Best Leaky Gut Supplements

Nearly two-thirds of Americans experience at least one gastrointestinal (GI) problem daily.1 About 8 million annual trips to the emergency room are related to GI concerns.2 Yet these problems often never receive a diagnosis, and even the lucky few with diagnoses don’t often receive treatment that alleviates their symptoms. When irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) feels more like a catch-all diagnosis, mounting frustrations with modern medicine might spill over, worsening your symptoms.

Some attribute chronic GI distress to leaky gut syndrome, a constellation of symptoms related to separations in cells in the intestinal walls. While many medical doctors don’t yet recognize the condition, GI health supplements offer some hope for those suffering.

Among other tests and nutritional changes, adding a GI health supplement — particularly those labeled as “leaky gut supplements” — to your daily routine might mean the difference between feeling uncomfortable and having an easy start to your day. We’ve rounded up the top five best leaky gut supplements and analyzed them in this guide.

Don’t have enough time to read the entire article right now? Check out our top picks below.

At Innerbody Research, we extensively test each health service or product we review, including leaky gut supplements. Our team has spent more than 630 hours studying gut health, poring over hundreds of scientific journal articles pertaining to intestinal permeability, the microbiome, and digestion as a whole. We’ve also heavily researched the most commonly recommended leaky gut supplements and examined other possible avenues of treatment with supplements commonly used for other purposes. Our assessments of customer service, shipping logistics, and other aspects of the purchase process come from our experiences ordering the products ourselves.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this review was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy. We’ll continue to monitor the gut health landscape for developments in leaky gut treatments to keep this content current.

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions about staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

Evaluating leaky gut supplements required us to consider several factors that would mean the most to the average consumer. The first we’ll discuss is effectiveness, which speaks to whether a given supplement is likely to work for you. We also looked at cost, safety, and convenience to round out our considerations and give you the best sense of what could fit your needs. Let’s take a closer look at each criterion to see what supplements rose to the top.

Effectiveness

Winner: Terra Origin

Finding the right combination of ingredients for your leaky gut symptoms is hard. Since everyone’s body is different and symptoms might come from several causes, the right blend and balance can vary significantly between people. So, while the best leaky gut supplement may not work for everyone, the one that ranks highest in efficacy will specify well-researched ingredients like glutamine and zinc in effective doses without fillers, proprietary blends, or overpromising results.28 35

NatureM.D. and Terra Origin have highly similar ingredient lists. They both have 5g of L-glutamine and substantial amounts of zinc (NatureM.D. has 3mg; Terra Origin has 2.15mg). Terra Origin has more N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (NAG), slippery elm, and marshmallow root, and NatureM.D. contains more quercetin and licorice root, but each difference in ingredient strength is only a matter of 50-100mg. However, NatureM.D.’s formula has a shorter ingredient list, and some beneficial ingredients are left out to ensure it remains a viable option for vegans. As a result, we give the effectiveness category to Terra Origin, despite the fact that it contains shellfish.

Cost

Winner: Revive Glutamine

When it comes to a supplement’s cost, we consider several factors. Is the supplement offered at a relatively low price, and do you receive a decent amount of it for what you pay? Are there other deals, savings, and subscriptions you can opt into for an even lower price? Do you have multiple purchase options to find the best deal?

As we mentioned in our efficacy section, glutamine is among the most thoroughly studied supplements for gut health, and there’s a generous amount of scientific evidence to support its role in treating a leaky gut. For that reason, a simple glutamine supplement may be enough for many people. You can get Revive Glutamine for $19.99/month with or without a subscription — less expensive than anything else on our list — and its 10g serving of glutamine is twice as much as the next best supplement. It may lack other useful ingredients like zinc, but it’s liable to be effective for many, and its price can’t be beat.

Safety

Winner: Terra Origin

Your GI system is one of the most important parts of your body. You have more frequent, direct interactions with it — and control over it — than with almost any other internal organ or system. When you’re experiencing leaky gut symptoms, it’s especially important that anything you put into your gut is safe. When we evaluate a product for safety, we look at its ingredients and dosing (including fillers and additives), testing measures, and manufacturing processes, as well as how much information about the product the company is willing to share with its customers.

Most of the supplements in this guide offer comparable safety profiles, with relatively low doses of most ingredients that are well below what studies show can cause adverse reactions. Part of the reason we gave the edge to Terra Origin is that it’s:

• Dairy-free
• Gluten-free
• Soy-free
• Non-GMO
• Made in a cGMP-certified facility

But many of those things can be said of Terra Origin’s competitors. So, then, why Terra Origin? It was a subtle aspect of Terra Origin’s ingredient list that showed us the company’s concern for its customers in the formulation of its product: copper.

Zinc is a common ingredient in leaky gut supplements, as several impressive studies support its ability to help repair and maintain tight junctions in the intestines. But zinc supplementation can deplete copper levels, and Terra Origin is the only product on our list to include copper in its formula as a way of offsetting this potential for deficiency.3

Convenience

Winner: KaraMD

Gut health supplements often come in capsule or powder form. Powders are slightly easier for your body to absorb, but a supplement is only convenient when it’s easy for you to take and dose, too. Taking multiple capsules or measuring an odd fraction of a teaspoon for proper dosing gets complicated and only worsens if there are strict rules about when and how to take the product.

None of our top picks are perfectly convenient, but KaraMD’s Vital Restore comes close. You need only three capsules a day to maintain good gut health, and you can take them at any time of day with just a glass of water (no food necessary). That three-capsule dose also allows you to titrate up, starting with just one capsule to see how you react and working your way up to three over time.

Another convenience measure that KaraMD offers over most others is a lengthy money-back guarantee. Some of the supplements in this guide have no guarantee, just short return windows for unopened products. Terra Origin offers a 30-day money-back guarantee, but leaky gut supplements don’t always work that quickly. KaraMD’s 90-day guarantee allows you to try its products for three months before making a determination about them. Gundry MD is the only other company here with a 90-day guarantee, but its products don't offer the same dosing convenience as KaraMD.

To help you understand the similarities and differences among our top picks, we’ve created a chart that breaks down all the information you need. We’ve used the cost of a one-time purchase for each and included potential savings options:

Leaky gut is more formally known as increased intestinal permeability or decreased intestinal mucosal barrier function.4 The term “leaky gut” has been used to describe a set of general GI symptoms related to issues with your intestines “leaking” toxins and bacteria into your bloodstream as they process food. Specifically, leaky gut is tied to:

• Chronic diarrhea or constipation
• Gas and bloating
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Sugar or carbohydrate cravings
• Fatigue
• Headaches
• Difficulty concentrating
• Joint pain and other forms of inflammation

Some people believe that a leaky gut on its own is the cause of their GI problems, referring to it as “leaky gut syndrome.”While the theory that it’s a separate diagnosable disease is becoming more popular, it hasn’t really been embraced in contemporary Western medicine, and leaky gut syndrome isn’t typically something with which a doctor will diagnose you. Most doctors can’t administer formal and reliable tests to check for a leaky gut, and since it can be indicative of many GI diseases, it’s more likely that you’ll be tested for things like celiac and Crohn’s disease if you present with the above-listed symptoms.

So, leaky gut involves a degradation of your gut’s mucosal barrier, but what causes it in the first place? To understand that, we need to investigate the mucosal barrier and what it does.

Every inch of your intestinal tract is covered in a mucosal barrier. This physical barrier helps keep the lumen — the inside of your intestines — separate from the rest of your body. A normal intestinal mucosal barrier is full of several different kinds of cells, which all work together to absorb nutrients and keep things moving through your intestines. The protein zonulin helps to mediate this permeability as well.57 Tight junctions connect your intestinal cells, regulating the movement of water and other substances through your GI tract.

When your mucosal barrier is compromised, those tight junctions between cells in the intestinal walls open up, leading to small gaps where bacteria and other toxins can move freely. Leaky gut is thought to occur when these tight junctions open up relatively widely, allowing for a greater influx of harm to the intestinal tract. This hyperpermeability can expose your bloodstream to bacteria and other toxins and may affect the contents of your gut microbiome.

There are dozens of different reasons that your intestinal barrier could be weakened. These include (but aren’t limited to):

• Age
• Genetics
• Excessive sugar intake5
• Long-term nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) use6
• Excessive alcohol use7
• Vitamin D deficiency8
• Chronic inflammation9
• Yeast (candida) overgrowth10
• Starvation11
• Parenteral feeding12
• Bodily trauma13
• Emotional stress14
• Infection15
• Chemotherapy16
• Radiation17

A leaky gut could also indicate more complex health concerns, such as:

• Food allergies18
• Celiac disease19
• Ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease20
• Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)21
• Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)22
• Metabolic diseases23
• Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease24
• Diabetes25
• Sepsis26

Despite some claims, leaky gut doesn’t appear to be related to autism, depression, anxiety, or skin problems like eczema. That said, there is a strong link between gut health and mental health due to the number of neurotransmitter receptors across the digestive system, so poor gut health can affect how you feel.27

Leaky gut supplements are designed to help quell your symptoms and rebalance off-kilter gut properties. There are three main places and mechanisms that leaky gut supplements support:

• Digestion
• Intestinal mucosal barrier function
• Gut microbiome

Leaky gut supplements contain many ingredients to ease digestion, support your intestines, and bolster your gut microbiome. We’ve rounded up some of the most common ingredients so you can understand exactly what they do to help.

A good leaky gut supplement combines the above ingredients to provide structural support for your intestinal lining while reinforcing good bacteria in your microbiome, so your body can continue healing long after you take the supplement.

Most leaky gut supplements offer some benefits to people struggling with GI distress. They’re generally designed with holistic gut health in mind, so finding the right one for you is a matter of identifying ingredients that can offer the most relief for your specific symptoms.

Of course, like all supplements, leaky gut supplements are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the same way as pharmaceutical medications or food. They cannot legally claim to cure, diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease.

Since ingredients can vary wildly between leaky gut supplements, make sure to read a product’s Supplement Facts to ensure there are no potential adverse effects for you. Most leaky gut supplements include L-glutamine, which people with a history of liver or kidney disease shouldn’t take.58 If you have any history of psychiatric conditions, be cautious when starting a leaky gut supplement. Adding glutamine to your daily routine can worsen mental health symptoms such as psychosis.59 It can also interfere with anti-epileptic medications and epilepsy in general.60

Probiotics are generally safe for most people to take, though, as with any supplement, you should reach out to your doctor before beginning a new regimen. However, if you have pancreatitis or a severely compromised immune system (from undergoing chemotherapy, for example), you should take a leaky gut supplement that doesn’t include probiotics.43 That’s because probiotics are still bacteria, and even otherwise beneficial bacteria can pose a risk to the immunocompromised.

Pregnant or lactating people should also avoid leaky gut supplements, as should children.

In addition, don’t mix powdered leaky gut supplements into hot liquids, as L-glutamine deteriorates under heat. Likewise, don’t cook or bake with any leaky gut supplements.

Best overall and best powder

Terra Origin’s Healthy Gut is a powdered formula specifically designed to taste good and help you feel better. It has a long list of gut-healthy ingredients, including:

• L-Glutamine: 5g
• NAG: 500mg
• Slippery elm: 200mg
• Marshmallow root: 200mg
• Licorice root: 100mg
• Quercetin: 50mg
• Aloe vera extract: 10mg
• Zinc: 2.15mg
• Copper: 1mg
• MSM: 200mg
• Stevia: 100mg
• Inulin

Inulin is a prebiotic, though it isn’t marketed as such. It can add a layer of support to your gut, but because the quantity isn’t specified, the dosage here probably isn’t enough to make a big difference in your digestive system. Stevia is likely included to give the powder a little sweetness and boost its flavor. However, anecdotal evidence indicates that stevia can cause stomach upset in some people, including bloating and excess gas (which most people are trying to avoid when looking for a leaky gut supplement).

Terra Origin Healthy Gut is available in the following eight flavors:

• Mint
• Berry
• Peach Banana
• Matcha Green Tea
• Honey Lemon
• Watermelon
• Green Apple
• Chocolate

The company used to offer some of these flavors in 90-serving containers, as well, but it has since simplified the offerings to 30-serving containers only. There’s also a 21-serving stick pack exclusively in the Berry flavor.

Pricing

You can order Terra Origin’s Healthy Gut Powder in sets of one, two, or three containers, either as one-time purchases or on a flexible subscription basis. You can also order the 21-serving boxes of individual stick packs along the same lines.

As you can see, the stick packs cost the same as the containers, but they only contain 21 servings, not the 30 servings you get in each container. Ultimately, you end up getting less of the product for the same amount of money thanks to the added packaging involved. The best course of action to ensure consistent daily consumption may be to subscribe to the containers and make one-time purchases of the stick packs. That way, you have your main source of supplement in bulk form and a handful of on-the-go packets if you ever need them.

Subscription options are only available for 30-day supplies and automatically ship at your chosen pace every 30, 60, or 90 days.

Terra Origin has a 30-day return policy with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, so no matter how much you’ve tried, you can return your Healthy Gut Powder for a full refund as long as it’s within 30 days of purchase. That’s not as long as the guarantees from KaraMD or Gundry MD (90 days each), but it’s still better than Revive’s 15-day return policy for unopened items only.

Best budget pick and most potent

Since so many studies have illustrated L-glutamine’s potential to treat various intestinal injuries, a simple glutamine supplement like Revive might make sense for anyone looking for the cleanest possible start on their gut repair journey. We’ve created a guide to our favorite glutamine supplements, and Revive Glutamine is among the best.

The studies we’ve looked at have employed doses of glutamine as high as 40g per day with very few adverse effects.56 Glutamine has been effective in these studies at doses as low as 18-20g/day. It’s hard to know exactly why leaky gut supplements are content with what appears to be a market-wide maximum of 5g per serving, which is why going straight to a single-ingredient source might prove beneficial.

Revive Glutamine contains 10g of L-glutamine per serving. It’s an unflavored drink mix you can combine with water, or really any preferred drink. It’s third-party tested, but the results of that testing have yet to be posted on the Revive website.

Revive lacks many of the other common ingredients in leaky gut supplements, like zinc, but you can combine it with a decent multivitamin for less than the cost of some leaky gut supplements.

Pricing

One 30-serving bottle of Revive Glutamine costs $19.99. Subscriptions are available, but they don’t save you any money; they’re just there for convenience. Unfortunately, shipping from Revive is only free on orders of $150 or more — the highest threshold in our guide. The company offers around 40 supplements, as well as apparel and several bundles that can help increase your cost and get you closer to free shipping. But none of those bundles contain Revive Glutamine. If you use Amazon, you could subscribe and save there.

Best for restricted diets and best money-back guarantee

KaraMD’s Vital Restore is made with five simple ingredients, all of which are well-tolerated by most people:

• Zinc oxide: 50mg
• L-Glutamine: 1g
• Berberine: 500mg
• Turmeric root powder (for curcumin): 250mg
• Slippery elm powder: 250mg

Berberine is a particularly interesting inclusion in this leaky gut supplement. The alkaloid is found in several plants (including goldenrod and Oregon grape). It activates AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK),44 impacting conditions such as type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, hypertension, and high cholesterol.45 Specifically, it lowers blood sugar and HbA1C as effectively as some hardcore prescription medications like metformin, but without the gut-churning side effects.

Research about berberine’s effects on a leaky gut is minimal. It’s likely included in the Vital Restore formula because lower blood sugar can mean fewer cravings, and a streamlined metabolic process means less bloating, leading to improved GI symptoms. So Vital Restore supplement has less to do with fixing the symptoms of leaky gut than it does with optimizing overall gut health. It may not be safe for those with diabetes, so consult your doctor before trying Vital Restore.

One serving of Vital Restore is three capsules, which you can take at any point in the day. The formula is gluten-free, vegan, and non-GMO. It’s made in an FDA-registered facility and independently tested by a third party for quality assurance.

One important safety note to consider is that Vital Restore contains 50mg of zinc oxide, which delivers 40mg of elemental zinc. According to the National Institutes of Health, 40mg is the tolerable upper intake limit for daily zinc consumption if you’re 19 or older.46 Zinc oxide is not a chelated form of zinc; it hasn’t undergone a process that makes what is normally a poorly absorbed substance a bit easier to get into the bloodstream. That means you likely won’t get all 40mg of the dose, but it will take you close enough to the upper limit that you could experience occasional adverse reactions if you also follow a zinc-rich diet or take a multivitamin that contains zinc.

Pricing

Right now, there’s no subscription option for Vital Restore. You’ll need to remember to purchase a new bottle every month as long as you want to take it. However, KaraMD offers some excellent bulk deals on all of its products.

If you aren’t happy with your order, you have 90 days to return it for an unconditional full refund. This is the most generous money-back guarantee among any of the leaky gut supplements we’ve reviewed (tied with Gundry MD). And since it can take several weeks to start feeling a real difference from leaky gut supplementation, the extended return period is especially useful here.

Best option that includes probiotics

Gundry MD is both the brand name and the name and title of the founding physician who develops the formulas sold under its banner, including Bio Complete 3. This supplement is designed to address leaky gut by improving your gut microbiome by way of a probiotic with two additional supporting ingredients.

One serving is two capsules, which Gundry MD recently reduced from four during a slight reformulation (and, presumably, an upgrade in capsule size).

While it isn’t a perfect supplement, Bio Complete 3 has several ingredients that may help your leaky gut heal itself without supplementary intervention. There are three major ingredients listed:

Bio Complete 3 also contains maltodextrin, a simple carbohydrate that converts to glucose and preserves the supplement, increasing its shelf life.

Pricing

There are several different ways you can order Bio Complete 3. You can get single or multiple bottles in bulk, and creating a free Gundry MD account unlocks extra savings. We’ve included a chart to help you understand the price differences between your options.

Gundry MD also offers a subscription program that would save you an additional 10% off every order.

You can get free shipping on every order over $49 (so every one-bottle purchase of Bio Complete 3 will ship free to your home). And if you try it and find it doesn’t agree with you, you can take advantage of Gundry MD’s 90-day money-back guarantee to get all of your money back (minus the cost of return shipping).

Interested in learning more? Check out our full review of Bio Complete 3.

GutConnect 365 is one of the two supplements on our list that provides 5mg of L-glutamine per serving. As such, it targets tight junction regulation and anti-inflammatory signaling, even if 5g is less than clinical recommendations. In comparison, most studies use about 0.5g per kg of body weight,48 and Revive Glutamine delivers a 10g dose per serving.

Here are all the ingredients you can find in GutConnect 365:

• Zinc: 3mg
• Quercetin: 250mg
• Slippery elm bark: 150mg
• Organic marshmallow root: 150mg
• NAG: 150mg
• Licorice root: 150mg
• Aloe vera extract: 50mg
• Maitake mushroom extract: 30mg
• MCT oil powder49
• Stevia

While maitake mushrooms might not have the most scientific evidence pointing to gut support, they do add beneficial fiber to the powder.50

GutConnect 365 comes in both chocolate and vanilla flavors. The powder is completely vegan, gluten-free, soy-free, and non-GMO. NatureM.D. advertises that it can work as a meal replacement, but with only ten calories per serving, that seems like false advertising.

Pricing

NatureM.D. can be purchased directly from the company or from popular websites like Amazon. It has both bulk options and a subscription plan that you can mix and match for maximum savings. The amount you save with the subscription plan varies depending on how many containers of GutConnect 365 you order. We’ve put together a quick chart to break down your pricing options and the maximum percentage you could save per jar.

Choosing the six-jar subscription gets you the best value, bringing your cost per bottle down to just under $37.

NatureM.D. provides free shipping on most orders in the U.S. If you or your gut aren’t happy with GutConnect 365, you can return it for a full refund within 60 days of purchase, even if you’ve opened and tried it. That’s not the longest guarantee we’ve seen in the space, but it could be long enough for many customers to know whether the supplement is having any effect.

If you’re not sure a leaky gut supplement is right for you, there are several other options you can try to solve your GI problems. Some may require a trip to the doctor’s office, but a few you can employ from the comfort of your home.

We’ve laid out several of them below.