My Daily Gut Health Routine: Gut Rebuild Nutrients + Probiotics
Heal leaky gut & decrease inflammation.
Chances are, you’ve found me because you’re looking to heal your gut. I understand what you’re going through! In this video, you’ll hear the story of how I resolved my digestive issues after a parasitic infection, and what I do daily for gut health maintenance.
Dr. Michael Ruscio, DC: Hi, this is Dr. Ruscio, and I’d like to share with you my daily gut health routine, which involves the use of our Gut Rebuild Nutrients, and our three probiotics. Now, you’ve likely heard me discuss probiotics before, but I haven’t spoken as much about gut rebuilding or repairing nutrients, which do have a time and a place in a gut health and gut healing program.
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Gut Rebuild Nutrients + Probiotics
- Probiotics support bacterial and fungal balance
- Gut Rebuild Nutrients facilitate gut barrier repair
Where Do Gut Rebuild Nutrients Fit Into Your Overall Gut Health Plan?
- Can be used at any time and with other therapies, for example OK with probiotics or antimicrobials
- Can be used with the Healthy Gut, Healthy You program
- Step 2 – Support OR
- Step 4 – Rebalance
- Not everyone will need this
- If you haven’t optimized your diet or used probiotics yet, start there
What does the evidence show?
There is a significant body of research into supplementation with glutamine, the main active ingredient in Gut Rebuild Nutrients:
- A meta-analysis (the highest level of scientific evidence) found
- ‘Glutamine reduced leaky gut and markers of intestinal damage.’ [1]
- One randomized control trial found
- ‘In patients with IBS and in leaky gut; oral dietary glutamine supplements dramatically and safely reduced all major IBS-related symptoms.’ [2]
- A review of several studies concluded
- ‘Inflammation has been shown to be a cause of intestinal diseases, such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and colorectal cancer. Several lines of evidence indicate that glutamine has an anti-inflammatory property.’ [3]
- Another review states that
- ‘Glutamine supplementation can improve gut barrier function in several experimental conditions of injury and in some clinical situations.’ [4]
- This was echoed by yet another review
- ‘Not all data show benefit with glutamine (it did not affect active Crohn’s disease) , but glutamine is certainly worth a trial’ [5]
Other human studies support the healing role of additional ingredients:
- Licorice and Slippery Elm
- ‘Significantly improved both bowel habit and IBS symptoms in patients with constipation-predominant IBS.’ [6]
- Licorice and Chamomile
- ‘Shown to be safe and effective in the treatment of mild gastrointestinal disorders.’ [7]
- Aloe vera
- ‘Is effective and safe for the treatment of patients with IBS compared to placebo.’ [8]
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So I’d like to share my experience with you using the various agents I’ve experimented with, and how I’ve come to use Gut Rebuild Nutrients plus probiotics on a daily basis, as my long-term gut health maintenance plan. I should mention that our Gut Rebuild Nutrients is a blend of glutamine, aloe, zinc, licorice, and a few other select gut-supportive nutrients.
My Gut Story: Getting to Optimum Health
Now, as you may know, in college, I had an intestinal parasitic infection, which led me to feel quite terrible. Brain fog, fatigue, insomnia, feeling cold. And treatment for that was very, very helpful. I wouldn’t say it got me all the way to my goal of feeling 100%, but certainly was a huge step forward.
I improved even more when, a few years later, I got myself on all three probiotics. That’s one of the main reasons why I recommend using all three together, because that gave me another substantial jump forward in terms of how I was feeling.
And then I finally saw what I would consider a satisfactory level of symptomatic improvement once I added in—along with our three probiotics—the Gut Rebuild nutrient cocktail. And I’ve been doing that now for about a year.
As I said, I felt much better after treating the parasitic infection with a combination of antibiotics and herbal antimicrobials, a massive step in the right direction.
However, I still had some lingering food sensitivities and symptoms that would indicate I was having a food sensitivity reaction. I had a hard time with beef, eggs, spinach, alcohol, and caffeine, regrettably. And this would oftentimes manifest as bloating, or brain fog, or potentially loose stools, or even some fatigue. And even chapped lips, which is actually an example of the gut-skin connection.
Probiotics + Gut Rebuild: An Effective Pair
In looking back over the past several years, a big jump forward in terms of how I felt came after clearing that parasite. I’d say about 70 to 80% improvement. But there were still some lingering symptoms. Probiotics got me another, I’d say, 15% or so, and then another 15% or so when adding in the Gut Rebuild Nutrients. I really saw what I would consider fairly robust health when using the probiotics plus the gut-supporting nutrients together. Where I finally achieved this ability to not be worried about what I was eating and was able to drink alcohol.
While its not something I want to do all the time, it was nice to have that freedom. But to be able to drink alcohol, have caffeine, and have some of these other foods that were kind of a problem for me was a big win. Beef, eggs, spinach, raw vegetables also.
Why I think the probiotics combined with the Gut Rebuild Nutrients works so well is because probiotics work to support balance in your microbiota, bacterial and fungal balance. Whereas the Gut Rebuild Nutrients will help to support and repair the lining of the intestinal tract.
When we use these together, we have this nice dual support, one for the microbiota, the bacteria, fungus and similar areas, the other for the actual tissues or the lining of your gut. And that’s why I think, together, these pair very nicely. And for me it was the combination that finally got me over the hump and to what I would consider my goal level of health.
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What Does the Evidence Show?
And what does the evidence show? Fortunately, there is a significant body of research supporting both glutamine, the main active ingredient in this formula, and some of the other select ingredients. So let’s start with glutamine, and I’d like to start with the highest level of evidence, a meta-analysis, which has essentially found that glutamine reduced leaky gut and markers of intestinal damage [1]. To have a meta-analysis finding is very, very encouraging.
Continuing, to quote, in patients with IBS and in leaky gut, “oral dietary glutamine supplements dramatically and safely reduced all major IBS-related endpoints” or symptoms. So that’s great. That’s the results of a randomized control trial [2]. So we have a meta-analysis, highest level evidence, randomized control trial.
Continuing here, regarding the evidence for glutamine, another review of several studies [3] stated, “Inflammation has been shown to be a cause of intestinal diseases such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s Disease, and colorectal cancer… Several lines of evidence indicate that glutamine has an anti-inflammatory property…” Very encouraging.
And another review [4], quoting again, “glutamine supplementation can improve barrier function in several experimental conditions of injury, and in some clinical situations.” And this conclusion was also echoed by another paper [5].
Now, not all of the data on glutamine agree. And there are some data showing no benefit from glutamine. Namely, in a review paper looking at the effect of glutamine in active Crohn’s Disease [5]. So this is a very specific patient population with an active inflammatory disease. So we want to consider that when looking at all the evidence. I think it’s a very reasonable conclusion to state that if you’re suffering with digestive symptoms of any sort, at least a trial on glutamine is something to consider.
And other human studies have found that other select ingredients in Gut Rebuild Nutrients can also be effective. And to quote again, licorice and slippery elm “significantly improved both bowel habit and IBS symptoms in patients with constipation-predominant IBS.” [6] Also regarding licorice and chamomile, to quote, “shown to be safe and effective in the treatment of mild gastrointestinal disorders…” [7]
Aloe vera, to quote, “is effective and safe for the treatment of patients with IBS compared to placebo.” [8] And zinc carnosine has been shown to improve the gut mucosa [9]. A clinical trial found zinc was able to reduce diarrhea [10].
So we see some fairly significant evidence showing that the ingredients contained in Gut Rebuild Nutrients can improve leaky gut, improve barrier function, reduce inflammation, and improve the symptoms of IBS. Certainly some very encouraging scientific data in human interventional trials and even meta-analyses showing that this cocktail of gut-supporting nutrients can be helpful.
How Do You Use Gut Rebuild Nutrients?
Where does something like Gut Rebuild Nutrients fit into your overall health plan? Well, it can really be used at any time and with other treatments. There’s no right or wrong.
It can be used, as an example, as I do, along with probiotics. It can also be used while administering antimicrobials of various sorts. If you’re going through the health plan in Healthy Gut, Healthy You, I would recommend either adding in Gut Rebuild Nutrients into step two, the support phase where we use probiotics, if you want it to be really robust in your support phase, or alternatively, after your antimicrobials (after step three) you could add in the Gut Rebuild Nutrients during step four.
Either one is fine. Those are the two options I’d recommend for you. But again, can really be used at any point. Also, remember that not everyone will need this. If you haven’t yet optimized your diet or tried probiotics, then you may want to start there and consider layering in the Gut Rebuild Nutrients should you not see optimum response from those.
In close, our Gut Rebuild nutrient cocktail combined with our three probiotics has been my daily gut health routine now for a little over a year, and it’s been quite effective. And if you are trying to optimize your gut health and still looking to find the ideal support to get you to an acceptable level of improvement, I hope you will consider adding our Gut Rebuild Nutrients into your plan, and potentially also, of course, if you are not doing so already, our probiotics.
Dr. Michael Ruscio is a DC, natural health provider, researcher, and clinician. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Bridgeport and has published numerous papers in scientific journals as well as the book Healthy Gut, Healthy You. He also founded the Ruscio Institute of Functional Health, where he helps patients with a wide range of GI conditions and serves as the Head of Research.➕ References
- Shu XL, Yu TT, Kang K, Zhao J. Effects of glutamine on markers of intestinal inflammatory response and mucosal permeability in abdominal surgery patients: A meta-analysis. Exp Ther Med. 2016 Dec;12(6):3499-3506. doi: 10.3892/etm.2016.3799. Epub 2016 Oct 12. PMID: 28105083; PMCID: PMC5228558.
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Randomised placebo-controlled trial of dietary glutamine supplements for postinfectious irritable bowel syndrome
- Kim MH, Kim H. The Roles of Glutamine in the Intestine and Its Implication in Intestinal Diseases. Int J Mol Sci. 2017 May 12;18(5):1051. doi: 10.3390/ijms18051051. PMID: 28498331; PMCID: PMC5454963.
- Achamrah N, Déchelotte P, Coëffier M. Glutamine and the regulation of intestinal permeability: from bench to bedside. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 2017 Jan;20(1):86-91. doi: 10.1097/MCO.0000000000000339. PMID: 27749689.
- Wang B, Wu G, Zhou Z, Dai Z, Sun Y, Ji Y, Li W, Wang W, Liu C, Han F, Wu Z. Glutamine and intestinal barrier function. Amino Acids. 2015 Oct;47(10):2143-54. doi: 10.1007/s00726-014-1773-4. Epub 2014 Jun 26. PMID: 24965526.
- Hawrelak JA, Myers SP. Effects of two natural medicine formulations on irritable bowel syndrome symptoms: a pilot study. J Altern Complement Med. 2010 Oct;16(10):1065-71. doi: 10.1089/acm.2009.0090. PMID: 20954962.
- Wegener T, Heimueller E. Treatment of Mild Gastrointestinal Disorders with a Herbal Combination: Results of a Non-interventional Study with Gastritol® Liquid. Phytother Res. 2016 Jan;30(1):72-7. doi: 10.1002/ptr.5502. Epub 2015 Nov 2. PMID: 26522087.
- Hong SW, Chun J, Park S, Lee HJ, Im JP, Kim JS. Aloe vera Is Effective and Safe in Short-term Treatment of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. J Neurogastroenterol Motil. 2018 Oct 1;24(4):528-535. doi: 10.5056/jnm18077. PMID: 30153721; PMCID: PMC6175553.
- Mahmood A, FitzGerald AJ, Marchbank T, Ntatsaki E, Murray D, Ghosh S, Playford RJ. Zinc carnosine, a health food supplement that stabilises small bowel integrity and stimulates gut repair processes. Gut. 2007 Feb;56(2):168-75. doi: 10.1136/gut.2006.099929. Epub 2006 Jun 15. PMID: 16777920; PMCID: PMC1856764.
- Rerksuppaphol L, Rerksuppaphol S. Efficacy of zinc supplementation in the management of acute diarrhoea: a randomised controlled trial. Paediatr Int Child Health. 2020 May;40(2):105-110. doi: 10.1080/20469047.2019.1673548. Epub 2019 Oct 3. PMID: 31578136.
➕ Links & Resources
- Gut Rebuild Nutrients
- FMF Probiotics
- Healthy Gut, Healthy You
- Platinum LED
- Intestinal Support Formula by Functional Medicine Formulations
- Dr. Ruscio Resources
Discussion
I care about answering your questions and sharing my knowledge with you. Leave a comment or connect with me on social media asking any health question you may have and I just might incorporate it into our next listener questions podcast episode just for you!