Glutathione for Immune Function
Oral glutathione is not proven to strengthen immune function in healthy people. The only human trials are very small and measured lab markers rather than real outcomes like fewer infections, so this rates as weak (C) evidence.
Why this grade7-layer evidence engine
The human evidence amounts to two tiny trials measuring surrogate markers, not actual illness. A 54-person double-blind RCT (PMID 24791752) found high-dose oral glutathione raised body glutathione stores and more than doubled natural killer (NK) cell activity at three months, but those gains vanished after a one-month washout. A 12-person pilot of liposomal glutathione (PMID 28853742) reported large jumps in NK activity, yet it had no placebo group, was funded by a supplement maker, and its authors flagged limited statistical power.
Crucially, no study tracked clinical endpoints such as infection rates, illness duration, or vaccine response. A 2000 review (PMID 11115795) concluded plainly that there is no evidence glutathione boosts infection resistance or vaccine response in healthy people; any benefit was confined to glutathione-depleted disease states like HIV. Oral glutathione is also poorly absorbed, and a meta-analysis disputes even the body-store findings.
No major health authority endorses this use. The FDA, NHS, EFSA, and WHO statements address injectable skin-whitening safety rather than oral immune benefit, and NIH ODS, Mayo Clinic, and Harvard Health do not address it at all. With only small, surrogate-marker, partly industry-funded preliminary data and a vague 'immune function' claim, a Weak (C) grade with a warning is appropriate.
Scoring transparency
All scores computed by a 7-layer evidence engine — fully auditable▸View the full decision path (audit trail)
- compute_raw_score — 加權公式: L2×0.30 + L3×0.25 + L5×0.25 + L11×0.10 + L1×0.10 = 0.497
- tier_from_score — 依分數區間映射至 tier letter
- apply_hec_rules — 無高階證據可裁決
- tier_strict_requirement_check — Tier 條件達標，未降階
- detect_disputes — 偵測到 0 個 hard + 0 個 soft dispute
- decide_status — 依 tier + dispute 結果決定 status