The difference between good and bad health is a matter of electrons. The world's foremost Vitamin C expert Dr. Thomas E. Levy explains why and how master antioxidant glutathione supports electron flow.
By Thomas E. Levy, MD
The amazing power of glutathione, in large part, lies in its ability to promote a healthy flow and supply of electrons within each cell in the body. Glutathione is the master antioxidant because its electron contribution to unstable substances that can damage healthy tissue.
Electrons are the fuel of life
Every atom in the universe is surrounded by one or more electrons — electrically charged particles that orbit the atom’s nucleus like planets around the sun. Without exception, every process that requires or produces energy is dependent upon some sort of electron movement or flow. Whether giving, taking, or sharing electrons, all electrical, magnetic, and chemical reactions known to man require a movement of electrons.
Quite simply, without the proper flow of electrons, your body will die. In fact, the health status for all living organisms is determined by overall electron flow. In the same way gasoline runs a car, electrons run the cell.
Anything that impedes the flow of electrons in the body or robs them from the cells and tissues will adversely affect health. Anything that improves flow by donating electrons improves health. Here’s a simple yet accurate way to view the dynamics of life and health:
- Good electron flow = healthy, energetic, long life
- Poor electron flow = low energy shorter lifespan/healthspan
- No electron flow = death
Among its many functions, glutathione donates electrons to the body’s overall antioxidant pool, including four important antioxidants — vitamin C, vitamin E, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and alpha lipoic acid — so they can continue to contribute to proper electron flow throughout the body.
The difference between helpful and harmful is a matter of electrons
When any antioxidant, including glutathione, retains all its electrons (making the number of protons and electrons in the molecule equal), it is in a reduced state. When a molecule has fewer electrons than protons, the net charge is positive. A molecule in this state is considered oxidized.
The bad: Oxidants
To varying degrees, oxidized molecules are unstable and seek sufficient electrons to become electrically neutral. Oxidized molecules that aggressively seek electrons are called by several terms, including oxidants, pro-oxidants, free radicals, and oxyradicals.
When enough electrons are lost without prompt replacement, this process of oxidation eventually results in cellular, and ultimately tissue, damage. Although a very limited amount of oxidation is a necessary and normal part of cellular metabolism, an excess of oxidation is always damaging and will always accelerate the aging process.
As an oxidized molecule finds the electrons it seeks to achieve neutrality, it goes from a positive charge to neutral charge, thereby returning to the reduced state.
Substances such as vitamin C, vitamin E, alpha lipoic acid, and SOD, in the oxidized state (missing electrons) no longer function as antioxidants. Only when they are reduced (contain needed electrons) can they effectively function as antioxidants.
If much of the glutathione within a cell has been oxidized, it seriously compromises the cell’s entire antioxidant system and ability to protect itself. At that point the remaining pro-oxidant free radicals and toxins steal electrons from the cell’s organelles, membranes, and DNA, causing substantial damage and generating even more free radicals. Once this unchecked electron-stealing is sufficiently advanced, it can set off a chain reaction that will ultimately destroy the cell.
The Good: Antioxidants
An antioxidant is any substance that inhibits or prevents oxidative damage by supplying electrons back to the substance that was oxidized (repair) or by supplying electrons directly to the oxidant substance before it has the opportunity to take or deplete electrons from the target substance (prevent). An antioxidant “cures” oxidation and its free radicals by neutralizing them with an infusion of electrons.
When there is an adequate supply of antioxidants present while oxidation is occurring, electrons can be supplied back quickly enough and in a sufficient amount so that no significant damage will result.
Recycle antioxidants to support longevity
The premier antioxidants in the body — such as glutathione, vitamin C, and vitamin E — continuously work together in a synergistic fashion to keep each other in the reduced form. In this way antioxidant substances “recharge” each other to deal with the ongoing oxidative stresses in the body, both inside and outside the cells.
Glutathione and vitamin C
Much of the positive effect that vitamin C has inside cells can be attributed to its ability to maintain normal glutathione function through its electron-donating capacity. Oxidized glutathione can be readily converted back to glutathione by the contribution of electrons from vitamin C. This allows glutathione to further relay and distribute those electrons to vital areas inside the cells, including subcellular sites — such as the important energy-generating mitochondria — that vitamin C alone can not reach as effectively.
Inside the cells, where glutathione maintains its highest concentration, this antioxidant also plays a prominent role in recharging (reducing) the spent or oxidized molecules of vitamin C. The two most important water-soluble antioxidants in the body, glutathione and vitamin C can do much of the work for the other when one is deficient.
In a reciprocal fashion, vitamin C has been demonstrated to alleviate the severe and even lethal effects of glutathione deficiency. Research with mice shows that relatively large doses of vitamin C not only prevent the otherwise inevitable cellular damage of an induced glutathione deficiency, but the vitamin C was also able to greatly increase intracellular levels of glutathione.
Glutathione and vitamin E
Glutathione is important in maintaining the levels of active vitamin E in an optimal range due to its ability to recharge oxidized vitamin E. Vitamin E supplementation in selected patients has been shown to normalize depleted glutathione levels.
Glutathione is key to electron flow
Virtually every substance that enters the body through respiration, absorption, or ingestion will ultimately be broken down, or digested, into components that are antioxidant or pro-oxidant. In other words, except for the very rare completely chemically inert substance, everything entering the body will ultimately give or take away electrons at the cellular and sub-cellular level.
How readily something is digested and relieved of its electrons is the ultimate determinant of how nutritious it is. Conversely, the more readily something ingested depletes cells or tissues of electrons is the direct measure of how poisonous or toxic it is.
No matter what food or supplement is ingested by any organism, as long as it has some nutritional value and is not poisonous or toxic, it will ultimately supply electrons to the cells. Fact is, a robust flow and supply of electrons is essential for achieving and maintaining optimal health. And a robust flow of electrons is possible with sufficient glutathione levels.
Thomas E. Levy, MD, JD is a board-certified cardiologist. He is the leading vitamin C expert in the world, and he frequently lectures about the proper role of vitamin C and antioxidants in the treatment of a host of medical conditions.
