Did you know that 70-80% of your immune cells are located in your gut? The best supplements for gut health can help strengthen your immune system and optimize your overall health.
In addition to immune system health, recent studies demonstrated links between gut health and mood, mental health, autoimmune diseases, endocrine disorders, skin conditions, and cancer.
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Studies have also shown a strong correlation between your gut flora and your body weight(1, 2).
If you are looking to improve your overall health, it’s essential to start by taking care of your gut.
7 Best Supplements for Gut Health
1. Probiotics
Your gut houses trillions of live bacteria that live in your digestive tract. They are known collectively as your gut flora or gut microbiome.
Probiotics are defined as “good” bacteria that are either the same as or very similar to the bacteria that are already in your body.
Your physical health can be greatly affected by the number and composition of the “good” and “bad” bacteria in your gut.
There are a number of excellent food sources of probiotics you can add to your diets, such as kefir, yogurts, kombucha, kimchi, and sauerkraut.
However, if you feel that you are not getting enough probiotics from your diet, or you have been taking antibiotics that kill off both good and bad bacteria, you may want to take probiotics supplements to replenish and balance your gut microbiome.
Taking a high-quality probiotics supplement will go a long way in balancing out the bad bacteria in your gut with the good.
How to Choose the Best Probiotic Supplement
- Quantity – how much probiotics you should take can vary by the bacteria type and the reason you’re taking the product. The general recommendation is to start at a minimum of 1 billion colony-forming units (CFUs).
- Diversity – your probiotic should be diverse like your gut flora. A good starting point is a combination that contains strains from the Lactobacillus family and Bifidobacterium family, which are naturally found in our gastrointestinal tract.
- Survivability – Probiotics are delicate living microorganisms. Higher quality probiotic supplements use bioshield capsules that are able to withstand stomach acid to protect and release their contents within the more alkaline environment of the small intestine for better bacteria survival.
This probiotic supplement contains 15 bacterial strains to balance your gut flora and help you lose weight and belly fat.
Its patented delivery method provides 15 times more survivability than with veggie capsules.
Its probiotics are time-released over an 8-10 hour period so they bypass your stomach acid to reach your intestines to provide optimal benefits to your body.
These probiotic pearls are tiny and easy to swallow. Each pearl also contains naturally derived prebiotics to help feed the probiotics for increased potency.
2. Collagen
Collagen is the most abundant protein in our body. It’s known to help us to maintain healthy skin, hair, nails, as well as our joints and bones.
Our natural production of collagen declines as we age. Our modern diet also lacks collagen.
The supplement form of collagen provides higher bioavailability that enables our body to absorb its nutrients better.
Studies have shown that lower levels of serum collagen are linked with increased risk of some digestive conditions like inflammatory bowel syndrome (3).
Collagen also contains glycine, an amino acid that has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties (4).
Collagen also contains the amino acid proline. Together proline and glycine act as building blocks to repair the intestinal lining to prevent leaky gut.
This quality collagen peptide powder is free of gluten, dairy, and sugar.
It’s tasteless and dissolves easily in hot or cold drinks, whether it’s coffee, tea or smoothies.
Adding a scoop of collagen peptide to my coffee every day has made my skin more supple and reduced my back and knee pain.
Prefer the convenience of taking a pill instead of adding protein powders to foods or drinks? Check out this grass-fed collagen protein pills.
3. Manuka Honey
Manuka honey is a type of honey native to New Zealand. Its antibacterial and antimicrobial properties are what set it apart from other types of honey.
Studies have shown that honey contains prebiotics that stimulates and maintain the growth of probiotics including lactobacillus and bifidobacterium (4).
A study showed that Manuka honey suppressed the growth of H. pylori bacteria responsible for stomach ulcers (5).
Research also found that manuka honey can inhibit the growth of several different candida species and was shown to have powerful anti-fungal properties (6).
Candida is the primary culprit when it comes to small intestine bacterial overgrowth (SIBO). A few teaspoons a day of raw Manuka honey can be extremely effective at fighting off this overgrowth of pathogenic fungus.
Manuka honey is graded according to its level of methylglyoxal (MGO), the naturally occurring compound that makes Manuka honey stand out from the rest.
Another common grading standard is the Unique Manuka Factor (UMF). The higher the grading number, the higher the concentration of Manuka nectar, and the higher the price point.
I use this MGO 400+ Manuka Honey after it lowered my son’s fever and helped him avoid an entire round of antibiotics from a recurring ear infection.
4. Curcumin
Curcumin is the main bioactive compound that gives turmeric its signature yellow hue.
There are many turmeric health benefits based on studies of curcumin. We’ll focus here on the benefits related to gut health and repairing a leaky gut.
Curcumin has anti-inflammatory properties and is found to improve the function and integrity of the intestinal wall (7). By reducing intestinal inflammation, curcumin helps to heal leaky gut syndrome.
It also helps prevent a lipid component (lipopolysaccharide) from stimulating pro-inflammatory molecules, which can change the permeability of the gut lining (8).
Check to ensure that black pepper is included in your turmeric supplement so that your body can absorb the maximum benefit in curcumin (9).
A turmeric and black pepper supplement that is popular with excellent reviews on Amazon is this one.
5. L-Glutamine
L-glutamine is an essential amino acid that supports our intestinal health by both maintaining the gut barrier and regulating metabolism (10).
Its main function is to provide fuel for our immune cells to strengthen our immune system.
It’s also a great recovery booster to help combat muscle soreness after an intense workout.
Glutamine is found in foods like beans, spinach, and cabbage, but if you don’t eat enough of these foods on a daily basis, supplementing with capsules like this one is probably the best way to increase your glutamine intake.
6. Glucosamine
Glucosamine is key for gut health as it serves an important role in the health of your microbiome.
A study showed that children affected by inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis tend to have lower levels of glucosamine in the body (11).
After these patients were given N-acetyl glucosamine supplementation (GlcNAc), 75% of patients had reduced symptoms.
Other evidence suggests that glucosamine may also help repair the lining of the bladder, stomach, and intestines, similar to its ability to repair cartilages in our joints.
A chiropractor introduced me to these supplements years ago for back pain. They helped tremendously to prevent back and joint pain, so much so, I hardly need to visit the chiropractor anymore.
Consider adding glucosamine supplements to nourish your gut and your joints!
7. Vitamin D
Three-quarters of U.S. teens and adults are deficient in vitamin D, also known as the sunshine vitamin, which puts them at higher risk of developing chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Vitamin D is also known as the sunshine vitamin as the sun is our primary natural source of this key vitamin.
If you live at higher latitudes, you are exposed to less UV light and are likely at a greater risk of vitamin D deficiency, especially during winter with the shorter daylight hours.
Animal studies have indicated that proper levels of vitamin D help balance gut bacteria, prevent intestinal infections and inflammation, and help reduce symptoms of autoimmune diseases (11, 12).
A study on human volunteers that were deficient in vitamin D and received three sessions of UVB exposure showed that their gut microbiomes improved to be similar to participants that were not vitamin D deficient (13).
Prior to UVB exposure, the women that were vitamin D deficient had a less diverse and balanced gut microbiome.
UVB exposure boosted the richness and evenness of their microbiome, specifically an increase in the levels of Firmicutes and Proteobacteria and a decrease in Bacteroidetes, to bring their levels in line with the participants that were not vitamin D deficient.
Boost your vitamin D level and gut health with this vitamin D in liquid soft gel form that research has indicated is more bioavailable than powdered or tablet forms!
Sharing is caring! What are the best supplements for gut health you are taking to boost your overall health?
