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Jenny McCarthy's Glutathione and Tylenol Claims: Medical Toxicologist Weighs In
MEDPAGE TODAY ^ | September 30, 2025 | Rachael Robertson

Posted on 09/30/2025 6:30:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway

The known anti-vaxxer is misinterpreting and exaggerating the connection, expert says

Welcome to Culture Clinic, MedPage Today's collaboration with Northwell Health to offer a healthcare professional's take on the latest viral medical topics.

Actress and longtime anti-vaccine activist Jenny McCarthy took to social media to weigh in on recent debates about acetaminophen (Tylenol), vaccines, and autism, sharing her concerns about glutathione depletion.

While some of McCarthy's claims are rooted in truth, an expert told MedPage Today that McCarthy mischaracterized the relationship between acetaminophen and glutathione and manipulated information to fit an agenda.

McCarthy, who describes herself as "pro-safe vaccine," said in an Instagram videoopens in a new tab or window to her millions of followers that "Tylenol basically depletes your glutathione," which she described as "your body's natural antioxidant ... that helps us detox all the environmental toxins that we're assaulted with every single day."

She went on to say that if someone were to go to their doctor and raise worries about aluminum in vaccines, a doctor may tell you that your body naturally excretes it.

"But what if your body is low in glutathione?" McCarthy posited. "What if that detox methylation system gets kind of jolted, broken, if you will, lowers so that it cannot detox the adjuvants, the aluminum in the body? Then it winds up floating around the body, attaching to brain, gut -- you name it." McCarthy recommended not taking Tylenol before or after vaccines and to get glutathione levels checked.

"I personally have never ordered a glutathione level or checked it in my entire life as a toxicologist," Lauren Shawn, MD, an emergency medicine physician and medical toxicologist at Phelps Hospital in Sleepy Hollow, New York, told MedPage Today. "Glutathione level itself is not really clinically relevant to me in my practice."

As for vaccines, Shawn said that the recommendation to not take acetaminophen or other anti-inflammatories before a shot is to avoid blunting the immune response and has nothing to do with glutathione or fears of toxicity. Taking acetaminophen afterwards to manage symptoms is absolutely fine, she noted.

Glutathione is a tripeptide made up of three amino acids -- cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine -- and is involved in the metabolism of medications, including acetaminophen, Shawn explained. Most of the drug will bind to glutathione, become inactive, and be excreted in urine. A small amount can be taken up by another liver enzyme and form the toxic metabolite N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine, which the body can detoxify if the patient is taking acetaminophen as prescribed.

"If you're taking Tylenol at recommended doses and not chronically exceeding the maximum, you are not depleting your glutathione," Shawn said.

Toxicity from acute or chronic overuse of acetaminophen is an actual concern, and N-acetylcysteine, which helps the body make glutathione, is the antidote.

Most healthy people consume the building blocks of glutathione in their diet, though some elderly people and those with renal disease, malnourishment or eating disorders, or genetic predispositions may have lower glutathione and thus higher risk for acetaminophen toxicity.

In the video, McCarthy shared that she and her son, who has autism, both have naturally low glutathione levels, even though she didn't take acetaminophen before or after vaccines, and they both get weekly glutathione IV infusions.

Shawn said glutathione is one of the hot new treatments in alternative medicine, even though evidence doesn't support the therapy.

"Best-case scenario you're giving yourself expensive urine," she added.

She also said anti-vaxxers like McCarthy and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. "use the big medical terms and words, and they sort of touch on things that are kind of correct," but don't have the expertise to analyze and understand the data.

"I just think it's so dangerous that these celebrities and non-healthcare professionals are saying things as the truth without real evidence or understanding of what they're saying, and they're convincing other people to follow their lead," Shawn said.

This is different than informal patient networks in which people share information about managing their conditions, she pointed out, noting that people like McCarthy and Kennedy often push for a particular narrative, exaggerate risk, and blur the line between expertise and opinion.

Rachael Robertson is a writer on the MedPage Today enterprise and investigative team, also covering OB/GYN news. Her print, data, and audio stories have appeared in Everyday Health, Gizmodo, the Bronx Times, and multiple podcasts. Connect:


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Health/Medicine; Science
KEYWORDS: jennymccarthy; toxicology; tylenol
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To: nickcarraway

Per OpenEvidence:

Acetaminophen (Tylenol) is metabolized in the liver, where a small fraction is converted by cytochrome P450 enzymes to the reactive metabolite N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine (NAPQI). Under normal conditions, glutathione rapidly conjugates and detoxifies NAPQI, preventing cellular injury. However, in overdose or in states of glutathione depletion, NAPQI accumulates, leading to hepatocellular damage and centrilobular necrosis.[1-2]
Glutathione depletion is the critical event in acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity. Even at therapeutic doses, acetaminophen can cause a measurable decrease in intracellular glutathione, particularly in susceptible populations or with prolonged use.[3-5] The risk of toxicity is increased in individuals with impaired glutathione synthesis or pre-existing low glutathione stores, such as those with malnutrition, chronic alcoholism, or genetic defects in glutathione biosynthetic pathways.[6-7]
N-acetylcysteine (NAC) is the established antidote for acetaminophen toxicity because it replenishes hepatic glutathione, thereby restoring the capacity to detoxify NAPQI and preventing further liver injury.[4][6][8] The effectiveness of NAC is greatest when administered early, but it can still provide benefit by supporting mitochondrial glutathione and energy metabolism even with delayed treatment.[8]
In summary, the relationship between acetaminophen and glutathione is that glutathione is essential for detoxifying the toxic metabolite of acetaminophen (NAPQI), and depletion of glutathione is the key event leading to acetaminophen-induced hepatotoxicity.[1-2]


21 posted on 09/30/2025 8:22:27 PM PDT by Tacrolimus1mg (Do no harm, but take no sh!t.)
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To: Leaning Right

Not guilty!


22 posted on 09/30/2025 8:27:11 PM PDT by Dalberg-Acton
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To: anton
"Who is Jenny McCarthy?"

She's married to Donny Wahlberg who starred in Blue Bloods, and is now in a spin-off called Boston Blue. I remember seeing her on MTV when my kids watched it years ago. My oldest will be 59 this year. She's also one of the judges on The Masked Singer.

23 posted on 09/30/2025 8:29:08 PM PDT by mass55th (“Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.” ― John Wayne)
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To: nickcarraway
The author is wrong.

N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine relies on glutathione to detoxify—just as the rest of acetaminophen does. It's not separate from glutathione, from what I have read.

We stop making enough glutathione, as we age. I posted GlyNAC studies in which health gets much better (even a 15% improvement in kidney function) by adding glycine and NAC (provided cysteine). The body craves these and immediately makes glutathione everywhere it has been needed, but couldn't.

Jenny is hitting the right stuff. Rachael, is not.

24 posted on 09/30/2025 8:34:04 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: nickcarraway
The author is wrong.

N-acetyl-p-benzoquinone imine relies on glutathione to detoxify—just as the rest of acetaminophen does. It's not separate from glutathione, from what I have read.

We stop making enough glutathione, as we age. I posted GlyNAC studies in which health gets much better (even a 15% improvement in kidney function) by adding glycine and NAC (provided cysteine). The body craves these and immediately makes glutathione everywhere it has been needed, but couldn't.

Jenny is hitting the right stuff. Rachael, is not.

25 posted on 09/30/2025 8:34:08 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: ConservativeMind

bkmk


26 posted on 09/30/2025 9:31:56 PM PDT by Faith65 (Isaiah 40:31)
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To: sopo

Do you remember in 2021 when the government was trying to ban it and Amazon in many places stop trying to sell it. It was really hard to get our hands on.


27 posted on 09/30/2025 9:47:45 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

yes; looks like strange things are happening to replies- See #10,12


28 posted on 09/30/2025 10:12:49 PM PDT by sopo
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To: nickcarraway
I remember.

Glutathione was crucial to the treatment of COVID-19.

The body naturally depletes glutathione because its main purpose is to act as a battery of electrons to feed the oxygen atoms in the blood when they lose electrons (called free radicals). When too many free radicals accumulate, the body goes into oxidative stress where the free radicals bond with water (H2O) to become H2O2, or hydrogen peroxide. Glutathione provides the missing electron to keep the oxygen atoms pure.

COVID-19 binds with the ACE2 receptors in the endothelial cells (the cells that line the inside walls of the arteries and veins) where oxygen is absorbed into the blood. The ACE2 receptors also control the body's natural production of glutathione, so when the COVID-19 virus attacked the ACE2 receptors, it stopped the natural production of glutathione.

Glutathione depletion occurred and the body would go into oxidative stress, where the hydrogen peroxide started damaging the organs. This eventually led to people being put on ventilators, until they figured out what was really going on.

Taking NAC as a supplement kept the body producing glutathione despite the blockage of the ACE2 receptors, which gave the body the time it needed to fight off the COVID-19 virus, provided that other measures were being taken to attack the virus directly (like taking zinc with quercetin).

-PJ

29 posted on 09/30/2025 10:31:12 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: nickcarraway

Bkmk


30 posted on 10/01/2025 3:15:31 AM PDT by sauropod
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To: Leaning Right

Not guilty, case dismissed. Tylenol banned. (Didn’t work in the first place - only used to prevent Reyes Syndrome.)


31 posted on 10/01/2025 3:25:32 AM PDT by anton
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To: nickcarraway

Lol …. Manipulated information to fit an agenda you say?

They changed the definition of vaccine so the COVID vax could actually be called a vaccine.


32 posted on 10/01/2025 3:59:21 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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To: Leaning Right

That pic does not do her justice lol


33 posted on 10/01/2025 3:59:52 AM PDT by MrRelevant
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To: noiseman

Tylenol has known as a liver killer for over a decade. Yet most people don’t seem to understand this.

Like you, I quit using most OTC products unless under much distress.


34 posted on 10/01/2025 10:02:11 AM PDT by packrat35 (“When discourse ends, violence begins.” – Charlie Kirk, and they killed him anyway)
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