antioxidant · for chronic inflammation
Glutathione
Your body’s main antioxidant, which mops up the damage that drives inflammation.
Say that in clinical terms
Master antioxidant neutralizes reactive oxygen species, supports immune cell balance, reduces inflammatory cascade.
How strong is the research?
1 paper read, 1 supporting.
Who was studied: Studied in healthy adults. If your inflammation has a diagnosed cause behind it, this does not speak to that.
How much to take
daily
250–500 mg
Liposomal form bypasses first-pass degradation. Best on empty stomach.
Before you take it
- No NIH ODS Tolerable Upper Intake Level (UL) has been established for glutathione; neither oral nor liposomal forms carry an established UL.
- Potential interaction with cisplatin and other platinum-based chemotherapy agents: glutathione-S-transferases can conjugate GSH with cisplatin, and elevated intracellular glutathione correlates with platinum-based drug resistance; patients receiving oncology protocols should consult a physician before supplementing.
- Insufficient clinical safety data for glutathione supplementation at supplemental doses during pregnancy and lactation.
- Long-term safety of chronic oral or liposomal glutathione supplementation at supplemental doses has not been established in clinical trials.
What we make of it
The trial measured whether glutathione levels went up, not whether inflammation came down.
The detail
This is the best-matched study we have — it did test the liposomal form, in healthy adults. But what it set out to measure was whether blood glutathione rose, not whether inflammation fell. Any inflammation findings were secondary. And "chronic inflammation" describes a clinical state that healthy volunteers do not have.