MEET ANDREW SZALAY, "FATHER OF FOODFORM"

By Elliott Goodman

Andrew Szalay, right, and Elliott Goodman in 1999.

FOODFORM® Vitamins and Minerals were invented by Andrew Szalay. Andy got his degree in pharmacy at the University of Szeged in Hungary. Albert Szent-Gyorgy, the Nobel Laureate who discovered Vitamin C, was a member of the faculty and was a strong influence on Andy. After coming to the USA in 1956, Andy first worked as a bench chemist; later becoming Vice President of several botanical companies. He isolated a number of active constituents of herbs and other plants. Andy developed a vast knowledge of herbal biochemistry and a deep understanding of how nutrients are complexed with food factors. This is a 1988 interview of Andy by Elliott Goodman which was published for the first time in FOODFORM® Family News, March, 2000.

EG: How would you put your discovery of FOODFORM® Vitamins and Minerals into historical perspective?

AS: I want to point out two directions. One is nutrition, the other is medication. About 40 or 50 years ago, major researchers started to isolate the different vitamins from natural sources. The original idea was to isolate the good materials, the efficient materials, for medical purposes. They made all of their efforts to isolate it from food. They realized that those factors which are present in the food have something to do with the healing effect.

EG: Are you referring to the treatment of scurvy, rickets-that type of thing?

AS: That is precisely what I am talking about. They tried to extract the materials in high concentration so they can use them for medical purposes. They were really looking for medication, not for nutrition, even though humanity evolved through nutrition. They had to go through a lot of pain to isolate the different constituents of food. First of all, we must remember that, if we know exactly the structure of any material, very likely it is not a food. That is because food has such great complexity that it is impossible to put into chemical formulas. But the researchers wanted to have the chemical formulas of the active constituents in the food. So they started to isolate, to separate the fat-soluble substances, the water-soluble substances, the alcohol-soluble substances until they got to nearly pure substances. And then they had to go through the different isolation methods to get out the individual, active constituents of the food. When they found those 10, 13, 14, or 15 items, they called them vitamins. These were the known chemicals which were curing certain illnesses or sicknesses, and they tried to achieve the healing effect.

EG: Were they able to identify the exact vitamins in the food, or did they just approximate them in some cases?

AS: They did a tremendous amount research work on it and were able to very-well define the exact structure of the vitamins in the food. And if you look at how the individual vitamins were discovered, you can see how complicated it is to get to the pure substance as it appears in nature. In order to commercialize it and use it for treatment of different illnesses, they wanted to produce it in commercially-available form, which is stable. That is not as it is in food. The way most vitamins appear in food is different from what is synthesized commercially.

EG: So we can concentrate vitamins from food, but they are so expensive and unstable that it's not practical, and so those aren't the vitamins that are produced commercially, the ones called USP vitamins?

AS: Yes. USP vitamins are supposed to be precursors of those molecules which are active in the biological system.

EG: For the benefit of our readers, what is a precursor?

AS: Precursor is like this: Suppose you want to produce a leg for a table. You take a piece of wood that is similar to the table leg and you shape it. You get the usable material to the final form.

EG: So is the body able to take these precursor vitamins and shape them and change them into a usable form?

AS: It depends on how your body reacts to the precursors. If your body lacks certain enzymes, then they cannot be transferred in the usable coenzyme form. Most of the commercially available vitamins are not like the way they are in nature. Your body has to work on the USP vitamins to apply them to its needs.

EG: OK, so then how did you come into the picture?

AS: I was thinking about how to put vitamins into a more utilizable, nutritionally beneficial form, not a medical form. In general, the USP vitamins were created by the vitamin manufacturing companies as precursors of the active form, for medical purposes. This was the only reason they created them. Later, they decided that, if it is beneficial for medical purposes, maybe it could also be marketed for nutritional purposes, and it turned out to be a big thing.

EG: In other words, if a person had certain symptoms from a deficiency, say of scurvy, and they were able to treat those symptoms with the USP vitamins, then they assumed, since the symptoms went away, that those USP vitamins were performing a nutritional role?

AS: That's it. That's what they assumed. But consider that half a lime a day saved the lives of the sailors 150 years ago, and it contained just a fraction of the daily recommended allowance of vitamin C. It saved the lives and the health of those sailors. So, there is good reason to think that maybe it's not the synthetic vitamin C that does the trick, but rather it is the vitamin C as it appears in food.

EG: So the medical approach is to treat symptoms, but they are not concerned with feeding the cells?

AS: That's what it is. Now, when we are talking about FOODFORM® vitamins, I went back to the original idea that Albert Szent-Gyorgy worked out. In his memoirs he wrote that the impure substance, not the completely-purified vitamin C, was more efficient for recovery of scurvy or whatever vitamin C could cure. So I took a second look at what we mean when we are talking about nutrition. Medication looks for an immediate solution or cure. Nutrition refers to supplying your body over a longer period of time so it can be healthy and resistant to sicknesses. This gave me the idea that I wanted to make something nutritionally much more efficient than the synthetic vitamins. This gave the idea to go back to the final purification form before researchers got to the pure substances. To build it together again, the same way as it appears in nature. Because nature has its own way for evolution. I decided to take a new look and to take a new avenue to get to better nutrition.

EG: What happened next?

AS: I took out all the books, and looked at the individual vitamins, the researchers' work-how they isolated the individual, active, coenzyme form of vitamins. What where the very last things that they tore off before they got them.

EG: So you didn't have to go and analyze it. These researchers already knew.

AS: Already told me the story. I just had to reveal it. My original and best idea was to start with a fruit or other food and make a concentrate of it and then we would go through what the researchers went through. But then we would have a product that would not be economically feasible. It would cost a thousand times as much as it costs now. So we thought "Let's reverse the process." The vitamin companies had already created the precursors of the vitamins (USP vitamins); let's make coenzymes out of them. How to do it? Take a look at how they isolated the coenzyme form, but make it stable. When the vitamin companies started to produce the USP vitamins, they had a problem because they were not stable. They are stable when they are in food. But they were not stable when they manufactured them.

EG: For the benefit of our readers, what do you mean by not being stable?

AS: They cannot stand up. They decompose. They would lose potency at a very fast rate. So the next assignment was to take the already-available precursor vitamins and find out what were the last constituents that had to be there to get the same biological effect, or as close as they appear in foods.

EG: So each vitamin and each mineral was a whole project that you had to work out.

AS: Sure.

EG: Each one is different. But of course the end result was to get them into a form like they appear in food.

AS: With all of these materials, we were working on the natural-form idea with the vitamins and the minerals (mostly beginning with the minerals) for about three years, and we developed six or seven minerals. But the following seven years, which is up to today, were extremely fruitful because we already built on something. So when we got through with the first minerals, we already knew that certain groups of proteins and carbohydrates and lipids have to be left out because they don't have anything to do with binding up in the active form what we can call the active principles in the food. So we had to group up the active principles and this is how it happened. The idea was on my mind day and night, all the time. And this is how it developed, as continuous building blocks. We have now developed over forty items and there is no end in sight.

EG: Everything you have done went contrary to all of the scientific belief up to that point. My understanding is that, up until your work, people assumed that, when we ate food and digested it, our body breaks it down into isolated constituents. Therefore, they believed that the isolates would be just as good because they are already broken down and would save our body the trouble of having to break them down. But you were the one who introduced the whole concept of natural-form vitamins and minerals and that they would work better.

AS: Let me add to what you just said. If you went to medical school or to pharmacy school, or anywhere else, and studied nutrition, biology or biochemistry, you always learned the same old principle which said that the food is broken down to individual amino acids if they are proteins, or individual fatty acids if they are fats, and the carbohydrates to individual, let's say, sugars. This is what you learned. If you did not say this, you flunked. You had to swear on it because your professor swore on it. And he learned it the same way. But, when I started to work with this project about twenty years ago, I doubted it because I took a look at all the enzymes which were known to be present in the digestive system. They were not able to break down the proteins to individual amino acids because there were not enough enzymes which are cutting the proteins, and we didn't even know twenty years ago what the protein chain was composed of, how it was hooked up. This came to some light about ten years ago. So, somebody just established this theory, and everybody had to repeat it.

EG: And then as you worked on this project, it became more clear to you?

AS: More clear to me even today that I don't see that there are enough enzymes in the human body that could be equivalent to hydrolyze a protein which, in the laboratory, needs to be cooked in very strong acids or alkalis to break down the proteins to individual amino acids.

EG: So it must have taken a lot of courage for you to take a stand?

AS: I was not brave enough to tell it. I had it in my mind, and I built on it that the body does not break down everything.

EG: And would you say that the university studies comparing FOODFORM® vitamins and minerals with the USP vitamins and minerals, showing FOODFORM® vitamins and minerals may be better absorbed and better utilized-would that seem to prove that you were correct?

AS: I did not do the studies. We got independent researchers to do the studies. We did not talk them into giving us certain results. We asked them to report the results to us even if it is a failure. We did not want to be accused later that we used cosmetics. Whatever the researchers report, we report. Quite frankly, I did not want to speak up during the years while we were working on the biological studies. When we had two or three studies, I saw that we had something. But until two or three dozen studies were finished, we could not be sure about it. Today, I am very strongly convinced that we found the right way and I think it will blossom. And it will bring better health and better resistance and stimulation of the immune system, much better than we had before.

EG: So these studies are scientific evidence that your concept is correct. Let's face it, if the protein is broken off when we digest our food, then why do the studies show that FOODFORM® vitamins work better? It doesn't make any sense.

AS: It does not.

EG: So now you're in a situation where you are way ahead of your time, in terms of the scientific community. They're still clinging to the old ideas.

AS: I am thinking differently than they do. And if we say that I am right then yes, I am ahead of them. But my thinking is really different than most of them. Now lately, other people are saying the same thing.

EG: So the tide is starting to turn?

AS: The tide is starting to turn because, really, if you take the literature on the human digestive system, we don't have basic research on how the material is getting through the intestinal wall, and after digesting, how does it appear on the other side of the intestinal wall before it gets in the blood stream. We don't have it. Somebody wrote a book and that is how we know whatever we know.

EG: So the scientific community tends to be very conservative and slow in accepting new developments.

AS: Sure. But they are supposed to be. And they are doing it. And God bless them. Let them do their own thing. I am doing my own thing, and I am not willing to take their side.

EG: Five years ago we made an agreement with you to use what you developed in our supplements. And, I told you way back then that our desire was to follow your philosophy of nutrition as opposed to a drug use of vitamins. Our concern was that people needed better nutrition and that's why we named our company IntraCell Nutrition because our goal was to nourish the cells of the body. We only use FOODFORM® vitamins and minerals which we know work better. And, in our flagship product FOODFORM MANNA®, we put the vitamins and minerals in the same profile that we were able to see in analyses of various nutritious foods. When we put all that information into our computer we saw that each food group had definite nutrient ratios or profile. And since each food was a little different, we took an average. What we did in producing MANNA™ was very unusual because no manufacturer had ever balanced a formulation the way nature balances vitamins and minerals in a balanced diet.

AS: Formulation of finished products is not our job, but I think what you did is a very healthy idea. It is giving the summary of the idea when they say that you have to eat a variety of foods and different food groups. This is what you did, and you did it very well. And that's the way I think it should be done.

EG: Our goal has always been to carry forward your work, focusing on nutrition and on how we can make the best possible product.

AS: I say you are doing a darn good job. And, quite frankly, I think FOODFORM MANNA® is a very original idea-that you took different foods, grouped them up and averaged it. Because that's the way it should be. They are now finding out that, if you are eating the different food groups in balanced form, then you can have better resistance from outside influences and maybe have a longer and healthier life. I agree with that philosophy.

EG: Thank you Andy for all you've done to help improve the health and well-being of so many people.

AS: Thank you.

Copyright © 1998 Elliott Goodman. All rights reserved.
FOODFORM® is a registered trademark of IntraCell Nutrition Inc.

Is It Possible To Slow Down The Aging Process?

Glutathione And The Free-Radical Theory Of Aging And Disease.

By Elliott Goodman

      Is it possible to slow down the aging process and delay the onset of disease? Research is being done to gain a deeper insight into the causes of the processes of aging, disease and death. Researchers hope this will lead to methods to slow down aging. A lot of research points to the "free radical theory of aging and disease." We all have two ages: our biological age (how many years we have been alive) and our functional age (the condition of our body-how youthful and healthy we are). The free radical theory says our functional age may be a product of the levels of antioxidants in our body, especially a substance called glutathione. In animal studies, researchers have been able to actually slow down aging and disease with the use of certain antioxidants.¹ Maintaining antioxidant levels may help humans in either extending our life or improving our vitality despite advancing biological age.

Aging and Disease

     First proposed by Harman in 1981, more and more researchers are embracing the free radical theory of aging.² This point of view suggests that free radicals (unstable oxygen molecules) play a major role in the cause and the progression of many diseases. One of the biological changes associated with aging is an increase in free radical formation with resulting damage to cellular processes. Also, the use of prescription drugs increases free radical and toxin production. Oxygen therapy may also increase free radical production as does radiation and environmental factors. Prolonged oxidative stress leads to irreversible damage and cell death. Our body is a battleground where there are forces trying to destroy us (oxidants) and those that protect us from them (antioxidants). Eventually, the balance tips toward the oxidants (and other toxins that kill and mutate cells) and we begin to lose the battle. We age, become debilitated and eventually die of diseases such as heart attack, stroke and cancer. Researchers have suggested that maintaining high antioxidant levels in the body may increase longevity by influencing the immune system and by reducing age-related diseases or delaying their onset.

Discovery of Glutathione

     The existence of glutathione was theorized in 1888 when scientists noticed the antioxidant properties of a water extract of baker's yeast. They later found it was present in animal tissue extracts. It was identified in baker's yeast by Hopkins in 1921 and named "glutathione". It was first synthesized in 1952 as "L-glutathione". There are many antioxidants functioning in our body. Most people are familiar with vitamins C, A and E. And there are also substances in plants (phytochemicals) that can function as antioxidants.

     • Glutathione (in its various forms) is believed to be the major protection system in the body against free radicals.

     • Glutathione is essential in protecting our cells from toxins (produced within our body and entering our body from the environment) which cause cell mutation and cell death.

     • Glutathione protects our cells from radiation damage.

     • Glutathione can neutralize the toxic by-products of medications.

     • Glutathione removes toxic heavy metals such as mercury from the body.

     • Studies show glutathione may actually perform repairs on damaged DNA within our cells.

     • Glutathione recycles vitamins C and E after they have been oxidized by free radicals so those vitamins can be used again.

     Glutathione is found in the watery part of all of our cells and in our bodily fluids and tissues. Interestingly, it is especially abundant where we need it most-in the parts of our body where we are most vulnerable to attacks from free radicals, toxins, radiation etc.

How We Get Glutathione

     Our body makes most of its glutathione supply. And we also get it from food such as fresh vegetables and fruits. Also, our body produces various enzyme forms of glutathione such as glutathione peroxidase which is believed to be the only active site of selenium in the body. Although there are other important antioxidant enzymes in the body, "...glutathione peroxidase was found to be much more effective than both catalase and superoxide dismutase, the latter being particularly inefficient."³

Glutathione and Aging

     As a result of performing all of its life and health-preserving functions, the levels of glutathione in our body can become depleted. This impairs our primary cell protection. As levels of free radicals and toxins increase (with aging, disease, environmental factors etc.), our level of glutathione declines. We become more and more defenseless against increasing attacks from free radicals, toxins, radiation etc.

     Researchers are attempting to correlate glutathione levels in individuals with incidence of diseases and other signs of aging as well as life expectancy. Some promising studies are reviewed in Free Radicals and Aging. "The free radical theory of aging suggests that oxygen free radicals may be involved in the aging process. Thus, changes in antioxidant mechanisms may occur with aging. Since glutathione is one of the most effective antioxidant systems in the cell, its metabolism may change with aging." "...we describe experiments which show the involvement of glutathione in the aging process and which provide a rationale for the administration of antioxidants to old organisms to protect them against some of the changes that occur with aging."¹

     A study (performed by the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the University of Louisville School of Medicine) compared glutathione levels in elderly people with various disease conditions (arthritis, high blood pressure, heart disease, circulatory symptoms, diabetes, stomach symptoms, and urinary tract infection). The study showed that, in a sample of independently living elderly, a person's glutathione status accounted for the largest factor in the incidence of disease. "For every illness, except urinary tract infections, those subjects who possessed the condition had a lower mean glutathione level than those without the condition." The researchers concluded that this is evidence of "an association of higher glutathione with better physical health in a sample of community-based elderly." The study concluded that evidence that "low levels of glutathione are associated with a number of morbid states is rapidly accumulating."⁴

The Primary Functions of Glutathione in the Body

     A search of two of the world's largest data bases of medical and scientific literature (MedLine and CancerLit) reveals more than 19,000 published studies and articles on glutathione in humans. And the number of studies on the role of glutathione is rapidly growing each year. This intense interest by the medical and scientific community is a strong indication of just how important glutathione is in the human body. "Glutathione has several major physiological functions: protecting cells against destructive effects of reactive oxygen intermediates and free radicals; detoxifying external substances such as drugs and environmental pollutants, maintaining red cell membrane stability; enhancing immunological function through its effects on lymphocytes. These widespread functions suggest that the level of glutathione may have major health effects on the molecular, cellular and organ levels of individuals." ⁴

     "Glutathione plays a central role in preventing cellular injury and mutation and may be a protective factor in cancer and aging, cardiovascular disease and the immune dysfunction of HIV infection."⁵

     Decreased tissue glutathione concentrations have been reported in many diseases. Glutathione is decreased in the liver of patients with alcoholic liver disease or symptomatic Wilson's disease. Glutathione levels are low in the brain of patients with Parkinson's disease and in the lining of the lung of patients with adult respiratory distress syndrome or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. In HIV positive individuals, low glutathione levels may increase the risk for opportunistic infections by depressing the immune function. The importance of glutathione for host defense and detoxification in the lung is suggested by the relatively high susceptibility of AIDS patients to lung infections.⁶

Glutathione and Cardiovascular Disease

     The leading cause of death in the United States is heart disease. Cholesterol by itself is not the culprit but rather the attack on cholesterol by free radicals. Cholesterol circulates in our blood vessels and is attacked by hydrogen peroxide and other free radical molecules which turn it into plaque. This destruction of fatty substances is called "lipid peroxidation". The plaque sticks to the sides of the blood vessels causing heart disease (atherosclerosis) and it eventually blocks the blood flow causing a stroke or a heart attack. Researchers believe glutathione may play a crucial in protecting us from heart disease.⁷

     "Oxidative stress can result in glutathione depletion, lipid peroxidation, membrane damage and DNA strand breaks..." "Some degree of oxidative stress occurs in most, if not all, human diseases, and the major question to be answered is whether it makes a significant contribution to the disease pathology. In the case of atherosclerosis ...oxidative damage does indeed make an important contribution to plaque development."⁸

     "The continuous exposure to blood components, including pro-oxidants, makes the blood vessel wall susceptible to oxidative stress and free radical mediated reactions. It has been proposed that free radicals are involved in the initiation and progression of various cardiovascular diseases including arteriosclerosis. Thus the adequacy of the defense systems against free radicals is critical for the susceptibility of blood vessel wall to oxidative damage. Among the enzymatic systems capable of protecting the cell against oxidative injury, selenium dependent glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glutathione transferase play a crucial role."⁹

Glutathione and Cancer

     It is well documented that the incidence and death rates from cancer increase progressively with age in humans. A similar age-related pattern in tumor incidence is also observed in experimental animals. Except for certain cancers that occur mostly in children and young adults, the incidence of most cancers increase exponentially with age, reaching a maximum between 50 and 70 years of age. This problem is likely to get worse as the percentage of elderly in the population continues to increase.

     It has been suggested that the underlying mechanisms of aging and cancer are closely related. There is an accumulation of non-repairable cell damage which occurs in cells over time. Damage to the DNA inside the cell can cause the cell to mutate and become cancerous. This may explain the occurrence of tumors. Researchers at the American Health Foundation said "One line of evidence comes from our own results and those of others, which suggest that a glutathione deficiency is a general feature of aging tissues. Based on the well-known roles of this compound in cellular defense systems, we hypothesize that the loss of glutathione will lead to an increased susceptibility to carcinogens. Human studies have revealed that a large segment of the elderly population has low blood glutathione levels. Studies are underway to determine if these glutathione deficient subjects are at greater risk to specific diseases and environmental insults"¹⁰

Additional Protective Rolls of Glutathione

     The lenses of the eyes have a high glutathione content. Since the eyes are exposed to light and oxygen, they are at high risk of oxidative damage resulting in cataracts. The prime protection from this damage may be glutathione. Since glutathione levels in the lens decline with age, the elderly are susceptible to cataracts,¹¹ age-related macular degeneration¹² and glaucoma.¹³

     Since our lungs are where oxygen (and pollution) enters our body, they are particularly susceptible to cell damage. There are many studies investigating the role of glutathione in protecting the lungs. It has been found that patients with ARDS (Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome) have depressed blood and red cell glutathione levels. The same deficiency is observed in individuals with intrinsic asthma.

     Another area of research has to do with the brain. The level of glutathione in the brains of Parkinson's disease patients is low. This may indicate a state of oxidative stress. "The action of toxins or the altered metabolism of dopamine may lead to oxidative stress in substantia nigra [brain], thereby inducing dopamine cell death and the onset of Parkinson's disease. Postmortem studies showing a depletion of reduced glutathione... suggest the occurrence of an ongoing toxic process in substantia nigra involving free radical mechanisms."¹⁴

What Can We Do To Maintain The Levels of Glutathione in Our Body?

     Moderate exercise can help, but extreme physical exertion increases free radical attacks. "Aging appears to be accelerated because of a decrease in the antioxidant capacity of tissues reflected in a decreased plasma glutathione level. This age-dependent change could be partly compensated by physical training. Skeletal muscle appears to be able to deliver glutathione into circulation with the adaptation of muscle to exercise training reflected in an increased plasma glutathione level in the trained subject."¹⁵

     Attempts to increase glutathione levels by consuming synthetic amino acids are problematic. Cystine, for example is not easily soluble and may precipitate kidney stones. There has been research on a drug N-acetylcysteine. It may raise glutathione levels but its safety and long-term effectiveness have not been demonstrated.

     There are mixed results in raising blood levels with synthetic L-glutathione both orally and by injection. Most researchers believe supplementation with L-Glutathione is not effective in the long run.

We believe natural food may prove to be the safest and best answer!

     Eating a diet rich in sulfur-containing proteins gives you the raw materials the body uses to produce glutathione internally. Maintaining good levels of vitamin C and vitamin E helps preserve the body's glutathione level by taking some of the workload off its shoulders. But most important may be the fact that foods contain glutathione. Dr. Bruce Ames, considered by many to be one of the foremost experts on free radicals in pathology and aging states "Glutathione is present in food and is one of the major antioxidants and antimutagens..."¹⁶

     Unlike the synthetic L-glutathione which is poorly utilized, we may be able to utilize the glutathione nature provides for us in natural foods. Recent studies, supported in part by the American Institute for Cancer Research, indicate that glutathione levels in our body are influenced by the glutathione content of the foods we eat. For example, the studies show that vegetarians have higher blood levels of glutathione than non-vegetarians. Cooking mostly destroys the glutathione content of foods.

     Since most people's diets are lacking in fresh vegetables and fruits, one promising new development is a method of concentrating the glutathione content of food. Baker's yeast (where glutathione was first discovered) contains 0.4% glutathione. A partial extraction is performed which concentrates the glutathione level to 5.0% (all of it in reduced form and still intact, still part of the food matrix). This is pressed into tablets and marketed as Foodform^® Glutathione which we consider one of our must important products.

     Each tablet of Foodform Glutathione provides the reduced glutathione content of over two pounds of fresh vegetables. We believe that, short of making very difficult lifestyle changes, Foodform Glutathione may offer the best approach for us to maintain adequate glutathione levels. Each tablet of Foodform Glutathione also contains 100 mcg. of Foodform Selenium and 1.7 mg of Foodform Vitamin B-2. The selenium and B-2 are added to provide our body with the raw materials it needs to produce the most important antioxidant enzyme-Glutathione Peroxidase.

REFERENCES
1. Vina, J. et.al. Effect of aging on glutathione metabolism. Protection by antioxidants. Free Radicals and Aging (1992) Birkhauser Verlag, Basel/Switzerland. pp. 136-144.

2. Harman, D. The free radical theory of aging. Proceedings National Academy of Science USA (1981) 78:7124-7128.

3. Raes, M. et.al. Comparative study of the enzymatic defense systems against oxygen-derived free radicals: the key role of glutathione peroxidase. Free Radical Biology and Medicine (1987) 3 (1):3-7.

4. Julius, M. et.al. Glutathione and morbidity in a community-based sample of elderly. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology (1994) Vol. 47, No. 9, pp. 1021-1026.

5. Flagg, E.W. et. al. Plasma total glutathione in humans and its association with demographic and health-related factors. British Journal of Nutrition (1993) 70:797-808.

6. Bray, T.M., Taylor, CG Enhancement of tissue glutathione for antioxidant and immune functions in malnutrition. Biochemical Pharmacology (1994) 47:12 pp. 2113-2123.

7. Guidi, G. et.al. Platelet glutathione peroxidase activity is impaired in patients with coronary heart disease. Scandinavian Journal of Clinical Laboratory Investigation (1986) Oct;46 (6):549-51.

8. Halliwell, B. The role of oxygen radicals in human disease, with particular reference to the vascular system. Haemostasis (1993) Mar;23 Suppl 1():118-26.

9. Mezzett,i A. et.al. Glutathione peroxidase, glutathione reductase and glutathione transferase activities in the human artery, vein and heart. Journal of Molecular and Cellular Cardiology (1990) Sept;22 (9):935-8.

10. Richie, J. The role of glutathione in aging and cancer. Experimental Gerontology (1992) Vol. 27, pp. 615-626.

11. Reddy, V.N. Glutathione and its function in the lens-an overview. Experimental Eye Research (1990) Jun;50 (6):771-8.

12. Prashar, S. et.al. Antioxidant enzymes in red blood cells as a biological index of age related macular degeneration. Acta Ophtalmol (Copenh) (1993) Apr;71 (2):214-8.

13. Bunin, A. et.al. A glutathione deficiency in open-angle glaucoma and the approaches to its correction. Vestn Oftalmol (1992) Jul-Dec;108 (4-6):13-5.

14. Jenner, P. What process causes nigral cell death in Parkinson's disease? Clinical Neurology (1992) May;10 (2):387-403. 15. Kretzschmar M Aging, training and exercise. A review of effects on plasma glutathione and lipid peroxides. Sports Medicine (1993) Mar;

15. (3):196-209.

16. Ames, B. Dietary carcinogens and anticarcinogens. Oxygen radicals and degenerative diseases. Science (1983) 221:1256-1264.

This article is intended solely for informational and educational purposes, not for medical advice. The reader should consult a physician for any health problems or questions they may have.

Copyright © 1998 Elliott Goodman. All rights reserved.
Foodform is a registered trademark of IntraCell Nutrition Inc.