Digestive issues, food sensitivity, maintaining a healthy weight, brain fog, mood swings, fatigue, headaches, yeast infections, and UTIs all have one thing in common — your gut. 

And one of the most prevalent culprits behind all these issues is called Leaky Gut Syndrome, which can wear down your intestinal lining, making it easier for harmful toxins to breakthrough and wreak havoc on your health.

So What Is Leaky Gut Syndrome?

Along with breaking down food and absorbing nutrients, the digestive tract also works to protect your body from harmful toxins. The walls of your digestive tract are like barriers; they control what enters your bloodstream to be later transported to your organs.

When the tight junctions (small gaps in the intestinal wall) are working properly, this allows essential nutrients to pass through, as well as block the passage of harmful substances.

Common Risk Factors for Leaky Gut

  • Too much sugar
  • Poor diet
  • Consuming too much alcohol
  • Excess stress
  • NSAIDs such as ibuprofen

These factors may corrode and wear down the walls of your digestive tract, creating permeability (or gaps) within their tight junctions. In other words, it allows the bad stuff, such as bile and harmful bacteria, to leak through into your bloodstream.

This can lead to a host of problems, ranging from digestives issues, increase in junk food cravings, fluctuating weight, yeast overgrowth, fatigue, mood swings, and headaches.

How To Pick The Right Leaky Gut-Busting Supplement

Considering how far-reaching the effects of leaky gut can have on your health, it’s no wonder more and more people are searching for a powerful supplement that can help shield their digestive tract from future damage and rebuild their gut lining. 

However, not all supplements are created equally. Many brands will cut corners, filling their supplements with harmful additives and using ineffective ingredients or weak dosages. That's why Smarter Reviews has compiled months of research about this emerging category. We’ll show you what to look for and what to avoid in a leaky gut supplement, and how it can help transform your whole body health.

Before we dive into what makes a leaky gut supplement effective and worth your hard-earned money, it’s important to understand what exactly it can do for your health.

So with all these amazing health benefits in mind, which ingredients should you look for in a supplement that can help treat leaky gut and what should you avoid?

Top Ingredients To Help Treat Leaky Gut Syndrome 

L-Glutamine

This specialized amino acid has been shown to strengthen the intestinal wall and regulate tight junctions. On the flip side, low levels of l-glutamine can result in looser junctions, which would then allow for contaminants to pass through the intestinal wall and into your bloodstream. Since this is such a vital ingredient to healing leaky gut, look for at least 1,500 mg of l-glutamine per serving.

Licorice Root

This powerhouse ingredient is able to help control helicobacter pylori, a detrimental bacteria that can enter your body through your digestive tract, causing ulcers and inflammation. That’s why we highly recommend looking for a clinically studied version of this ingredient, such as Gutgard, at 150mg per dosage. However, if a product lists over 500mg per daily dosage, this could increase the level of stress hormone called cortisol.

Acacia Fibergum

Acacia fibergum comes from the sap of the Acacia tree, which is a small, shrub-like plant native to Africa. Packed with tons of soluble fiber, acacia fibergum gets broken down into beneficial short-chain fatty acids, which have a healing effect on your intestinal wall lining.

Prebiotics 

When it comes to getting leaky gut under control, prebiotics are essential. Prebiotics act like fuel for the good bacteria in your gut and super-charge them to get to work repairing and balancing your microbiome — fast. And one of the most powerful prebiotics on the market is human milk oligosaccharide, also known as HMO. Don’t worry — it’s not actually human milk. HMO is a compound found in breast milk that feeds beneficial bacteria unlike any other prebiotic available. Due to some amazing medical advances, only one lab was able to synthesize this ingredient and harness it’s extraordinary prebiotic powers. So look for a supplement that lists HMO CARE4U as an ingredient to really jump start your journey to healing leaky gut.

What Ingredients To Avoid 

  • Magnesium Stearate 

    This cheap filler is used to help bind ingredients together and lubricate the supplement so it doesn’t gum up when it is run through the manufacturing machines. Magnesium stearate adds no nutritional value and can become toxic to your system.

  • Titanium Dioxide

    Widely relied upon in supplement manufacturing as a coloring agent and binding mineral, titanium dioxide can compromise the health of your immune system. Low-quality leaky gut health supplements typically include this filler.

Top 5 Leaky Gut Supplements Of 2021

We've compiled a list of what we've found to be the top five products in this category on the market today.