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GLUTATHIONE : A MAJOR DISCOVERY COMPARED TO PENICILLIN
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Added: 12/18/2003
Type: Summary
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GLUTATHIONE : A MAJOR DISCOVERY COMPARED TO PENICILLIN
Glutathione is known to medicine since 1888. In the last twenty years, this protein has been the object of intense research. Now, more than 57,000 scientific articles on GSH are published on MEDLINE and this library is enriched by 3,000 to 5,000 new articles each year.
At the beginning of the 80's, under the direction of Dr. Gustavo Bounous, MD, (FRCSC) and Patricia A.L. Kongshavn, MA, M.Sc., PH.D., a team of researchers from the Faculty of Medicine at McGill University (Canada), was studying proteins of animal and vegetal origins in order to feed the patients with an elemental diet that would allow them to reduce their stay in hospital. In 1978, studies were focussing on whey proteins. Their work has been spaced out on eighteen years before making a surprising discovery : undenatured proteinic whey concentrates sustained normal glutathione levels and promoted immune enhancing and anticarcinogenic activity. Subsequent identification of the active ingredients present in this protein mixture led in 1993 to the production of a high-quality bioactive protein that was given the name Immunocal. Research was sustained by the Medical Research Council of Canada and the National Institutes of Health in the United States. The observed effects to Immunocal at McGill University have been validated by numerous independent research centers world wide, namely Germany, Japan, Australia, France, United States and in Nova-Scotia (Canada).
Glutathione plays three vital roles in the body :
* maintains the immune system active
* powerful antioxidant and a free radicals scavenger
* neutralizes pollutants and detoxifies the cells.
Glutathione is synthesized by using three amino acids : glycine, glutamic acid and cysteine. In our food, we find a sufficient quantity of glycine and glutamic acid. However, cysteine is a problem and a limiting factor in the glutathione synthesis. The reason is simple, food cooking and pasteurization of milk products almost destroy cysteine completely. The consequence of this situation is that with age, we lose up to 40 % of our reserves and this makes us vulnerable to the development of disease. Here is what Dr. Jimmy Gutman, Emergency Physician and expert speaker on GSH, says : "In fact, your life depends on glutathione. Without it, your cells would disintegrate from unrestrained oxidation, your body would have little resistance to bacteria, viruses and cancer, and your liver would shrivel up from the eventual accumulation of toxins".
Cysteine is sensitive to free radicals and furthermore, it is toxic in the blood but at the opposite, it is non-toxic in the cells. The safe way to supply cysteine to cells is under the form of Cystine (an amino acid formed by two cysteine molecules attached by a disulfyde bridge). Immunocal is a bioactive undenatured whey protein isolate rich in cystine.
In 1997, a company named Immunotec Research Ltd. was created to commercialize this discovery. Now, the company has some twenty completed studies on its product and owns several international patents. The product is commercialized under the name Immunocal or HMS 90 depending of trademark availability in each country. Its production is strictly supervised to preserve all of the natural protein properties, which rates the product as pharmaceutical class, even though it is a food supplement. The product has received recognition by several institutions, namely :
* Covered by American health programs : Medicare/Medicaid. It is the first time that those programs accept to cover a nutriment of this nature. The product code 28770-0970-01 has been given by the NDC (National Drug Control) as well as the Medicare code B4155. A major recognition for a nutritional supplement.
* Entered in the main edition of the reference book of American Doctors : Physician's Desk Reference (PDR) and is the only nutriment there. Today, American physicians seeking ways of raising patients' glutathione levels will find two options in PDR : the pharmaceutical drug NAC (N-acetyl-cysteine), sold under the brand names of Parlodex or Mucomyst, or the natural dietary supplement Immunocal (patented whey protein isolate).
* Entered in the reference book of Canadian Doctors Compendium of Pharmaceuticals and Specialties (CPS).
* It is classified by FDA in GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) category under specification 21CFR §184.1979c.
These proteins could even help people affected by the chronic fatigue syndrome, according to American physician Paul Cheney, one of research pioneers in this domain.
Doctors and experts agree that such a discovery happens once per generation and in a few years, GSH will be as part of standard tests as blood and cholesterol tests are today.
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