The supplement protocol that made my daughter sicker
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Hi Reader Today I want to talk about something that often gets shoved under the rug in the natural health world......and talk about our personal story. Many people are under the assumption that glutathione is basically harmless and universally helpful, and that if someone is dealing with mold, inflammation, fatigue, or “detox issues,” glutathione is just a smart thing to add in. It’s called the "master antioxidant", after all, and it is talked about like this foundational, can’t-go-wrong supplement. So I never really questioned it or did a deep dive into it until it was recommended as part of a protocol to support my daughter, and she crashed super hard. Today I want to talk about glutathione - what went wrong in our case & how to know if this could potentially be an issue for you. Keep reading for the article: ⚡️ Valentine's Day All Courses Bundle - Everything you need to get back on track before spring & "love yourself" - click here to grab one of only 10 - and save over $550 - and get lifetime access to my private membership group. New here? Free Product Guide - $7 Cortisol Course & MyCircadianApp Free trial with code SARAHK For a long time, I thought of glutathione as one of those “can’t hurt, might help” supplements. It is called the "master antioxidant", and it is in almost every detox protocol. Mold, CIRS, MCAS, inflammation, fatigue - the answer always seems to be, “add glutathione"....so I never truly questioned it until I had a reason to. When my daughter was diagnosed with mold illness/CIRS/Pans Pandas in 2022, one of the first things we were told was to start glutathione daily to help her detox. It sounded completely reasonable/safe - and honestly very standard in the functional medicine world. So we started it, and instead of improving….she got worse. Her sleep got worse. Her behavior got more erratic. She seemed more reactive and wired. My mother's intuition kicked and and I realized that it didn’t look like “detox” - it looked like stress. My gut said stop, so we stopped, and she improved within a matter of 4 days. That was the moment I realized something wasn’t adding up, because if glutathione is supposed to help everyone, why did it clearly make her feel worse? So I went down one rabbit hole (of many), and what I came to understand is that glutathione doesn’t actually “detox” you in the way social media makes it sound. Glutathione is not a "vacuum cleaner" for toxins: It’s a molecule your body uses in redox balance and in phase II conjugation pathways, and those pathways require ATP, minerals, bile flow, and functioning enzymes to actually clear what gets mobilized. In other words, glutathione increases activity and demand, and if someone’s energy or clearance capacity is already low, pushing those pathways can make them feel worse before they feel better - or just worse, period. Around that same time, we ran genetics, and a big piece clicked: Both my husband and I have a deletion in the GSTM1 gene, which codes for one of the glutathione S-transferase enzymes used to conjugate and eliminate certain compounds.² That doesn’t mean we “can’t detox, but it does mean that specific pathway may have less capacity (and adding something like tylenol might have even further consequences). This also was a huge light bulb on my daughter's story overall & might hold a clue as to why she got a vaccine that many other people got at that time, and had a life altering reaction - when many others were "fine"......but more on that another day. So for our family, adding extra glutathione isn't necessarily supportive - it may actually increase demand on a system that is already facing limitations. Now what....?It was a hard lesson to learn - but once I understood that, so many things made sense: Why methylated vitamins sometimes made me feel wired & anxious Why aggressive detox stacks never felt good. Why I naturally gravitate toward slower, gentler approaches for myself (and now ALWAYS with clients & students). So instead of trying to detox harder, we changed the strategy: We focused on light, sleep, hydration, minerals, and overall energy first. For my daughter, molecular hydrogen inhalation ended up being incredibly helpful because it supports redox balance without pushing detox conjugation in the same demanding way.³ We saw improvements in her behavior - nervous system regulation & sleep within one week, and that experience completely changed how I think about supplements. Not because I think supplements are bad, but because they aren’t neutral, and whether they help or hurt depends on mitochondrial capacity, mineral status, circadian rhythm, and yes, genetics. I wrote more about this here (along with more on NAD - Glutathione - Methylated B's - Detoxes & My exact supplement protocol as is right now) And If this resonates, I’m hosting a free webinar on Wednesday where we will talk more about this topic - as well as things like HRT (why your body might see it and integrate it beautifully - or see the hormones & create inflammation). Overall my message is this: How your body integrates compounds (supplements - medications - HRT - etc) depends on your terrain, cellular capacity & genetics.....and this nuance often gets left out of online conversations (and when xyz protocol goes poorly - the end user feels like they are at fault). Enjoy my deeper dive article on the topic here! Have a fantastic week! – Sarah References
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