Detox & Heavy Metals
Glutathione is your master antioxidant. Mercury destroys it permanently.
Glutathione doesn't work alone.
It depends on NAD+, methylation, other antioxidant enzymes, and vitamin D metabolism. When one system fails, glutathione fails with it.
The recycling problem
Glutathione exists in active (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) forms. In healthy cells, the ratio is 100:1. Under stress, this drops to 10:1.
You can have plenty of glutathione and still be depleted because you can't recycle it.
Mercury is different from other toxins.
Most toxins stress glutathione—it gets oxidized, then recovered. Mercury permanently depletes it by forming stable complexes that get exported from cells. Gone forever.
The destruction cascade
Mercury has extraordinarily high affinity for sulfhydryl groups—forming irreversible bonds with glutathione, cysteine, and selenocysteine in critical enzymes.
When you're selenium-deficient
Mercury binds to selenoprotein active sites, destroying thioredoxin reductase and glutathione peroxidase—your primary antioxidant systems.
The numbers: Selenium deficiency increases tissue mercury accumulation by 86-88%. Zinc deficiency reduces metallothionein synthesis by 70%.
Mercury turns your gut into a battlefield.
Selectively kills beneficial bacteria
Lactobacillus, Bifidobacterium, and butyrate-producers die first.
Mercury-resistant bacteria survive
These carry antibiotic resistance genes. Double problem: dysbiosis AND antimicrobial resistance.
Intestinal permeability increases 123-170%
Now bacterial products, dietary antigens, and mercury itself flood circulation.
Rebuilding glutathione the right way.
Better absorption forms
- Liposomal glutathione—50-90% absorption
- S-acetyl glutathione—protected from breakdown
- NAC—provides cysteine, the rate-limiter
Support the hierarchy
- SOD—needs copper, zinc, manganese
- Catalase—needs iron
- Methylation—B6, B12, folate
Key finding: 71% improvement in autoimmune symptoms after removing mercury sources.
Mercury creates a self-perpetuating cascade.
It destroys your defenses, wrecks your gut, triggers autoimmunity, and looks like a dozen other conditions.
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