Several personal-care products containing glutathione are marketed for their skin-whitening effects. These products include soaps and creams. However, some people take glutathione supplements for skin-whitening. Yet, glutathione is often touting as a natural solution for whitening of the skin.
“Glutathione enhances your skin colour has more potential of antioxidant effects that boosts immunity and cleanses the liver as well. Glutathione also reverses the ageing signs. And recovers suntan, and other skin problems caused due to the polluted environment.”
Dr. Firdous Ibrahim stated this. She is one of the successful dermatologists in Secunderabad who has successfully treated more than 10000 patients till date. She is an expert in an advance cosmetic procedure like skin rejuvenation, anti-pigmentation treatments, skin whitening, facial contouring, lasers, and a specialized focus on anti-ageing therapies. Many experienced dermatologists in Secunderabad as well as in other cities will agree to her point. She further explained all the things that one should know about glutathione for skin whitening. We also have Dr. Audumbar Borgaonkar who is one of the best dermatologist in Navi Mumbai & is also known for best hair transplant in Navi Mumbai. He will be explaining the different preparations of glutathione which are available in the market & their effectiveness.
Glutathione is considered to be a miraculous skin whitening agent. So, what is glutathione and how is it useful in this skin whitening let’s understand: So, the first question that comes to anybody’s mind when they think of glutathione is what glutathione is. So basically it is a peptide which is made from a combination of three amino acids.
Now, how does it work?
So it has got three actions that it does to cause the skin lightening. So first of all, as you all know, it acts as a very potent antioxidant it quenches the free radicals formed in our body and thereby it reduces the ageing of your skin. Before we start discussing the whitening effect of the Glutathione lets first outlines how the pigment in our skin is produced. So the primary pigment which is responsible for our skin colour is melanin.
There are two forms of melanin: eumelanin and pheomelanin. These two pigments occur in different proportions to give us a different colour of the skin. So if somebody is having more pheomelanin, then the skin colour will be lighter. And if the person is having more eumelanin, then the skin colour will be a little darker. So what glutathione does is it reduces the formation of melanin pigment by inhibiting the most critical enzyme in the pathway. Glutathione also causes the conversion of eumelanin to pheomelanin. They are thereby causing lightning of the skin.
So, coming to the sources of glutathione. Our body produces glutathione naturally our body has a most potent tax antioxidant in the form of glutathione which helps us in winching the free radicals. Also, people can take it in the diet from our different dietary sources, for example, fruits and vegetables. The dietary source of glutathione can become necessary because, with age, the natural body source of glutathione depletes. So to replenish and to make up for the loss of glutathione, these dietary sources become very important.
Now, let’s discuss the Journey of Glutathione as a skin lightening agent.
Glutathione is an ancient drug it is being used as an FDA-approved agent for conditions, like chemotherapy and chronic liver disease and Alzheimer’s disease. But for skin lightening its use has started very recently. It is noticed that patients with Alzheimer’s or chronic liver disease. They’ve been taking this drug for quite an extended period, so the researchers also observed that these patients also had the skin whitening as a side effect of taking glutathione. So from there, doctors started the research on glutathione as a skin whitening agent.
So now let’s discuss how effective is glutathione as a skin whitening agent.
Skin colour in humans is divided into six grades on the Fitzpatrick scale. The rates are from 1 to 6. So grade 1 being the lightest and level 6 being the darkest. Indian skin colour usually you know falls between Grade 3 and grade 4. So glutathione as the skin whitening changes it causes will give you a difference of one to do shades, but it will not change your skin colour from one grade on Fitzpatrick scale to the other when we talk about the starting effect of glutathione. It’ll give you a patchy impact in the beginning, which will eventually lead to even tone and slightly lighter skin.
Now let’s talk about the different preparations of glutathione which are available in the market.
So glutathione is available in three forms in the market: oral injectable and topical. The topical way is least effective because the molecular size of internal is quite big, and it is not able to penetrate the skin. The oral form is also less effective than injectable form because of low absorption and poor bioavailability. There are new guidelines available for the use of glutathione as a skin-lightening agent.
There is a most commonly applied or used regime of glutathione in which glutathione injections are given on alternate days. This frequency is gradually reduced to once in two weeks of injection. Once the desired skin colour shows, you can know always maintain glutathione for maintenance purposes. But it has to be understood both by the patient and the doctor that the body requires glutathione free interval. That is you cannot use the glutathione forever
How long will the result of glutathione last?
So basically the result will not last forever. We will have to use something or the other for maintenance purposes. It also has to be kept in mind that the body also requires glutathione free intervals.
Now let’s discuss the side effects of the glutathione.
Side effects can be short term or long term. Side effects are not many when it is used under the supervision of a qualified dermatologist. Short term side effects, like patchiness of skin colour and loss of hair colour, can happen. There are no studies available to discuss the long-term side effects of glutathione.
So, coming to the cost of glutathione as a skin-lightening agent. It is an expensive drug to be used as a skin-lightening agent. At the end of this video, It is recommendable that you should always undergo this procedure under the supervision of a qualified doctor.