Or how I’m trying to look younger in secret
ANO NA NAMAN YANG GAMOT NA INIINOM MO?!?
My mom shouted behind my back, making me drop the blister pack I was holding.
I was startled but not surprised.
Without waiting for my reply, this was automatically followed by: “IKAW TALAGA KUNG ANO ANO ANG MGA INIINOM MONG GAMOT! ANG DAMI DAMI MO NG INIINOM SIGE KA ANG ATAY MO.”
She was always like this everytime she sees me taking some pills and knows that I wasn’t sick.
“Vitamins, Ma,”I replied “tsaka ano na naman marami eh ngayon nga lang ako iinom ng vitamins ulit.”
I can’t blame her though, because ever since I became a lifestyle writer, I would receive all sorts of vitamins containing every letter of the alphabet, and supplements with every new mineral and miracle fruit or berry extract that’s currently the trend. Name it and I’ve probably tried it, although I don’t remember finishing any single bottle except those Vitamin C.
You see I grew up in a family who don’t believe in vitamins or supplements and we only take meds when we are sick. I might be overweight and out of shape, but I guess it did work because I’ve never been confined or hospitalized in my entire life (knock on wood).
Another thing im proud of is that people tell me I look much younger than my age. Im already in my 40s but I still could pass of as someone in their early 30s. But—-that was a few years ago. Recently, however, I’ve started to notice several signs of aging—the wrinkles on my forehead, dryness of my skin, and after several consecutive trips the past few months Im also feeling my age and lack of exercise finally catching up with me.
So what does this Tito do? Search Google of course.
And when the results came back the most familiar term was glutathione.
AKA the Papaya killer, well at least for me, because I was using a lot of papaya soap before gluta became popular.
As it turns out glutathione is also one of the best anti-aging secrets in the world.
“Glutathione a tripeptide (or antioxidant) that’s made up of the following amino acids: cysteine, glycine and glutamic acid. It is one of the body’s most important and potent antioxidants or substances that reduce oxidative stress by combating free radicals in the body.
While most antioxidants are found in the foods we eat, glutathione is produced in the liver, where it helps bile to filter out or detoxify harmful compounds and waste, it can also be released by the liver into the bloodstream. However, some of the antiaging antioxidant is moved from the liver into the bloodstream in order to protect the body’s white blood cells and red blood cells from damage.
However, there are a number of reasons why our body’s glutathione level may become depleted, including poor diet (CHECK), chronic disease, infection and constant stress (DOUBLE CHECK). It is also known to decrease with age (ehem CHECK).
This antiaging antioxidant is also found in smaller amounts (compared to the liver) in the intestines and the lungs. It helps to break down and metabolize the carbohydrates that we consume. Since carbohydrates are a huge part of our meals (in most cases), this “most powerful antioxidant” serves a very important role in maintaining optimal health.”
So how is it effective at helping slow or even reverse aging?
Some of the benefits of glutathione that I found include:
- Breaking down oxidized fats and free radicals in the body, thus strengthening the body’s immune system and scavenging free radicals
- Treats irritable bowel syndrome (and can even reverse it)
- Prevents or reverses acne and wrinkles and crows feet via detoxification of the skin and body.
- Since it is a natural detoxifier, it improves the health of the body’s cells to reverse aging.
- Reverses liver damage caused by excessive alcohol consumption
- prevents damage from second hand smoking by halting the “aldehydes” in cigarettes from “aging” the cells (prevention of emphysema)
- Eliminates and gets rid of age spots, liver spots, brown spots, lentigines, crows feet, and dark circles under eyes
- Like melatonin, it protects the skin against oxidative damage which leads to wrinkles; therefore, it is an excellent form of antiaging skincare
- It can help liver detoxification which can lead to reversal of disease, obesity, inflammation (both regular and silent inflammation)
- Glutathione benefits also include the body’s enhanced ability to optimize antiaging antioxidants such as vitamin E and vitamin C, selenium, CoQ10, grape seed extract, and alpha-lipoic acid.
Reading all this stuff seemed too good to be true so I decided to stalk the feeds of my FB friends, and I found that several of them were actually taking glutathione supplements as well.
But instead of its anti-aging benefits most of them said taking glutathione helped increase their energy, reduces muscle and joint discomfort, improves the quality of their sleep, reduces the effects of stress, improves their skin as well as their athletic performance and recovery and of course help whiten their skin. One friend even swore that she uses it to help prevent or cure her Hangover!
I was sold. So the next step in my research was to find how I could naturally increase the glutathione levels in my body.
As it turns out there are actually several ways such as increasing Vitamin C intake, adding Sulfur-Rich and Selenium rich food to your diet or by eating food that is naturally rich in Glutathione—like Spinach, avocados, asparagus and okra—none of which I have tried or even plan on trying.
So I went for the next best thing—get some glutathione supplements.
But why food supplements? Because it’s a lot easier to do than consume all those glutathione rich foods I mentioned earlier.
Which brings us back to the start of our story.
So why was I hiding my SnowCaps from my mom? At that time, I was just on my second or third capsule, and I was really taking it primarily because I got sunburned from our Bohol trip and I want my color to return ASAP. I was also feeling really tired from my previous trips, and wanted regain my energy. I also didn’t want to tell her I was taking supplement, so that I’ll get a more honest and unbiased answer from her after a few weeks. Because if she knows, she’ll just affirm the effects.
Why SnowCaps? Because while other brands use non-reduced glutathione, which may give little to no benefits, Snow Caps contain L-Glutathione or “Reduced Glutathione” which our body can easily absorb. Snow Caps Premium contains 500mg of premium L-Glutathione per capsule, plus Alpha Lipolic Acid (100mg) and Vit C (100mg).
I take one capsule every morning because they say its when glutathione levels are at its lowest and oxidative stress at its highest.
I’m already on my second week of taking Snow caps and while I don’t feel and drastic effect I did notice that I was sleeping a bit better—not exactly earlier or longer, but at least I don’t wake up several times in the middle of the night. I also noticed that my sunburn disappeared rather quicker coz before it used to take weeks before it peeled off. I’ll update you again of the results after finishing my first box.
Snow Caps is available at all leading drugstores nationwide and is priced at P1,475 for 1 box with 30 capsules.
