Just got my computer back from the shop.I have been told that oral glutathione is not well absorbed by several MD's.
The doctor who is doing the FDA trial on IV glutathione is the author of Brainrecovery.com and The Better Brain Book. I haven't bought his second book yet, but would suggest you check there for scientific info or check his website.
Checked the website http://www.inutritionals.com and did a search for oral glutathione -- says oral will not work but it may simply be that can't get the dose high enough like with IV.
Will go back later to view the video of Dr P from the Oprah show.
Alpha Lipoic Acid and N-acetylcysteine plus selenium and I think there are a couple of other things that are required by the body to produce glutathione.
Dr PK in Philadelphia (The Detox Book) recommends Wellness Pharmacy or Medhaus (cheaper). Hubby had a bad experience with Hopewell Pharmacy brand. These are all for IV glutathione.
Hubby did use specially formulated glutathione in a nebulizer for a while. Expensive, but it did seem to help some with lymph drainage -- he has bilateral hilar adenopathy from Lyme or Babs.
Hubby is one of those people who has paradoxical reactions to most things that should help. At times IV glutathione makes him feel much better, but more frequently I end up stopping in the middle of the IV push to give him a dose of IV Ativan.
Our new primary care doctor -- she's only 50 miles away so I hope she's right -- told us today at our first appointment that she feels the reason hubby has reactions to the Kane protocol with the IV phosphatidylcholine and the IV Glutathione is because he is so toxic from either heavy metals (mercury) or pesticides (from food) or lyme toxins (in my opinion only -- she is not an LLMD unfortunately).
Some MD's including Dr P above use IV glutathione exclusively to detox mercury. Hubby had previous treatment with IV DMPS and oral DMSA plus cilantro and bear garlic and some d-penicillamine. This was prior to Lyme diagnosis and he has never had the same type positive detox reactions with the IV glutathione as he did with the IV DMPS which worked every time before the Lyme diagnosis and does not help now.
Great Smokies has a genetic test for glutathione that is included on the Detox genetic test See http://www.gsdl.com
I am also pretty sure that Great Smokies includes glutathione function on their Detox Challenge test -- you swallow an aspirin and then Tylenol I think and then some caffeine pills. It shows how well your Phase 1 and Phase 2 detox pathways are working.
Lots of problems on hubby's detox test 2 or 3 years ago. Test requires both blood and urine samples. If I am remembering correctly the caffeine pills are what really bothered hubby -- caused lots of tremors and neuro symptoms.
I really can't answer your question for sure, but maybe I pointed you in the right direction.
Bea Seibert
[This message has been edited by seibertneurolyme (edited 19 July 2005).]