Best Butyrate Supplement | Top 5 for Gut Health in 2025 - Innerbody

Gut health problems aren't something to be ashamed about. They're astonishingly common, affecting up to 70 million people in the United States alone, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.1 They also aren't something you should ignore since they can have tremendous impacts on your quality of life.

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Those living with acute or chronic gut conditions may find relief using butyrate, an important and naturally occurring compound in the human body that many people, especially Americans, don't produce in sufficient amounts.2 For them, a butyrate supplement could be the solution.

But which supplements are worth trying? Find your answer to that question (and others) in this guide to the best butyrate supplements on the market.

If you’re pressed for time, take a quick look at our top recommendations below, but feel free to explore the rest of the page for thorough breakdowns of the testing and research behind those recommendations.

Why you should trust us

Over the past two decades, Innerbody Research has helped tens of millions of readers make more informed decisions involving staying healthy and living healthier lifestyles.

As with any of our guides, we first sought to understand the technical side of our subject. We closely read and analyzed the scientific literature, which totaled more than 50 studies, reviews, and other unbiased sources. With a solid foundation of knowledge to hold us up, we identified the major players in the butyrate supplement landscape and weighed their merits against one another. Then we got hands-on. We purchased and tried the market's most promising butyrate products, giving ourselves firsthand knowledge of key aspects of the consumer experience — chiefly purchasing, customer service, and consumption.

Additionally, like all health-related content on this website, this guide was thoroughly vetted by one or more members of our Medical Review Board for accuracy.

We’ll continue to monitor the butyrate supplements space in the years to come, acquaint ourselves with new products, and stay abreast of changes to existing supplements so that our recommendations remain up-to-date.

How we evaluated butyrate supplements

With every product we recommend, we want our readers to stand the best odds of seeing their desired outcomes without risk to their health. That's why efficacy and safety were our primary evaluative criteria. We also want our recommendations to be accessible, so cost and convenience also factored into our evaluations.

Here's how our top butyrate supplements fared in each category:

Efficacy

Winner: BodyBio Calcium Magnesium Butyrate

A bit of a preface to explain how we came to choose our winner for efficacy: When we compared the market’s top butyrate supplements, we noticed that many were underdosed. To be fair, supplemental butyrate formulas reflect the fact that the human body normally makes all the butyrate it needs from dietary fiber. The problem is that the average Western diet doesn’t come close to recommended fiber intakes,2 and factors such as aging and stress can increase the amount of butyrate you need. So, for our top butyrate supplement, we looked for a brand that was high in both quality and dose, increasing the odds that it would work well for most people.

BodyBio Calcium Magnesium Butyrate takes the category for efficacy thanks to the potency of its individual capsules. A serving delivers 1.2g of butyrate across two caps, so each one contains 600mg of the active ingredient. Compare that with Return Healthy's Double Butyrate, which has more butyrate per serving (1,680mg) but splits it across a four-capsule serving size (420mg each). In other words, BodyBio is the winner here because it delivers its butyrate more efficiently, and Return Healthy is the runner-up because of its overall high dose combined with other gut-healthy ingredients (discussed in greater depth in the dedicated brand section later on).

We definitely acknowledge the utility of lower-dose supplements. One source we referenced earlier states the standard dose of butyrate at 150-300mg represents anywhere from 1.5% to 30% of the lowest daily bodily demand,2 so it's a suitable range for people who consume a fair amount of fiber but could use a little boost. Both of our lower-dose recommendations — Gundry MD Bio Complete 3 and Peak Performance Tributyrin— meet the upper limit of the range with 300mg of tributyrin, a slow-release form of butyrate.

Safety

Winner: Peak Performance Tributyrin Postbiotics With CoreBiome

Dietary supplements like butyrate adhere to a different set of regulatory guidelines than food and medicine. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn't approve them for safety or efficacy before they hit the market,4 so we can't rely on FDA approval as our benchmark here. Instead, we study product ingredients for potential side effects and assess whether a brand adheres to safe production protocols.

Our winner for safety, Peak Performance Tributyrin, best meets our categorical criteria because of the following three qualities:

Cost

Winner: BodyBio Calcium Magnesium Butyrate

BodyBio Calcium Magnesium Butyrate is the least expensive option on our list in terms of both up-front and per-serving costs. A one-time purchase of the 100-count bottle is $34.99, which is equivalent to $0.70 per two-capsule serving. As a subscription, the price drops to $29.74 ($0.59/serving). The 250-count bottle is more expensive up front at $74.99 for a one-timer and $63.74 for a subscription, but its respective per-serving costs are $0.60 and $0.51.

The runner-up for cost is Peak Performance. It costs $35.95 up front for a one-time purchase and $32.36 for a subscription. Not that much higher than BodyBio, right? But Peak Performance contains just 30 servings per bottle, so the per-serving costs are $1.19 and $1.07, respectively — roughly twice as much as BodyBio. You can reduce the per-serving cost a bit more by buying in three- or six-bottle bundles, but then your up-front cost would balloon tremendously.

Our other two butyrate recommendations are even more expensive. Gundry MD, at its most affordable, is $49.95 for a one-time purchase and $44.95 for a subscription ($1.67 and $1.49 per serving, respectively), whereas Return Healthy is $62.50 for a one-time and $56.25 for a subscription ($2.08 and $1.88 per serving). Gundry MD has three- and six-bottle bundles, too, which do reduce your per-serving costs but in exchange for steep up-front investments.

Convenience

Winner: Peak Performance Tributyrin Postbiotics With CoreBiome

For the convenience category, we based our choice on serving size, capsule size, shipping, and logistics. None of our top brands fully satisfied each sub-criterion. So, before we could name the winner, we asked ourselves: Which is more important — serving and capsule size, or shipping and logistics? We decided that serving and capsule size took priority because they relate to daily use.

As a result, Peak Performance is our pick for convenience. The Tributyrin Postbiotics With CoreBiome aren't the smallest capsules, but they're close enough for the difference to be negligible. Plus, you need to take just one per day. We much prefer that to four pops of Return Healthy's barely smaller capsule.

Peak Performance's main downside is its 30-day return policy — the shortest time frame among our top recommendations. We wish it were at least 60 days, but we think the ease of daily use overshadows this small strike against the company.

In comparison, Return Healthy and BodyBio both have 60-day return windows, and BodyBio provides a very generous 90 days. The trade-offs are a high, four-capsule dose with Return Healthy; the largest capsule size with BodyBio; and a higher serving size, as well as slower shipping, with Gundry MD.

How our top butyrate supplements compare

See the following table for a side-by-side comparison of our top butyrate supplements:

What is butyrate?

Butyrate, also known as butyric acid, is a type of short-chain fatty acid (SCFA). At around 15% of the body’s total SCFA composition, it's the third-most abundant SCFA in the human body, after acetate (60%) and propionate (25%).7 The trillions of microorganisms in your gut (a.k.a. your gut microbiome) naturally produce SCFAs such as butyrate by fermenting the fiber you ingest. Those SCFAs belong to a category of compounds called postbiotics, the digested “waste” of pre- and probiotics that allows the healthy bacteria in your gut microbiome to thrive.8 But Jordan Stachel, a registered dietitian nutritionist and member of our Review Board, points out a major problem for Americans: “Many people have a difficult time getting enough fiber in their diets.”

Butyrate, in particular, is a critical nutrient for gastrointestinal health because it's the "primary energy source" for intestinal mucosal epithelial cells.9 The epithelial cells serve two major functions. One is to separate your gut's microbes from host immune cells, thereby preventing interactions that would cause inflammation. The other is to mediate signals between your microbiota and host immune cells so you have a proper immune response to pathogens. In other words, butyrate helps your gut feel and function as it should. With sufficient amounts of it in your body, you lower your risk of inflammatory bowel diseases like ulcerative colitis, Crohn's disease, irritable bowel syndrome, and multiple other problems associated with a "leaky gut."10

Butyrate appears to have a close connection to mental functions, as well. SCFAs can affect a person's brain physiology and behavior because of the gut-brain axis, a network of nerves between the enteric nervous system (in the gut walls) and the central nervous system (headquartered in the brain).11 Communication between the two systems is bidirectional, meaning that it goes both ways. Butyrate functions as a mediator within the relationship. It can affect brain activity indirectly via stimulation of the peripheral nervous system or regulation of immune function, and it may directly affect the release of serotonin and gut hormones that can impact brain function.12

As discussed in a review, the human body needs 1,000-10,000mg of butyrate per day. A person should be capable of producing sufficient butyric acid through their diet, but the researchers note that Western populations have an "insufficient supply" of resistant starch and food fibers to do so.2 The resulting butyrate deficiency can lead to or exacerbate gastrointestinal problems, like the ones we've mentioned. It may even be associated with serious cognitive/behavioral illnesses like myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, owing to the gut-brain axis.13

A butyrate supplement can help you fill any deficiency you may have. Producing a butyrate supplement involves combining it with a mineral — usually sodium, calcium, or calcium/magnesium — to act as a buffer against butyrate’s acidity. Apart from the mineral used, there's no meaningful difference between sodium butyrate, calcium, and calcium/magnesium butyrate. Calcium and cal/mag variants are likely the best choice for many users, as the average American diet already has way too much sodium.14 Even so, your best choice may be sodium butyrate. “Different individuals need different levels of sodium in their diets for health optimization,” Stachel emphasizes. “If you’re curious about how much sodium is right for you, it is best to consult a qualified healthcare provider.”

By the way, you can also boost your body's butyrate production by modifying your diet, which entails eating more:15

• Fruits with fermentable fibers (e.g., apples, apricots, bananas, kiwis, pears, raspberries)
• High-fiber vegetables (e.g., artichokes, asparagus, broccoli, carrots, garlic, leafy greens, onions, potatoes)
• Legumes (e.g., chickpeas, green peas)
• Full-fat dairy (e.g., butter, ghee, cheese, milk) — in moderation

What can a butyrate supplement do for you?

If you're butyrate-deficient and struggle to get enough of the dietary fiber necessary to produce it, then a butyrate supplement can help you close the gap. Below, we discuss three of the most promising health benefits that butyrate supplementation may help provide:

Butyrate may deliver additional benefits in other areas, too, such as cognitive function (perhaps not surprising given the gut-brain axis). For example, in a review, the authors discuss its potential to protect neurons from cell death in Parkinson’s disease, as well as to promote genes associated with plasticity (the ability of the brain to adapt to experience).23 However, research indicates the most promising applications relate to the aforementioned focal areas of gut health, colorectal cancer, and obesity, so those are the areas for which we’d recommend taking a butyrate supplement.

Are butyrate supplements safe?

Butyrate supplements are generally considered safe. Butyric acid occurs naturally in the body, after all. Besides, many Americans probably don't make sufficient amounts of it on their own, seeing as butyric acid production relies on dietary fiber and the average U.S. adult eats less than half as much as they should.24 To put things in some perspective, the highest-dose supplement on our list (Return Healthy Double Butyrate) delivers 1,680mg of butyrate, which falls just short of at least one estimate of the body's daily demand.2

That doesn't mean that butyrate supplements are entirely risk-free for everyone. All supplements carry some degree of risk. With butyrate, toxicity is possible in high-enough doses. Case in point, a rat study that administered sodium butyrate at 0.3-2.5g/kg found that "excessive" butyrate caused an "immediate [but] reversible toxic effect" that led to steep declines in core body temperature (6 degrees Celsius below normal at peak drop).5 However, an equivalent dose for a 70kg human would be something like 3.3-28.2g (3,390-28,220mg), and as long as you take your butyrate supplement as directed, the odds of even approaching such a high dose are extremely low.

The Cleveland Clinic warns that people with lower fiber tolerances may experience side effects, as well — namely symptoms associated with food intolerances, like abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, and nausea.15 25 At the same time, clinical trials on people with gastrointestinal issues have largely yielded no adverse reactions. That includes a study on 66 individuals with irritable bowel syndrome, in which the researchers noted an "absence of side effects.”26

A last concern is something we mentioned earlier, which is sodium. Some users who need to monitor their sodium intake may find the amounts integrated into a sodium butyrate supplement can put them at risk for complications such as hypertension.27

If you feel that your risk is higher than normal, you should consider using a cal/mag butyrate product.

Who should (and shouldn’t) take a butyrate supplement?

Because butyrate plays a crucial role in gut health, and butyrate deficiency correlates with gut dysfunction, we'd say that butyrate supplementation is generally suitable for people with an acute or chronic gut malady, such as:

• Crohn's disease
• Diarrhea
• Gut inflammation/diverticulitis
• Irritable bowel syndrome

Butyrate's activity against colorectal cancer cells makes it a potential preventive against cancers of the colon and rectum, too. Therefore, people with the following colorectal cancer risk factors might be interested in adding a butyrate supplement to their regimen:28

• Alcohol and/or tobacco use
• Diet high in processed foods, low in fruits and vegetables
• Low-fiber, high-fat diet
• Sedentary lifestyle

Also, considering butyrate's potential effects on insulin secretion and appetite, it may likewise be beneficial to individuals with overweight or obesity, or people who experience difficulty managing their food intake.

On the flip side of the coin are people who'd be better off avoiding butyrate supplementation altogether, or else exercising caution. These are populations that include:

Before you click Checkout on any of our recommended products, speak first with a medical provider to gain their professional insight.

BodyBio Calcium Magnesium Butyrate

Best overall and best high-dose single-ingredient butyrate supplement

Remember what we said about the underdosing of butyrate among supplemental sources? You don't have to worry about that with BodyBio Calcium Magnesium Butyrate. Because the body needs up to 10,000mg of butyrate per day,2 and the average American doesn't consume enough fiber to produce sufficient butyric acid on their own, then we can conclude that BodyBio's 1.2g dose (validated via third-party testing) can go a long way toward making up for the deficiency. On our list, only Return Healthy's Double Butyrate contains more of the active ingredient (1,680mg of butyrate plus 200mg of tributyrin); Gundry MD and Peak Performance hover at around one-third of BodyBio’s dose.

BodyBio Calcium Magnesium Butyrate also delivers fair amounts of its other two stated ingredients: 160mg of calcium and 80mg of magnesium. In terms of daily values, it contains 16% and 20% of the respective minerals. While people with severe calcium and magnesium deficiencies may need higher doses (most adults need around 1,000mg of the former and 400mg of the latter),30 31 the amounts found in BodyBio are likely sufficient for most users who need a boost in their daily intake. (For comparison's sake, the quantities are about equal to, if not more than, the amounts you typically find in popular multivitamins.)

Now, higher doses tend to correspond with larger capsules, and that's certainly true of BodyBio's butyrate. A single capsule measures approximately an inch long, making it the largest capsule on our list. The size difference compared to our other recommendations isn't drastic, but people who have difficulty swallowing pills are likely to notice it.

On the plus side, BodyBio’s cal/mag butyrate is vegan. Granted, vegetarians and vegans may be less in need when it comes to butyric acid production, seeing as they tend to consume the most fiber,50 but BodyBio's vegan-friendliness is still something we appreciate.

By the way, BodyBio's butyrate is available in a sodium alternative, too. We don't recommend it as part of our top recommendation since it contains a somewhat hefty 313.3mg dose of sodium, which is not only more than twice as much as we've seen in other sodium butyrate supplements but also enough to push a lot of users over the 2,300mg/day FDA-recommended threshold.14 However, if you're someone who doesn't get enough sodium in your diet, BodyBio Sodium Butyrate may be a viable option for you.

Pricing, subscription, shipping, and returns

BodyBio Calcium Magnesium Butyrate comes in two sizes: 100-count and 250-count bottles. The pricing for either option varies depending on whether you choose a one-time purchase or an auto-shipped subscription, the latter of which offers the highest discount among our recommendations (15%). In either case, BodyBio has the lowest per-serving costs on our list, and the 100-count bottle has the lowest up-front price tag. Here's how it all breaks down:

(An aside: The Sodium Butyrate version is available in 60- and 100-count bottles for $24.99 and $34.99, respectively.)

With a subscription, you can choose between 30-, 50-, and 60-day delivery intervals. A 100-count bottle contains 50 servings, so a 50-day interval would be ideal for a single user. We wish, however, that the 250-count bottle (125 servings) came with longer intervals; as it is, even a 60-day schedule would leave you with a major surplus by the end of a single cycle, so the larger size is probably more suitable for households with multiple users or those whose doctors have recommended a more significant dose. Still, BodyBio has a wider range of delivery intervals than Return Healthy or Peak Performance, which do 30-day deliveries exclusively.

When you check out, you'll see that your payment options are also pretty diverse:

• Credit card
• Shop Pay
• PayPal
• Amazon Pay
• Google Pay
• Venmo

Flat-rate shipping adds $5.00 to your total. Unfortunately, BodyBio doesn't have a free-shipping threshold. No international orders, either, although the company will ship to APOs/FPOs — for a steeper shipping cost, and as long as you call to place your order.

For domestic orders to the continental United States, BodyBio says to expect 4-6 days for your order to arrive. For shipping to APOs/FPOs, the estimated delivery time is 3-6 weeks. Our package, being a domestic order, arrived in four days, as stated. It came in a plain box with normal tape, similar to most of the brands we discuss in this guide. If you’re anything like us (i.e., not keen on showcasing your supplement purchases to your neighbors), you’ll appreciate such discreet packaging.

If you need to return your order, know that the policy window is 60 days. That's on par with Return Healthy's policy and twice as long as Peak Performance's, but it falls short of Gundry MD's 90-day time frame.

You can return an item, for any reason, for a refund or exchange. Only unopened items are eligible for a full refund, whereas opened items qualify for store credit valid for one year after issuance.

Initiating a return is a straightforward process that involves emailing the company for a return shipping label (otherwise, you're accountable for return shipping costs with no reimbursement).

Return Healthy Double Butyrate

Best high-dose butyrate complex

True to its name, Return Healthy Double Butyrate provides not one but two doses of butyrate. One is 1,680mg of pure butyrate, and the other is 200mg of tributyrin, a slow-release form of butyric acid the body can more easily absorb. The 200mg dose of tributyrin is within the standard 150-300mg range considered to be both safe and effective,2 while the 1,680mg dose of pure butyrate (the highest among our recommendations) is high enough to help low-producing users compensate for their deficiency.

Return Healthy is a calcium butyrate product whose 310mg calcium content amounts to about 30% of one's minimum daily needs and 15% of the recommended upper limit.32 At that dosage, it provides almost two times the amount of calcium as BodyBio. Moreover, seeing as calcium is best absorbed at doses under 500mg,33 the quantity is within an effective range for correcting minor deficiencies.

Of course, we're not dealing with just a butyrate supplement here. Return Healthy Double Butyrate is a complex, so it incorporates additional ingredients to boost the benefits to your gut and maximize the potential cognitive impacts.

Below is an overview of the supplement's other key components.

In exchange for all the healthful ingredients and their associated benefits, you have to take a dose of four capsules — twice as many as BodyBio or Gundry MD, and four times as many as Peak Performance. The upside is that Return Healthy's capsule size is the smallest among all of our recommended brands. Again, the size difference isn't major, but if you're going to be taking a small handful every day, you have to find the positive where you can.

Pricing, subscription, shipping, and returns

Return Healthy Double Butyrate comes in just one size: a 120-capsule bottle that provides 30 servings. The one-time purchase price is $62.50, which amounts to a per-serving cost of $2.08 (these would be the highest costs on our list if not for Gundry MD’s non-membership rates). The up-front price drops to $56.26 ($1.87 per serving) if you subscribe for auto-ship deliveries every 30 days. No other delivery interval is available to you.

Payment options are limited to credit cards and PayPal. Venmo is listed as an option on the site, but no option for it was visible to us during the checkout process.

Standard shipping costs a flat rate of $6.00. International orders aren't available at this time. Orders of $75 and above ship for free, but you won't reach the threshold with the butyrate alone.

Return Healthy says to expect delivery of your package within 3-6 days. When ours arrived, it was every bit as unmarked and discreet as our orders from BodyBio and Peak Performance. But note that we purchased this product from Amazon because it was less expensive. We’d suggest you do the same, unless you’re buying for the first time and want the protection of a good money-back return policy.

If you buy direct, Return Healthy's return policy is a bit better than BodyBio's. You have the same 60-day time frame, but there seems to be no stipulation about opened versus unopened products; rather, Return Healthy says you can get a full refund with "no questions asked." All you have to do is the company to request a return and remember to include your order number and a copy of your invoice in your package. You cover the cost of return shipping, but you can use any shipping method you want.

Gundry MD Bio Complete 3

Best low-dose butyrate complex

"It's important to consider the balance of pre-, pro- and postbiotics when looking to optimize gastrointestinal health," registered dietitian nutritionist Jordan Stachel tells us. Gundry MD Bio Complete 3, a product we've reviewed on its own, contains the whole biotics trifecta: pre-, pro-, and post-. Together, the three components allow the good bacteria in your microbiome to grow and flourish, thereby supporting healthy gut function and optimizing gut-brain axis communication.

If you are looking for more details, kindly visit butyric acid benefits.

Let's break down the product label:

Because Bio Complete 3 is a complex, it has a lot of ingredients to pack into its capsules despite the comparably low dose of butyrate. The result is a capsule that’s larger than Return Healthy and Peak Performance but slightly smaller than BodyBio.

Pricing, subscription, shipping, and returns

Gundry MD's pricing options go beyond one-time purchases versus subscriptions. There are two tiers of one-time purchase rates — non-members and members — and you can also bundle your order in three- or six-bottle shipments. Membership earns you a 28% discount off the base price, subscribing discounts the membership price by an additional 10%, and bundling adds even more savings.

Membership is free; you need only to create and validate an account on the Gundry MD website. Becoming a member is also the only way to view the subscription prices, which adds a small layer of inconvenience to the shopping experience.

As you can see in the pricing table below, Gundry MD’s non-membership prices are the highest up-front and per-serving costs on our list, but with the drastically lower membership and subscription prices, that distinction transfers to Return Healthy’s Double Butyrate instead. Not only that, but orders of $49 or more ship for free, so all but the single-bottle subscription option qualify.

If you subscribe, you'll get a fresh shipment every one month by default, but you can choose longer intervals (weekly delays or every 1-6 months) in your account settings. The thing is, you can't choose your interval until after you've checked out. It's not big enough of a problem to cause a headache, but it's another layer of inconvenience that diminishes the user experience a bit further.

At checkout, credit card is your only payment option. You can expect to receive your order in about a week — roughly twice as long as shipments from BodyBio or Peak Performance. Ours arrived in seven days and was mostly plain except for branded packing tape. Frankly, we would have preferred the package to be totally discreet, but that's just how the company ships its orders.

On a much more positive note, Gundry MD has a 90-day money-back guarantee, which is 30 days longer than that of BodyBio or Return Healthy and three times as long as the return period for Peak Performance. The return window opens on the day your order ships from Gundry's fulfillment center. To initiate a return, you can either call Gundry's support team or submit a Return Merchandise Authorization form. As long as you're still within the 90-day window, you'll receive a return authorization number and shipping instructions. You should receive your refund shortly after the return arrives at the company's shipping facility. You, the customer, are responsible for covering return shipping charges.

Peak Performance Tributyrin Postbiotics With CoreBiome

Best low-dose single-ingredient butyrate supplement, most convenient

Peak Performance Tributyrin Postbiotics With CoreBiome is a single-ingredient supplement consisting entirely of butyrate. The form of butyrate in question is the same branded CoreBiome tributyrin that Gundry MD uses. It provides a 550mg quantity, of which 300mg is active tributyrin (as verified through third-party testing). Again, that amount of butyrate is the upper limit of standard clinical doses.2 Because of its simplicity and modest-but-efficacious dosing, Peak Performance Tributyrin may be the best product on our list for beginners testing the waters of the butyrate supplement space.

Peak Performance can also boast of a high degree of convenience with its butyrate. That's because a serving is just one capsule — half the number that BodyBio and Gundry require, and a quarter of the quantity you need with Return Healthy. At the same time, the capsule is probably no larger than the Return Healthy capsule, so it's the ideal choice for users who have difficulty swallowing pills.

Last, like BodyBio, Peak Performance is vegan, so it should appeal to a somewhat wider audience.

Pricing, subscription, shipping, and returns

In terms of both up-front and per-serving costs, Peak Performance Tributyrin is the second-least expensive product on our list, behind only BodyBio's Calcium Magnesium Butyrate. A one-time purchase of a single bottle is just $35.95 ($1.20 per serving), while a subscription is 10% less at $32.36 ($1.08 per serving).

Also, like Gundry MD's Bio Complete 3, Peak Performance gives you the option to bundle your butyrate in three- or six-bottle orders. The caveat is that multi-bottle orders aren’t eligible for subscriptions, and only the six-bottle option nets you any further savings compared to the one-bottle subscription price. However, either bundle option gets you over the $49 free-shipping threshold, and that’s a plus.

The table below lays out all of your purchase options.

Unfortunately, the delivery interval is limited to 30 days, as with Return Healthy.

The payment options are numerous, at least. The range isn't as wide as BodyBio's, but you have several choices:

• Credit card
• Shop pay (available in split payments)
• Google Pay
• PayPal

Orders to the continental United States, Hawaii, and Alaska are eligible for standard shipping, which adds around $7 to your total. The standard shipping time is 2-3 days (our order arrived in three, in discreet packaging). For an added cost, you can opt for expedited or priority shipping, which is estimated to arrive in 1-2 days.

One of the major downsides of Peak Performance is its return policy, which allows only a tight 30-day window. The silver lining is that it's a no-questions-asked, 100% money-back guarantee. To initiate your return, you can or call the company and provide your order/confirmation number.

Explore this article

• Fatty Acids 101
• Butyrate and the Gut
• Butyrate and the Brain
• Butyrate and the Immune System
• How to Boost Your Butyrate
• Butyrate and COVID-19

Here’s a fact that reads like a riddle: Half of you isn’t you.

Fifty percent of the cells in your body are microbial, and they include fungi, protozoans, viruses, and bacteria. These microbes — known collectively as the micro­biome — significantly affect your digestion, immunity, mental health, and more.

Given their supporting role in so many key functions, it’s no surprise that you’re healthier when your microbes are well fed and happy. One way to ensure this is by consuming enough fiber. (See “6 Ways to Eat More Fiber” for ideas to help you amp up your fiber intake.

Fiber is food for gut microbes — and it prompts some of those microbes to produce an impor­tant short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) called butyrate.

Also known as butyric acid or butanoic acid, this SCFA contributes to an astonishing number of health benefits, including improved digestion, better detoxification, stronger overall immunity, and reduced risk of cancer.

Lackluster butyrate levels, on the other hand, can contribute to problems in all these areas. “If we don’t have good butyrate levels, then these critical functions are impaired,” explains functional-medicine physician Gregory Plotnikoff, MD.

Butyrate plays a role in so many bodily systems that diagnosing low levels of this molecule can be daunting. A stool test read by a healthcare practitioner trained to recognize optimal and suboptimal levels is the best way to learn if your butyrate production is flagging.

Test or no test, it’s worth doing what you can to boost butyrate on your own. “Butyrate has been overlooked for far too long,” Plotnikoff says. “It is a powerfully protective molecule that is in our power to activate and promote.”

Learn more about how this potent molecule works — and how you can help your body produce more of it.

Fatty Acids 101

You need fatty acids in your diet to support optimal brain and gut health. These molecules are the building blocks of fat — both the fat you eat and your adipose tissue. They consist of chains of carbon atoms with some hydrogen atoms attached, and they come in three sizes: short-chain, medium-chain, and long-chain.

Long-chain fatty acids are most common in animal foods and provide the essential omega-3 fatty acids in coldwater fish, eggs, walnuts, and chia seeds. Medium-chain fatty acids are found in coconut oil and milk fat, and they’ve enjoyed recent acclaim for their role in MCT (medium-chain triglyceride) oil — a key ingredient in Bulletproof coffee.

Short-chain fatty acids are present in foods like butter and cheese, but our gut microbes typically produce most of the SCFAs the body needs. These endogenously produced SCFAs include butyrate, propionate, and acetate, which work ­together to keep the gut and immune system in working order.

The best way to boost the body’s butyrate production is by supplying the gut with plenty of dietary fiber. Gut microbes break down indigestible fiber and turn it into SCFAs, which are ultimately responsible for the many health benefits associated with fiber: regular bowel movements and overall colon health, right-sized LDL cholesterol levels, steady blood sugar, and stable body weight.

(Insoluble fiber, soluble fiber, and prebiotic fiber are all essential to our health and well-being. Here are “The 3 Types of Dietary Fiber You Need” and a list of what foods contain them).

Butyrate and the Gut

SCFAs also keep the cells that line the colon (called colonocytes) healthy, providing them with their main source of energy. Although butyrate is the least abundant SCFA the body produces, it has a big impact on gut health.

“Colonocytes seem to love chowing down on butyrate, so most of it is taken up by the gut lining, where it contributes to a healthy colon,” notes internal-medicine specialist and gastroenterologist Will Bulsiewicz, MD, MSCI, author of Fiber Fueled.

In a healthy gut, the walls of the large intestine are intact but reasonably permeable. They allow nutrients to enter the system while preventing the escape of bacteria, toxins, and food particles.

When intestinal walls are damaged, they become permeable and “leaky.”

A range of factors can produce this condition, including stress, a low-fiber diet, and food intolerances. A leaky gut usually leads to widespread gut inflammation, which can trigger gastrointestinal (GI) disorders and more. (See “What Is a Leaky Gut?” to learn more about this condition and for a list of telltale symptoms.)

Meanwhile, enhanced butyrate production can build a sturdier gut barrier. “Butyrate fixes up the lining of the gut, like taking a beautiful historic home that’s been run haggard and restoring it to its original glory,” Bulsiewicz explains.

Plotnikoff likens this relationship to the adage that good fences make good neighbors. “Our neighbors — our bacteria — are doing all the maintenance work on this fence that is the gut lining,” he notes. “If they’re not producing butyrate, then the fence is not being cared for, and it becomes rickety and wobbly. It’s not doing the job it needs to be doing.”

One way butyrate protects the gut lining is by keeping inflammation in check, a task that we sometimes outsource to steroids like prednisone, says Plotnikoff. But butyrate helps regulate inflammation without the side effects of these drugs. “It’s in our power to roll back inflammation or to prevent it from even starting when it’s not necessary,” he says.

Notably, research has found a link between inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and a deficiency of butyrate-producing bacteria in the microbiome, as well as reduced microbial diversity. This may contribute to the overgrowth of an extra-nasty type of E. coli that often appears in the guts of people with IBD.

According to Bulsiewicz, this E. coli unleashes “pro-inflammatory proteins like a flamethrower as it proliferates, further enhancing dysbiosis and the rise of more E. coli.”

Butyrate helps arrest runaway inflammatory processes like these, and supplemental butyrate (in the form of capsules) is sometimes used to treat Crohn’s disease.

Butyrate and the Brain

We now know about the connection between the gut and the brain, so it’s not surprising that butyrate plays a role in cognitive health. Immune cells in the brain become prone to inflammation as we age, leading to impaired cognitive and motor function. The anti-inflammatory powers of butyrate help mitigate that damage.

Studies indicate that butyrate improves learning and memory in older mice. Animal studies also suggest that butyrate may aid in the fight against Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Alzheimer’s is associated with an excess of a protein called beta-amyloid in the brain, where it forms masses called plaques. These may interfere with cell function and damage brain and motor function.

In a study, mice given sodium butyrate supplements experienced significant reduction in beta-amyloid as well as improved cognitive performance.

Other studies link high-fiber diets and better butyrate levels to improved outcomes among participants with a history of Huntington’s disease, autism, or stroke.

Butyrate has also been studied for its effects on depression and other mental-health conditions. A meta-analysis of 59 studies found that the gut microbiomes of patients with depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis and schizophrenia, and anxiety all showed reduced numbers of anti-inflammatory butyrate-producing bacteria and increased populations of pro-inflammatory bacteria.

Butyrate and the Immune System

Butyrate’s benefits extend beyond the gut and brain to influence your immunity. “Although it remains in the bowel, butyrate’s effects are systemic,” says functional-medicine practitioner Kara Parker, MD, ABIHM, IFMCP. “It’s what’s called an HDAC (histone deacetylase) inhibitor, which means that it goes systemically throughout the body and messages cancer cells to turn themselves off and die.”

The salutary role butyrate plays in the gut may even extend to the health of the lungs, via what’s now being called the “gut–lung axis.” One study found that children who lacked butyrate-producing flora were more likely to develop asthma and allergies, while children with robust butyrate production were substantially less likely to do so.

Researchers are still unclear about exactly how butyrate contributes to these effects, but it appears to be through regulating immune-cell behavior. In other words, there isn’t much butyrate won’t do to protect your health.

How to Boost Your Butyrate

If you’re eager to increase your own butyrate levels, here are several ways to start.

1. Eat more butyrate-containing foods. Some foods contain butyrate naturally. These include hard cheeses (think Parmesan and pecorino), butter, full-fat yogurt, and fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, pickles, and tempeh.

2. Eat more butyrogenic foods. Certain foods, especially those high in fiber, promote butyrate production in the gut: flax and chia seeds; beans and lentils; high-pectin fruits, such as apples and berries; and vegetables like garlic and onions.

Whole grains are also supportive, and resistant starch from green bananas and cold potatoes helps feed the microbes that make butyrate (for more on resistant starch, see “Resistant Starch for a Healthy Gut“). Parker recommends adding a table­spoon of potato starch to soups or smoothies.

3. Get enough sleep. Rest is a critical factor in butyrate production. “In deep sleep, you repair the gut,” explains Parker.

In turn, optimal butyrate levels also help support sleep. One animal study found that SCFAs send sleep signals to the brain, and that higher butyrate levels increase duration of deep, non-REM sleep.

4. Fast. According to Parker, a fast-mimicking diet (which involves fasting for 12 or more hours) may help raise butyrate levels. “When you stop putting the food in, you stop making the gut do the functions of digestion, and you allow it to switch to absorption and repairing the holes,” she explains. “This helps heal a leaky gut and helps grow more anti-inflammatory bacteria.” (For more on intermittent fasting, see “Everything You Need to Know About Intermittent Fasting“.)

5. Exercise. Studies show that exer­cise increases butyrate levels in the gut, perhaps because it encourages blood flow to the bowels, says Parker. She cautions against overdoing it, though, because stress can exacerbate gut permeability. “Marathon runners classically have breaches in their intestinal barrier,” she says.

Researchers are still seeking to define the line between exercise levels that improve gut health and stressful extremes that exacerbate permeability.

6. Mind your stress. When the body gets overly stressed for too long, cortisol levels rise, and the hormone is “an inflamer of dysbiosis and a suppressor of a healthy microbiome” that contributes to gut permeability, says Parker.  (Learn more about the importance of cortisol and how to manage your cortisol levels at “How to Balance Your Cortisol Levels Naturally.”)

7. Supplement. If you experience gut pain, constipation, or poor sleep, and you already eat a varied, fiber-rich diet, you may wish to work with a healthcare provider to try butyrate supplements.

This can be especially useful if you’ve just finished a course of antibiotics and are having a hard time getting your gut back on track. “For a week of normal antibiotics, it can take up to a year to rebalance the microbiome, so, you’re going to lose some of the players that make butyrate,” Parker explains.

She says most of us will regain those bacteria over time through diet, but sometimes the process is too slow. “If you have severe bowel symptoms — an inflammatory bowel, or acute GI distress — you might want to take some butyrate for a period of time to help reduce that.”

In these situations, Parker may prescribe sodium-butyrate or calcium-butyrate capsules. It is possible to get too much, so she recommends working with a functional-medicine provider to get the right dose.

Butyrate and COVID-19

Butyrate has been found to help reduce inflammation in the lungs as well as the gut, and researchers hope it may help manage complications from COVID. A study found that symptomatic COVID patients had lower levels of butyrate-producing gut bacteria, which may play a role in the presentation of gastrointestinal symptoms with COVID infection.

Functional-medicine physician Kara Parker, MD, ABIHM, IFMCP, points to a study of healthcare workers in six countries published in . Of the 568 who got COVID, she says, “those who self-reported that they had a plant-based diet [reduced their odds of severe symptoms] by 73 percent. All those plant-based foods are contributing to increased butyrate. And you just have less gut inflammation when you’re eating fewer inflammatory foods.”

More research is needed, yet there’s no downside to upping your intake of vegetables, fruits, and other fiber-rich plant foods. (Learn more about what foods are high in fiber at “The 3 Types of Dietary Fiber You Need“.)

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This article originally appeared as “The Little Molecule That Could” in the May issue of Experience Life.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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