If you rub shoulders with friends in the Parkinson's community for a while, you will eventually come across a person or two who uses glutathione infusions to treat Parkinson's disease. Let's explore glutathione a little more to find out why it helps some people, and where it may or may not fit into Parkinson's treatment.
What is Glutathione?
Glutathione is a substance that exists naturally inside human cells that removes toxins from our cells. It is a potent anti-oxidant. It is important in Parkinson's disease because glutathione concentrations in the substantia nigra region of the brain actually drop as much as 30 percent in many people with Parkinson's disease.
Can Glutathione IVs or Pills Help People with Parkinson's Disease?
Naturally, people wonder if replacing glutathione could help people with Parkinson's disease. One common regimen calls for administering an IV containing glutathione a few times per week in a clinic. There are also glutathione pills. Nevertheless, there is still no research showing that supplementing with glutathione helps people with Parkinson's disease, at least to the degree that satisfies physicians and scientists. Supplementing with glutathione has helped people with other diseases such as certain lung diseases, but there are a host of challenges in the world of Parkinson's disease.
The Problems
First, it is still just a theory that glutathione can help people with Parkinson's disease. There is not sufficient medical evidence because people have not studied it aggressively. Because this is a naturally-occurring, inexpensive substance, some people theorize that there is not enough financial incentive for a company to study it. However, when substances like Coenzyme Q10 showed promise, the National Institutes of Health stepped up and sponsored the study. Perhaps they will have a chance to further examine glutathione.
Perhaps the biggest problem with glutathione is that, like dopamine, it does not naturally cross the blood-brain barrier. To date, we still do not have a good system for getting either of the substances across.
What Does This Mean?
There are people out there right now who have had good results from regular glutathione infusions. We do not yet understand all of the science that produced that blessing for them. However, for the Parkinson's disease population at large, there is still little to suggest that glutathione treatment is a good use of time, hope, or money.
