The protection the body makes itself

The body makes its most important protective molecule itself, in every single cell. Over the years, it gets worse at this. The reason is surprisingly simple.

What glutathione is for

Wherever nutrients are turned into energy, waste is produced. In the cell, this waste comes as aggressive fragments that can damage other parts inside the cell. Glutathione catches them.

The body does not take in this substance from food. It builds it itself, and in amounts that could never be supplied from outside.

What changes with age

If you measure the amount of glutathione in red blood cells, it is clearly lower in people over 60 than in young adults. In the study by Rajagopal Sekhar's group, it was about half. The speed at which new glutathione was made had dropped as well.

What causes it

The obvious guess would be that the tools in charge get blunt with age. That was exactly not the case: the enzymes involved worked perfectly well. What was missing was material.

Glutathione is made of three building blocks. Two of them set the pace. If there is not enough of them, production stalls, no matter how good the machinery is.

What followed

In the follow-up study, the participants were given both building blocks. After two weeks, production was back at the level of the young comparison group.

Later studies looked at longer periods: first a small open study with eight people over half a year, then a strictly controlled one with 24 people over four months.

The idea behind it is unspectacular, and that is exactly what makes it solid. The point is not to add protection from outside, but to give the body the material it uses to build its own.