One of the major topics on the forefront of health and wellness lately is gut health. Perhaps you’ve heard about the importance of gut health for brain function, or maybe you’ve seen the word “leaky gut” being thrown around. And maybe you’re currently experiencing some gut issues yourself.
The point is, the gut does have a massive influence on overall health and wellness, and this is why it is so important to take care of it. Diet is a great first start for optimizing gut health, along with toxin removal and stress reduction.
However, these natural implements sometimes aren’t enough due to the many factors in modern life that make it very hard to achieve optimal gut health. This is why supplementation is often recommended, especially for people who have a history of unhealthy living. One such supplement designed to promote and enhance gut health is BodyBio Butyrate.
In this BodyBio Butyrate review, we’ll take a thorough look at this gut health supplement. We’ll discuss its ingredients, the benefits it claims to provide, and whether or not it’s truly worth the cost. Ready? Let’s dive in and see if BodyBio Butyrate is the right gut health supplement for you!
About BodyBio Butyrate
Butyrate is made by BodyBio, and it is primarily designed to be a gut-healing supplement. Butyrate itself is actually produced by your gut microbes, though BodyBio recommends supplementation since it is often hard to get enough from diet alone.
Essentially, BodyBio Butyrate is supposed to heal and repair the lining of the gut, which can often be disrupted by pesticides, unhealthy foods, drugs, and other factors in the modern world. By repairing the gut, they say, many other aspects of health will be improved, including inflammation response, brain health, DNA function, and disease prevention.
BodyBio Butyrate Benefits
BodyBio lists many benefits of its Butyrate supplement. Specifically, Butyrate is supposed to support the microbiome and strengthen the gut, improve digestion, enhance DNA health, promote regularity, improve brain function.
BodyBio Butyrate Ingredients
There are actually three different versions of the BodyBio Butyrate product. You’ll notice each version contains Butyrate along with 1 or 2 other ingredients. The use of these few, specific ingredients allows BodyBio Butyrate to stand out from other gut health supplements that usually include more extensive formulas, such as Total Restore and KaraMD GutBio.
The three different formulas of BodyBio Butyrate and their ingredients:
- Calcium/Magnesium Butyrate contains calcium, magnesium, and butyric acid.
- Sodium Butyrate contains sodium and butyric acid.
- Sodium/Potassium Butyrate contains (you guessed it) sodium, potassium, and butyric acid.
- All versions also contain medium-chain triglycerides.
Butyric Acid
Despite the different versions, the common factor in all of them is obviously that they contain butyric acid. Butyric acid, or Butyrate, is a short-chain fatty acid that is a product of bacterial fermentation of dietary fiber and starch. So, it increases when you eat foods that contain these things (mainly fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes).
Not only does it occur naturally in the gastrointestinal tract, but it also has a number of key roles there. Specifically, butyric acid is necessary for regeneration and repair processes in the GI tract, mucus production, helps to keep the intestinal barrier strong, and has a positive impact on microbiota (gut bacteria) by stimulating the growth of beneficial bacteria and inhibiting the growth of pathogens and bad bacteria. Essentially, butyric acid helps to keep your gut strong, healthy, and effective at doing its job.
So, it’s no surprise that butyric acid supplementation is beneficial for people suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), diarrhea, gut dysbiosis, gut inflammation, and many other digestive tract diseases and disorders.
Other Benefits of Butyrate
However, did you know that butyric acid can also positively affect many other areas of the body? This is because the gut has many roles with and specific connections to other areas of the body, such as the immune system and brain, so benefits are seen in these areas too.
For example, Butyrate can positively impact immune system function, brown fat activation, appetite control, sleep, and central nervous system function.
Butyrate supplementation shows positive results for Alzheimer’s, mood disorders (e.g., depression), metabolic disorders (e.g., type 2 diabetes), Parkinson’s, and other diseases and disorders.
Finally, butyric acid supplementation seems to be especially useful for people who have a higher need for it, and this includes people who drink, smoke, are under a lot of stress, suffer from various diseases and disorders. All of these things stress the gut and increase metabolic demands, so it is more likely that these people will become deficient in Butyrate.
Up to 4,000mg per day of Butyrate has been used in human studies, though an optimal dose appears to be around 1,000 to 2,000 mg for most people. This is much higher than the most common dosage recommendation, but research shows that a higher dose is usually necessary.
Other Ingredients
Ok, so the main ingredient is covered, and you can see that it provides the lion’s share of benefits. Yet, I want to briefly cover the other ingredients, keeping in mind that only select ones are used in the three different versions of this product.
Calcium and Magnesium
So, the Calcium/Magnesium Butyrate also contains calcium and magnesium, which are two very important minerals for the body. Magnesium is involved in over 300 reactions in the body and benefits everything from heart health to hormonal health to brain health. Yet, in the modern world, many people are at risk for deficiency due to many factors. So, supplementing is an easy way for people at risk or already deficient to reach the necessary intake.
Calcium is a very important mineral too, but people are much less likely to be deficient simply due to the consumption of dairy. Calcium has key roles in heart health, the nervous system, bone health, and hormonal health, but supplementation isn’t always necessary for problems in these areas. Also, calcium competes with magnesium for absorption, so for people who are deficient in magnesium but not calcium, this isn’t a good thing.
Overall, it isn’t clear whether the calcium/magnesium in Butyrate would benefit everyone. Magnesium is likely to offer more of the benefits.
Sodium and Potassium
Finally, Sodium/Potassium Butyrate contains sodium and potassium, and Sodium Butyrate also includes sodium. Both of these minerals have key roles in fluid regulation, transmitting nerve impulses, and muscular contraction, among other things. Supplementation with these minerals could be beneficial for people who exercise frequently, work in hot weather, or otherwise have a risk for electrolyte depletion.
The sodium-potassium option may be better since most people already consume too much sodium but not enough potassium. And sodium-potassium ratio is a key element not only in blood pressure but other aspects of health.
Does BodyBio Butyrate Work?
Overall, the evidence overwhelmingly shows that BodyBio Butyrate should work. Butyric acid has many well-researched benefits. Not only does it positively affect gut health, it positively affects many of the systems that the gut is connected to, such as the immune system, central nervous system, and aspects of metabolism. By providing the gut with a vital short-chain fatty acid, the gut will be more able to effectively carry out all of its functions, including microbiota regulation, intestinal permeability, and many other things.
Also, the dosage of butyric acid is 1 gram (1000mg). This is much higher than the commonly recommended dose, but this is actually a good thing since recent research shows that the dose should be much higher than the typical 150-300mg for health benefits.
One thing I do want to note, however, is that most of the research has been done on animals. So, it might act differently in humans, though it’s likely to still be positive.
Another thing to consider is that Butyrate is found naturally in the body. Therefore, there’s always the possibility that butyrate supplementation may affect physiology differently than what would naturally be produced after the consumption of starches and fibers. Based on this, your best bet is likely to consume a high-fiber and starch diet alongside butyrate supplementation, getting the best of both worlds.
Claims vs. Reality
The main claimed benefits of Butyrate are microbiome enhancement, strengthening of the gut, improved digestion, healthier DNA, regularity of bowel movements, and improved brain function.
All in all, these benefits likely will occur. Since Butyrate is needed by the gastrointestinal tract for many things, it is very likely that supplementing will enhance and strengthen the gut barrier/lining, increase the number of good bacteria and decrease pathogens, and improve digestion. Also, this should lead to the promotion of regularity since stool is obviously influenced by gut health. Additionally, you likely can expect improved brain function simply because the gut and microbiota within it have many links to the central nervous system. So, feeding the gut with quality nutrients will likely optimize the gut-brain axis. Finally, healthy DNA is likely to be achieved since Butyrate has been shown to be involved in DNA synthesis and damage repair.
Who is BodyBio Butyrate Best for?
BodyBio Butyrate can be taken by anyone who wants to enhance and/or repair their gut and, in turn, benefit many other areas of their body. As for which form to take, BodyBio lists some recommendations. Essentially, the Calcium/Magnesium Butyrate is recommended for most people, whereas Sodium Butyrate and Sodium/Potassium Butyrate are for people that are very active or work in hot environments. If you’re one of those people, choose the Sodium/Potassium Butyrate if you have blood pressure concerns or low potassium.
I also want to mention that, in general, people with various diseases, disorders, and unhealthy lifestyle habits are the most likely to benefit from Butyrate supplementation, since all of these factors negatively affect gut health and butyrate production. Specifically, Butyrate could be very useful for people with various gastrointestinal disorders and is potentially beneficial for mood disorders, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, obesity, type 2 diabetes, immune issues, and inflammation.
Is BodyBio Butyrate Safe?
Overall, Butyrate seems safe to take. Doses of up to 4,000mg per day have been administered with no side effects. However, the overall research picture in humans is limited, so there still may be some unknown side effects.
Also, BodyBio states that they source the highest quality raw material and have rigorous quality testing procedures, though it is unclear what those procedures actually are.
Where to Buy BodyBio Butyrate
You can buy BodyBio Butyrate from the official BodyBio website here. There are a variety of pricing options when it comes to what version you’d like to order and in what size.
Below, we will detail the pricing options.
BodyBio Butyrate Pricing:
- 60 Capsules/Sodium – $20.99
- 100 Capsules/Sodium – $30.99
- 100 Capsules/Sodium Potassium – $30.99
- 100 Capsules/Calcium Magnesium – $30.99
- 250 Capsules/Calcium Magnesium – $69.99
So, the best deal is the 250-capsule bottle with a price per serving of a little over 50 cents. Overall, the value is pretty high for any of the options.