Green tea offers so many health benefits most dieticians recommend including in you diet at least once a day. It can be drank as beverage or taken in capsule form. But is green tea good for a leaky gut?

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Can Green Tea Help a Leaky Gut?
Green tea is becoming an increasingly popular beverage. Some people drink it for the taste, others for the many health benefits it can provide. It is one of the staple ingredients in the alkaline diet.
Often hailed as being the healthiest drink in the world, green tea has a surprisingly large number of virtues.
Among other things, it lowers cholesterol, assists weight loss, and appears to be good for the heart.
Green tea is also rich in antioxidants that can prevent premature aging and help protect the body from disease.
Thanks to the results of a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, green tea is also getting a lot of attention as a possible treatment for leaky gut syndrome.
Don’t get too excited though. If you currently suffer from a “leaky gut” you can resist the urge to jump out of bed and start waving flags. The study in question was conducted on mice.
So, although the research is interesting, the only thing it does is highlight the need for further study. Preferably study involving human volunteers who want to naturally repair a leaky gut.
What Is Leaky Gut Syndrome?
Leaky gut syndrome is a condition that undermines the protective barrier that lines the intestines.
When anything compromises this important barrier, bacteria and toxins can “leak” through the intestinal walls and enter the blood. Needless to say, this is a highly undesirable state of affairs.
Leaky gut syndrome is a controversial condition. Many doctors and other healthcare professionals don’t believe it exists.
However, regardless of the skepticism, there is still plenty of scientific evidence that suggests leaky gut syndrome not only exists but also contributes to many medical conditions.
There appears to be a relationship between leaky gut syndrome and:
- Crohn’s disease
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
- Celiac disease
- Diabetes
- Chronic liver disease
- Food allergies
- Polycystic ovary syndrome
However, experts are uncertain if leaky gut syndrome can cause these conditions or is a result of them.
The symptoms of leaky gut syndrome are not only in the gut area. They can manifest themselves all over the body.
A Few Common Symptoms of Leaky Gut Include:
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Mental confusion
- Bloating
- Joint pain
- Inflammation
- Chronic diarrhea
- Constipation
- Nutritional deficiencies
- Impaired concentration
- Acne, eczema, rashes, and other skin problems
If drinking a few cups of green tea per day may help alleviate problems of this nature, it’s going to be big news for anyone suffering from a leaky gut.
Green Tea for Leaky Gut: A Look at the Research
The research that has got so many people talking was conducted at Ohio State University. One of the most interesting things about it is the researchers were not initially exploring green tea’s ability to help heal a leaky gut.
As with a great many studies that involve green tea, the researchers’ main focus was the way green tea consumption affects weight gain.
The researchers divided the mice into two main groups that were further divided into two more sub-groups.
One group of mice was fed a regular diet. The other group got a high-fat diet. In both cases, one sub-group was given green tea and the other sub-group was not.
As far as weight gain goes, the results of the study are unlikely to surprise anyone familiar with the natural fat-burning power of green tea.
The mice that ate a high-fat diet combined with green tea gained 20 percent less weight than the mice on a diet that was identical but minus the green tea.
The presence of green tea in their diet also decreased insulin resistance. Again, this is unlikely to surprise anyone who is already familiar with the abilities of green tea.
However, on further examination, the researchers discovered something unexpected. The mice that got a high-fat diet and green tea were exhibiting a healthier gut microbiome. More importantly, they had fewer symptoms of leaky gut.
This change in gut health was also apparent in the mice that ate a normal diet combined with green tea.
The study’s lead author, Professor Richard Bruno, sees the revelation in a very positive light.
“This study provides evidence that green tea encourages the growth of good gut bacteria, and that leads to a series of benefits that significantly lower the risk of obesity,” Professor Bruno said.
Nevertheless, he also points out the need for further research, involving humans instead of mice.
He believes studies on humans will help reveal how much green tea people will need to drink in order to obtain improvements in gut health and leaky gut.
Is Green Tea Good for Leaky Gut? – The Bottom Line
Green tea is a beverage that can support health and vitality in a surprisingly large number of ways. Research now suggests one of the things it may do is help repair a leaky gut.
Although it’s exciting news, especially so for people who have this type of gut issue, it’s important to bear in mind the need for further study. To date, the only research that suggests this was conducted on mice.
More importantly, the results were revealed by accident rather than intent. There’s still a long way to go before green tea can be endorsed as a natural treatment for leaky gut syndrome.
However, green tea is rich in antioxidants that can be extremely beneficial. It’s a very healthy beverage to drink.
Even though there is no proof, as yet, that green tea may benefit humans with leaky gut syndrome; there are many good reasons to partake of the beverage.
More importantly, there is no proof green tea will not work for leaky gut syndrome. For now, the best course of action may be to try it and see. If it helps, that’s fantastic.
If it does not, the antioxidants and other beneficial compounds in the tea may offer untold value in other ways.