In order for your body to detox itself of heavy metals you are going to have grab that heavy metal and push it out. We have talked about glutathione and anti-oxidants. The one thing we have not talked about is metallothionein. These are metal binding proteins involved in binding with useful metals like copper, zinc and selenium. They also however bind the harmful heavy metals like mercury, cadmium and lead so as to inactivate and remove it from the body.
Clear enough. How do I boost or get more of these proteins? Well you can’t buy them so your body is going to need to make them. You can boost their production by providing the right amino acids for their synthesis.
Metallothionein per our friends at Wikipedia
“Metallothionein (MT) is a family of cysteine-rich, low molecular weight (MW ranging from 500 to 14000 Da) proteins. They are localized to the membrane of the Golgi apparatus. MTs have the capacity to bind both physiological (such as zinc, copper, selenium) and xenobiotic (such as cadmium, mercury, silver, arsenic) heavy metals through the thiol group of its cysteine residues, which represent nearly 30% of its constituent amino acid residues.[2]
In the human body, large quantities are synthesised primarily in the liver and kidneys. Their production is dependent on availability of the dietary minerals such as zinc, copper, and selenium, as well as the amino acids histidine and cysteine. Metallothioneins are rich in thiols, causing them to bind a number of trace metals.”
Ok so what does this tell us?
It tells us we need to provide a rich source of cysteine and histidine rich amino acids. Cysteine as we discussed is a component of glutathione too. The key is the sulfur end of the molecule that does the binding. Where can I get these amino acids? Well several types proteins have these amino acids in varying quantities. You could eat chicken, steak, beans, yogurt, drink milk etc. However what we are looking for is a super concentrated source of these specific amino acids not just any old amino acid mix.
Whey Protein is good source of cysteine and histidine
Whey protein is a good source of cysteine, histidine and other related amino acids. The hulk like bodybuilders are right on this one. We can learn from them. Time to be like Arnold and pump some iron! We pump you up! Yeah you can do that too and I recommend it in addition to a healthy lifestyle.
But seriously whey protein is a very good source of cysteine and histidine in high concentrations. Look at the jug of this stuff I have below. Each scoop has 655 mg cysteine and 593 mg histidine. One serving is twice that amount! That’s a lot!
Two scoops is also 60 grams of protein! Watch out Arnold! Now that being said if you do drink this as part of your detox a few times a week and also lift weights or workout you will gain muscle mass. You will be more toned, strong whatever. So this is a bonus but what we are after is the detoxifying power not the hulk em out bodybuilder / ms fitness look.
BTW it doesn’t matter what the brand is that you buy. Just make sure it lists cysteine and histidine on the label. The one I bought is a known value brand. It was $35 for 5 pounds which is one huge jug. It is massive.
How do you blend it?
I drink it with water mixed in a glass. I don’t need the extra calories of juice, milk or some other mixer. This stuff is sweet enough as it is. Use whatever mixer you want to lessen the taste. This one for example tastes like artificial chocolate. Yeah not ideal but now it is for a purpose and that purpose is detox.
Glutathione boosting is a bonus
These are the same raw ingredients for glutathione. So that means you are also boosting your body’s synthesis of that detoxifier in the process.
Make sure you also have the other ingredients
Make sure to also take daily multivitamin multimineral with zinc, copper and selenium. If yours doesn’t have selenium get selenium yeast 100 ug. Mine for example came from GNC as the Centrum I have has less selenium at 25%. Don’t take too much selenium though as it will make you lethargic. 100 microgram is plenty. If the pills are 200 micrograms split them in half to make 100 doses. I just buy the 100 microgram version.
Mr. Cash Hoarder 