Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCPPresident at Five Journeys, Functional Medicine & Wellness Provider, Best Selling Author, Passionate Champion for Health

Factors That Influence Glutathione Production

10 Jul 2025 · 1 min

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1:10

Short excerpt from a YouTube conversation (Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP) about why glutathione may not be in its active/productive state. The speaker lists three requirements for glutathione synthesis—amino acids (building blocks), two enzymes (conjugating enzymes), and ATP (mitochondrial energy)—and notes that production declines with age (around age 40) primarily due to reduced ATP/mitochondrial function; enzymes are usually sufficient but genetic variants (SNPs) could limit enzyme availability.

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Or what are the factors that would influence glutathione not being in its productive state? Is it under production and over demand? Or where does. Where does the difficulty lie?
I think the body has the capabilities of producing of glutathione. If you're otherwise healthy by the age of 40, yes, you do start losing some ability to produce enough glutathione. Keep in mind you need three things to produce glutathione. The amino acids, which is the building blocks are the two enzymes to conjugate those two amino the three amino acids and ATP energy source for mitochondria for the chemical reactions to happen. So if any of those substance is not abundantly available to the human body, we'll have a reduced in production. So if there's not enough ATP, which is the people call the mitochondrial aging, if there's not enough mitochondria, then yes, your ATP level drops and the ability to produce glutton also drops at the same time. Enzymes, I think they're enough in your body. So that's not usually a concern. But there may be another gene snips that's out there. We have that I have not studied yet. And that could be one of the cause of reducing the enzymes in your body. That could be a relimiting step as well. And the amino acids, if you have a proper diet, that's plenty of those things.