When it comes to caring for your skin, using the right ingredients is crucial to getting the results you’re after. However, between all the different product types and the long, scientific names of certain compounds, distinguishing which ingredients to use can be difficult. This is why it’s important to not only educate yourself about what certain products contain, but also gain an understanding of each component’s effect on your skin.

Glutathione is one such ingredient that can be used for a variety of different skin ailments and skin care treatments. Take some time to learn about how glutathione benefits the skin and how you can best use it.

The Basics of Glutathione

A molecule that’s found naturally in the body, glutathione is primarily constructed of the amino acids cysteine, glycine, and glutamine, which are essential for breaking down nutrients. Glutathione is an antioxidant, and it’s therefore used in several types of treatments to stimulate a person’s immune system. Because of this, it can be used to prevent a number of health conditions, such as chronic fatigue, high cholesterol, and diabetes. Its ability to reduce oxidative damage in the body and strengthen the immune system is what makes it a key player in a person’s overall skin health and in their ability to fight off infection.

However, though the body naturally produces this substance in the liver, you could experience an overall decrease in glutathione levels due to poor nutrition, environmental toxins, and age. As the amount of this molecule lowers, it becomes more difficult for your body to maintain its health and effectively respond to oncoming threats.

Glutathione’s Effects on the Skin

Your glutathione levels are just as important to your skin as they are to the functioning of the rest of your body. Since your skin requires many nutrients to remain supple, healthy, and strong, lowered production of this molecule makes you incredibly susceptible to skin damage and trauma. As a result, you could begin to visibly age more quickly and, overall, become more likely to catch infection and disease. But with a healthy amount of glutathione, your body can better heal damaged tissue, reduce discoloration, and diminish the effects of things that could cause further damage. This is why glutathione makes an incredibly effective active ingredient both as a dietary supplement and in many skin care products, creams, lotions, and anti-aging treatments. Furthermore, with its capability of lowering melanin production in the skin, this substance is also useful in skin lightening procedures to reduce dark spots.

Additional Benefits of Glutathione

We’re not quite finished yet! Along with glutathione’s general effects on skin condition, it also provides the body with a series of other benefits that further contribute to its overall health. These are some of the additional ways that glutathione benefits a person’s skin by better fueling the body.

It Acts as a Strong Antioxidant

We’ve already touched on the fact that glutathione acts primarily as an effective antioxidant, but it’s still important to discuss exactly what that means. When the oxygen particles that flow through our bodies break apart, they create atoms with a missing electron. These atom sections must then begin to search for other electrons to complete them. As the incomplete atoms—also known as free radicals—search for those electrons, they can cause damage to any cells they pass along the way. This process is known as oxidative stress, and it can have serious effects on the body if left to persist. As the cells that make up our bodies age, they become damaged and less able to fight off attacks from infection and free radicals. This speeds up the aging that visibly appears on our faces. Antioxidant products such as glutathione can counteract the oxidative process and heal some of the damage caused by free radicals.

Assists in Body Detoxification

Glutathione can also act as a detoxifier, helping the body remove contaminants that could make you sick. The kidneys and liver use these molecules as an extra means to filter toxins into urine and bile. However, the overall filtration procedure—which involves breaking down and neutralizing atoms—needs to be done in balance to keep from inadvertently creating free radicals. With the help of glutathione, which stabilizes free radicals before they can harm nearby cells, your body can remove more toxins and sustain less damage. Without glutathione, your body simply wouldn’t be able to complete this process as thoroughly, and your chances of falling ill would significantly increase.

Helps the Body Produce More Energy

If a free radical happens to damage a cell, chances are the cell’s mitochondria is damaged as well. This area of the cell is responsible for creating and supplying the energy the body needs to perform all its essential tasks. Since glutathione also protects mitochondria from free radicals, it’s particularly useful in maintaining a steady energy production process for the body. With more energy, your skin can more easily respond to trauma and begin healing before permanent damage and scarring can occur. Best of all, with an increased supply of energy, your skin can also fight off ailments such as psoriasis or acne before they even begin.

Tips for Raising Your Glutathione Levels

Because glutathione can assist with all these different components of bodily functioning, maintaining a healthy supply of it is crucial to improving every aspect of your health. Glutathione supplements are very popular now because they provide an easy and effective way to raise glutathione levels.

But the fun doesn’t stop there, Glutathione is also very effective when applied topically to the skin. This is why many people choose to apply skin care and home spa products that use glutathione as an active ingredient to raise their skin’s overall resilience. Glutathione is the solution that makes antioxidizing ointments, anti-aging creams, and dark spot-correcting serums effective.

In addition to using topical treatments, you can also raise your glutathione levels by taking oral supplements or by making a few diet changes. Foods such as onions, garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, and eggs contain high amounts of sulfur, which facilitate your body’s natural production of glutathione.

At Flawless Beauty & Skin, we believe that knowledge provides you with the power to make lifestyle changes that will have the best effect on your skin. This is why we want to educate you on some of the body’s major building blocks and how they affect your outward appearance. After all, a radiant and clear complexion begins from the inside—with the proper materials to support it.