Dear Mr Lloyd

We are aware of the Setria study. Unfortunately, it is a technically flawed study that has obvious conflicts of interest from the authors. Its results are in contradiction to several other human studies showing that oral glutathione is ineffective (please see https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1362956/ and https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21875351/ ). No theoretical reason as to how or why oral glutathione should be transported into cells was given by the authors of the Setria study nor has any other researcher given any plausible mechanism for intact glutathione to be transported from outside a cell to inside a cell.
To your second question, no given a normal diet and functioning liver there is no need to supplement any of the three amino acids (glutamic acid, cysteine, and glycine) that go into making up glutathione. None are essential in the diet as our bodies can already make them. The major cause of low glutathione is not an undersupply of the amino acids but a lack of or a dysfunctional enzyme that produces the dipeptide called gamma-glutamylcysteine (GGC) which is the most immediate precursor to glutathione.
To your third question, GGC has been shown to have the unique ability to be orally bioavailable and be transported to inside cells where it is rapidly reacted enzymatically with the third amino acid called glycine to make the final product glutathione. So if you are looking for a way of increasing your cellular glutathione then an oral supplement containing gamma-glutamylcysteine (GGC) is the only effective way of doing that.

Great article by the way as it is often hard to find good information amongst lots of marketing speil. I have two questions that I hope you can answer:

1. There is a study on an ingredient called Setria which is a human study and the results show that taking their oral glutathione supplement increased glutathione within the cell. Here is the study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24791752/

2. So based on what you are saying, should you just take more Glutamine or cysteine. I had read that we had plenty of Glutamine in the body so am just wondering what you suggest is best?

I actually have another one, sorry?

3. So what about the third amino Acid, where does this come in to it?

Hope you can help answer my questions. Thanks in advance

Hi Lisa
Thanks for bringing this to our attention. After reading the Wikipedia page on Protandim I cannot say that we are impressed by the offering of this multilevel marketing company. They were sent a warning letter from the FDA for making illegal advertising claims about it being able to cure various ailments, including cancer and diabetes. Although they seem to have cleaned up their act it still doesn’t change the fact that their product is an unremarkable mixture of herbal ingredients that can be purchased off the shelf separately from any supplement store for probably a 10th of the price. Just clever marketing. Also, on inspection of their peer-reviewed articles, most studies seem to be done in either cell culture or on animals. These types of studies are very easily and cheaply done however a far stretch from actual human clinical studies.

Dear Gary, If your objective is to elevate the concentration of glutathione inside your cells above homeostatic levels, it would appear that it is not achievable by consuming glutathione.

Cannot say that we are aware of such effects of glutathione on the immune system that have been published in peer-reviewed literature. Perhaps you could share the articles that you have read that back up your belief? Glutathione certainly plays a key role in the immune system if you would like to read more about that I would direct you to our article on that and the peer-reviewed literature that it refers to:- https://www.glutathionereporter.com/glutathione-and-the-immune-system/