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Supplement and Herb Options to Support Leaky Gut Syndrome

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Dietary changes have a profound impact on leaky gut. However, there are other things that can be added to the diet to create a stronger healing environment for the gut. Adding other specific supplements, herbs, and nutrients can be that factor that speeds healing and gets you to that next level of health.

Dr. Hayden and Dr. Horsley will dive more into this idea as well as cover several other key concepts as they continue this series, “Leaky Gut Syndrome – Your Symptoms Could be Directly Associated with Your Diet”. You will learn about what leaky gut is, what the symptoms are, how it is diagnosed, what the best treatment options are, and common conditions tied to leaky gut. These videos will be released over the next couple days on our youtube account, facebook account, and as a blog post on The Hayden Institute website.

Transcript from Video on Supplement and Herb Options to Support Leaky Gut Syndrome

Dr. Horsley: Thank you so much for joining us for this leaky gut series. So far we’ve talked about what it is, how it may present, how it is diagnosed and treated, different comorbidities that may present, as well as what foods to avoid or to focus on during this time of gut healing. Aside from foods, there are several other herbs, supplements, and nutrients that can really help during this time. So, Dr. Hayden, what would be your top three herbs, supplements, or nutrients for gut health?

Dr. Hayden: So to begin with, this is one of my favorite parts of helping someone with leaky gut because this is where a practitioner that does nutritional intervention really has a chance to shine. After doing a history, an exam, and truly identifying what’s going on with that individual, the nutritional support that goes along with the dietary modifications can really create a tremendous amount of change and relief for that person. So this is my favorite part, I like helping out patients with nutrition. It is often the number one question that non patients ask me about doctor related things. Whenever I go out for family events or meet up with some friends from high school, or whatever it might be, the question often presents: “Hey, what supplement should I take for [this specific condition].”

Dr. Hayden: Now we get to answer that questions for leaky gut. By far, the most commonly recommended supplement would be something like glutamine. It is something that shows up all over the place when it comes to gut repair nutrition because it has a chance of helping the tight junctions get better – fix the little holes that appear in the linings. Leaky gut is a breakdown of the barrier system, and glutamine has a strong chance of helping out that system. Does it mean that everyone needs glutamine? Technically no – that is where the exam and the diagnostic workup that the doctor does with the patient helps, but glutamine is a common one to look at. From an herbal standpoint, marshmallow root is awesome. It tastes good as a supplements, so most of the time it can often mask some of the more bitter things that we give people that doesn’t really taste that great. But marshmallow root has a sweet taste to it, just like the name might insinuate. Marshmallow root is something that is really calming for the gut – it helps with reducing the inflammation. The last thing that someone would probably benefit from would be some version of a probiotic. Probiotics help with restoring the gut microbiome that goes out of sync when inflammation and leaky gut sets in.

Dr. Hayden: So the key is: repair leaky barrier system through glutamine, calm down the inflammation with marshmallow root, and then to rebalance the gut bacteria through probiotics. So this is a good three pronged approach to helping out that gut system. However, there are a lot of other things that can be used to help out patients with leaky gut. What are a couple of other things that you would do with your patients?

Dr. Horsley: A couple of other things that I would look at would be vitamin A and vitamin D. Those ones are huge for all gut health, especially vitamin A is really important for restoring mucous membranes, which in your gut you have a very thick mucous membrane that is important in keeping bad things out and allowing good things to come through. So vitamin A is really important for helping keep the health of the mucous membrane. Vitamin D is really important for healing as well as gut restoration during this time. Making sure we’re getting a lot of good vitamin A and D is really important. Something else that could be a factor during this time is going to be an imbalance of enzymes in our gut. This would result in a decreased ability of our body to break down food effectively, leading to more inflammation and resulting in partially digested particles that can be damaging to our gut. So good quality enzymes can help with this process as well, especially if it is one that can help to break down those inflammatory foods. So those are another couple of great options as well. There is another great supplement option that you like to use- chlorophyll. So why do you like to use chlorophyll?

Dr. Hayden: Chlorophyll is the life force of the plant – dark, green – stains your fingers whenever you get exposed to it. Chlorophyll has a lot of those fat soluble vitamins in it- the vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin K. The fat soluble vitamins are really important for building up that mucous barrier like we talked about before. So chlorophyll is an excellent way to support the gut lining.

Dr. Horsley: Awesome, so chlorophyll sounds like a great option for healing with this get restoration protocol. So we’ve talked about several good things that you can add onto your little checklist to try during this time. So that’s going to be glutamine, as well as slippery elm or marshmallow root, a good probiotic, getting some good vitamin A and D, getting a good plant based digestive enzyme, as well as adding in some chlorophyll. So all of these would be some great options to try. However, we do really recommend finding a good functional medicine practitioner to help you during this time because quality of herbs and proper dosing of some of these things is very important. So finding someone that you can trust to help guide you during this process can also be an invaluable tool. Thank you very much for joining us.

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