Glutathione and Metallothionein: Cocreating Mental Health
Understanding and Treating Underlying Causes of Mental Illness
Thursday, March 21, 2024
Issue #228
Today's article and podcast cover my understanding of glutathione and metallothionein in mental health and two helpful treatment approaches I've used to support my patients' ability to detoxify (orthomolecular/ functional and energy medicine).
Included at the bottom of the article is a podcast with a recording of an energy medicine healing session for a patient's glutathione and metallothionein systems. After the energy work, the patient (Cindy) commented on how she felt during the energy treatment. She also shared her personal experience of being injected with an antipsychotic.
A week later, she reported how the energy work helped her release her old medication and how it felt when it came out of her body.
Read on to understand how optimal detoxification is central to mental health, especially for those taking psychiatric medications. Enjoy!
Imagine a person who is born with an inherited, genetic difficulty detoxifying foreign chemicals. Over time, toxins accumulate, and dysfunctions increase. Now imagine a time in history when mainstream medical care prescribes foreign chemicals. How would this person do under even the most well-intentioned physician?
If you assume that the person will feel worse, then you're right.
Our imaginary time in history is happening now. Patients who detoxify poorly surround us and are routinely prescribed foreign chemicals (e.g. antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anticonvulsants) that undermine their health.
You may wonder why doctors continue to prescribe foreign chemicals to address disorders caused by poor detoxification. I believe it's because psychiatry treats how patients think and feel, not underlying causes. The two are not the same.
Without understanding underlying causes, it's difficult to make medical advances. For example, an article published in 2022, The little-known history of cleanliness and the forgotten pioneers of handwashing (1), states:
"Doctors did not routinely wash their hands until the mid-1800s, and they would proceed straight from dissecting a corpse to delivering a baby, providing the basis for the spread of puerperal fever. Despite advances in modern medicine, healthcare providers still face the issue of infection outbreaks caused by patient care. While the body of scientific data supporting hand hygiene as the key strategy to prevent the spread of pathogens is substantial, we highlight that achieving this crucial, long-awaited breakthrough was a hard task through history."
Are the needs for cleanliness on the inside different from the needs for cleanliness on the outside? I doubt it.
What is glutathione?
For a good medical review of glutathione, you can find the article here (2). But, in short, glutathione is necessary for detoxifying foreign substances (xenobiotics) e.g. patented, foreign molecules created in a lab for psychopharmaceutical purposes.
What is metallothionein?
For a good medical review of metallothionein for brain disorders, you can find the article here (3). But, basically, metallothionein's main functions are "metal homeostasis and protection against heavy metal toxicity, DNA damage, and oxidative stress (4)." Large quantities are synthesized in the liver and kidneys.
While functional/ orthomolecular medicine acknowledges the prevalence of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in undermining methylation and detoxification, improving methylation is not the same thing as improving glutathione and metallothionein metabolism.
What often happens when someone with low glutathione/ metallothionein looks for help:
people who are sick because they have accumulated more toxins than their body can handle will turn to doctors for help to treat their symptoms, which often come in the form of depression, anxiety, insomnia, mood swings, or psychosis.
Usually, they will be prescribed a psychiatric medication that matches their symptoms, i.e. how they feel. This approach will often precipitate the following scenario:
1) the patient complains to the doctor about the medication(s) not working or making them feel worse.
2) the doctor changes the medication, adds other medications, or increases the amount of medication to make it work "better."
3) the patient experiences negative withdrawal side effects and/or more negative side effects from increased medication(s) and feels worse.
4) the cycle goes through many different combinations of medications with the patient getting worse over time. As the patient's health deteriorates, s/he may have many hospitalizations throughout treatment. This part can go on for years until medications are abandoned and perhaps ECT or TCMS becomes the treatment of choice.
5) The patient never gets better and gets stuck between withdrawal from medications and negative side effects from medications.
I knew a patient who was stuck in this cycle back in the early 2000s. I worked with him and his parents for about a year before he and his parents decided to move on to use a company called True Hope. The patient and parents were lovely people. I liked them very much. A few years later, his family's attorney called me.
He shared a sad story about the patient. A hospital had taken him off all his medications while he was hospitalized and then discharged him. Withdrawal from his medication(s) (probably an antipsychotic) led to increased paranoia and psychotic delusions.
Soon after discharge, he killed his father with an ax. He was placed in solitary confinement for months after he went to jail. The attorney reached out to me because his family remembered him doing well when he was working with me.
Not understanding the underlying causes of mental illness and how to handle medication withdrawal have cost many good people's lives.
Rice fields Northwest of Vietnam
What kind of treatment helps those with low glutathione/metallothionein heal?
1) "Primum non nocere" first do no harm (if possible). It's just common sense for those who have difficulty detoxifying xenobiotics to avoid consuming xenobiotics as a form of treatment. This approach only stresses the detoxification system further.
Thankfully, there are many natural alternatives available that can support such individuals. Supplements and energy medicine techniques can be helpful because they are not perceived by the body as foreign or toxic.
Decades ago, I used supplements rather than an antipsychotic for someone's psychotic symptoms. He had refused to take any medication. After a week, his symptoms resolved "by 80%," according to the patient. After two weeks, he reported that he had found a job and was happily occupied. The experience changed my perspective on the treatment of psychotic symptoms:
It's ineffective treatment that makes a condition chronic, not a chronic condition that makes treatment ineffective.
If, however, the patient is on medication(s), increasing glutathione will also increase the detoxification of medications and may lead to withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal symptoms mimic the illness the medication is treating.
This is a tricky situation that all physicians should know: if a medication (xenobiotic, foreign molecule) is prescribed to someone who doesn't make enough glutathione, the patient will have more difficulty with glutathione supplements--at least initially--because of increased medication withdrawal.
Given this crucial difference between unmedicated vs. medicated patients, what can be done?
2) First, increase resilience through general support. This can be through the use of supplements e.g. vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, probiotics, and proper dietary choices. One can use Energy Breaths to add general support as well.
3) Detoxify using methods that do not lower medication levels simultaneously. My go-to method is using foot detox pads that remove toxins and heavy metals from the soles of the feet through the lymph system while asleep. Usually, I ask patients to use them every other night and keep using them as long as the pads are dark in the morning.
3) Support methylation with activated B vitamins. But, be careful with using Greens formulas because they can increase the detoxification of medications, and therefore cause medication withdrawal.
4) Decrease inflammation by avoiding wheat, dairy, and refined white sugar.
5) As health improves through nutritional support and energy medicine, less medication will be needed. You'll be able to tell you don't need as much medication because the same dosage will lead to more medication side effects.
Know the side effects of your medications. As side effects increase, you can introduce supplements that increase glutathione levels instead of lowering the medication, e.g. greens formulas, N-Acetylcysteine, or liposomal glutathione. Liquid liposomal tastes like rancid eggs, but is more absorbable. You might prefer to use liposomal glutathione in a soft gel capsule if the negative taste will prevent its use.
Adding a greens powder supplement at this point will help with detoxification of medications, heavy metals, and other toxins--by as much as 20% (so don't overdo it). I currently use Greens First Original by Greens First.
Special skill is necessary to lower medications safely to help reduce negative side effects. An understanding of criteria-based energy testing (6) is central to how I am able to do this for my patients.
Please see the podcast below for a recorded energy session when I was working with a patient to help her improve glutathione and metallothionein function. This recording will be safe to use if the individual is overmedicated or is not taking any medications.
Do not use this meditation if the medication regimen currently maintains a balanced physical state.
Cindy, who was present when I recorded the energy healing technique, is highly sensitive to energy and can feel its presence, so I asked her to share her experience after our energy healing session. She was also happy to talk about her experience with Abilify, an antipsychotic, and the medication's effects on her. I am grateful that she found me soon after her experience and could heal through natural interventions.
We met a week after we did the energy work, and she reported that, on the day of the energy work, she felt the medication flowing out of her body in "painful lumps" along her "lymph system". Even though her last injection of Abilify was over six months ago, she reexperienced many side effects from the medication: low motivation, not wanting to move, dulled emotions, and poor attention/ focus/ memory.
These side effects were most prominent on the day of her energy work, but not nearly as strong as when she was initially injected with the medication months ago. Even a week after our energy work, however, she still felt occasional periods of sluggishness and low motivation, attention, and focus.
So, be careful when using this recording. Detoxification may be associated with side effects from chemicals or medications leaving the body.
After she reported on her response to the energy work, we worked on supporting her dopamine system to help her improve attention and focus. I'll share my energy work on the dopamine system soon!
Have a wonderful week!
For restoring her ECS, a meditative technique using energy and intentions was introduced during the session.
I've included a recording of a meditative technique that supports healing the ECS below. It can be listened to repeatedly to help reinforce its healing effects.
Between the nutritional supports, EET, and healing intentions, this patient has been able to come off her Risperidone with improved cognition, mood, and calmness. Her sleep has increased, which allows reductions of her antipsychotic medication to proceed with ease.
Without nutritional and energy medicine supports, patients often encounter more insomnia, anxiety, and poor appetite during an antipsychotic taper, no matter how "slowly" they try to do the taper.
I hope that this information will be helpful to you and that you will share it with those who are looking for ways to help themselves heal from cannabis-induced psychotic disorders and antipsychotic withdrawal.
Have a peaceful, happy week.
References:
1. Poczai, P., & Karyalics, L. Z. (2022). The little-known history of cleanliness and the forgotten pioneers of handwashing. *Frontiers in Public Health, 10*, 979464. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.979464
2. Forman, H. J., Zhang, H., & Rinna, A. (2009). Glutathione: Overview of its protective roles, measurement, and biosynthesis. *Molecular Aspects of Medicine, 30*(1-2), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mam.2008.08.006
3. Thirumoorthy, N., Manisenthil Kumar, K. T., Shyam Sundar, A., Panayappan, L., & Chatterjee, M. Forman. (2007). Metallothionein: An overview. *World Journal of Gastroenterology, 13*(7), 993–996. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v13.i7.993
4. Si, M., & Lang, J. (2018). The roles of metallothioneins in carcinogenesis. *Journal of Hematology & Oncology, 11*, 107. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13045-018-0645-x
5. Reich, D. E., Gabriel, S. B., & Altshuler, D. (2003). Quality and completeness of SNP databases. *Nature Genetics, 33*, 457–458.
6. Lee, A. W. (2023). Successful Withdrawal from Six Psychiatric Medications Using Criteria-Based Energy Testing: Case Report. *International Journal of Healing and Caring, 23*(3), 4-21. https://doi.org/10.78717/ijhc.20232334
Click on the photo above for the teaser
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Through my energy medicine training, I have learned to use energy testing techniques to assess patients' function. From my testing results, I have come to believe that many of my patients have difficulty with detoxification beyond the typical issues with methylation due to single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs).
They also struggle with inadequate metabolic pathways involving glutathione and/or metallothionein. Glutathione helps with the detoxification of chemicals such as medications, and metallothionein helps with the detoxification of heavy metals.
Imagine how difficult it would be not to be able to detoxify these toxins at the necessary rates. Over time, these toxins accumulate and overwhelm the ability of the body to handle normal, daily amounts of toxins.
Typically as toxins increase, anxiety symptoms increase as well. However, it's difficult to remove toxins using supplements without increasing negative side effects such as experiencing even more anxiety. Because of this, I turned to energy medicine for additional help.
This podcast records a session where I am using energy medicine to try to strengthen the glutathione and metallothionein systems and to help the patient, Cindy, recover from being injected with Abilify, an antipsychotic medication.
Almost all psychiatric medications are xenobiotics, foreign substances, that require detoxification to clear them properly from the body. Unfortunately, not all patients have what it takes to do so properly.
This podcast records Cindy's energy healing process to benefit others. Cindy was happy to have the opportunity to share how the energy healing felt and also her experience after being injected with Abilify.
I hope that you will be able to share this podcast with those who experience anxiety, because they may also have underlying problems with detoxification. I hope this recording will benefit those who might be open to a free source of healing energy.
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To schedule consultations or appointments, call Dr. Lee's office at 240-437-7600
Dr. Lee has office locations in Lehi, Utah, and Yonkers, New York. I am currently practicing out of Lehi, Utah.
Copyright © 2024 Alice W. Lee, MD, ABIHM, ABoIM – Holistic & Integrative Psychiatrist in Lehi, Utah. All rights reserved.
The content provided by this podcast is for informational purposes only and has not been approved by the U.S. FDA. This podcast is not intended to provide personal medical advice, which should be obtained from a medical professional.
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