Glutamine is one of my favorite nutrients for healing the gut (or repairing the intestinal barrier). Here is the extract from a paper published last month: Glutamine and intestinal barrier function:
The intestinal barrier integrity is essential for the absorption of nutrients and health in humans and animals. Dysfunction of the mucosal barrier is associated with increased gut permeability and development of multiple gastrointestinal diseases.
Recent studies highlighted a critical role for glutamine, which had been traditionally considered as a nutritionally non-essential amino acid, in activating the mammalian target of rapamycin cell signaling in enterocytes.
In addition, glutamine has been reported to enhance intestinal and whole-body growth, to promote enterocyte proliferation and survival, and to regulate intestinal barrier function in injury, infection, weaning stress, and other catabolic conditions. Mechanistically, these effects were mediated by maintaining the intracellular redox status and regulating expression of genes associated with various signaling pathways.
Furthermore, glutamine stimulates growth of the small intestinal mucosa in young animals and also enhances ion transport by the gut in neonates and adults. Growing evidence supports the notion that glutamine is a nutritionally essential amino acid for neonates and a conditionally essential amino acid for adults.
Thus, as a functional amino acid with multiple key physiological roles, glutamine holds great promise in protecting the gut from atrophy and injury under various stress conditions in mammals and other animals.
I’d like to share how some well-known practitioners use glutamine for healing.
In this article by Dr. Josh Axe: 4 Steps to Heal Leaky Gut and Autoimmune Disease, glutamine is listed as one of the key gut healing nutrients:
L-Glutamine is critical for any program designed to heal leaky gut. Glutamine is an essential amino acid that is anti-inflammatory and necessary for the growth and repair of your intestinal lining. L-glutamine benefits include acting as a protector: coating your cell walls and acting as a repellent to irritants. Take 2–5 grams twice daily.
Be sure to check out the whole article for great images of leaky gut and how leaky gut can lead to leaky brain and mental health problems like anxiety, depression and bipolar disorders. What Dr. Axe states is so true: in many cases, if you can heal the gut, you can heal the brain.
Dr. Axe references a 2008 paper that discusses normalization of leaky gut in chronic fatigue syndrome with
natural anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative substances (NAIOSs), such as glutamine, N-acetyl cysteine and zinc
Dr. Amy Myers, author of The Autoimmune Solution shares this in her blog called 8 Supplements to Heal a Leaky Gut:
L-Glutamine is an amino acid that is fundamental to the well-being of the digestive and immune systems. Glutamine is great for repairing damage to the gut, helping the gut lining to regrow and repair, undoing the damage caused by leaky gut, and reducing sugar cravings. I recommend 3-5 grams a day.
Dr. David Perlmutter, author Grain Brain shares this in his interview with Dr. Tom O’ Bryan on The Gluten Summit:
Adding in nutritional supplements like glutamine to allow the gut to calm down, heal itself, and begin to rebuild those vital intestinal barriers to keep out the invaders.
Dr. Mark Hyman shares this in his book The UltraMind Solution in the gut food section:
Glutamine: 2,500 mg twice a day [this equates to 5000mg or 5g/day] You can use the powder or capsule form. This is a nonessential amino acid that is the preferred fuel for the lining of the small intestine and can greatly facilitate healing. It can be taken for one to two months. It generally comes in powder form and is often combined with other compounds that facilitate gut repair.
In an article on Leaky Gut Syndrome, Sharon Garrett shares how she loves a product called GI Revive, a product that combines glutamine with other gut-healing nutrients:
I LOVE this product and it lasts a long time. It contains L-glutamine, Slippery Elm, Marshmallow Root, Deglycyrrhizinated Licorice, Mucin, Okra Extract, Cat’s Claw, Quercetin, Prune Powder, Zinc, MSM, Chamomile, N-Acetyl Glucosamine, Aloe Vera Extract, and Citrus Pectin. This product was one of the cornerstones of my own progress to heal my gut, and I still use it today for maintenance!
You can read more about glutamine for blood sugar stability, calming and gut healing here.
And be sure to read cancer concerns and benefits if you have active cancer and talk to your doctor before using glutamine. Stay tuned for more blog posts on glutamine and the cancer debate. I’m still gathering information to share with you.
Keep in mind that licorice root/DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice), probiotics, zinc, slippery elm, marshmallow root and quercetin are other supplement options for gut healing if you can’t tolerate glutamine for some reason.
Have you used glutamine for gut healing? Have you used other approaches for gut healing? Please share and feel free to post questions you may have.
Trudy, what brand of glutamine do you recommend?
Lorraine
I like the powdered glutamine from DFH/Designs for Health. You can find it here https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/amino-acids-pyroluria-supplements/
Thanks for the quick response, Trudy. I love your work!
After listening to an expert talk during the recent The Truth About Cancer online event, I’m worried that glutamine might be a cancer feeder, just like sugar. The expert was Dr. Russell Blaylock, the neurosurgeon. He claims that it feeds cancer cells even moreso than sugar and I think he even said it was an excitotoxin for brain cells but I may be mistaken about the brain cell harm.
His other point was, there are many other things that help repair a leaky gut that do not cause harm. Why not use those instead? Isn’t it better to error on the side of caution?
What other substances would you recommend for healing leaky gut if one decided they should not take a chance with glutamine?
Thank you.
Hi Lori
I actually blogged about this topic a few weeks ago https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/glutamine-supplementation-cancer-concerns-benefits/ It’s clearly a controversial topic with very divided opinions and it seems the jury is still out. We are also very individual beings with unique biochemistry so there is never a once size fits all approach and it’s very likely that some won’t benefit from glutamine and some may have adverse effects. I will be gathering more expert advice about glutamine and cancer so stay tuned. Right now an integrative cancer doctor I reached out to says she is more cautious and would not recommend greater than 5g per day if someone has active cancer.
Licorice root/DGL (deglycyrrhizinated licorice), probiotics, zinc, slippery elm, marshmallow root and quercetin are other supplement options for gut healing if you can’t tolerate glutamine for some reason. If you do ok with bone broth it’s also very healing.
THANK you so much for these added thoughts, Trudy!! Will be very interested in any further updates in your findings on this potential glutamine-cancer connection. You’re helping so many of us out here – thank you!
I’m looking for a good glutamine/gut formula that doesn’t have soy or GMO ingredients.
does anyone know one? DFH has soy. =(
maltodextrin is generally made from GMO corn, unless specified.
if you don’t know about hidden toxins in supplements, here’s a good article: http://www.naturalnews.com/039638_toxins_ingredients_nutritional_supplements.html#
Hi Lu
The DFH powdered glutamine I recommend (https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/amino-acids-pyroluria-supplements/) is only glutamine and is GMO free
Hi Trudy! You’ve helped me a lot in my journey to heal and I thank you for that. I had seen you during the Depression Sessions and got a ton of information from your interview with Sean and used amino acids to help my issues. I don’t need them any more. Yay!
One of my concerns had been Leaky Gut and Josh Axe was one of my sources when I was researching the subject. I started taking glutamine, probiotics, bioflavonoids, aloe and DGL and started seeing a difference in less than a week! I’m in my fourth month and am 95% better and have been for a while now.
After seeing your post, I think I’ll just increase the glutamine to 5 grams a day and I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to eliminate it after a month. Thanks again for all the information you share.
Thanks for sharing here Marcia – I love that you’ve had such great results with the amino acids for mood and now glutamine and other nutrients for leaky gut
I have read some people take as much as 40g daily! This seems very high. What are your thoughts? Are most studies / providers using glutamine in the 2g to 5g range?
Here is the website that has a taper chart and talks about 40g:
http://scdlifestyle.com/2015/09/l-glutamine-7-dos-and-donts/
Hi Scott
Great question! In this 2001 paper in the Journal of Nutrition: “no adverse effects of glutamine have been demonstrated when given in doses of 50–60 g/d. However, this assessment, made in short-term studies in hospital patients, may not be appropriate for chronic supplementation in healthy subjects of all age groups” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11533313
Here is info from a 2008 paper published by Council for Responsible Nutrition: “based on the available published human clinical trial data, the evidence for the absence of adverse effects is strong for Tau [taurine] at supplemental intakes up to 3 g/day, Gln [glutamine] at intakes up to 14 g/day and Arg [arginine] at intakes up to 20 g/day, and these levels are identified as the respective OSLs [Observed Safe Levels] for normal healthy adults. Although much higher levels of each of these amino acids have been tested without adverse effects and may be safe, the data for intakes above these levels are not sufficient for a confident conclusion of long-term safety.” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18325648
Most of the papers I have found say something similar – no adverse effects at higher doses but the researchers don’t know about long-term supplementation in what they call healthy individuals.
I learned about using glutamine from Julia Ross, author of “The Mood Cure” and she recommends 4 x 500mg to 1500mg a day which would be 2000mg to 6000mg /day. And as you can see from these practitioners in this blog, they pretty much use this range too.
I do know that Steven Wright and Jordan Reasoner of scdlifestyle have had great success with their protocols. But I’m also curious about higher amounts like this and I’ll be taking a deeper dive into this topic in a future blog post. Stay tuned…
I couldn’t resist looking at their blog post again and they do say “the sweet spot for really solid results seems to be around 20g to 40g a day”. I’ll see if I can find a reference for this or maybe have one of them come and comment.
I really like that they emphasize this: “there is a small percentage of people who do NOT do well supplementing with this amino acid…If you react negatively to L-Glutamine, then it’s time to change what you are doing. Don’t get all macho and try to press on through the issues. I’ve have had all kinds of complications reported to me about L-Glutamine, including worsening of constipation, diarrhea, anxiety, heart racing, brain fog, headaches and almost anything else. What does this tell us? Nothing specific other than each person’s genetics, epigenetics, gut flora and current hormone levels are different. The conclusion to be drawn if you try L-glutamine and it does make your symptoms worse is that it’s not the best supplement to be using right now.”
Thank you so much for replying Trudy!
It seems to be a wide variance for L-Glutamine depending on what you want the end result to be. It seems for treating digestive issues, the higher end of the scale is recommended. For sugar cravings, a much lower dose is recommended.
Does this sound about right?
Scott
I use up to 6g (the lower doses) with my clients for cravings, blood sugar control and gut healing and the practitioners I mention in the blog use 2-10g for leaky gut/gut healing. So no, I really think the differences are really based on each individuals needs.
Can glutamine be taken by children? If so what is dose range for age? I have grandson who has had chronic ear infections tx with ABX. He shows signs of candida. It would be nice to have a web conference on children and their risk/treatment of leaky gut.
Kathy
I don’t work with children very much and have not used glutamine with children. With other supplements I use 120lbs as the adult dose and half that for a child of 60lbs. With young kids I always focus on food first so would add bone broths and sauerkraut. And making sure they are getting enough protein at breakfast.
I can make these recommendations as resources for kids:
Dr. Jared Skowron http://www.naturopathicanswer.com/ He has a book “100 Natural Remedies for Your Child”
Elizabeth Lipski’s book “Digestive Wellness for Children”
Julie Matthews book “Nourishing Hope for Autism” – covers candida and special diets. You can get her ebook here https://nourishinghope.isrefer.com/go/eBook/tlscott/
Here is a recent online summit Children’s Health Summit hosted by Carla Atherton https://wf181.isrefer.com/go/chsorder/trudyscottcn/ (this is my affiliate link and I didn’t get to attend this one but some of the speakers look excellent and the focus is kids health)
Hello Trudy,
I have been taking glutamine recently with really good results. It seems to be really be helping the stomach side of things and it sets the stage for other good benefits from other supplements.
I have also tried taking GABA as I hoped it would calm my anxiety and help with panic attacks however it seemed to do the opposite. not only did it make me feel bad but it also seemed to cause low blood sugar and a mild twitching of the hand. I thought this was wierd since GABA is supposed to do the opposite but have been doing some reading and found that in some cases GABA can cause an excitatory response under some brain pathologies (mainly epilepsy). I have never had a seizure but am very worried since the GABA had an adverse effect. Do you have any experience with this or do you know what could of caused this to happen?
thanks
Barloc
Glad to hear the glutamine is helping. You don’t mention how much and how often and what form of GABA? Too much of any amino acid can cause adverse effects or even an opposite effect.
Thank you so much for your emails Trudy! They are so helpful.
I suffer from Lupus and Sjogren’s and am doing everything possible to heal my gut. Recently I read in the book Paleo Diet For Reversing Autoimmunity that certain probiotic strains cause inflammation, however,
there was no list of which ones. I am so faithful about taking my probiotics but now am afraid I may be only adding to my inflamed body something that causes more inflammation. Do you know which strains of
probiotics cause inflammation?
Your advice is greatly appreciated!
Gratefully ~
Amy Cotter
Amy
Glad you enjoy my emails/newsletter! Autoimmunity is not my expertise and I have also not heard of this so I’m afraid I can’t help you. Can you reach out to the author for specifics? I was not allowed to mention brands in my book but share them freely on my blog so you may also find what you’re looking for on the author’s blog.
I googled “Paleo Diet For Reversing Autoimmunity Disease” and got many hits so I’m not even sure which book you’re referring to.
Hi Trudy, i have been suffering with anxiety and depression. I started seeing a functional dr who is suspecting a leaky gut, for which I already started the treathment. He ordered these two tests for fruther evaluation and I was wondering if you had any thoughts on these:
401h gi pathogen screen with h pylori antigen (this is a stool test)
Organic acids prfile urine test
Thanks!
Michele – stool tests and organic acids tests are very helpful
To help repair gut – digestive issues when do u take glutamine (powder form) when u wake up first thing ? How long before u can have breakfast after taking it ?
Or do u take after meals ? Between meals
Best time to take glutamine
Thanks for your time
Oops forgot for how long to take
Amy myers suggest to take for 3 months ?
After gut has healed do you take a maintenance dosage or do u just stop
If yes how much maintenance dosage
Thanks
Anne
Assuming you are no longer damaging the gut you should be able to stop.
Can u take glutamine 30 minutes before dinner and take digestive enzymes at beginning of dinner or should u take these apart like glutamine only when first few up in morning
Thanks for your time
Anne
Glutamine is taken away from food and enzymes with a meal, usually in the middle of a meal
Hi
I have leaky gut and have been taking 4 grams of lglutamine for 6 weeks. It was definitely helping and then I started to have dizzy spells, heart racing and sweating 2 weeks ago. I read that these could be side effects and stopped taking it 2 days ago. I feel better except my stomach is crampy again and Im nauseous. Should I take 2g instead every day? Maybe I was so depleted that in the beginning it was great and now I have too much in my system?? I weigh 120lbs, workout every day for 30 minutes and am dairy and gluten free. Would love some help.
Thank you!!
Cathy
Cathy
I have not had anyone experience side-effects like this but anything is possible. Stopping a supplement you suspect is causing issues is the best approach. When this happens with a client I have them give it a few weeks and try again at a very low amount. With glutamine 500mg is the starting dose and I’d start there. If this doesn’t work you may not need it any more or you may need to use other gut healing approaches
Thank you!!!
How can you tell if it doesnt work? I am currently taking 4g..if I convert your suggestion of 500mg, that is .5g. Is that correct?
Cathy
It’s hard to know for sure – I’d observe adverse symptoms and how digestion is
iam suffering from ibs problem how can i get rid from this dease pse. perscribe medicne
Tsenro
There can be many underlying causes of IBS. A common one is SIBO. I’d do this questionnaire https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/sibo-small-intestinal-bacterial-overgrowth-questionnaire/ and work with a functional medicine practitioner to do some testing.
Another option you can consider is a trial of a low FODMAPs diet http://www.med.monash.edu/cecs/gastro/fodmap/
Glutamine is wonderful for healing if leaky gut is an issue.
Hi! what is your experience, on how long does it take for the gut to heal, after start taking glutamine?
Thanks!
Hello: I have been taking 40gr of Glutamine for probably 2 weeks. I started with 5gr and then moved on to 40gr. I take 20gr first thing in the morning with a full glas of water and then at night just couple of 1 hour ago before bed another 20gr. I notice that I am pooping everyday and a lot. It is like is helping me to detoxified. I am just happy with that. Also I just started taking a probiotic and prebiotic before bed. I will get the digestive enzymes and I am not sure about the HCL yet. Also take 6 liver pills just for my low anemia and increase of B12. I think Glutamine is the one that my body was missing. I am still trying to fix my gut so I really hope it is….
Dear Trudy,
Thanks so much for all the information on L glutamine….including discussion of reported cancer risks.
QUESTION RE: L-GLUTAMINE:
If one has Candida overgrowth and leaky gut, should one clear up the Candida before working on the leaky gut or can it be done at the same time? In other words, can one take anti-fungal/probiotic supplements
and also L glutamine or should the L glutamine be used only when one has finished with the antifungals?
REPORTED CANCER RISKS:
I recently came across reported cancer risks associated with choline
and betaine. Do you have any thoughts on these reported risks?
Thanks very much!
Susan
I will address leaky gut and candida at the same time. I address cancer here https://www.everywomanover29.com/blog/glutamine-supplementation-cancer-concerns-benefits/
I think i have adverse reaction to Glutamine.
Had lot of expectations ..
Is there any way of me being able to tolerate glutamine cause i hear it is so good for leaky gut ..
And if there isn’t any way for that
Then the other ways everybody talking about like dgl slippery elm marshmallow root etc
Are they good enough as glutamine ?
I feel bloating and a lot of gas(mainly flatulence ) with a supplement that includes enzymes and L-glutamine . It seems to help bowel movements but I’m struggling with the discomfort of gas etc. any idea why that’s going on? I read that gas and bloating can happen.
Tangerines
It could be any one of the ingredients. I also look for prebiotics as they can cause bloating if SIBO is an issue.
Hi Trudy!
I’m busy watching an old programme of you on Gaia TV right now talking about anxiety and foods.
I am 30 years old and have been vegetarian since birth. At the age of 18 I suddenly began blushing excessively to the point where it caused me major social anxiety. I suddenly became too scared to go to shops in case I bumped into someone that I knew because I knew that it would make me blush.
Now, I have just been diagnosed with leaky gut disorder and candidiasis by a naturopath, after a stool test and some other tests and I am on a gut protocol. I was vegan, but have now added eggs into my diet. I am eating no sugar. Low carb, candida diet. I have also added goats milk kefir back into my diet. Today I decided to start supplementing Omega 3 fish oil pills as well, and I
am taking zinc as we did a test and my zinc levels were very low. We did a pyroluria urine test but it came back negative, even though I feel like I have most of the symptoms. Should I take B6?
I am wondering your opinion – if you believe that eggs and goat milk kefir and fish oil pills are enough animal products for me to add into my diet to get relief for social anxiety? Of course I am sure you are thinking that eating meat would be best, but since Ive gone my whole life without it, I am wondering if the fish oil is enough?
The other thing that I am seriously considering is bone broth, because it doesn’t actually have any meat 🙂 would this be beneficial?
Thanks so much for your reply, I really really appreciate it!
Much love and thanks for doing what you do!
Trudy, similar question about when to take glutamine – and whether to add zinc when I take it, and whether to take it with tryptophan?
Kath
Glutamine on an empty stomach and zinc with a meal