As someone who has successfully healed from painful, long-term gut issues outside of the medical system, I’m often asked what protocol I used to do that. With so many conflicting programs out there, it can be tough to find the right one for your biome. To create this protocol, I referenced my training as a clinical herbalist, online resources and my own personal experience of healing from leaky gut several years ago.

I’m happy to be able to share what I did to heal myself, along with some extra information that I wish I would have known back then, as well as what has worked for my clients. I hope that you can be inspired to heal yourself as I have done.

This protocol is not intended as medical advice, but for educational and informative purposes. Please consult with your medical provider before trying anything mentioned here.

My Gut Dysbiosis Story

I moved to Oregon in 2015, and shortly thereafter started having blood in my stools. I was experiencing a lot of emotional issues from my abusive relationship and working at a retention call-center, where I sustained near-constant emotional abuse from a toxic work culture and disgruntled customers. This was also just after a traumatic brain injury the year prior for which I did not receive proper care.

It was around this time that I began having issues with mood, anxiety, brain fog, bloating, stomach pain, sinus congestion, acne, constant diarrhea, and bright red blood showing up in my stools. Concerned about the blood, I ended up going to the urgent care near my apartment, and the doctor there did some basic tests, determining I would need additional testing with a specialist to find out what was wrong.

With the knowledge that very serious gut disease runs in my family, I went to Oregon Health & Science University, which is supposedly one of the best hospitals in the state of Oregon. Over the course of 2 years of appointments, they did a whole slew of labs including stool panels, candida test, colonoscopy, allergy panels, blood panels and more and to try and find what was wrong, but all the labs came back within the “normal” range.

Each appointment, I was given about 5-10 minutes of attention from the doctor or specialist before being given brochures and sales pitches for hormonal birth control, vaccinations and other things that felt totally irrelevant to the reason I came in. Gradually I became impatient at the lack of progress.

After 2 years of $$$ appointments, sales pitches and medical gaslighting, they ultimately decided that I had irritable bowel syndrome, which, according to them had “no treatment”. It was disappointing that after all I had been through, they basically told me to “just deal with it”.

Months later, I ended up going to see an acupuncturist and traditional Chinese herbalist on the other side of town. It was the first time I had seen any improvement of my symptoms, and it was also the first time that anyone had asked about my emotional state, diet, and lifestyle. After seeing success with my health through this new paradigm, it made sense for me to stop outsourcing my health to others, and start learning how to heal myself.

From there, I began researching supplements, and ultimately signed up for a course on herbalism from the local community college a year or so after. This protocol is a culmination of what I learned from years experimenting on myself, books on the gut biome, reading studies and from my course with elder herbalist, Karta Purgh Singh Khalsa, A.D., D.N.-C, R.H.

My Protocol

Again, this and everything else found on my website is for informational purposes only and is not provided as medical advice. Please consult with your healthcare team before trying anything new.

L-Glutamine

The star of the show in terms of supplements for healing my gut, I personally feel was L-Glutamine. Glutamine is the most abundant free amino acid in the body and is used as a food source for gut bacteria. It also regulates tight junction proteins which, when unregulated are responsible for leaky gut which can cause a wide range of undesirable symptoms. Glutamine also has a hand in supporting the immune system, controlling inflammation and many other processes throughout the body.

There are many perspectives on how much L-Glutamine one should take. Because my issues were pretty severe, I chose to build up my dose over a period of a few weeks, starting at 5 g per day of powder mixed in lukewarm water, all the way up to 25 g per day. I stayed at 25g per day for several weeks before titrating back down. I feel it’s important to stay at a higher dose for a period of time to ensure your gut bacteria are well fed and your gut has a chance to repair itself.

After coming back down, I stayed at around 5-10g per day for a period of several months to maintain my results. I used Jarrow L-Glutamine powder at the time, but now I use Pure Encapsulations. It’s important to find one that is just glutamine, with no flavorings, sweeteners or other fillers as many of those can be irritating to the gut. I find it to be pretty flavorless but a little bit chalky texture, and easily dissolves in lukewarm water.

Example:

Week 1: 5g per day

Week 2: 10g per day

Week 3: 15g per day

Week 4: 20g per day

Week 5-7: 25g per day

Week 8: 20g per day

Week 9: 15g per day

Week 10 & Maintenace: 10g per day

It’s also worth noting that consuming gluten, regardless of if you are celiac does widen these junctions in the gut. While doing this protocol I stopped eating gluten to help heal, and now I only consume fermented or sprouted grains.

Probiotics & Prebiotics

In my protocol, I also used high-dose probiotics and supporting prebiotics to repopulate my gut microbiome with beneficial bacteria. After a few years of diarrhea, my gut flora had been pretty cooked and much of the good bacteria was gone, so it was important to rebuild a solid colony. Most people know about probiotics, and there are plenty of books and studies to read about that, but less about their counterpart — prebiotics.

Prebiotics are basically food for the probiotic organisms. You can get this from certain herbs like chicory root, which is a natural source of inulin, a prebiotic. Alternatvely, you can purchase a prebiotic supplement like the one I use from Pure Encapsulations.

There are many good pro/prebiotics on the market. During this protocol I started out using the one from Jarrow formulas from the fridge section, and then switched to Pure Encapsulations for a while before finding BioK. It’s important to know that you should switch it up every few months since each of these brands only incorporates a few different types of bacteria while your gut has probably thousands of different strains.

Probiotics can also be found in foods to a smaller degree, but I haven’t seen noticeable success with just adding sourkraut or yogurt in my diet. The strains in these food are generally not colonizing on a large enough scale, meaning they mostly pass through with the next bowel movement. They are healthy, and you should include them if you feel called to do so, but I would not rely on them as a primary source of probiotics.

Licorice Root / DGL

Licorice root (Glycyrrizha glabra) is one of my favorite herbs! It’s a bit sweet tasting and soothing for an irritated digestive tract. Studies show that licorice root helps regulate the gut lining to ensure tight junctions. It’s a great herb for protecting against leaky gut.

I used DGL during the initial phase of this protocol, and then switched to licorice decoction since the taste went well with other herbs I use regularly and it’s less costly. A small portion of the population is affected by blood pressure issues from Licorice. If this is you, you should check out DGL, as the constituent that causes the blood pressure issues has been removed.

I currently source my licorice root from Mountain Rose Herbs, but I have also sourced it from Starwest Botanicals as well with good results. I purchase DGL (for those with high blood pressure) from Pure Encapsulations.

Nervous System Repair & Holding Onto Past Traumas

There is so much new research available in the public domain and books that speak to the gut-brain connection and how our nervous system will hold onto past traumas and how those can manifest physically. The book “The Body Keeps the Score” by Bessel Van Der Kolk (affiliate link) is an eye-opening text documenting this. In the book, the author “uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust”.

Another great book in this space that I would check out is “The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health” by Emeran Mayer (affiliate link). This is another great book discussing the connection between our brains and our gut health.

Psychedelic Medicine Assisted Therapy

I am a huge proponent of psychedelic assisted therapy. It has done wonders not only for my mental health and recovering from an old brain injury, but also for my gut issues. I’ve seen it work wonders on chronic anxiety, substance abuse, sexual trauma & tapering off antidepressant drugs. It has done more for me than years of therapy, and doctor appointments.

You may be wondering, “is this safe?” While this is a question that is best answered by your physician, I can assure you that psychedelic therapy is considered to be safer than tobacco, cannabis and benzodiazepine drugs. In recent studies (specifically LSD and Psilocybin, the active in magic mushrooms) are not only non-addictive but can actually be used to help people recover from active addictions.

From talking with clients and reading people’s experiences online, it’s clear that many gut issues are linked to a past traumatic experience. Psychedelic medicines increase neuroplasticity, allowing you to form new connections in the brain, and rewire old ones that no longer serve you.

Unfortunately, the main hurdle with psychedelic assisted therapy today is accessibility. In many areas of the world it remains illegal, extremely expensive, or viewed negatively by society. I’m hopeful that accessibility will improve in the coming years to allow more people to experience healing. To learn more about it, I recommend reading “How to Change Your Mind” (affiliate link) by Michael Pollan, or watch his series on Netflix by the same name.

Kava Root Tincture

Kava root is amazing for just melting away stress and anxiety. While I didn’t use this initially in my protocol, if I could go back in time, it certainly would play a role in my healing.

My reason for including Kava in the protocol is related to the mind-gut connection discussed earlier. When I’m anxious, I often find myself clenching my stomach, or bracing my abdominal muscles. It’s something I hear often from people who have dealt with trauma, or are insecure about their physical appearance. Kava helps relax the nervous system, is a little sedating and I’ve noticed helps me unclench and not worry about things as much - all of which can help over time to regulate your gut.

I use the Kava Root tincture from the brand Herb Pharm (affiliate). I haven’t made this tincture myself yet as I don’t have a good source for organic Kava roots, Herb Pharm makes good quality tinctures that are medinincally potent. I currently use this as needed to help with day-to-day anxiety, or public speaking events.

Meal Hygiene

What I refer to as ‘meal hygiene’ is really just a practice of ensuring you are not eating while stressed out and ensuring your food is chewed fully. I have always been a really quick eater, likely just wanting to get out of the social aspects of eating with my family as a kid as quickly as possible. Our kitchen table was not usually a happy place to sit and I have several memories of not being able to leave the table until I finished a certain amount of food.

Eat Slowly & Chew Well

Eating quickly can have the outcome of not thoroughly chewing your food though, which makes things a lot harder for your digestive tract to process and break down. While on a short term, and with a healthy and firey digestive tract this may not be an issue, over the long term it can cause a weakness to develop. I try to aim for 20 chews per mouthful.

Deep Breaths & Fully Relax with Each Meal

Since beginning this protocol, I have found that making an effort to take a few deep belly breaths, avoiding the news or anything stressful while eating, and taking the time to properly chew my food before swallowing it has made a huge difference. With gut issues especially, it’s so important to set your digestive tract up for success by chewing well and relaxing your gut completely.

Conclusion

Gut issues are really complex to treat, and this protocol is more specific to leaky gut or post-traumatic gut dysbiosis. I feel that this protocol paired with an anti-inflammatory diet would be helpful for most people, but if you feel that your healing progress is stalling, it may be worth booking a consult with me so we can troubleshoot your health situation.

Let me know in the comments what you think!

Sources

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