Effects of long-term supplementation with whey proteins on plasma glutathione levels of HIV-infected patients

What Was Tested

Researchers studied Glutathione in this randomized controlled trial publication.

In order to evaluate the effects of whey supplementation on plasma GSH levels, HIV-infected patients were treated with whey proteins for a period of six months.

Why It Was Studied

HIV infection is characterized by an enhanced oxidant burden and a systemic deficiency of the tripeptide glutathione (GSH), a major antioxidant.

The semi-essential amino acid cysteine is the main source of the free sulfhydryl group of GSH and limits its synthesis.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 30 patients were involved.

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, both men and women.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized and double-blind study.

Because people in this Glutathione study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the patients nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Glutathione, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

The timeline in the abstract includes six months.

What Was Measured

Topics PubMed links to this paper include Dietary Supplements, Glutathione, HIV, Milk Proteins and Whey Proteins.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized and double-blind study of Glutathione in 30 patients over six months.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 9 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2002 (European journal of nutrition), a journal based in Germany.

More context: the Glutathione compound page, all human trials.