Gut Health:
The science of foundational well-being
To understand how ION* Gut + Microbiome supports foundational health, it is vital you understand your gut and more importantly, your gut lining.
Gut health = your health
Your gut is more than just a digestive organ; it’s a complex, crucial ecosystem made up of trillions of microorganisms that work in harmony to maintain stasis.
What does your gut do for you?
Digestion & nutrient absorption
The gut breaks down complex foods into absorbable nutrients like amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals, the raw materials your body needs to thrive.
Immune regulation
About 70% of your immune system resides in the gut. Specialised immune cells in the intestinal wall constantly monitor what passes through, identifying potential threats and maintaining tolerance toward beneficial microbes and foods.
Protection against pathogens
A healthy gut microbiome acts as a defensive shield, outcompeting harmful bacteria and viruses and creating an environment that deters invaders from taking hold.
Neurochemical production
The gut produces over 90% of the body’s serotonin, along with dopamine, GABA, and other neurotransmitters, directly influencing mood, sleep and cognitive function.
Metabolic and detox support
The microbiome helps metabolise hormones, neutralise toxins and produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like butyrate, which fuel the cells of the intestinal lining and support energy balance.
The Gut Lining
The Gut Lining: Your Intelligent Barrier
Lining the entire intestinal tract is an incredibly thin, single-cell-thick layer known as the epithelial lining.
Despite being only about half the width of a human hair, it plays one of the most critical roles in health, serving as a selective barrier between the external environment (everything we ingest) and our internal bloodstream.
This lining is held together by tight junctions; microscopic protein complexes that regulate what can pass through. Think of them as gatekeepers that decide what enters your body:
- Nutrients, electrolytes and beneficial compounds are allowed in.
- Toxins, pathogens and undigested food particles are kept out.
When functioning properly, these tight junctions maintain intestinal integrity, keeping the inner environment balanced and the immune system calm.
When the Gut Barrier Is Compromised
Modern life places enormous stress on this delicate system. Processed foods, glyphosate and other pesticides, chronic stress, antibiotics, alcohol and environmental toxins can all disrupt the balance of the microbiome and weaken tight junctions. This condition is often referred to as “leaky gut” or intestinal permeability.
When these junctions loosen, unwanted particles such as gluten, toxins, bacteria or undigested food fragments can pass through the gut wall into the bloodstream. The immune system detects these particles as invaders and mounts an inflammatory response.
Over time, this chronic low-grade inflammation can contribute to a wide range of issues.
In essence, when the gut lining is compromised, the communication between your body’s systems begins to break down.
Signs Your Gut Barrier May Need Support
If you’re experiencing any of the following, it could be a sign that your gut barrier integrity is compromised:
Digestive Signs
- Bloating, gas, or irregular bowel movements
- Food sensitivities or difficulty digesting certain foods
- Heartburn or reflux
Immune & Inflammatory Signs
- Seasonal allergies or frequent colds
- Autoimmune flares or unexplained inflammation
- Skin issues such as eczema, acne, or rosacea
Neurological & Emotional Signs
- Brain fog or difficulty concentrating
- Mood swings, anxiety, or low motivation
- Poor sleep or fatigue
Whole-Body Clues
- Sugar cravings or unstable blood sugar
- Joint discomfort or stiffness
- Sluggish recovery from exercise or illness
These symptoms often trace back to barrier dysfunction – when tight junctions lose their integrity and immune signalling becomes overactive. Supporting the gut lining’s natural repair processes can be one of the most powerful and foundational ways to restore long-term balance and vitality.
A foundational approach
Most products aimed at gut health focus on adding bacteria to your system in the form of probiotics designed to repopulate or balance the microbiome. But ION* takes a completely different, more foundational approach.
Instead of focusing on adding organisms, ION* supports the environment they live in, the soil of your inner ecosystem.
The key lies in a unique family of carbon molecules sourced from ancient, fossilised soil, rich in redox-active humic substances.
How ION* Gut + Microbiome Works
The Science of Redox Signalling
Every cell in your body communicates through redox signalling, electrical exchanges that instruct cells when to repair, regenerate or defend. The molecules in ION* act as cellular messengers, helping to restore this natural communication network within the gut lining.
When communication is strong, tight junctions can open and close intelligently, maintaining a healthy barrier that allows nutrients in while keeping toxins out. This balanced permeability supports:
- Improved nutrient absorption
- Stronger immune resilience
- Reduced inflammatory signalling
- Healthier microbiome diversity
In other words, ION* doesn’t override your system – it reminds it how to function.
Strengthening the Gut–Brain–Immune Axis
Because your gut lining is connected to every major system, from the immune network to the brain via the vagus nerve, restoring its integrity supports far more than digestion.
ION* helps to:
- Reconnect gut–brain communication, improving mood and focus
- Support immune balance, reducing unnecessary overreactions
- Encourage a calmer nervous system through better serotonin and GABA production
- Promote systemic resilience, from skin to energy to metabolism
This inside-out approach nurtures your body’s innate intelligence rather than overriding it. A truly regenerative path to health.
Core benefits of a healthy gut
Toxin protection
Your body’s defence understands it is to allow essential nutrients to pass through while blocking harmful toxins. However, these defences need to be robust. ION* has been proven to enhance the body’s internal communication pathways, supporting the integrity of tight junctions. By fortifying these tight junctions, your body’s natural barriers are reinforced at a cellular level, thus enhancing the effectiveness of your immune system at its core.
Immune function
Your immune system’s function is to identify and eradicate pathogens, and that process begins at your body’s barriers to the outside world. Research indicates that 70% or more of the body’s pathogen-fighting white blood cells reside in the gut. By sparking the body’s natural ability to keep your barriers strong, pathogens are obstructed before your immune system is exposed to their damaging effects.
Microbiome support
Just like you, your microbiome needs a healthy, hospitable environment to thrive. Think of your skin, gut lining, and nasal passages as terrains – upon which the health of your microbiome depends. This is where we come in. By supporting the terrain (cellular integrity), ION* facilitates the body to create microbiome health at its literal foundation.
Cellular hydration
Healthy membranes (skin, gut, sinuses) facilitate movement of minerals and nutrients across cell membranes, also pulling in water. By improving cellular integrity and reinforcing those membranes, the body can better regulate water absorption.
Stronger tight junctions = better nutrient absorption and hydration.
Collagen production
Collagen is most associated with improving elasticity, supporting hydration, and reducing signs of aging in the skin. However, the benefits of healthy collagen formation go far deeper, helping with everything from muscle strength to joint pain to heart health. ION* has been scientifically shown to support lysine production – one of the fundamental precursors of collagen formation.
The Science of ION* Gut + Microbiome
The science behind ION* lies in the strengthening of the cellular integrity of your body’s barriers. Keeping your cells connected keeps these barriers intact, which sets the foundation for seamless interaction between you and your microbiome.
Further insight can be found in these studies.
Blood-brain barrier response
Explores the connection between the microbiome and the gut and blood-brain barrier systems, as well as the improved effect that ION* has on the blood-brain barrier.
Glyphosate protection
Studies the capacity of ION* to block glyphosate-mediated injury in small intestinal and colon epithelial membranes.
Gluten impact
Explores the addition of ION* stabilising tight junction integrity, even in the face of gluten exposure.
Clinical Studies
In addition to peer-reviewed studies, ION* conducted two foundational double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials that studied the ability of ION* Gut + Microbiome to promote innate health in two important ways: lysine production and immune function.
Lysine Trial
ION* Gut + Microbiome promotes the lysine production in healthy subjects, likely by stimulating intestinal microbiota production and intestinal transport of this critical regulatory amino acid.
These findings elucidate one of the likely mechanisms by which Terrahydrite® supports tight junction protection and repair following gluten or glyphosate injury and sheds light on the in vivo function of Terrahydrite® to support intrinsic pathways of protein production, cell repair and immune function.
Immune Trial
Clinical findings demonstrated that ION* Gut + Microbiome supplement markedly reduced urinary levels of the inflammatory marker IL-6, the tight junction modulator zonulin and the pesticide glyphosate in adult health subjects, even in a short two-week supplement course.