A buildup of toxins in your body can cause your immune system to go haywire leading to a wide range of acute and chronic illnesses.
Mold from water-damaged buildings can produce mycotoxins which can be extremely dangerous to humans. The buildup of mycotoxins in your body can often make you feel like you’re barely functioning in a heavy fog with overwhelming fatigue. Mold-related headaches and migraines may be so bad they affect your daily life. Sometimes patients are seen with agonizing muscle and joint pain preventing them from even getting out of bed. Often there’s a wide-range of symptoms that don’t seem to add up.
But, there is a powerhouse molecule found in every cell of your body whose main job is to detoxify these nasty toxins.
This magical antioxidant is glutathione – “the mother of all antioxidants” – and it is the most powerful antioxidant in your body.
And when you don’t have enough of this wonderful antioxidant because of age, diet, or a simple imbalance, these toxins start to back up in your liver like rush hour traffic.
What is Glutathione?
Glutathione is an antioxidant that is mainly composed of three different amino acids – glutamine, glycine, and cysteine.
Antioxidants are the eliminators and detoxifiers of the free radicals in your body.
What’s a free radical, you ask? Sounds like a political extremist doesn’t it?
Free radicals are the toxins in your body that have an uneven number of electrons, which allows them to easily react with other molecules. They can adversely alter lipids, proteins, and DNA, and can also trigger a number of human diseases.
These free radicals bounce from antioxidant to antioxidant in a frenzy trying to find another ion to neutralize them. Only when they bump into a calming antioxidant that can donate an electron without making themselves unstable, then they become safely neutralized and taken out of the game. The most effective antioxidant is glutathione.
The most famous antioxidants include vitamin C and E. But glutathione is becoming more widely known for all the health benefits that are being discovered. Glutathione is found in every cell of your body and is known as the master detoxifier. It is even able to recycle beneficial vitamins C & E, alpha lipoic, and CoQ10, so they can be reused by your body – so you can get more out of each.
When you have an imbalance between these free radicals, toxins and antioxidants in your body, you have an increase in oxidative stress. When your oxidative stress – toxin burden – outweighs antioxidants like glutathione, your proper physiological function is now thrown off balance.
9 Glutathione Benefits
How does your body benefit from glutathione? Glutathione acts as an antioxidant that has multiple jobs – no wonder it’s called the “mother of all antioxidants”. Glutathione performs all of the following:
- Reduces oxidative stress and protects from environmental toxins
- Improves insulin resistance
- Protects the “energy powerhouse of cells” – mitochondria
- Boosts blood circulation
- Controls inflammation
- Slows the aging process
- Improves multiple chronic illnesses (Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Autism, AIDS, and IBS)
- Promotes T-cell function which is essential for your immune system
- Helps repair DNA
The benefits of glutathione for you are endless. Given these powerhouse benefits, glutathione can perform a wide range of awesome jobs for your body. So it’s no surprise when you have a depletion of glutathione, your body suffers.
Mold Related to Glutathione
As we age, our natural production of glutathione decreases which results in free radical damage and oxidative stress. And when we are exposed to toxic mold, heavy metals, medications, stress, infections, and poor dietary choices this just adds to the toxic burden in your body, overwhelming your detoxification process.
Remember those harmful mycotoxins that mold produces? Well, they build up in your blood, tissues, and organs like your liver because your immune system is constantly using glutathione to rid your body of the mycotoxins. This can cause a glutathione deficiency and a systemic immune reaction.
Your liver is your body’s main detox organ. This is where glutathione plays a major role in detoxifying your mold mycotoxins. When there is not enough glutathione to eliminate the toxins they start to stack up in the liver and cause mitochondrial damage – your cells energy powerhouse – affecting glutathione production.
Research proves that the mycotoxin-related illnesses deplete the glutathione productions in your body, worsening all of your symptoms of mold.
Mycotoxin Detox Treatment with Glutathione
Glutathione contains sulfur molecules, which is why foods high in sulfur help your body’s natural production of this powerhouse molecule.
The best glutathione foods and herbs that help boost your body’s natural production include:
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Brussels sprouts
- Kale
- Coconut milk
- Arugula
- Garlic
- Onions
- Eggs
- Nuts
- Dried beans
- Fish
- Lean meat
- Chicken
- Milk thistle
- Flaxseed
- Whey
While glutathione decreases with age, a healthy diet, lifestyle, and supplemental therapy can help slow the body’s decline.
Intravenous (IV) glutathione therapy can enhance mycotoxin detoxification in your body, resulting in reducing your toxic burden and relieving mold toxicity symptoms.
This is why glutathione therapy is crucial after mold exposure, especially IV therapy since your digestive system can break down the benefits of oral glutathione. IV therapy bypasses the gut and the digestive system and heads straight into your bloodstream in its purest form.
Think of all the bad things we put in our body every day. Our environment is lurking with free radicals and toxins so your body has to protect itself from these burdens. When you have mycotoxins circulating through your system it can make you sick. That’s why having a balance of glutathione is important to your overall health.
If you are in the Kansas City area and have been exposed to mold, glutathione IV therapy may be helpful for you. If you need help detoxifying or want to boost your glutathione production book an appointment with Dr. Jellison or Dr. Reicherter today at 913-568-0608.
Resources
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3249911/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19558212
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10811055
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12165276
- https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/124886?from=summary#section=Top
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3942754/
