Protecting Your Cells from Oxidative Stress: Acemannan’s Role in Glutathione Preservation

We’re going to take another adventure into the versatility and efficacy of Acemannan by addressing how it helps in the natural processes of protecting against the depletion of glutathione.

Now, if you don’t already know, glutathione is the human body’s own self-produced antioxidant. Now, maybe you know about antioxidants and maybe you don’t, so let’s do a little nutrition 101 up front, okay?

Antioxidants play a crucial role in protecting cells from harmful molecules called free radicals as a result of exposure to such things as pollution, cigarette smoke, poor diet, medications, or even normal metabolic processes. The free radicals can accumulate and cause oxidative stress and are linked to inflammation, aging, cardiovascular disease, etc. But antioxidants help neutralize the free radicals to protect cells from the oxidative stress.

Common antioxidants that many people are familiar with these days are:

• Vitamin C
• Vitamin E
• Minerals like selenium and zinc
• Phytochemicals found in our diet, especially in plant-based foods.

Glutathione is also an antioxidant, but it’s different in that it’s organically produced in the human body and is considered by some the mother of antioxidants. It’s important that glutathione be produced in our bodies, but the fact is that as we age, glutathione is produced in decreasing quantities. Yes, supplementation of glutathione is an option, and my limited research in this area means you probably would want to look into nanotechnology, as I understand that glutathione is a large molecule and may have difficulty passing through your digestive system. But if you supplement glutathione, that’s all you get is glutathione.

But Acemannan, as I hope you’re beginning to see, like it does in so many instances, contributes to various other natural and innate processes in the body to help the body do what the body does best. And it does many things, but in this case, it helps maintain natural glutathione production and even prevent its depletion and even increase glutathione when it is reduced.

The study we’re going to look at right now is a 1999 study called “Protection from Glutathione Depletion by a Glyconutritional Mixture of Saccharides.” To be clear, the study says exactly what the glyconutritional mixture of saccharides are, specifically Acemannan. It does not use the word Acemannan in the study, but it doesn’t have to because it references the registered trademark of the first iteration of Acemannan that was taken to market in 1994, and it does so 21 times throughout the study.

The reason Acemannan is called a glyconutritional mixture is because the first iteration was understood to be a complex nutritional mixture of monosaccharides, disaccharides, and polysaccharides. As you can see, it says as much in the study itself.

In this study, they wanted to see if the Acemannan could protect two types of cells in rodents: liver cells in rats and immune cells in the spleens of mice. First, they tested the liver cells of rats in vitro, as in a petri dish. They treated some cells with the Acemannan and others without it. Then they exposed all the cells to a potent toxin called patulin, which can damage the glutathione molecules, thereby causing cell injury and glutathione depletion. Patulin is not only a potent toxin, but it is also genotoxic, meaning it can damage genetic information within a cell. And to repeat, glutathione is very important, even vital, because it helps protect cells from oxidative damage.

What they found was that the liver cells treated with the Acemannan before exposure to the patulin toxin were better at keeping their glutathione levels normal compared to the cells that did not get the Acemannan. But let’s look at some graphics. The first was a very simple experiment. They treated some rat liver cells with Acemannan for three hours, then measured the glutathione levels. Another group of liver cells were not treated with Acemannan and then measured for glutathione levels after taking them out of their usual growth liquid. Then they took another set of liver cells, did not treat them with Acemannan, took them out of the original growth liquid, placed them then in another liquid, also without Acemannan, and then measured glutathione levels. As you can see, Acemannan made the difference here relative to higher glutathione levels.

Then they did another simple experiment, this time introducing the patulin, the toxin I mentioned. This created an environment where a toxic substance was present that would deplete glutathione. They took a group of liver cells and exposed them to patulin alone. And the other group of cells, they exposed to patulin and Acemannan simultaneously. Acemannan prevented glutathione depletion despite the presence of a toxic substance. After 600 seconds, that’s 10 minutes, they found that the amount of glutathione had reached a stable level and wasn’t changing anymore. 10 minutes.

And then a third experiment. They treated rat liver cells with patulin alone. And as you see, this toxin had done its damage by depleting glutathione. Another group of cells were treated with both Acemannan and patulin. And again, we see the dynamics of Acemannan at work to bring glutathione levels upward.

And then finally, a group of liver cells that were only treated with Acemannan, no patulin this time, resulting in a significant increase in glutathione measurements.

And then next, they tested the immune cells in live mice, specifically their spleens. This was no small or simple experiment, and it took on a meticulous nature to preserve accuracy. It lasted 248 days, around eight months. If you would like to do so, you can pause the video and read about just how meticulous the protocols were.

They infected the mice with a virus called coxsackievirus, a group of viruses closely related to the virus of poliomyelitis, which can also impact glutathione negatively and damage internal organs like the pancreas. Some mice were given the Acemannan once a week, starting a week before the virus was implemented while others weren’t. About 87% of untreated mice had pancreas damage by the very end, but only 40% of the Acemannan treated mice had pancreas damage. The mice that received the Acemannan did not show as much depletion of glutathione in their immune cells compared to the mice that did not get the Acemannan.

When they checked the immune responses of the mice, they found that the ones treated with Acemannan still had strong antibodies against the virus and lower levels of the virus itself. Now remember, this is a once a week Acemannan intake. This is certainly not a criticism because this study is what it is. This is just an observation, but proportionally, according to body weight, I take as much Acemannan on a daily basis that the mice were given weekly.

Again, like we pointed out in other videos, Acemannan enhances the innate intelligence of the immune system and not only does not interrupt natural processes, but complements what’s inborn and natural about those processes, including an environment of glutathione production support.

And in summary, the study shows that Acemannan can protect liver cells from glutathione depletion in vitro from a toxin and immune cells in vivo from a virus in rodents. It helps keep their glutathione levels normal, which is important for cell health and fighting off infections.

As a reminder, we’re also a Social Business 3.0 dedicating matching nutrition to medically fragile children. Get involved and know more at the link I provide below. Meanwhile, this is Tony McWilliams and I hope that you will always be careful to maintain good works to meet urgent needs and become heroes to your generation.