SubEx

Myth check

Glutathione's marketing has its two forms the wrong way round

The capsule sold as the weak option beat placebo, modestly and only on sun-exposed skin. The injections sold as premium never reached significance in their one controlled trial.

Glutathione

Glutathione is sold with the drip as the fast, premium route and the capsule as the slow one. At 250 to 500mg a day for four to twelve weeks, forearm and face that had seen sun measured lighter than placebo while covered skin did not move, and the lightening faded once people stopped. The single placebo-controlled trial of the injections ended with eight of sixteen people showing disturbed liver tests, one in anaphylaxis, and no significant lightening.

The findings behind this

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Physical & bodyGlutathione capsules lightened sun-exposed skin only, and not for long

At 250 to 500mg a day for four to twelve weeks, forearm and facial skin measured lighter than placebo while covered skin did not change. The lightening fades on stopping.

★☆☆Contested — the evidence disagrees with itself, or the finding carries a caution. A caution or conflict always shows one star, however strong the sources are.Conflicting evidenceThe trials ran 46 to 124 people over four to twelve weeks. In the twelve-week trial the change concentrated in participants over 40 rather than spreading across the group, and in the four-week trial the count of sun spots never moved even as the melanin reading did. No trial measured glutathione in the blood, so nothing rules out the capsules working through something other than the mechanism the marketing assumes. Participants were mostly Asian adults already seeking lighter skin.Click to keep this openCare for skin and hairGlutathione
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Physical & bodyOne trial of glutathione injections found liver changes and a collapse

In the one placebo-controlled trial of these injections, eight of sixteen had disturbed liver tests, one went into anaphylaxis, and the lightening never reached significance.

★★☆Single study — solid evidence, such as one good trial or a large observational dataset, but not replicated at the top tier.Thirty-two people finished that trial, and the gap between glutathione and placebo ran close to the significance line, so the honest reading is no proven benefit rather than proven uselessness. The August recall reports came from the pharmacies themselves rather than independent checking, and neither notice names a death or a hospital admission.Click to keep this openCare for skin and hairGlutathione

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