History

• Oral supplementation
  • 15 September 1999, tried Recancostat. Reaction: diarrhea, painful bloating, liver attack
  • 14 July 2004, intravenous infusion of 200 mg.
    • Subsequently I started being able to eat more vegetables, and exercise more, but didn’t at that point connect these with the GSH.
    • Mid-September I started getting worse again, very fragile.
  • December 1, another 200 mg infusion: when I started feeling much better again, I saw the pattern
  • Nasal spray
    • Began 6 January 2005
      200 mg/cc, preservative-free, except for 2% vitamin C
      from Key Pharmacy, Kent WA, (800) 878-1322
    • My doctor encouraged me to find the regimen that worked for me. I started at 20 mg/day (one spray), and worked up to approx. 200 mg/day by 11 April.
      
      • (“Approximately
    • However I was calculating the dose incorrectly, and taking much more than I realized
    • After a food reaction on 20 April, premature atrial contractions (see Heart Reaction, below) felt alarming, and so I cut back to 160 mg/day
    • After another food reaction 8 May, not only did my heart alarm me, but it was so much harder to recover than I’d grown used to, that I
      • increased my magnesium and CoEnzyme Q10
      • stopped GSH
    • Resumed 22 May
      • starting at 1 spray (20 mg), working up by May 30 to 1 spray each nostril 4x/day (80 mg /day
      • spitting out what drained from my sinuses, not swallowing it
  • 1 June 2005 ntravenous infusion, 400 mg, while on EK
    • No PACs at al
    • slight pressure in left cheek temple (where I get mold headaches)
    • Other exposures and stresses the same day made it difficult to sort out what I was reacting to, but when an incapacitating headache developed two days later, and went on for days, along with inability to digest.... I eventually couldn’t get myself to take any nasal GSH.

Benefits

• Slept more soundly
• Mood improved
• Less exhaustion and pain after exercise
• Mental acuity and mood improved
• More energy: could reduce Co-Enzyme Q10 from 800 mg / day to 600
• Body heat slightly better
• Chronic pain less, especially
  • in my back in the evening
  • in wris
• Sensitivities - when I had reactions, they were much milder
  • Chemicals (and that means tolerating doctors’ offices somewhat better
  • Foods
    • before GSH, what I could eat had become so restricted I was concerned about nutrition
    • From February to April I could eat
      • more high-sulfur foods (even some cooked onion!)
      • other foods I hadn’t in ten years.
        (See My Diet)
  • Supplements [record Changes in Supplements]
• Recovered from an attack much quicker
  • I could cook, take care of myself more of the time.
  • I could try a new food or supplement without having to set aside several days for possible recovery — if careful about what else I’m eating.
• Tolerated more exercise
• Enabled me to eat oils.
  
  • For a couple of years now I’ve had trouble getting enough calories into me to keep my weight up.
    2 Tbsp olive oil at each meal solved that.
    However just bef
    On the nasal GSH I was able to resume the 2 Tbsp olive oil, at my first three meals of the day (but not after 4 pm) — even increased it to 3 Tbsp at those times, hoping to gain weight. I haven't gained weight, but I have continued to be able to eat the oil after stopping the GSH.

Problems

• When it enabled me to eat foods I’d given up, I didn’t know what my limits were any more, and could only find out the hard way.
• I craved many of the foods I’d been able to add, and had not learned good discipline about using them. I know craving can come from the body’s need or from allergy — but had no idea which, when.
  As a result I had some severe food reactions.
• Initially it constipat
• Irritation of GI tract
  • I only noticed this when I had one of my liver attacks, with nausea
  • On those occasions, GSH produced diarrhea and vomiting immediately after I took it and swallowed what drains out of my nasal passages. (Efentually I worked out how to spit that out instead.)
• Heart reaction
  • Pulse feels like the kick of a mule when I’m weak from an attack
  • PACs
    • may have had them before GSH (I had some irregularity in rhythm, for a couple of years, that I was avoiding paying attention to)
    • taking GSH increases their frequency immediately, eg from roughly every 8th beat to every 4th beat
    • extra-strong beat following the PAC feels very distressing when I’m already overwhelmed by
• Probable reactions to infusions (although the there were other things, on some of those occasions, I could have been reacting to as I did ... after three times I think the infusions are a problem)
• My health diary says:
  • 14 July 2004, 200 mg (first GSH)
    • 15 July - chronic pain flares all over
    • 16 July - liver attack
  • 1 December 2004, 200 mg, second GSH
    • 2-3 Dec - diarrhea
    • 4 Dec - liver attack
  • 1 June 2005, 400 mg (after taking increasing doses of nasal spray for a while)
    • 1 Jun - slight pressure in left cheek sinus, where my mold headaches start
    • 2 Jun - chronic pain flares all over, headache
    • 3 Jun - strong mold headache, continuing muscle problems
• When I went off GSH, I was more sensitive

Conclusion

• Assessment:
  • In some ways, my health is now worse than it was when I started taking GSH (eg, greater reactivity to most everything).
  • In other ways, I still retain benefits (eg tolerating oils, no wrist pain).
  • There are also many other benefits I got from it that I sorely need, and hope to get back (eg eating yogurt).
• I learned 2 things from the June IV:
  • GSH does not aggravate my PACs when taken IV as it does when I was taking it nasally and swallowing (not immediately, anyway... and I don’t think it did later, either. I’ve gotten sensitized to noticing them.)
  • I was so happy at the benefits, I acted greedily, and kept trying
• I find it hard to understand what to do next.
  • Would it have helped to take selenium to help recycle the oxidized glutathione (GSSG)? I've not been able to tolerate selenium in recent years. I bought a liquid form, which may have less in it to bother me.
  • But I’m not happy with how poorly I understand how GSH interacts with my excessive cysteine and bad sulfate/cysteine ratio (see...
    • Sulfur Metabolism Defect
    • and my Nov 01 Great Smokies Liver Detoxification Profile).
  • In the Detox Profile Application Guide, page 2, GS says “Most people with deficient sulfate and xenobiotic loads will benefit from cysteine and glutathione supplementation. Individuals with elevated plasma cysteine/sulfate ratios, however, may worsen with cysteine supplementation and require inorganic sulfate as a supplement, in order to bypass this sulfoxidation step.”
  • One thing I've decided:
    • I'm going to retest my cysteine/sulfate blood level; GS will do that alone without the whole challenge of the Detox Profile
    • And if it's still high be very cautious with anything that will increase my cysteine.
  • And one question I'm going to research: In addition to increasing or improving the function of CDO, is there any other way to bring down elevated cysteine?

For more information

• Impaired Sulfur Oxidation at CFS Nutrition's site. Discusses both cysteine dioxygenase and sulfite oxidase. "When a person is a poor sulfur oxidizer they often find ordinary foods bearing sulfur compounds to be a source of discomfort. Broccoli and garlic being but two examples of foods which can contribute to uncomfortable excess cystiene levels in such people." Hmm, "discomfort" -- like my liver attacks
• My pages:
  • Glutathione
  • Molybdenum
  • Sulfur Metabolism
  • Glutathione conjugation in liver Phase II detox.
  • Acetaminophen Poisoning
  • SAMe
  • L-Cysteine
  • Homocysteine