John is now 9 years old and has been on glutathione for 4 ½ years and is doing very well….maybe, a little too well. He is a ball of energy, so there is never a quiet moment at our house. You can imagine the thumps, bumps, & thuds as he throws balls up against the side of the house, does WWE moves in the den with his very large stuffed teddy bear, and endlessly jumps through the house with moon shoes strapped to his feet. I am at times exasperated by his endless stream of “Watch this. Watch this. Watch this.” But I also get to hear an endless stream of heart warming giggles and laughter. John is a joyful child. But it was not always this way.

In the spring of 2003, a co-worker brought me the Woman’s Day magazine article about GSH. My first reaction was skepticism, but I decided to look into it. It only took a few days of research to decide that Valerie Hudson’s theories seemed to make sense. I asked our CF doc about glutathione and his response was laughter, so, I proceeded to investigate GSH on my own. After 3 months of diligent research, I never found any information indicating GSH could be harmful. I even asked college biology professors for their opinions on Valerie’s papers, and finally came to the conclusion that glutathione was not going to harm my son and it could only help.

In June of 2003, I cautiously started John on very low doses of oral GSH and the effects were immediate. Within 2 weeks, I could see a difference and I saw improvements in energy level, appetite, and John just started to look healthier. Just a few weeks after I started the glutathione, in a casual conversation with his pre-school teacher I asked how John was doing, just as I had done a million times before. She knew nothing about the glutathione but she said, “He is doing so good. I don’t know what is going on with him, but he has started cleaning his plate at lunch and he more outgoing and he is participating more in the class activities. He has just blossomed.” Three months later at his regular CF checkup, his pulmonary function scores were up 20 percent. All along I had been certain the glutathione was helping him feel better, but the improved PFT scores were absolute proof that the glutathione was helping.

Glutathione has transformed my son into a completely different child. I remember what our life was like before GSH and I don't ever want to go back there. Even though John was not seriously ill like many other CF kids, his appetite was very poor most of the time and he fatigued easily during strenuous activities. I actually believed this was normal for CF kids and thought the fact that he stayed out of the hospital meant he did pretty well for a kid with CF. My goal with GSH was to simply keep John out of the hospital and hopefully keep his pulmonary function from declining. It was not until he started getting better that I realized he had been very sick all along and had endured a great deal of suffering. I don’t know how or to what extent he was suffering, I just know that glutathione provided his body with something he desperately needed and ended this suffering. John was 5 years old when we started the glutathione and prior to that his demeanor was at times sullen and withdrawn. He had never told me that he loved me. My “I love you” was usually met with silence or with an occasional almost hateful, “Well, I don’t love you.” I now realize this was just a tortured soul taking his frustration out on the closest person to him. These days he is the most loving, affectionate child a parent could ever ask for. The hugs and “I love you”s flow freely from this happy little boy.

I realize these subjective observations probably mean nothing from a scientific point of view, so here are the facts:

o Antibiotics: John used to take Cipro and Sulfa drugs on a regular basis, but since he started taking glutathione, he gets sick less often than his non-cf big brother and he only cultures light growth of staph. In the last 4 years, John has only had 1 round of antibiotics for a respiratory infection, and that one was caused by the flu. ( No yelling please…John had his flu shot, but the flue strain he caught was not covered by the vaccine)

o Energy: Before glutathione, John barely had enough energy to make it through his T-ball games and would often ask to sit out an inning to rest. But after several months of taking glutathione, John’s Little League coach gave him the nickname Speed Demon because John wouldn’t throw the ball to get the runners out. Instead, he just chased the runners down to tag them out because he could run faster than most of them. This season John was the #4 draft pick in his age group. None of the coaches are aware that John has CF, so his high placement in the draft was based on pure athletic ability, not pity.

o Stamina: Before glutathione, John couldn’t roller skate for more than 10 minutes at a time. These days, John has more stamina than the majority of his friends. Skating, jumping on the trampoline, bike riding, snow skiing, hiking, soccer, basketball, etc… You name it, John does it without any difficulty.

o Appetite & Growth: John is just under the 50th percentile on the growth curve. Given his dad and I are both below average height, the 50th percentile is pretty good. John used to have a very poor appetite and had trouble gaining weight despite the use of Scandical, Scandishakes, and MCT oil. I use none of that now and John eats what the rest of the family eats, except he gets whole milk and I put butter on his vegetables. That’s it. I do nothing more. His favorite snacks are pretzels, grapes, and raisins. Not exactly high calorie, yet he is growing just fine. He eagerly comes to the table for meals and usually cleans his plate without a word from me.

o Thinner Secretions: John gets a dose of glutathione every 3 to 4 hours during the day. Past that 4 hour mark, you will hear him start to clear his throat frequently. Go a little while longer and he will start to cough and the coughing will continue to worsen until he gets a dose of glutathione. Within 15 minutes, the secretions begin to break up and after 30 to 45 minutes the cough will be gone. I try not to let him go past that 4 hour mark, but with our hectic schedules, it happens from time to time.

I completely ran out of glutathione once and I’ll never, ever let that happen again. John lungs started to gunk up almost immediately, his coughing increased and after several days without GSH his energy level went down the tubes. At baseball practice he was running so slow you would have thought his shoes were made of lead. This was a real eye opener and proved how indispensable GSH is to my son’s health.

If John’s doctors could spend an afternoon just watching him play, they would see what glutathione has done for him and the incredible energy he has. I tell them, but they don’t believe me. They scoff at the idea that glutathione is responsible for John’s remarkable good health, as if it is just a fluke. They continue warn me that there could be unknown negative long term side effects. But, of course, we all know the doctors are wrong.

There are no words to express my gratitude for the second chance GSH has given my precious little boy. Everyday, I thank God for Valerie Hudson, Dr. Bishop, and everyone on this message board.