, both of which have been shown to be precursors of disease and ageing, and because of its unique ability to recycle itself, glutathione can continue working to protect cells from damage and disease.

An understanding of this highlights how critical glutathione is for an optimum healthspan. The healthiest older people have been shown to have high levels of glutathione at a cellular level, but this is not a common occurrence. The body’s ability to produce glutathione deteriorates from as early as our twenties. Add to this, stress, pollution, toxins, radiation and other environmental factors, and our bodies are unable to keep up with the production of enough glutathione for our needs. Supplementation has been challenging because this is a fragile molecule that it easily destroyed in the stomach, so despite over 160,000 clinical papers on its importance for health, it has mostly flown under the radar.

Recognising the critical importance of glutathione for optimum health, Elan has sourced the most effective way to supplement this master antioxidant in Swish30.