Feminine Vitality and The Transformative Power of Glutathione with Dr. Gina Nick

Is it possible that a single antioxidant could revolutionize your health? Tune in to Chat Off the Mat as we host Dr. Gina Nick, a world-renowned naturopathic physician, researcher, and formulator, who unravels the transformative power of glutathione. Discover how Dr. Gina's childhood dream of becoming a doctor evolved into a pioneering career in naturopathic medicine and nutritional supplements, including her significant role at Standard Process Nutrition, where she developed groundbreaking detox programs.

Throughout the episode, Dr. Gina explains the crucial functions of glutathione in our bodies, especially its impacts on detoxification, liver health, and inflammation reduction. Learn about the symptoms of glutathione deficiency and how modern toxin exposure is affecting our health. Dr. Gina dives deep into the intricate relationship between gut health and glutathione, giving insights on how maintaining adequate levels of this antioxidant can support mental health, aid recovery from alcohol addiction, and promote general well-being.

The conversationtouches on the benefits of glutathione for athletes, children, and anyone looking to enhance their vitality. Dr. Gina shares practical advice on natural food sources rich in glutathione and the importance of reducing sugar intake. From eye health and cellular protection to enhanced skin vitality, this episode covers it all. Dr. Gina's expertise and passion for making glutathione accessible is inspiring, and her insights can help you take actionable steps to optimize your health.

Connect with Dr. Gina
Dr Gina Nick, founder of Apothicaire by Dr. Gina, and DrGina.com is a world-renowned Naturopathic Physician, Researcher and Formulator based in Newport Beach, California. You can learn more about Dr. Gina from the following links.

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Chapters

• 0:03 Transformative Healing Through Glutathione Supplements
• 11:47 The Importance of Glutathione in Health
• 20:57 Reducing Inflammation for Mental Wellness
• 29:02 Optimizing Health Through Glutathione Support
• 37:39 Protecting Health and Vitality With Glutathione

Transcript

Rose: 1:00

Today. On Chat Off the Mat, I welcome Dr Gina Nick.

Rose: 1:04

Dr Gina is a world-renowned naturopathic physician, researcher and formulator based in Newport Beach, California. She's a leading authority on the prevention and treatment of brain diseases, autoimmune diseases, inflammation, addiction recovery, depression, anxiety, fatigue, weight gain and sexual dysfunction. After graduating medical school, dr Gina went on to become the first director of research for the world's top supplement company, where she was charged with the task of creating and growing the department for what now is a multi-billion dollar company. Dr Gina is also the executive healthcare consultant to local and government agencies. President emeritus of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association and founder and medical director of HealthBridge Newport, where she earned top medical practice, she is here today to discuss the power behind the supplement of glutathione. Welcome, Dr. Gina Nick, thank you. Thank you, thanks for being here. I'm so excited about this topic. Uh, can you just tell us a little bit about yourself first and what brought you to uh, to helping people through your product?

Dr. Gina: 2:26

How long do you have? I know right, it's like my life story brought me here. Yeah, really yeah. When I was in undergrad well, rewind, since I was in elementary school, I always wanted to be a doctor period. I wanted to be a doctor and I wanted to learn how to take care of animals and learn how to write a book, and then I wanted to tap dance on the side so I didn't get bored. That was it and I would talk about it. I mean, that's what I'm doing. And so here we are. So I always wanted to be a doctor.

Dr. Gina: 2:57

And then, when I was in undergrad at UCLA, my honors academic counselor said Gina, I was going to pre-med track, just allopathic medicine, going to become a doctor. And he gave me a brochure for a naturopathic medical school. And I was like, what's that? Because I was always off, you know, researching nutrition and I was just very interested in lifestyle and diet and supplements. I was just fascinated by it. And so he gave me this brochure, I researched it. I'm like what? I can be a doctor, but I can actually practice. What I really feel in my heart of hearts is what I'm supposed to be doing and what I'm most interested in, and that was it. I never looked back. So I ended up going to a naturopathic medical school. I ended up going to a naturopathic medical school one of the few accredited naturopathic medical schools in the country in Arizona and just fast forward, I was always fascinated with supplements and so I was always hired by nutritional supplement companies to formulate and to educate doctors on the use of supplements. And then I was hired as the director of research for Standard Process Nutrition, which is one of the oldest nutritional supplement companies in the country that caters to healthcare practitioners and they sell their products worldwide. And I created a purification program while I was there that's still in existence today, you know, 20 years later, yeah, and so that kind of started my whole path on using nutritional supplements and formulating supplements and getting that information out there.

Dr. Gina: 4:36

And then when I started my own medical practice at a little practice in Laguna Beach, california, and I had, one of my first patients was actually a former drug addict and I had done all the naturopathic things with him detoxification and nutrition and all the things but I'd also given him glutathione in injection form and he said you know, of all the things that you've given me, glutathione has had the most profound effect, and so that kind of like stuck with me, you know, and so fast forward, and I had you know, I got to be known for detoxification, for putting people on detoxification programs, because that was really real passion of mine. And so I was hired by a company who made a form of glutathione that was clinically researched and proven to boost blood levels. And the challenge with glutathione is that it has to be either injected or it doesn't get very well absorbed when you take it orally, and so not everybody wants to get an injection. And there's a form called liposomal that I would use in my practice because that has good data showing it actually does work, but it tasted horrible so I couldn't get people to stay on it. And I have a nephew who has autism and I kept telling my sister you need to give him glutathione, but how are we going to give it to him? Because I didn't want to give him injections and he wasn't going to take this gross liposomal form, and so that planted another seed for me and I started researching glutathione in my practice and using it with patients and I'm like this is amazing. Yeah, I really. It really forced me to do a deep dive into just glutathione and I realized there's over a hundred thousand published clinical studies on the use of this master antioxidant, and so this is incredible.

Dr. Gina: 6:32

And then I was giving a lecture in London at the International Congress of Naturopathic Medicine. There were like 600 practitioners from all over the world there and only a fraction of them even knew what glutathione was. And I was talking about glutathione and detoxification, inflammation, and I'm like that's it. I'm going to make glutathione a household name. Everybody needs to know about this. It's the mother of all antioxidants. It's so amazing for the body, naturally occurring in the body, but it's so powerful, and so I decided then I'm going to do this.

Dr. Gina: 7:10

And then COVID hit and I was home homeschooling my daughter and going and doing patient visits with all the garb on. No, we didn't know what COVID was and we were all just freaked out. But I noticed that glutathione was helping a lot. I was giving injections to my patients and then a study came out saying that glutathione can help prevent a severe reaction to COVID, and so I said I want to.

Dr. Gina: 7:36

I want to create a glutathione that tastes good, has no sugar in it, you know it doesn't have any of the bad stuff in it, because I'm a supplement snob has to be like pure as pure can be, but I want it to taste good enough for kids to take it. You know it doesn't have any of the bad stuff in it. Because I'm a supplement snob has to be like pure as pure can be, but I want it to taste good enough for kids to take it. And so I decided to create a formula. I sent it to the lab, got it back and on the first go it tasted amazing. I had kids taking it, everybody loved it and that was it. So, through a lot of blood, sweat, tears, I created the company and we have pixie sticks for kids and for adults. They taste great.

Dr. Gina: 8:10

It's sweetened with glycine. So that was. I woke up one morning and I'm like that's it. I'm going to sweeten this with glycine because glycine is an amino acid that I would. When I formulate products for my patients I'll just do custom formulas for them I would often use glycine to sweeten it because I didn't want to use any junk, because my patients needed the opposite of that, you know. And so, and glycine is one of the amino acids found in glutathione.

Dr. Gina: 8:39

So it was also going to help with the additional manufacture of it, anyway, so that. So that's that you know. And here we are. I have a like a kid's pixie stick, an adult pixie stick, and I really wanted it to be something that tasted as good as candy kind of. Got delivered in a form similar to candy, but that was truly good for you and good for kids you know packaging, packaging can go a long way.

Rose: 9:05

You know sometimes the form and the delivery. You know and the flavor the flavor.

Dr. Gina: 9:10

So I have, I was giving it to my patients. I have a capsule form of best daily ever. It's called formula one. So I was giving them capsules, but for kids. You know I wanted it to be, you know, in a form that kids could take. And then I thought, well, not everybody wants to take capsules, especially women. Like, as we go through that hairy menopause, menopause phase and estrogen levels go down, A lot of women have trouble swallowing pills.

Rose: 9:36

I didn't know that, oh yeah. Oh, now I know why I have trouble swallowing pills.

Dr. Gina: 9:41

Well, estrogen is like the hydration hormone and so you know you even affect. So anyway, I'm like why not have this in a powdered form? I would like to be able to just put it in my water or just take it, you know, because I take it all the time, right. And so I made it for adults to same formula, just a different dosage for adults. Wow.

Rose: 10:03

So that's, that's a great story, and you follow your passion and here you are, and let's talk about what glutathione is, if you can. I mean, I have it here, but if you can, just let us know what that is. So we'll circle back to that.

Dr. Gina: 10:16

So I refer to it as the mother of all antioxidants. So it really it truly is. It is found in every one of your trillions of cells, so it's manufactured by the body and it basically an antioxidant basically means that it, like, neutralizes free radicals, free radical, render them inactive or help to clear them out of the body. What's so amazing about glutathione is that it is essential for what's called phase two detoxification, and so your body, your body's detoxing at all times, 24 seven. You know all your cells are detoxing all the time and I find that fascinating. You know that. You know that we have this human detoxification system. That is so. I mean, it's found throughout the body. There are a lot of different organ systems involved and our bodies are actively taking toxins and converting them into a form that can get eliminated from our bodies. You know, day in and day out, 24 seven. So to me, that says okay, this is a really important thing. It's really important to our health and wellbeing. Well, glutathione is so key to that, to supporting your body's natural detoxification mechanisms.

Rose: 11:46

Yeah, I have. I did a little research and it says that it's produced by the liver and the liver is kind of like the main organ for detoxification. Everybody's not everybody, but there's a lot of people who like to do these liver detoxes. Whether they're safe or they do them safely, I don't know, but it is involved in tissue building and repair right and helping the body to detox.

Dr. Gina: 12:09

Absolutely and so your liver is considered like your main detox organ, but glutathione is manufactured in all your cells. It's just there's more in the liver because the liver is one of those main detox organs. The liver is one of those main detox organs, but your skin is a major detox organ. Your colon, kidneys, lymphatic system those are all part of the human detoxification system.

Rose: 12:34

Yeah, what are some of the symptoms of a deficiency in glutathione?

Dr. Gina: 12:41

So one thing is people who drink alcohol having an intolerance. So when you have a hangover, technically you can prevent the hangover by taking glutathione. I'm not an advocate for drinking alcohol. It's a neurotoxin. My patients don't like it when I say that to them, but it's true especially for women. Women have even more difficulty metabolizing alcohol. It's not your friend. However, for those people that do drink alcohol and are particularly sensitive, or they notice over time they're more sensitive to alcohol, that's a sign because glutathione is essential for detoxification when you have neuroinflammation. So what's that? Inflammation in the brain? So when that happens symptoms of like long COVID, for example that's neuroinflammation. You have fatigue, foggy thinking, even symptoms of attention deficit disorder and autism are correlated with neuroinflammation. Cognitive decline, even Alzheimer's disease.

Rose: 13:41

You mentioned. Alzheimer's.

Dr. Gina: 13:43

Yes, and so all of these things are tied to neuroinflammation and glutathione. This is interesting. This is a way to know. There's a lot of things that can cause all of those conditions. Obviously right, and those symptoms, but in the brain there's less of a concentration of glutathione than in the rest of the body, and so it makes the brain more vulnerable to exposure to toxins. Yeah, and so when you are exposed to toxins, it can deplete the glutathione that is in your brain and that can lead to neuroinflammation. You can even there's animal studies where they can produce like symptoms of Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease by depleting glutathione from the. Yeah, and so that's why I'm such a huge, you know, taking some glutathione daily to support your body's ability to detoxify and protect your brain, which is more vulnerable to exposure to toxins.

Dr. Gina: 14:47

So, and then also inflammation. So achy joints, you know, can be tied to this, what I call silent inflammation, you know. So it's not like inflammation, like if you have a bug bite and it's red and it's inflamed. That's one. This is silent inflammation. So it's insidious, it's happening throughout your body but you can't like pinpoint it to one specific area. It's just kind of generalized inflammation. So glutathione will help lower that. So when you have generalized inflammation, you'll have achy joints, things like foggy thinking, fatigue, Um, a lot of the symptoms tied to perimenopause and menopause sleeping difficulties, weight gain in the midsection, mood swings, hot flashes, hot flashes for sure, mood swings those are all tied to that phase and those can all be associated with less glutathione than your body needs.

Dr. Gina: 15:41

Yes, right and so, and a lot of people will say well, look, your body makes it on its own, so why do you need to take it Right, like if your body naturally manufactures it and it has to do with? I don't think our bodies have evolved to the point of I really my. My truth is we're exposed to a heck of a lot more toxins than we are aware of, and so that's just a gut feeling and based and paired with a ton of research and experience. You know, as a naturopathic physician, over 20 years, and so our bodies are have an increased demand for glutathione, which is the main way that our body detoxifies from all that stuff.

Rose: 16:32

Right, I agree with you. I think that there's a lot more out there that is depleting us on so many levels and that our bodies can't keep up. And you're seeing more chronic issues, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, anything like people coming up with fibromyalgia or Parkinson's, more autism, so so many more of these chronic illnesses that are coming up and we're like, why is there? You know, why are these happening? Why is this all happening? Very interesting, I know you do. In your book, you also talk about the microbiome. Yes, um, can you talk a little bit about the? I know that's also a terminology. People write book about the gut and the microbiome. Can you talk about the relationship between microbiome and glutathione?

Dr. Gina: 17:20

Yeah, so the gut microbiome is basically like all of the good bacteria, bad bacteria, happening in this whole ecology in your gut, this whole ecosystem in your gut, and so when you're exposed to antibiotics, which can be lifesaving, it can strip your body of the good stuff too, not just the bad stuff. When you're exposed to certain toxins that can kill off the good stuff and increase the bad stuff in that whole gut microbiome. And glutathione helps to offset that. So it helps to protect the gut microbiome from that imbalance that occurs where all of a sudden you have too much bad stuff paired to the good stuff, right, and so it helps to protect, you know, the gut from harm caused by viruses, bacteria, mold. It's a big one, it impacts the microbiome significantly and glutathione helps to protect you from that.

Rose: 18:25

And in the gut they're saying it's like your second brain or another brain, but it's also helps with your immune system. So glutathione helps to strengthen our immune system, which can also be affected by antibiotics and just lifestyle Right 70% of your immune system, essentially, is housed in your gut.

Dr. Gina: 18:49

Wow, yeah, and so glutamine. Glutamic acid is one of the components in glutathione, and that's one of the primary fuels for this. They're called intestinal enterocytes cells in your gut. It's what they use to function right, and so you're basically feeding the good stuff to keep your gut healthy.

Rose: 19:15

That's great, and there's also a lot of people are now suffering as well from stomach-related issues like IBS, gluten intolerance, celiac all these things that perhaps glutathione can help with or offset or maybe help manage a little better, maybe not make it as intense.

Dr. Gina: 19:38

Yes, yeah, for sure. I mean it's supporting your immune system. It's also even for autoimmune conditions, like when you say like celiac, or like Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which can be very tough to treat.

Dr. Gina: 19:55

glutathione can help treat that where there's not a lot of things that can, so it can avoid a gluten. But in terms of just helping with any gut-related issues, but then any also autoimmune-related issues, glutathione plays an important role and so it sounds like the best thing since sliced bread. But I'm like it kind of is. And I coined the phrase vitamin G because it's as important, if not more important, than vitamin C, and we all know vitamin C is used for so many things. You know it's for immune function, but it helps with blood sugar balance, helps with adrenal gland function. Vitamin C is so critical to overall health and well-being, so is vitamin G and they actually work together. Glutathione and vitamin C work hand in hand. They kind of they cycle between one another, so they support each other, which is why I put vitamin C in the formula also.

Rose: 20:55

So it's a team, they work together. Yeah, I remember when vitamin C was just like the only supplement.

Dr. Gina: 20:59

you know, years ago you got to take vitamin C, you got to take.

Rose: 21:02

That was it. There was nothing like maybe there were other things I wasn't aware of, but I mean, I've been around a while, so it's. You know, vitamin D and there's all these other supplements now and there's just almost so many I know.

Dr. Gina: 21:14

But you know it gets overwhelming, it gets so overwhelming, and that's where I, you know, at this point it's like I want to like, cut to the chase. Okay, what, like? If you're going to take one thing, what would it be? And that's hard to answer, right.

Rose: 21:26

Yeah.

Dr. Gina: 21:26

Because every human is different, everybody's different. Yes, right.

Rose: 21:29

You know I was thinking when you were talking about people who drink alcohol. I stopped, I quit a year ago yeah, Good, and I'm thinking like this can help with people who stop drinking to help maybe eliminate, alleviate some of the post-symptoms that they get and help to detox the body.

Dr. Gina: 21:55

Yes, oh, yeah, and help to repair the liver and repair it as well.

Rose: 21:57

Oh, absolutely, absolutely, yeah. So all those people out there that are thinking about not drinking, or started not drinking or want to stop drinking, this is something that you could consider taking to help you, because it's not an easy process to go through. After you stop drinking, your body just reacts like in all ways.

Dr. Gina: 22:16

And it's addictive right. And so glutathione is used for addiction. I told you my first, one of my first patients I ever had, that's where it all, where this whole thing with me and glutathione started, was then. And so glutathione is used for addiction treatment. It helps a lot, and so there's more going on than it's just detoxifying it's also it's lowering neuroinflammation, it's helping to rebalance brain chemistry. So you don't have that as much of a need to self-medicate because maybe you're feeling better you know Right, and depression.

Rose: 22:55

There's like that, you know, people with chemical imbalances and with mental illness, mental health issues. Perhaps that also can help, cause I know I've suffered from mental health in the past. I had depression and was given a. I don't even remember back then what they were called, I don't think they're even marketed anymore or made but they, I was told they helped to balance out the chemicals in my brain, which did help, you know. But then I went off of them because I don't like to be anything long-term. So. But they were not, they were prescription, which I would have preferred to have something a little bit more natural.

Dr. Gina: 23:34

So here I actually founded the Brain Health and Mental Wellness Foundation. Oh, wow, so yeah, and glutathione is intertwined with that, because I feel like everybody should have access to glutathione and I know that it helps to lower neuroinflammation and brain inflammation. And inflammation in the brain can trigger symptoms of depression, anxiety, addiction, obsessive compulsive disorder. A lot of your different mental health challenges can be helped by lowering inflammation in the brain. And what's really interesting, so there's something called sickness syndrome where, if you have inflammation in the rest of your body right, so and like there are things called interleukins they're inflammation chemicals, right? So let's say, interleukin-4 is circulating in your body because you were exposed to a virus or you had a stress reaction or for whatever reason, you've got that particular inflammatory molecule circulating in your body. Guess what happens? Your brain will start to make that same inflammatory molecule that the rest of your body is making. It'll mimic it, right, and the reason for that is probably protective. It's like oh okay, there's something happening. We need to protect the brain. So we're going to create this inflammatory molecule, which can be a good thing because your body will produce those, your immune system will produce those to fight off infection, right, but it goes out of control.

Dr. Gina: 25:13

And here's what we found was when that inflammation starts to happen in the brain, that's what triggers things like depression, anxiety, you know. So when you get like the flu and you've kind of feel down and you know kind of like you just want to stay in bed, well, that makes sense that the body would be designed that way. It'll keep you away from going going out and, you know, socializing a bunch of people and and spreading your germs everywhere else, right. So it makes sense that you would get have kind of a depressed state of being right as a protective mechanism to keep you home and keep you stationary until you're better. But things aren't balanced these days, right, and so that inflammation is going on and it's kind of out of control and you feel depressed because there's inflammation happening in the body, and you'll appreciate this. So what they found was, um, there's something called the vagus nerve right running. Yeah, okay, a lot of. There's a lot of talk about the vagus vagus nerve now yes well, there were studies done.

Dr. Gina: 26:13

If you sever the vagus nerve, you disconnect the vagus nerve activity. Okay, guess what? The brain won't make those same inflammatory molecules that your body's making. So it's like that's the connection, okay, the vagus nerve. And so then what do you do? It's called regulating vagal output. How do you regulate vagal output? Yoga, right, you know, qigong, acupuncture, meditation, breath work the things that a lot of people are talking about these days helps to make it so that you don't have as much inflammation in the brain. So bagel output is what connects the body to the brain in that way, from this thing called sickness syndrome. Wow, yeah, and so that's a whole different way to look at mental health issues. It's another thing to consider. If somebody has depression, anxiety, et cetera, are we really looking at? Is there inflammation happening, and what are some basic steps you can take to lower inflammation? How much does that impact? Mood Hormone deficiency will cause inflammation too. Stress.

Rose: 27:31

Oh, it does.

Dr. Gina: 27:31

Yeah, yeah, estrogen deficiency will trigger inflammation.

Rose: 27:35

Interesting. So as a woman gets older and the estrogen depletes, or she's on some kind of medication that lowers the estrogen, like I was for breast cancer then it increases inflammation anywhere, right?

Dr. Gina: 27:51

It increases systemic inflammation. It triggers the inflammatory cascade in the body. Yeah, a lot of people don't know that and that's where having hormone balance becomes important. And also, but if you're on like an estrogen blocker or you know, you're going through that perimenopause and menopause phase and you're not taking something to help balance it out, so you're not deficient, you know, like truly deficient in the hormones. Something like glutathione that lowers inflammation and lowers inflammation in the brain can help to offset those symptoms.

Rose: 28:27

Do you know that one of the I'm having a brain fog and I was just going to say something about brain fog One of the symptoms or the risk of taking tamoxifen not risk, what's the word? Side effect, side effect, thank you Is brain fog. Yeah, oh yeah, and you know I'm not. Luckily I'm not on it anymore, but it would have been nice to know about this back then. They would have caused, you know, me to have a better brain function at the time. So I will definitely tell my friends who are on Tamoxifen about this for sure. Oh, wow, well, interesting.

Dr. Gina: 29:02

But always I say, if you are on any chemotherapeutic agent, always work with your prescriber and make sure that they are educated and know what to recommend for you In terms of antioxidants. There's some controversy on using certain antioxidants when you're on chemotherapy.

Rose: 29:21

Right, definitely be safe and ask your physician, of course. Yeah, absolutely. I'd like to ask if there are food sources of glutathione and I only ask this just for educating everyone here and I know that if you tell me it's broccoli, then we have to eat like a ton of broccoli. Maybe this will also encourage people to eat their veggies. But if you can, let us know what some of the food sources are, absolutely.

Dr. Gina: 29:54

Yeah. So avocados, broccoli, your green vegetables, spinach, peaches, cherries, those are some good sources. I mean mean even red meat has glutathione in it, and so there's a lot of different sources in our diet for, for, for getting some glutathione. The question is yes. Is it going to be enough? And if you're having symptoms, I always say start with diet. Clean up your diet first. You, your diet and your drinking is going to work better. You know, I mean you don't have to, but if you want the biggest bang for your buck, you know, address diet and lifestyle first and then, if you're still having symptoms, you know and you're, you're not feeling a hundred percent and you're wanting to take more action introducing. You know, if you're going to introduce an antioxidant, I recommend glutathione in a form that is actually absorbed in the body, you know, to help supplement for what you maybe you're not getting in your diet or that your body's not manufacturing on its own Right.

Rose: 31:01

And also if you're a type of person who eats a lot of sweets, that creates a lot of inflammation on the body as well. I mean, sugar is an epidemic, I think.

Dr. Gina: 31:14

Don't get me started on sugar. I won't. No, no, no.

Dr. Gina: 31:17

But, it's really, and it's one of the reasons why I made these kids pixie sticks. I wanted to swap out the sugar, you know. So you see, these kids. I mean I have a young daughter, she'll be 12. And it's like when I see what's in the candy that these kids are given. You know, I can't control what's happening outside my home a hundred percent. Right, you can't, and you have to kind of let it be, but it's horrible. It is horrible. What these kids are given is horrible. What the grocery manufacturers association allows to be produced to, that's marketed to kids.

Dr. Gina: 31:49

Because sugar is, um, is, is is extremely addictive. Um, it acts on the opioid system in the body. It feeds the bad bacteria in the gut. When you talk about the gut microbiome, right, alters the gut microbiome significantly long term, you know, and so it feeds. It feeds the bad stuff. It also competes for binding sites with vitamin c. C is like, essential for immune function and works with glutathione. You know they work together. But, um, just sugar, it increases. Obviously we all know it causes obesity and things like that. But it also just affects a child's brain significantly and our kids need support in that area now more than ever because they're under more stress with, you know, social media and all the stress going on in the world right now, going on in the world right now.

Rose: 32:43

Our kids need to be clear thinking, you know, grounded, focused, you know and clear on what they're doing here you know, and not addicted to sugar and video games, and because that can create the imbalances of the brain, like you said. Right, just just yeah. And you see a lot of issues that kids are having in school and I don't know. I just it's important that we work with the kids, because the kids are our future. How does this also help with people who are very active, like athletes, people who work out constantly? You know, maybe they're working out so much that they're actually depleting themselves in other areas that they're not aware of? How can glutathione help with baby recovery or something like that?

Dr. Gina: 33:30

Oh, it does help. It helps significantly with recovery and athletes, my athletes, see it, they, they experience it, you know. And so because it lowers inflammation, I mean it just it helps to offset the impacts of lactic acid, but it also, I mean it has such a systemic effect. You know that it's just, it's optimizing performance of the human body. You know, when you, when your glutathione levels are balanced and you and things are working efficiently in that way and your detox mechanisms are working efficiently, your ability to, you know, push yourself athletically goes way up, way up. And so it's, it's, it's definitely helpful for performance athletes. You know they use it too and it's not, you know it's not a drug, it's so yeah, and but they, but it's definitely beneficial for supporting just endurance and speeding up recovery after workouts.

Rose: 34:29

Yeah, recovery, especially as you get older, and I know a lot of people who are older and do a lot of things that they want to do that they were able to do when they were younger, and they get injured and then they don't recover as quickly, and then they get frustrated and create this whole cycle of I don't know just this madness within themselves, but this is good to know.

Dr. Gina: 34:49

That's unnecessary.

Rose: 34:51

Yeah, it is unnecessary. Yeah, Is there anybody that should not take it?

Dr. Gina: 35:00

So I'm I, you know. I always say work if you have a diagnosed condition, work with your healthcare practitioner, you know to before you take any supplements. So before you, because you know it's always better to partner with a qualified healthcare practitioner, somebody who knows what supplements are and is familiar with using them, you know, work with an educated practitioner. You know, work with an educated practitioner. And so I would say always, if you have a diagnosed condition, to to run this by your doctor first. You know, and just make sure it's it's a doctor that you have a trusted relationship with that has education in the use of supplements, you know, yeah.

Rose: 35:44

I have an acupuncturist I work with and she graduated as a um, not just an acupuncturist. Oh my gosh, I'm having such brain fog today.

Rose: 35:58

But anyway, she knows all the supplements, all the medication and she will tell you like this works for you, this doesn't work for you. So I kind of I trust that and you know she's never really said like this doesn't work. But it's just be mindful of how you're feeling. Like anything you take something. If it starts to not feel right, for whatever reason, you pause or you look at all the other things that you're doing in your life and kind of rule things out. You know kind of just make sure, because you know your own body.

Dr. Gina: 36:27

Yes, yes, it's like I'm always telling patients you know your body better than anybody else ever will. You know, you partner with experts, you listen to podcasts, you educate yourself, you try things, you know and, at the end of the day, you got to go back to your own source. You know and go within and get connected there, because there's a wealth of knowledge there about what's going to be best for you Right, and so that helps to guide you to the right practitioners, to the right supplements, the right whatever it is. You need to just continue on your path, and so that's.

Rose: 37:04

Yeah, it's just like I didn't know about glutathione and now I do, and now it opened up a whole new world for me and, I hope, for my listeners as well. I want to talk about something that for me, eye health is important, and I've been starting to wear glasses more and I've been starting to think about this. I'm like, do I really need glasses all the time? Every time I go to the eye doctor, they're giving me a new prescription. Do I really need the increased prescription? And I know I've heard you say or I've read that this also helps with eye health.

Dr. Gina: 37:33

Yep, it does. Toxins. When your eyes are exposed to toxins, it causes a thickening of the lens and it compromises eyesight. So if you're taking glutathione and there is glutathione in your eyes, you're preventing the effects of toxins on your eyes and just think cellular damage, right? So keep it simple. Our body's made up of all of these trillions of cells, right? Every one of those cells has what's called a mitochondria powerhouse of the cell. That's where energy is produced. It's also where the DNA, you know, is housed. And interest, I find when I realized this, I found it so interesting. It's also where toxins tend to congregate. They tend to congregate in the mitochondria of the cells, where the DNA is housed, you know, and other things, and when they congregate there they cause damage, right, DNA damage, cellular damage that causes dysfunction in the body. So when you take glutathione, or you have sufficient glutathione in your cells and it's getting into the mitochondria, it's protecting the powerhouse of your cells from exposure to those toxins. So any organ in your body that's going to be attacked.

Rose: 39:06

And I know, according to traditional Chinese medicine, the liver is associated with the eyes.

Dr. Gina: 39:14

Yeah.

Rose: 39:20

So I love that connection and I'm looking to improve my eyesight.

Dr. Gina: 39:23

So and it's not too late.

Rose: 39:24

No, oh gosh yeah, it's no, because I'm telling you I was. I'm so drawn to this. I, I, I want to learn more about how I can reverse. I know I think you were on an episode on somebody's podcast, yeah, and I found her and I'm actually I want to talk to her about being on the show, about eyesight and how we can improve our eyesight.

Dr. Gina: 39:46

Yes, Claudia, yeah, yeah.

Rose: 39:48

Claudia.

Dr. Gina: 39:49

Yeah, she's amazing and so she's the expert when it comes to everything you can do to help to reverse any issues with eyesight. But the body, your body's always trying to get back to a state of homeostasis or balance. It's always working for you to get to that place of health and, yes, it you can't. You know we're all gonna grow up, we're all gonna. You know that that's happening, no matter what Right. But it's very doable and very possible to optimize your health as you go on your path so that you, you, can have your best, you know best life.

Dr. Gina: 40:30

Feel your best and have your best life and, you know, enjoy and not succumb to different annoying symptoms all the time, right or to be fixated on that. And so just remember, your body's always trying to get to that state of balance. Give it what it needs and remove any barriers to cure. Remove any as best you can, and that's what you go to. Healthcare practice, you learn, et cetera. Remove any of the blocks Could be a trauma block, it could be stress, it could be toxins, but whatever you can to remove any barriers to cure, and then your body is brilliant. It's brilliant, just like nature is brilliant.

Rose: 41:10

It is, you're right. Yeah, that's, I love that. So as we age as well a lot of women, you know we lose collagen in our bodies and we get a little bit of like, maybe like wrinkles, here and there, and we don't feel as good in our skin. Does it help with the skin?

Dr. Gina: 41:28

Yes, well, your skin is your largest detox organ. All right, you said that. Yeah, and so it's proven to boost collagen synthesis. It's used at high doses it can actually bleach the skin, but I'm not an advocate for using high, high doses of it. But glutathione, because it's an antioxidant, absolutely stimulates collagen synthesis and helps to reduce wrinkles.

Rose: 41:53

Well, we love that, we'll put that one right up there on our list.

Rose: 41:57

Yes, 100%. I'm an advocate for just being out there, being as beautiful as you feel. I mean, everyone's beautiful. We're all beautiful inside and out. And you know it's not about the wrinkles, but I know it does bother some people and even young girls. I see them and them, oh, I have a wrinkle. I'm a girl, you got time. But yeah, don't don't let that bother you, okay, not a big deal. I always say wrinkles are like. You know, they're like wisdom or just laugh lines. You know, just be happy and wrinkles are okay.

Dr. Gina: 42:26

Um, but they do. I mean it does. Glutathione is proven to help goals, I mean, and collagen also helps in, even in joint health.

Rose: 42:34

I know that oh yeah, talk about the fascia because I do yin yoga a lot and, okay, you know there's collagen forms in areas that there's inflammation also or, in a case, immobility in the joints and you mentioned earlier about the inflammation of the joints and you get the achiness, so it helps to lower all of that and helps lubrication and and collagen is amazing.

Dr. Gina: 42:56

I mean, you can also take collagen. That's not a horrible thing to do if you know, depending on who you are and what you can tolerate. But marine collagen is something that some women find extremely beneficial to take too, and glutathione and vitamin C help to stimulate collagen synthesis.

Rose: 43:14

Right, and you know, as you said, just be mindful and don't go out and start, you know, taking a whole tub of collagen in one week. You know, just yeah, be smart about it.

Dr. Gina: 43:27

Just take a deep breath. You know, exhale, get centered. I am a huge advocate. You know everybody, you. You know your body better than anybody else does, and so allow that inner guide to come through and help you to make decisions on what's going to be best for you.

Rose: 43:47

Right, I love that. Is there anything else you you wanted to? You say, children can take it right. Anyone could take? Is there anything else that you wanted to add that I haven't asked about, regarding glutathione or anything else that you work on and do?

Dr. Gina: 44:07

Well, so with glutathione, there's a lot of um glutathione on the market, but it's not absorbed a lot of the glue, so you have to be glutathione on the market, but it's not absorbed a lot of the glue, so you have to be. Glutathione is very unstable and so that's why it's usually given in an IV or an injection. And so one thing there is if you take it as an IV, there are some experts that say it's a total waste. Dr Nayyar Patel, who wrote the glutathione revolution. He's he's a colleague of mine and we've talked about this and he's like it's a complete waste, like I don't know if it's a complete waste, but but I will say that glutathione is under tight homeostatic control in the body and a lot of people don't know that.

Dr. Gina: 44:50

So more isn't better. Your body's going to reject it. Your body has a in it in its brilliance. There are controls in place where, if you take too much, it's going to just eliminate it from your system. It's going to get detoxed out. So sometimes taking an IV of glutathione he's right in that it can be a waste and he's a big advocate. He says a lot of it doesn't even get absorbed where you want it to get absorbed Because glutathione is a tripeptide. It's a large molecule. It's not easy for it to get into the cells right, and so there's that. I give injections in my practice and so I like those. It's a little bit of a lower dose and it's not sitting in a bag for an hour because glutathione is unstable when you say it's unstable.

Rose: 45:39

Can you just tell us what you mean by that?

Dr. Gina: 45:42

Oh well, it can oxidize, and so then it's not going to work.

Dr. Gina: 45:46

Yeah, it's not going to work in your body. You want it in what's called reduced form. You want it in its what's called reduced form, and so then there are. So then you go to oral supplements and there are normally glutathione in a powdered form doesn't? It doesn't get absorbed, it's, it's a waste, you know.

Dr. Gina: 46:05

And so the form of glutathione I actually use in best daily ever is a specific form that's been researched and proven through double-blind placebo-controlled studies, clinical studies to boost blood levels and red blood cell levels, and so it's one form. It happens to be the most expensive and the most difficult to get, but that's the form that I use in Best Daily Ever period. So it's a particular branded form of glutathione, and so you can get glutathione from, you know, China or wherever, for a fraction of the price. And so when you go online you're like, oh, I'm going to just get a glutathione supplement. You have to just be mindful, the cheapest one is not necessarily the best one. The most expensive one isn't necessarily the best one either, you know. So be mindful of where you're getting your glutathione from.

Dr. Gina: 46:56

Liposomal is a good form, it's just a lot of people don't like the taste of it. I don't like, you know. And so that's the challenge there. But the form that we use in Best Daily Ever is is a specific form of glutathione. So, as you learn about it, because once, even to this day, when I come across new studies on glutathione, I'm like, oh, I got, I need to go take more glutathione. You know like, wait, did I take my best daily ever today? You know, because I'm I'm re-inspired all the time. It's still, it's that powerful, you know. But just being mindful as you get excited if you start researching it, um, be, be mindful of of where you're getting it from, so it's not a waste or doesn't cause harm right, yeah, all right, it's wonderful.

Rose: 47:42

well, this has been very eye-opening and amazing work that you're doing, uh, bringing awareness to this and creating this product that you have that can help people on so many levels. I will definitely put all the links to how they can get more information Best Daily Ever, your products and links back to you and everything about you and your book as well. Yeah, so I thank you for being here today.

Dr. Gina: 48:16

Oh, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure talking with you.

Rose: 48:19

Thank you, same here.

Dr. Gina: 48:21

Take care.

Rose: 48:27

Thank you for joining me here on Chat Off the Mat. I hope these stories have inspired you. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with those who might benefit. Your support helps me spread awareness about the power of transformative healing. Stay connected with me on social media. Reach out with your own healing stories or topics you'd like me to explore in future. Episodes your voice is an essential part of this community. Episodes your voice is an essential part of this community. I hope that your healing journey is filled with self-discovery, curiosity, resilience and the unwavering belief in the power that resides within you. Until next time, I'm Rose Whippage, wishing you a journey filled with love, laughter and endless possibilities.