Glutathione and Digestive Diseases

Glutathione's ability to protect the stomach is being widely researched. Its therapeutic role is promising and it has been shown to protect the stomach in several different ways. It is a primary shield against oxidative stress, detoxifies potentially harmful or even carcinogenic substances and mediates the immune mechanisms, ensuring a more effective immune response.

It has recently been shown that when the lining of the stomach faces a toxic challenge GLUTATHIONE levels rise. Several groups of researchers demonstrated this using alcohol to provoke an anti-toxic response by the body. Low to moderate levels of alcohol led to an adaptive elevation in GLUTATHIONE levels, but high levels of alcohol overwhelmed this system, causing subsequent damage. An even more direct clinical application of glutathione's protective role in the stomach was brought to light by G.A. Balint in Hungary. His team studied an all-too-common problem—the gastric side-effects of anti-inflammatory drugs such as indomethacin and piroxicam (Indocid, Feldene, etc.). Subjects given small amounts of glutathione or cysteine at the time of drug ingestion had significantly fewer side-effects. This is a great example of a natural therapy and traditional medicine being used to complement each other. The increase in free-radical damage and GLUTATHIONE turnover is well known in patients suffering from chronic inflammation of the stomach lining (gastritis) and those carrying the bacteria Heliobacter Pylori. Both of these conditions may progress to ulcer disease and probably increase the risk of stomach cancer. Ulcer disease.

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