Leaky gut occurs when the gaps in your intestinal wall get bigger than they should be. Normally only tiny, digested food particles are allowed through but not in a leaky gut. These larger gaps can allow larger food particles, toxins, bacteria and viruses to pass right into your blood. Obviously, these don’t belong there and can cause a host of health problems. The medical community is skeptical, and some health professionals don’t even think it exists, which makes it tough to get some real advice. Nevertheless, no one denies the importance of having a healthy digestive system. So, here are the 3 best leaky gut supplements that are also good for any digestive condition:
L-Glutamine and Leaky Gut
There are 20 amino acids that make protein and protein is pretty much what you’re made of. Furthermore, a major “job” of cells is to churn out proteins. This is basically what they do all day. But to make proteins, you have to chain together amino acids in a certain order, depending on the type of protein you are building. It turns out that although you must have all 20 amino acids to build any human protein, some are more common than others. As it happens, glutamine is far and away the most common. Your body does make some from other amino acids, however. Thus, it is known as ‘non-essential,’ but experts are finding more and more that it is essential, particularly when it comes to cell growth in your intestines.1
It also turns out that glutamine, while essential in building proteins, also promotes anabolism in general.2 This just means ‘building up,’ rather than ‘tearing down.’ Your body is always doing some building up and some tearing down, but overall, good health means mostly building. Thus, it is no surprise that research supports the notion that glutamine is one of the best leaky gut supplements in terms of healing.3,4
Probiotics for Leaky Gut
Your intestines are also crawling with bacteria that is beneficial for you. You may have heard of one of the major groups, called acidophilus. There are several groups and many different strains within each group. It is similar to how there are several main races of people and a great deal of uniqueness among individuals within those races.
In any case, one of their major jobs is to kill off intruding “bad” bacteria that otherwise could cause harm to you. Bacteria is everywhere, including in every bite of food you eat. But as long as there aren’t overwhelming amounts, your probiotic bacteria kill these off when they enter your small intestine. But there are also many things that can deplete probiotics like antibiotics, poor diet, some medications and even high intensity exercise. Thus, your intestines could be exposed to damage from invaders. But studies suggest that adding probiotics to your diet can help you maintain adequate “good” bacterial levels.4 This is particularly important with leaky gut as it can allow some of the “bad” guys to enter your bloodstream if they aren’t killed off like they should be.
Digestive enzymes to Ensure Maximum Absorption
Your body makes digestive enzymes but like glutamine, that doesn’t mean it makes enough. Besides, what it does make can be inhibited by again, medications, diet, etc. The job of these guys is to break down food. The acid in your stomach and the chemicals in your intestine help but the major breakdown comes from enzymes. Each has an individual job of breaking a particular bond between either carbohydrates, fats or proteins.
After complete breakdown, these are able to absorb into your blood. This is unless you have leaky gut, in which case food can enter your blood before being completely broken down. At this point it is just plain useless to your cells and you end up ‘eliminating’ it. In other words, it ends up as nothing more than waste. You might think, for example, that you are getting 30g of protein from your meal, but you aren’t. Adding enzymes to your diet means you can break down more of the food you eat and give your body more nutrients to heal. So that 30g of protein is closer to 30g that you actually get!
Go With the Most Effective Leaky Gut Supplements
The truth is there are other supplements that might also help with leaky gut. However, we covered the 3 that will likely give you the biggest bang for your buck. You could take 10 different supplements to help your leaky gut, but you’ve got to consider practicality too. Most likely, you will get more mileage by consuming generous amounts of the 3 best gut healing supplements than by taking a whole bunch of different ones, some of which only might help, and even if they do, perhaps only the tiniest bit.
