December 23, 2021 general

Glutathione–A Key to Detoxifying Alcohol

This is a guest post by Ross Pelton, RPh, PhD, CCN
Scientific Director, Essential Formulas, Inc.

[Note: italicized text in square brackets like these are additions by Martie Whittekin, CCN]

[Before Dr. Pelton’s impressive article, first a word about the hangovers that too often follow New Year’s Eve celebrations. Prevention is, of course, the most effective. Years ago, I learned a little trick from a charming elderly Goodwill Industries executive. He had a reputation for being able to hold his liquor like a young man. He confided in me that he made every other “vodka” drink just water. No one knew and he felt a lot better…besides consuming less alcohol, he was also staying hydrated, which is important. I kept his secret.

If you are new to nutritional health intervention, don’t worry if this gets a bit too technical for your taste, I will do a Simplified Summary* at the end.]

“Everyone knows that consuming high levels of alcohol is toxic. The purpose of this article is to explain how alcohol causes toxicity and discuss a key antioxidant that helps protect against damage due to overindulgence of alcohol.

Alcohol Metabolism

Alcohol metabolism is a two-step process that takes place in the liver. In the first step, an enzyme named alcohol dehydrogenase converts alcohol into compound named acetaldehyde, which is called an intermediate metabolite. [You don’t have to necessarily drink alcohol to get in trouble. Sherry Rogers, MD taught me that people who have a yeast overgrowth in their GI track can ferment something benign like orange juice and internally into alcohol. They could even be charged with drunk driving, but at the least suffer from health trouble caused by acetaldehyde (details below) if they don’t detoxify the alcohol as Dr. Pelton explains.]

In the second step, an enzyme named glutathione-S transferase facilitates the joining of acetaldehyde with glutathione. The acetaldehyde-glutathione complex is easily excreted in the urine. When adequate levels of glutathione are available in the liver, alcohol detoxification goes smoothly. However, one evening of heavy drinking will quickly deplete the liver’s stores of glutathione.

The body’s available glutathione levels are always being depleted during alcohol detoxification. Thus, people who regularly consume alcohol at moderate levels, such as one or two drinks a day, are also constantly lowering their level of available glutathione and decreasing glutathione benefits.

Acetaldehyde Toxicity and Alcohol Detoxification

Acetaldehyde is estimated to be from 20 to 30 times more toxic than alcohol. Acetaldehyde destroys enzymes and proteins it comes into contact with, and it also causes DNA damage. Elevated levels of acetaldehyde in the liver destroy liver cells and leads to alcoholic liver disease (ALD). And finally, acetaldehyde is highly neurotoxic. Hence, elevated levels of acetaldehyde damage nerves and accelerate cognitive decline.

The damage from excess drinking is not due to the alcohol, but rather, to the toxic effects from acetaldehyde. When glutathione levels in the body are not adequate to keep up with the amount of acetaldehyde being produced during the first phase of alcohol detoxification, acetaldehyde begins to exert its powerful damaging effects.

What Does Glutathione Do?

The second factor has to do with the wide-ranging [beneficial] effects of glutathione. Glutathione is referred to as the Master Antioxidant and it is also a key regulator of the immune system and of detoxification in all cells throughout the body. When glutathione levels are depleted due to alcohol consumption, the whole body suffers. Free radical damage increases, the immune system is weakened, and toxins begin to build up in the body.

How to take Glutathione Effectively

Boost your glutathione levels with Detox & Liver Health, a glutathione supplement made by Reg’Activ. Detox & Liver Health contains Lactobacillus fermentum ME-3 (or just ME-3), which is a strain of probiotic bacteria that synthesizes glutathione, aiding in your alcohol metabolism. Each daily dose (2 capsules) contains 6 billion viable bacteria. This is like ingesting 6 billion little glutathione manufacturing factories every day, which results in a constant production of glutathione. In human clinical trials, people taking ME-3 gained a 49% increase in the ratio between reduced to oxidized glutathione, which equates to a significant increase in levels of active glutathione in the body. People wondering how to increase glutathione can easily reap glutathione benefits, thanks to Detox & Liver Health.

Taking Glutathione Supplements

I encourage people who regularly consume alcohol to take two capsules daily of Detox & Liver Health. This is how to take glutathione effectively for successful alcohol metabolism, protecting you against the negative effects of alcohol.”

Thank you, Dr Pelton and Essential Formulas, Inc.

* [Martie’s simplified summary: Alcohol becomes something that is much more toxic if a person’s body can only detoxify alcohol part way because it doesn’t have enough of the master antioxidant detoxifier, glutathione to finish the job. A smart new way to make sure you have enough of this critical glutathione is to turn your GI track into a glutathione factory. Do that by taking a supplement of a special probiotic organism, ME3 which makes glutathione naturally. Happily, glutathione has a great many other health benefits. Take that little ME3 hero by itself as Essential ME3, or combined into a Reg’Activ formulas which include other nutrients to boost help for liver/detoxification, cardio vascular health or immune health/vitality.]