Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Methods of Taking Glutathione

There are different ways to increase your consumption of this wonderful antioxidant. I think everone of us should be aware of the name "glutathione," not only it is for skin whitening but it is also for anti-aging and for your health in general. Being aware of it at a young age, helps to set aside a healthy living life, which in returns help preventing chronic illness in the long run.



1/  Eat a lot of sulfur-rich foods: such as broccoli, cabbage, kale, cauliflower, watercress, garlic, and onions.

2/  Bioactive Whey Protein:  this is an awesome source of cystein and amino acids. The Whey protein that you get, make sure it is bioactive (MUST) and contains non-denatured protein. That means the milk is non-pasteurized - no hormones, pesticides, or antibiotics.

3/  Excercise to boost Glutathione level:  excercising moderately helps to improve your detoxification system, enhance your body's antioxidants, and thus boost your immune system.

4/  Oral Glutathione:  the most popular form is the glutathione pills. To achieve skin whitening/lightening result, depending on your skin tone, generally it is advised to take from 1200 - 2400mg per day. However, you will need to take other supporting antioxidant supplements to maintain the glutathione in your body, otherwise it'll just be flushed through your digestive system before you could see any results.

5/  Antioxidant supplements:  taking other antioxidant boosters like alpha-lipoic acid, vitamin C, and cystein supplement. These will help keeping and enhancing the glutathione level in your body to do its functions, before it gets washed out of your body.

6/  Intravenous Glutathione (IV):  which means that the glutathione is directly injected into your bloodstream through your vein. It is by far the most effective way to take glutathione for skin whitening and in general. 

What exactly is Glutathione?

Glutathione or GSH in abbreviation is a water soluble substance. It is an important antioxidant in plants, animals, fungi, and some bacteria. It helps preventing damages cause by free radicals and peroxides. Glutathione is a molecule that is naturally produced by the body. It is a small protein consist of a group of 3 amino acids: Cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine. 




Glutathione reduces covalent bonds by serving as an electron donor. During this process of converting, glutathione will be oxidized and called as L-Glutathione, as seen in some of the ads, which stands for glutathione disulfide (GSSG).

In common terms, L-Glutathione (GSSG) is pretty much the same as Glutathione. It is just a another name used for the substance while it is converting or converted. Glutathione exists in both reduced (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) state. They regenerate each other because for every GSSG, two reduced GSH molecules are gained, which then they go on the scavenger hunt for free radicals in the cell. It is like a cycle, the higher level of Glutathione the more antioxidants you have in your body.



In short, an antioxidant like Vitamin C or B12 gives up their electron to a free radical cell and neutralizes that free radical cell, without becoming reactive itself. Glutathione is different! A reduced glutathione (GSH) will also give up an electron to a free radical cell and neutralizes them, but they also become reactive by binding itself with another oxidative glutathione cell.

I.e. When GSH gives away the H, it's only GS. Now, it will bind with another GS, so it can become GSSG - glutathione disulfide or L-Glutathione.








It is said to be the king substance of all antioxidants, because it provides multiple functions:

•  It is participate directly at neutralizing free radicals and other reactive oxygen - the toxins such as mercury and other heavy metal compounds that are negative for our health.

•  It maintains other antioxidants such as Vitamin C and E.

•  It keeps the regulation of nitric oxide cycle in balance, which is can be very critical for life.

•  It is used in metabolic and biochemical reactions such as DNA repairs, protein synthesis, amino acid transportation, and enzyme activation.

•  Therefore, every system in the body can be affected by the state of the glutathione, especially the immune system, the nervous system, the gastrointestinal system, and the lungs.

•  It plays a vital role in iron metabolism. 


I'm definitely not a chemical junkie. I have expained what Glutathione is and what its functions is (not talking about the benefits yet...) in layman terms. I hope this is enough specs of Glutathione for you to absorb. Look out for my next post in Glutathione Benefits!


IV Glutathione - Day 2

Today is my second time of getting my IV Glutathione. So excited!!! 😘 They had me on the 800 mg dose this time, higher than last time! It went really fast too!

This time, while she was performing the IV on me, i do feel a cool sensation where the second tube was injected in. After the IV, my arm does feel a little sore than the first time. It feels like I just had an intensive work out of my arm. LoL 😝😊

Some of the pictures of me sitting in the office. Again, no photoshop was done, it was just different lighting and angles.
(Note: I hate my zit. My skin isn't prone to acne, but when I do get one, it is really bad and it stays on my face for weeks!!! I really meant weeks... If not, months!!)

Indoor yellow lighting

3 different steriles.

With flash

Without flash


In the sun light. I still see a little yellowish tan in it!

Just a differrent angle


Alrighty, my next one would be on Thursday!

Thursday, September 25, 2014

IV Glutathione - Day 1

Hello readers,

Today, I'm going to share something very exciting and different from any other posts that I did before. After months of research about Glutathione, I am confident of why I chose the Glutathione IV option not only for my skin whitening adventure but also for my health in general. I will have to put together my research in a seperate post. For now, I am exciting to share that today is my first day of getting the Glutathione IV! 😊☺️😘😄

I'm getting my treatment at the:
Arrowhead Aesthetics & Medical Center
by Dr. Red Espiritu

My actual IV was performed by the nurse.  She was very informative and friendly. The IV itself costs $125 per IV. Of course it us not cheap, however the thing is, I'd rather pay $125 and not worrying about the supply (i.e. The quality of the medication, where it was manufactured, when it's getting here) and the whole nine yards of performing IV myself, when I'm not even qualified for or have any certifications for it.  I still admire the girls on the forums, who "try" perform the IV themselves after watching youtube videos. Some did it smoothly, some got thiet blood everywhere and it looked like a mess and unsanitized. I can't do that!!! Too complicated for me, especially when it comes to needles and all! I'd rather pay and get the peace of mind.


Appointment time: 9AM, Sept. 25, 2014

I scheduled my appointment for a free consultation. These were the questions I asked:

1/ What are the side effects of the injection?
2/ Can I still take the flu shots?
3/ I want to see visible result before October 4, is it possible?
4/ (Show picture) How long will it take me to achieve the result like this? And how often do I have to come to maintain this?
5/  What will happen if I stop taking the injections after a year?
6/ Long term effect, will my skin tone turn darker than before because, when it's exposed to the sun; because for all those time it has become so dependant on the glutathione?
7/ How can I make it into a permanent result?
8/ How long has the center been offering this service?

🔱 Tips:
- Create a list of questions prior to consultation.
- Show them the picture of your idol or the result that you want to achieve. It's hard to describe in words, better show them a picture.
- Be honest to your Doc during consultation! Don't be shy to tell them what your desires are about skin whitening and don't be afraid to tell them what are the steps you have taken already to achieve it. The more info you provide them, the easier it would be for them to help you achieving your goal.


 Here are the picture of the result I want to achieve and I made sure to show her as well.



That rosy pale looking skin along with the glow is exactly the result that I want. She said that my skin tone is pretty much already light, so to achieve the result that I wanted it might only take about 4 - 5 treatments. After that, there comes the maintenant part to maintain it. Just like when you're going to get your hair and nails done, you have to keep coming back every now and then to maintain them. In this case, she said that I can come back once a month or every other month to maintenant it. Not bad!

After the consultation, I decided to move forward, so they had me read and sign the consent form.



After siging, I waited for her to get everything ready and perform the IV. The frist time she had me on 600 mg of Glutathione. The IV itself was only about 3-4 minutes. I won't go into details of what it feels like coz it's pretty much like a hard pinch, what a needle supposed to feel like.  After the IV, she had me drink an Alpha-Lipoic Acid capsule to help retain the glutathione so it won't flush it out of the system fast. I was advised to take this capsult everydayn on an empty stomach.



What is Alpha-Lipoic acid?
It is a disulfatw compound that acts as an antioxidant to neutraliza several toxins such as heavy metals. It is also a co-enzyme that recycles other antioxidants (i.e. Glutathione, vitamin c, e) in the body. It is important to take this supplement while you're taking glutathione; because it converts glutathione back and forth from its oxidized form (GSSG) to reduced form (GSH). Lipoic acid ability is to improve and enhance the functions of glutathione.


I took some pictures to compare with the result later on. This is my current skin tone before the treatment. No photoshops.







Of course, the lighting makes a huge difference on my skin tone too. When I'm out in the sun, my skin tone seems to be much-much lighter. Still with no photoshops.






I even took pictures with my little one to compare later on to see if there's a difference... LoL!




That's about it! I will keep posting my next ones. 😘😄


Disclaimer: I am not writing this with a purpose of promoting the center where I got this done, neither promoting the IV Glutathione. It is simply a review about my experience of getting an IV Glutathione treatment. Personally, it is an exciting for me so I want to mark this milestone on my personal blog. I also hope to provide my experience as a resource for the people who are thinking about getting this done.