I concur with Paleo lover. Supplementary glutathione is useless. Best to get it from foods:

http://www.naturalhealthweb.com/articles/shah5.html

Seems to me like anything that's slightly toxic enough to produce a hormetic effect will boost glutathione, so tumeric etc.

Other than that, undenatured whey or raw egg yolks are good sources of raw materials for glutathione.

I head NAC supplementation can have untoward long term side-effects, this was touched on in this post:

http://evolutionarypsychiatry.blogspot.com/2011/03/problems-i-have-nac-for-that.html

"What are the downsides of NAC? I can think of two problems that might be biggies - first off, NAC is a mucolytic that thins mucus by cutting disulfide bonds. I suspect that might raise risks - one wouldn't want too little mucus. Mucus is important. Paul Jaminet mentions this issue and links a study here. Also, cutting disulfide bridges within the body is what that inflammatory baddie homocysteine is supposed to do, leading to crispy collagen and inelastic elastin in the arteries (which would possibly first show up as high blood pressure). "

I work with many in the Filipino Culture and they say that Glutathione supplementation is big there. They say many people take it to turn their skin white but that it has some adverse side effects. I was sold a similar supplement and told it was the supplement of youth. It turned out to be expensive whey and creatine. I know you can get it naturally from a lot of the foods found in the paleo diet (coconut) and the it does have some anti aging effects, but like any nutrient in concentrated quantities it can become detrimental instead of beneficial.

I've become a distributor for Max International after doing a heap of research. Not interested in a slugfest, I'll give you the guts of the science, and a bit of the background so you can do your own research and make up your own mind :)

MaxONE contains the ingredient D-Ribose-L-Cysteine, a cysteine pro-drug, which goes by the name RiboCeine. There is no glutathione in the products. As the others have stated whole glutathione supplements are practically worthless.

First and foremost the independent research, 20 published articles over the last 25 years, funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Veterans Administration and more: http://159326.max.com/max4u/pages/?wicket:bookmarkablePage=:com.max.web.page.RiboceinePage

I also recommend the patent, it's probably the best science overview of it, and references a number of the other published articles on it: http://www.google.com/patents/US20090042822?printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false

See Table 1 for the "300% more effective than NAC" claim. Note the 1.3x increase with NAC was a concentration 2.5 higher than the RiboCeine, which produced a 1.7x increase.

That kinda answers the question of "is there a cheaper no-name variety one should look at?" Not until the patent expires.

Also studies have shown RiboCeine supports GSH levels in the kidneys better than NAC http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1742-7843.2005.pto_96613.x/pdf

There is evidence in humans that administration of N-acetylcysteine will reverse or prevent acetaminophen-induced liver injury, but it does not always antagonize kidney injury (Davenport & Finn 1988). Unlike N-acetylcysteine, Ribose Cysteine is a cysteine prodrug that antagonized acetaminophen-induced target organ injury in both liver and kidney (Roberts et al. 1992; Lucas et al. 2000).

A little more background to support the "best thing since sliced bread" claim :P RiboCeine was created by Dr Herbert Nagasawa. A few career highlights:

• Senior Editor of the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry for 32 years
• Published over 165 papers in peer-reviewed journals
• Ad hoc grant reviewer for the NCI and NIAAA, National Institutes of Health
• Senior Career Research Scientist for the Veterans Administration
• Creator of the new 3-minute cyanide antidote for the US Department of Defense

25 years ago he initially developed it for alcoholic Vietnam War vets to protect their liver while working at the Veterans Administration. He was onto glutathione long before before most, and as you can see not just in the role of GSH, but also the chemistry of increasing glutathione.

Dr Nagasawa actually missed the his first RiboCeine product launch event at Max International in 2010. He was at the National Institutes of Health-Homeland Security 4th Annual Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats Network Symposium to presenting his work on the cyanide antidote.

If you don't think Dr Nagasawa knows what he's doing when it comes to glutathione, then don't ask me cause I ain't got nothing compared him! :)

FYI the Cellgevity product (http://www.getmaxed.net/max-cellgevity) is the one to get now, not MaxONE. It has the same amount of RiboCeine plus 12 other ingredients, including a bunch which are known to be Nrf2 activators, which increases the various gluathione enzymes. That's a whole other interesting topic :)

As for my experience, I noticed something in a few days. Have friends and family on it who like what it does for them. Plenty of big name athletes and doctors using it (http://www.getmaxed.net/who-has-taken-cellgevity). Hope that gives you the info you're after.

Raw Milk/Whey is one of the best sources of glutathione.

I haven't been able to find any independent research on the product. Plus most of the chatter on the net seems to be slugfests between skeptics vs those selling the stuff with little science backing up either view.

Links to research/your experience much appreciated.

Here is a great article from CMast on Glutathione:

http://www.westonaprice.org/blogs/2010/09/11/the-biochemical-magic-of-raw-milk-and-other-raw-foods-glutathione/

Also, by clicking the "Glutathione" tag on the right hand side of Chris's blog (The Daily Lipid)... you get several more articles that dig into some other great points about glutathione.

http://blog.cholesterol-and-health.com/search/label/Glutathione

I use maxone. Adrenal issues, liver issues have been quite sick for a few years. Maxone is awesome!!!! I love it. My husband uses it for workouts. He stopped taking it for 3 days and said he couldn't live without it. My husband is 40 this weekend. And he actually is looking younger because of it!!! Maxone is not just any old glutathione suppliment. I've done the other amino acids. Did nothing. We are also paleo. Well I am, very strictly. My husbands not so strict. We love maxone!!!! We love paleo!!!!!

Has the FDA approved Glutathione supplements??? If so why hasn't big names in pharmaceuticals like AstaZeneca and Pfizer picked it up???