Glutathione therapy

An interview with Dr. David Perlmutter by Jill Selby

Here Glutathione therapy is explained by the doctor who pioneered the treatment.

Glutathione therapy is inexpensive, safe and can dramatically improve functioning for patients with Parkinson's Disease. It is a treatment that sounds too good to be true, but there is no questioning the impressive results. Doctors all over the world are becoming believers in the benefits of glutathione thanks to the work of our special guest, Dr. David Perlmutter.

Jill: Thanks for taking the time to visit with me about glutathione therapy, Dr. Perlmutter. Your work is generating a lot of excitement in the PD community. How does glutathione work?

Dr. Perlmutter: A better question might be, "Why is it useful?" It's now recognized that the main pathologic event in Parkinson's Disease or any other neurologic disorder is the destruction of neurons by free radicals, so anything that limits free radicals is important. The primary role of glutathione is not necessarily in preventing symptoms, but in slowing the disease by limiting free radicals. Glutathione is a free radical scavenger, so regardless of whether it helps patients symptomatically, day-to-day, it is still something that should be considered.

Jill: But is it true that people who try the therapy are seeing significant improvement in their symptoms?

Dr. Perlmutter: Eighty to ninety percent improve dramatically. It's felt that the mechanism that allows it to work is in increasing the sensitivity to certain receptors to dopamine. Glutathione doesn't raise dopamine levels, but it allows the dopamine in the brain to be more effective. That's not a new idea in medicine. Diabetic drugs work not by increasing insulin, but by increasing the receptors to insulin. Glutathione not only increases sensitivity to dopamine, but also to serotonin, which may explain why many of our depressed PD patients have a remarkable improvement.

Jill: Describe the standard glutathione treatment regimen.

Dr. Perlmutter: We've been using glutathione for three years and have steadily increased our dosage. Now our standard dosage is 1400 milligrams mixed with saline and given intraveneously for ten minutes three times a week. We were recently visited by the National Parkinson Foundation and they're very excited -- to the extent they are going to comission a large double-blind study evaluation short- and long-term effectiveness.

Jill: Can patients take glutathione in pill form instead of through an IV?

Dr. Perlmutter: Glutathione must be given via IV. It's digested very rapidly when given orally. Intramuscular injections are somewhat effective, but it's minimal. Also included in our treatment is the amino acid N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC). The use of milk thistle has been shown to cause retention of glutathione, so it is part of our program.

Jill: Does gluathione replace a patient's current PD medications?

Dr. Perlmutter: Often times the patient's symptoms improve so significantly, we are able to decrease, sometimes significantly, the amount of medication they require. This is important because there are some side effects with those medications. Levodopa increases the level of homocysteine in the body and increases the risk of stroke and heart attack.

Jill: So many treatments seem only to benefit recently-diagnosed patients. Is that true with glutathione therapy?

Dr. Perlmutter: Everybody gets some benefit. We have treated some patients at end-stage who are wheelchair-bound and unable to speak and they have shown some very obvious and notable improvement. Their degree of improvement will obviously be less than someone in an earlier stage of the disease.

Jill: Are there any side effects associated with the treatment?

Dr. Perlmutter: There are no significant side effects. Also, the cost is exceedingly low: $1.00 for every 100 milligrams and it's often covered by insurance. Family members can even perform the treatment once provided instruction. I do caution other doctors not to mix glutathione with anything but normal saline. Other practitioners might want to mix it with vitamin C, but vitamin C renders glutathione useless by causing it to oxidize. Since glutahione increases the ability of the liver to process chemicals, there's possibility that glutathione administration might render chemotherapy less effective.

Jill: How long can someone continue with glutathione therapy?

Dr. Perlmutter: Permanently.

Jill: Is glutathione gaining acceptance in the medical community?

Dr. Perlmutter: I lecture nationally probably ten to twelve times a year and I always ask how many doctors are using it. Probably at least ten to twenty percent of the audience raises their hand. The others are waiting for peer review validation. Glutathione is already an FDA-approved product.

Jill: What lead you to the discovery of glutathione's effectiveness as a treatment for Parkinson's?

Dr. Perlmutter: There were articles appearing in our journals noting that the brain of PD patients were deficient in glutathione. We've known since 1950 they were deficient in dopamine. Once we realized they were also deficient in glutathione, we saw the potential.

Jill: How many patients are receiving this treatment?

Dr. Perlmutter: Probably several thousand, easily.

Jill: And is the treatment uncomfortable?

Dr. Perlmutter: Not at all. I've had it myself many times.

Jill: Is glutathione therapy used to treat any other conditions besides PD?

Dr. Perlmutter: It's been very effective in treating irritable bowel syndrome, and I don't have a clue why. We use it to treat all neurodegenerative symptoms, but it is also part of our treatment for fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.

Jill: Do patients need to go to your health center in Florida to receive this treatment?

Dr. Perlmutter: No. I have an instructional videotape available on my website and I receive six or eight phone calls every day from doctors around the country. I'm happy to work with them. It's something any physician can do in his or her office and ultimately, the patients or their families can learn to do it at home.