Guest: Danielle Citrolo, VP Scientific & Regulatory Affairs at Kyowa Hakko, which offers its branded Setria Glutathione

Nutraceuticals World (NW): We’ve heard that glutathione is the Master Antioxidant. Can you help us understand what that means, and explain the role glutathione plays in the body?

Citrolo: There’s so many things that glutathione does in the body, but if we want to just look and think about antioxidants, it’s important to understand there are these harmful things that exist called reactive oxygen species, or oxidative molecules that are formed as normal part of metabolism, or it can be as a result of pollutants or chemicals that we’re exposed to.

Basically what antioxidants do is they bind to these nasty substances and neutralize them because if they’re not neutralized, they actually do damage to our cells, which then leads to damage to tissues and over time could lead to diseases down the road over time. So antioxidants are extremely critical and having enough of them is important.

Glutathione is called the master antioxidant because it has the ability to neutralize many, many different types of oxidative molecules and reactive oxygen species. Beyond that, it also is able to recycle other antioxidants that are important to the body, like vitamin C and then vitamin E.

So it’s the number one antioxidant. In fact, it’s so important that even single-cell organisms make glutathione. So it’s truly the number one antioxidant in our body and really throughout the universe.

NW: What factors can affect glutathione levels? Why and when might Glutathione supplementation be important?

Citrolo: We don’t know all the answers, but we certainly do know some of the things that make us have more glutathione, and that is having a good, healthy diet. There is research that shows that people who consume more glutathione through diet—and I’ll tell you what kinds of things we need to eat—but also people who naturally may have higher glutathione—through diet or genetics, or an age issue—those people are protected from various diseases.

So higher glutathione levels is a good thing. How do we get more of it? Most importantly is eating fresh vegetables and fruits. Green leafy vegetables, even meats—but less processed. Everything has to be more in the natural form. Even less cooked is better. So even the fruits and vegetables—cooking actually kills the glutathione.

So we want fresh broccoli, fresh leafy greens, apples—there’s actually a lot of foods that contain glutathione. But less processing, less cooking is where we get the most bang for our buck for glutathione.

NW: Alongside antioxidant support, what are the main health benefits of Glutathione supplementation?

Citrolo: That’s another one where the research is still ongoing. I follow the literature and there’s always new publications on new roles that glutathione, and its precursors, has in the body, but in terms of its major function other than as an antioxidant, the second one that comes to a lot of our minds in the science community is detoxification.

It has a really important role in the liver. Similar to the way it binds to reactive oxygen species or free radicals, it can bind to drugs and actually help our liver metabolize and excrete them in a safe way without creating any damage to the body. So it’s there to also protect us from harmful chemicals by metabolizing them better in the liver.

I think the list is endless. One of the other major roles I think it’s known for is its role in the immune system. I would say it doesn’t have a direct effect on the immune system in terms of stimulating or  enhancing it, but it is critical for immune cells to be functioning and to act properly. So it actually helps with T-cell maturity. It helps with apoptosis, which is basically cell suicide when they know something’s gone wrong. It helps with natural killer cell activity.

So it does have a direct role, but giving more doesn’t always make it better; but if you don’t have enough, then those functions don’t work as well. So homeostasis is really what we’ve seen in the literature in terms of immune function. We need enough in order for those cells to really function optimally. So that’s the key point with the immune system.

NW: Kyowa Hakko offers its Setria brand glutathione. How is this different from generic options on the market? Can you briefly discuss supporting research and recommended dose?

Citrolo: Ultimately brands have become more important to the consumers. And brand awareness for Setria is actually pretty large, which is interesting, and I think what people get from, and the idea behind, brands is exactly what Setria delivers. People believe in a quality product and Kyowa Hakko Bio has been making Setria glutathione since the 1960s. So we’ve been around for a while. We’ve really optimized the quality and the output of this ingredient.

We manufacture at a high quality level at a site that manufactures pharmaceuticals. So you’re getting a really high quality product. It’s 100% pure, which is key.

And the other thing that is important for branded ingredients is to do the research on the safety and the efficacy. Setria has established well-known safety, globally. Also, we are continuing to research this ingredient and the benefits in healthy subjects. Our customers can make claims based on data for healthy subjects, and we support our customers that way. So that’s why you pay for a brand, I think.

NW: Kyowa also offers its Setria Performance Blend, which combines glutathione with L-Citrulline. What added benefit does this combination offer?

Citrolo: That’s a really interesting combination actually. Citrulline is often used as a precursor for arginine to increase blood nitric oxide, and that’s beneficial to consumers to enhance blood flow, especially during exercise—you’re getting more nutrients, more oxygen to the muscles.

It really helps with enhancing the workout, right? Well, nitric oxide has a very quick half-life. It’s there and it’s gone in seconds. But what we found is when we combine glutathione, which is an antioxidant, it actually binds to the nitric oxide, because nitric oxide is kind of like an oxidant-type of product. So it binds to and actually stabilizes the molecule and it creates almost like a slow release. So we produce all this nitric oxide from the citrulline, but the glutathione kind of scavenges it, holds onto it, and allows for a slow release.

What we’ve seen with the data is that it actually creates a benefit post-exercise. So you get this extended nitric oxide even after exercise which, for those involved in exercise and performance research, we know that a lot of the remodeling and tissue changes happen post-exercise. So we’re continuing to kind of feed the muscles after exercise to help with recovery and maximize the benefit that you get from your workout.