Power Up Your Brain (22 page)

So powerful are the implications of glutathione for brain health and function that it is not surprising that mitochondria, the source of cellular energy as well as free radicals, depend heavily on glutathione for their well-being. In fact, scientists measure the levels of glutathione within mitochondria as an indicator of their vitality.

But even though mitochondria depend upon glutathione, they lack the ability to manufacture this life-sustaining molecule and must therefore import it from the cells in which they reside. Many types of cells in the human body are able to produce glutathione, but most is produced in the liver and transported throughout the body, even into the brain across what has is known as the blood-brain barrier
.

The blood-brain barrier is the brain’s security checkpoint. It allows nutrients and other positive factors to pass into the sanctuary of the brain while preventing the entry of potentially damaging chemicals and infectious agents. Not unexpectedly, when liver-produced glutathione approaches the blood-brain barrier, it receives a warm welcome. New research now shows that a specific population of brain cells, called astrocytes—so named because of their starlike appearance—actually produce glutathione within the brain itself.

INCREASING GLUTATHIONE LEVELS

Unlike proteins, which are constructed from hundreds or even thousands of amino acid building blocks, glutathione, a manifestation of elegant simplicity, is made from just three—cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine—which means that it is a tripeptide.

With the hope of enhancing the body’s ability to make more glutathione, researchers have explored novel ways of supplying these amino acid glutathione precursors orally. Unfortunately, most have not succeeded because absorption from the gut is profoundly limited, and most of the glutathione breaks down in the stomach long before it has a chance to be absorbed.

However, one form of cysteine, N-acetylcysteine (NAC), as well as the antioxidant alpha-lipoic acid, does show promise. Both of these supplements are available without prescription at healthfood stores.

Faced with the relative inadequacy of oral amino acid precursors, or even oral glutathione, to increase glutathione at the cellular level, scientists have explored other avenues to accomplish this task. In 2002, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, led by Shyam Biswal, discovered what they termed the “master regulator” of genes involved in detoxification, the Nrf2 system. They found that turning on this genetic factor greatly enhanced the body’s production of antioxidants as well as anti-inflammatory and detoxifying chemicals. Glutathione was among the chemicals most profoundly enhanced by stimulation of the Nrf2 pathway. In his work, Dr. Biswal discovered a totally different approach for increasing glutathione. He found the golden key, the switch that turns on the gene’s ability to make glutathione.

Moving further back in this cellular function, researchers also learned what regulates the Nrf2 pathway and identified the specific natural substances that activate it. Soon, they identified plant-based nutrients, called phytonutrients, that activate the Nrf2 pathway, which in turn generates glutathione production at the cellular level.

These phytonutrients include the spice turmeric (curcumin), green tea extract, pterostilbene, and sulforaphane, a chemical found in broccoli and one of the most potent activators. This finding explains the so-called broccoli effect, a stimulation of the Nrf2 pathway by eating broccoli, that helps protect the body when it is exposed to cancer-causing agents. Sulforaphane, a key ingredient in the product Nrf2 Activator, is one of the most widely studied activators of the Nrf2 pathway and can be taken orally as a nutritional supplement. Pterostilbene, found in blueberries, is one good reason why blueberries have long been touted as an important addition to the diet for their powerful antioxidant properties.

Pterostilbene is chemically related to the more familiar and popular supplement resveratrol. But in many key ways, pterostilbene is far more potent than resveratrol. Pterostilbene, like sulforaphane and turmeric, enhances the production of key antioxidants that are critical for protecting cells against the damaging effects of free radicals, most importantly glutathione. In addition, pterostilbene has demonstrated powerful anticancer activity in a variety of animal experimental models.

The activation of the Nrf2 pathway by phytonutrients is powerful and has important implications for human health. Studies show that the switches that control the various health-promoting genes that are targeted by this pathway may remain in the “on” position for as long as 24 hours after being stimulated by an appropriate phytonutrient.
⁵

This means that specific phytonutrients that target the Nrf2 pathway are a powerful means through which you can personally direct the expression of life-sustaining genes in your body. And because these genes code for increasing glutathione, their activation helps preserve and protect your brain and even enhance its function.

Alberto:
Deep Dive Two

For my second HBOT session, I decided to take my brain for a test drive again inside the oxygen-rich atmosphere. I had just received an intravenous injection of two grams of glutathione. As I felt the pressure building inside the chamber, I reminded myself to breathe deeply. I knew that respiration is regulated by carbon dioxide concentrations in the blood and that, in the oxygen-rich environment of the chamber, my body would feel little need to inhale deeply. I wanted to get as much oxygen into my system as possible.

The task I had set for myself was to come up with the outline for a new book I was working on called
Courageous Dreaming
. I had committed myself to write this book over a glass of wine with the president of Hay House, and he had sent me a contract without either one of us knowing what I would be writing about. The only idea was the notion that shamans are able to dream their world into being as the result of the practice of courage. It’s essential to have an outline before starting on a book, or else you discover what you are trying to say by editing and rewriting; it is similar to the wise idea of having an architectural plan for a house before you begin construction. While I had a
feeling
about what I wanted to say, I had no idea how to go about doing it. I had already tried out the trial-and-error approach to writing years before with a book called
Futuremind
, which a friend dubbed
Nevermind
because the project never seemed to end, and was never published.

About 25 minutes into my HBOT session, I began to feel a great sense of clarity, and I called forth my assignment. Within instants, I began to literally
see
the chapters of the book taking shape in front of me, all the while with my eyes closed. I could read the title of each chapter and scan its contents. Then I remembered the only other time in my life when I had a visual experience like this; it was in high school when a few friends and I smoked marijuana and I was able to
see
the notes of the music we were listening to in front of me. Yet this time I was in total and complete control, and there was only the perception of seeing the chapter headings before me, all of them appearing at once.

I recalled reading about how Mozart would compose an entire piano sonata at once, and how he complained when he could not write the notes quickly enough. In fact, every year of his adult life, Mozart composed more music than the Beatles did in their entire careers. I clearly knew I was no Mozart, yet all of these thoughts ran through my mind, even as I paged through the manuscript of the finished book and smiled to myself at the familiarity of the material.

Obviously, I had been giving a great deal of thought to what I would write about, and probably my mind was accessing information I had already organized in my subconscious. But part of me could not help wondering if I might not have been “stepping outside of ordinary time,” as many shamans claim they are able to do, to find the completed book and bring it back from the future. Could I have been accessing some relativistic time-space where my destiny was available to me? And if so, might I also be able to do this to find a future healed state for myself, or perhaps even for my clients, one in which they lived long and disease-free lives?

I was tempted to tap on the plastic tube and ask the nurse to bring me pen and paper so I would not forget any of the details of the outline of the book. Yet, this was unnecessary because I could summon the
entire book
into my awareness at any time. And it was not simply written text. It was laced with feeling, texture, color, and fragrance, as all of my senses came forth when I witnessed the text. As we saw in Chapter 2, this is known as synesthesia, or the crossing over of the senses, and is commonly exhibited by individuals who are savants. The deep cleansing of free radical “sludge” provided by the glutathione, together with the abundant oxygen, must have allowed my brain to attain a level of synergy I had never known before.

As soon as I came out of the HBOT chamber, I outlined the entire book, just in case. Four months later, I handed the finished book to my publisher in a slightly better and more improved version of the manuscript than I had “seen” that day in the HBOT chamber.

Today, I take intravenous (IV) glutathione regularly, as I have single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, that indicate faulty production of an enzyme (superoxide dismutase, or SOD) that protects mitochondria, DNA, and proteins from free radical damage. But even more important than “seeing” the contents of a book, the IV glutathione relieved me of a tremendous amount of stress. My mind was no longer taxed or aggravated by activities that used to make me upset. If the waiter who served me in a restaurant seemed to be rude, it no longer spoiled my lunch; if the driver in front of me was behaving recklessly, I no longer let it upset me. I found that I was becoming less reactive to situations that, before, would have dulled my awareness and elicited an emotion-laden reaction.

David:
Glutathione’s Extensive Role in Health

Glutathione’s functions as an antioxidant, detoxification agent, and heavy-metal chelator as well as its ability to regenerate important vitamins like C and E have justified our intravenous protocols for its administration at the Perlmutter Health Center for more than a decade. Glutathione is like manna for mitochondria, enhancing their function while protecting them from the damaging by-products of energy production. And because so many diseases are characterized by mitochondrial failure, it’s hard to know where to draw the line in terms of limiting the use of this natural substance. As mentioned above, I have trained thousands to administer glutathione intravenously. Many are members of the American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), whose doctors are listed at
www.acam.org
and can be searched by zip code.

Intravenous glutathione leads to an immediate improvement in mitochondrial function, and the symptomatic benefits of turning on the mitochondria are often miraculous, not only in patients suffering from diseases but even in healthy individuals who utilize this therapy in conjunction with meditation practices.

Combining both oral supplementation, to enhance glutathione production, and glutathione administered intravenously by injection along with hyperbaric oxygen, provides an unparalleled level of therapeutic intervention designed to enhance the life energy-generating potential of mitochondria. In the first Power Up Your Brain Intensive, which we developed in 2008, participants engaged in a weeklong program of intensive shamanic energy meditation practices. In addition to these techniques, each of the participants received daily hyperbaric oxygen therapy along with injections of glutathione. We were not fully prepared for the results that we experienced.