In this educational video Dr. A, a naturopathic and integrative medicine clinician with over 30 years of experience, explains the various ways glutathione can be supplemented and how each method differs in absorption and clinical utility. He begins by describing glutathione’s central role in the body’s primary antioxidant triad alongside vitamin C and vitamin E, emphasizing the recycling cycle that requires multiple nutrient cofactors. He then critiques the outdated belief that oral glutathione is ineffective, distinguishing between plain USP‑grade powder (poorly absorbed) and enhanced oral forms—acetyl‑glutathione and liposomal glutathione, including a combined liposomal‑acetyl product that shows high bioavailability. The discussion moves to intravenous glutathione, noting its 100 % delivery but short half‑life, and stresses that optimal IV outcomes depend on pre‑loading patients with B‑vitamins, vitamin C, and trace minerals to sustain the redox cycle. Dr. A recommends IV use for acute, crisis‑level situations (e.g., post‑surgery) and suggests building baseline levels with oral or topical routes for long‑term maintenance. He also covers over‑the‑counter topical sprays and prescription nasal sprays, highlighting their practical advantages for children or patients who struggle with oral intake, and cites pharmacokinetic studies supporting their efficacy. Throughout, he underscores the universal need for cofactor nutrients regardless of delivery method, advises clinicians on choosing the appropriate form based on cost, convenience, and patient condition, and points viewers to a continuing‑education website for deeper training. The video concludes with a call to action to like, share, and subscribe.
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Have you ever wondered what the best way to take glutathione to raise your levels is? Let's break it down. I'm Dr. A. Welcome to the channel. I use this channel to answer questions. I've been involved in research and teaching in the naturopathic and integrative medical space for over 30 years now. I've been seeing patients a very long time. So we want to go through the different types of glutathione that you might be getting or using or considering to use, or maybe have been prescribed to you, and what the relative benefits, each one are and the relative absorption rates of each one. A quick recap, glutathione is a central antioxidant in the base redox triplet that the body uses. So what does that mean? That means that in the first layer of antioxidant activity, you have 3 agents that support each other as antioxidant agents. So you have glutathione, you have vitamin C, ascorbate, and then you have vitamin E, like Edward. And vitamin E takes care of fat-soluble areas, and glutathione and vitamin C take care of water-soluble areas. The way that they support each other is by helping recycle each other, meaning if you have the need for antioxidant activity, you have a free radical come along, one of them will pick that free radical up and they will go from being a reduced antioxidant like reduced glutathione to becoming oxidized glutathione. That means that somebody has to recycle them back up to the reduced form. So vitamin C helps glutathione in this respect. Vitamin E helps vitamin C. So they all relate to each other. But glutathione is made by the human body, primarily in the liver. We use it all over the body as kind of the cornerstone of this antioxidant activity that goes on. So controversies that we've seen as far as, you know, just hearing it in, you know, on social media, seeing it as comments, et cetera. People say oral glutathione does not work. It does no benefit to doing Oral glutathione. Well, this is very old information, which is actually not totally accurate. If you look at the research on absorption, if you take glutathione like a US Pharmacopeia-grade glutathione powder and there's nothing done to it and you take that by mouth, it doesn't absorb much at all. So that's the one that doesn't absorb. But there are different ways to manipulate the glutathione orally to help it absorb. And there's research to show that this definitely does help the absorption. The 2 methods are either to make what they call acetyl glutathione, which often comes in a tablet form, might be a capsule form. This is very commonly used and it's it's a very effectively absorbed oral glutathione, acetyl glutathione. The other is liposomal glutathione, where they put the glutathione into a little sphere, a liposome, so that when it goes into the GI tract, it's sort of delivered and can absorb through the GI membranes more easily. So acetyl or liposomal. Liposomal go together. Now there's one product I know of. Again, I don't have any financial connection to anything I'm talking about today, but I just have used this with patients. There's one product that is a liposomal acetyl glutathione. So it's the best of both worlds. And that one has very good absorption. It's a very effective glutathione that I've used before. Now, when we think about oral absorption and the controversy around it, it's kind of going back to the old days of just taking plain glutathione powder, put it in a capsule and take it by mouth. That really didn't work so well. Quick plug here. If you're a healthcare practitioner working with patients with these issues, I have a CE website and I do webinars on this topic and others. So we're going to put a link in the description below to the CE website link and the particular webinar of interest. Thank you. Now, the other controversy that we hear a lot about is intravenous glutathione, because that gets prescribed and used in many instances. And people will say, well, intravenous glutathione doesn't work. Or they often won't say it doesn't work because if you put something intravenous, into your vascular system, you have 100% absorption. So there's glutathione there. What they really often are talking about is intravenous glutathione does not stay, it doesn't raise your levels for very long, or they talk about a short half-life. Well, again, this is partly true. And the way to think about intravenous glutathione, the way I think about it, and I've actually done research with humans on intravenous glutathione, so I've had quite a bit of experience with that, is it is a very good way when your body is under crisis To raise your levels and deliver glutathione to your cells, but and here's where most of the concern comes in: if you don't have all of the nutrient cofactors that glutathione uses to cycle, remember it goes from reduced to oxidized to reduced to oxidized cycles. It uses a lot of nutrients. Many B vitamins get used there, either there or in the uptake into the cells. A number of minerals get used in this process, and even vitamin C is used in that process. So if If you put intravenous glutathione into somebody, but their nutrient status is not very good, the glutathione's going to go in, it's going to cycle a few times and then kind of go away as oxidized glutathione. But what we do and what we did in some human research was to give intravenous nutrient treatment first with all those cofactors. And then after that, to give the glutathione to raise the glutathione levels. So they have the nutrient cofactors first and then the glutathione. That actually works better over the long run. Yeah. So intravenous is perfectly fine to use. It's better in my opinion, because it is time-consuming and expensive and it's going in your vein to use in more critical moments. We use it a lot in people after they've had surgery or after other treatments that have really taxed the system. But for long-term use, I generally prefer a non-intravenous use after we get the levels built up with the IV. Now, there's also a couple of other ways to get glutathione in. There are prescription glutathiones that are And then there is a topical spray that is over the counter that's been made in the United States that helps. You can spray it on in anywhere, any large area, and let it dry, and it will absorb reasonably well. Also, there have been pharmacokinetic studies looking at it and looking at it raising glutathione levels. These topical and spray forms work pretty well too. And again, I don't have any connection to that type of glutathione, but I have a resource for where you can get it. Okay. So that's one way. If you want to in the description below. And we've used a topical with people, especially in children where getting 'em to swallow things is kind of difficult or they just won't do it. And there's a need for glutathione support. A lot of, you know, neurodevelopmental things in children and certain other things. We've used that topical glutathione. We've also used topical glutathione in adult patients who could take it orally, but they just find it easier. And depending on the type of formulation they're taking, sometimes more economically stable to, to use the topical spray. The nasal sprays, like I say, those are generally by prescription. So if you're going to be getting that, that would be something that the doctor would have arranged for you. It's not something you could just go buy like the other stuff. Now, all of the types of glutathione are subject to the same issues that have happened before, like with the IV glutathione, where you really do need the other nutrients to back it up and support it. But if it's not intravenous, what we find is if a person is taking a vitamin Mineral, or maybe a separate multivitamin, multimineral, and some extra B complex, they're probably going to be getting enough of those nutrients in to support the non-intravenous forms of glutathione. So in summary, every way you can get glutathione into the body can be beneficial. There are some forms that don't absorb very well, like the dry powder that's not been manipulated in any way to take orally. And you do need the cofactors to go along with it, which are generally most of the B vitamins, vitamin C, and then some of the minerals, especially trace minerals that go along. I'm Dr. A. Thanks for supporting the channel. Please do like, share, subscribe, all the good things. Appreciate all of you subscribers in the growing community. I'll see you on the next video and take a look at these other videos we'll recommend that you can get some more information from.
