GI Clear Elite - Microbial Balance Support
Six standardized botanicals, dosed for a protocol — not a shelf.
A physician-formulated botanical complex built to support a balanced microbial environment in the gut. Standardized to active compounds, disclosed to the milligram, and designed to be run as a defined window rather than taken indefinitely.
6Standardized
botanicals
botanicals
725 mgExtracts per
capsule
capsule
120Vegetarian
capsules
capsules
30 daysPer bottle at the
standard protocol
standard protocol
You cannot seed a garden you have not tended.
Bloating after meals that used to digest without a thought. An afternoon that flattens out. Cravings that override otherwise good discipline. The reflex is to add a probiotic on top and hope.
Sometimes that works. Often it does not, and the reason is not the probiotic. It is the environment the probiotic is landing in. Microbial balance in the gut is a terrain question before it is a supplement question, and terrain is what most people skip.
GI Clear Elite is built for that upstream step. Six botanicals with a long documented history in traditional gut protocols, every one standardized to its active compounds, every amount printed on the label, and a defined 30 to 60-day structure with elimination support built into the instructions rather than sold to you later.
I have watched patients spend years and real money on protocols that did not take. Not because the protocols were wrong — because the terrain underneath them could not absorb or respond to anything.
So we built this the way I build a clinical protocol. Six botanicals rather than twenty. A defined window rather than an open-ended habit. And a safety section that says plainly who should not take it.
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P.Two ways to build a botanical gut formula.
Extract ratios and standardization percentages are the difference between a botanical formula and a botanical gesture. Here is where the two approaches part company.
The drugstore version
- Whole-leaf powders and 4:1 extracts, with no standardization percentage anywhere on the label
- Long ingredient lists that look impressive and dose almost nothing meaningfully
- Unformulated berberine, where the large majority never reaches circulation
- A 7 or 10-day “cleanse” that ends well before a microbial population has turned over
- No binder guidance, so people feel worse and quit in week one
- No contraindication disclosure on a formula that has real interaction potential
- Sold as a seasonal ritual rather than a structured protocol
The IOH standard
- Every botanical standardized — 10:1, 20% flavonoids, 40% oleuropein — printed on the label
- Six ingredients, each at a disclosed milligram amount, no proprietary blend
- Berbevis® berberine phytosome from Indena, chosen specifically for the absorption problem
- A 30 to 60-day protocol structure, because that is the window the traditional-use literature is built around
- A companion binder protocol with exact timing windows, written into the instructions
- Full contraindication and drug-interaction disclosure, stated plainly and early
- Built to the standard we use with Wealthy Body Protocol™ clients
Four decisions that separate a protocol from a cleanse.
Most botanical gut formulas fall down on one of four points. We designed around all four before a single capsule was filled.
01 — STANDARDIZATION
Verified actives, not plant dust
A 10:1 extract concentrates ten parts raw material into one. A 40% oleuropein standardization documents what is actually in the capsule. Without those numbers on a label, you are buying agricultural variability and hoping.
02 — ABSORPTION
Solving berberine's real problem
Berberine's limitation was never its activity. It was that very little of it is absorbed. The Berbevis® phytosome addresses that directly, and the grape seed extract in the matrix is there to ease the GI irritation unformulated berberine is known for.
03 — DURATION
Built for weeks, not for a weekend
Microbial populations turn over on their own timeline. Short cleanses tend to produce a good first fortnight and a quiet return to baseline. This runs 30 to 60 days for that reason, with a cycled advanced option.
04 — ELIMINATION
The half everyone skips
Shifting the microbial terrain releases byproducts into the gut lumen. If they are not bound and escorted out, a portion is reabsorbed. That is the half most consumer cleanses leave out entirely. A binder is not optional here.
Three ways to run it, and one day that shows you how.
Take each dose with a full glass of water alongside a meal containing some fat. The Berbevis® phytosome is lipid-compatible, and uptake of phytosome-delivered compounds is generally better in the presence of dietary fat.
Standard
Most people start here
2 capsules,
twice daily
Twenty to thirty minutes before breakfast and dinner, for 30 to 60 days.
4 capsules/day · 30 days per bottle · a full 60-day run takes 2 bottles
Advanced
Under physician guidance
3 capsules,
twice daily
Cycled four weeks on, one week off. We recommend running this tier with a clinician who knows your history rather than on your own.
6 capsules/day · 20 days per bottle · budget roughly 1.5 bottles per 4-week cycle
Maintenance
After a completed run
1 capsule,
twice daily
Two weeks per quarter. Worth considering with frequent international travel or constant restaurant eating. Not intended for continuous year-round use.
2 capsules/day · 28 capsules per quarterly blockThe day, mapped.
This is the part that decides whether the protocol works or annoys you. A binder is non-selective — it binds whatever is in the gut at the time of contact. Run it too close to your botanicals, your food, your medications, or your other supplements and it will carry those out along with everything else. Ninety minutes of clearance in every direction is the whole game.
Upon waking
IOH Detox Binder™ — 2 capsules with a full glass of water, nothing else
90 minutes clear
Breakfast
GI Clear Elite™ — 2 capsules with food containing some fat
Through the morning
Mid-afternoon
IOH Detox Binder™ — 2 capsules away from food and supplements
90 minutes clear
Dinner
GI Clear Elite™ — 2 capsules with food containing some fat
Two non-negotiables while you are on this. Hydration — aim for roughly half your body weight in ounces of filtered water daily. And a daily bowel movement, because a binder only helps if what it collects actually leaves. If things slow down, magnesium glycinate or citrate at bedtime usually handles it.
The full protocol is two products:
GI Clear Elite™ →
IOH Detox Binder™ →
Six botanicals. Every one standardized. Every amount printed.
Per-capsule amounts are what appears on the Supplement Facts panel. The per-day figure reflects the standard protocol of four capsules daily. Where we are below a studied amount, we say so in the same paragraph rather than leaving you to work it out.
Black Walnut Hull
Juglans nigra 250 mg per capsule1,000 mg per day 10:1 extract
The traditional backbone of botanical gut protocols, with a documented history going back well over a century. Black walnut hull contains juglone, a naphthoquinone that has been examined in laboratory settings for its interaction with microbial enzyme systems.
Ours is concentrated tenfold. Most consumer products on the shelf use a 4:1 extract or raw hull powder, which is a materially different ingredient wearing the same name.
Straight talk
Black walnut is a tree nut, and it is the reason there is an allergen warning on this label. If you have a tree nut allergy, this formula is not for you and no amount of interest in the rest of it changes that.
It is also part of why this is a defined-window protocol rather than a daily habit. Concentrated tannin-bearing botanicals are tools for a specific stretch of weeks, not a permanent addition to a shelf.
Neem Leaf
Azadirachta indica 125 mg per capsule500 mg per day 10:1 extract · 20% flavonoids
Neem has been used in Ayurvedic practice for a very long time, and it remains one of the most extensively written-about botanicals in that tradition. Its leaf contains azadirachtin and nimbin, compounds studied for their interaction with microbial cell wall integrity.
The number that matters here is the second one. Standardized to 20% flavonoids means the bioactive fraction is documented rather than assumed — at 125 mg per capsule that works out to 25 mg of flavonoids per capsule and 100 mg across a standard day. A neem powder with no standardization figure gives you no way to run that arithmetic at all.
Olive Leaf
Olea europaea 100 mg per capsule400 mg per day Standardized to 40% oleuropein
Oleuropein is the polyphenol that carries most of what olive leaf is known for, and it has been studied for effects on microbial balance and on biofilm behavior in laboratory models.
Standardized to 40%. Mass-market olive leaf commonly runs somewhere in the 6 to 12 percent range, which means a 100 mg dose of one is not remotely the same ingredient as a 100 mg dose of the other. Concentration is the entire conversation with this botanical.
Sweet Wormwood
Artemisia annua 100 mg per capsule400 mg per day 4:1 extract
Sweet wormwood is the middle member of the classical wormwood, black walnut and clove grouping that traditional botanical gut protocols have been built around for generations. It is included here for that role, at a 4:1 concentration of the aerial parts.
Straight talk
A lot of formulas in this category lean hard on the fact that Artemisia annua is the plant a well-known isolated pharmaceutical compound was originally derived from. We are not making that argument. This is a 4:1 whole-plant extract with no isolate standardization declared on the label, and it should not be read as delivering the activity of a purified compound.
It is here as a traditional botanical at a traditional-use concentration. That is the honest version, and it is the one we would rather print.
Clove Bud
Syzygium aromaticum 100 mg per capsule400 mg per day 4:1 extract
Eugenol-rich, and the third member of the classical trio. Clove has a long history in traditional gut formulations and its volatile constituents have been examined in laboratory work on microbial balance.
Clove is also part of why these protocols were traditionally structured across a multi-week window rather than a long weekend. The grouping was never designed as a short course, and we kept the structure it was designed around.
Berbevis® Berberine Phytosome®
Berberis aristata, root 50 mg per capsule200 mg per day Indena S.p.A. phytosome complex
Unformulated berberine has a well-documented absorption problem — published estimates place its oral bioavailability well under one percent, which is why standard berberine products have to use such large amounts to reach anything.
Berbevis® is Indena's patented phytosome answer to that: Berberis aristata root extract complexed with phospholipid and delivered alongside pea protein isolate, sunflower lecithin and grape seed extract. Indena's published pharmacokinetic work in twelve healthy volunteers reported roughly tenfold greater berberine absorption by AUC on a molar basis versus unformulated berberine, with observed dose linearity.
Straight talk on this dose
Read the label line carefully, because we are going to. The 50 mg figure is the phytosome complex, not a berberine milligram count — berberine is one component of that complex, and the label does not declare what fraction. We are not going to publish a berberine number we cannot document.
And the amount matters. Indena's own 60-day human trial on Berbevis® used 550 mg of the phytosome daily. A standard day of GI Clear Elite gives you 200 mg. That is meaningfully below the amount used in that trial, so nothing from it is being claimed here.
Berberine is in this formula as one of six botanicals working locally in the gut, chosen in the phytosome form because we did not want the absorption problem or the GI irritation that comes with the unformulated version. It is not here as a standalone berberine dose. If a full berberine amount is what you are after, that is a different product on this site, and it should be run as its own decision.
Supplement Facts
| Amount per Serving | %DV | |
|---|---|---|
| Black Walnut (Hull) (Juglans nigra) (10:1 extract) | 250 mg | * |
| Neem (Leaf) (Azadirachta indica) (10:1 Extract) (20% Flavonoids) | 125 mg | * |
| Olive (Leaf) (Olea europaea) (40% Oleuropein / 80 mg Extract) | 100 mg | * |
| Sweet Wormwood (Leaf) (Artemisia annua) (4:1 Extract) | 100 mg | * |
| Clove (Bud) (Syzygium aromaticum) (4:1 extract) | 100 mg | * |
| Berberis aristata (root) Phytosome™ | 50 mg | * |
| Berbevis® (Berberis aristata root extract with pea protein isolate, sunflower lecithin and grape (Vitis vinifera) seed extract) Indena Phytosome™ formulation or technology |
||
* Daily Value (DV) not established.
Other Ingredients: Vegetarian Capsule (Hypromellose, Purified Water), Rice Flour.
ALLERGEN WARNING: Contains Tree Nuts (Black Walnut).
Transcribed from the printed label, which is also shown in the product images above. Total standardized botanical extract content is 725 mg per capsule and 2,900 mg across a standard four-capsule day.
What it is
A six-botanical complex delivering 725 mg of standardized extracts per capsule, 120 vegetarian capsules per bottle. Black walnut, neem, olive leaf, sweet wormwood and clove, plus Berbevis® berberine phytosome from Indena.
What it does
Supports a balanced microbial environment in the gut, supports healthy digestive comfort, and supports the intestinal terrain that nutrient absorption and normal immune function depend on.
Who it is for
Adults with heavy travel, restaurant-heavy eating, or a history of antibiotic or NSAID use, who have already worked through probiotics and want to address the environment further upstream.
How to take it
Two capsules twice daily with food, for 30 to 60 days. One bottle covers 30 days at that dose. Pair it with a binder on the timing schedule above, and run it as a defined protocol rather than a daily habit.
Before you start
Read this section in full.
This is a concentrated botanical formula, and concentrated means it has real contraindications. We would rather lose the sale than have you take it when you should not.
- Do not use if pregnant, nursing, or trying to conceive. Sweet wormwood, black walnut and berberine are each contraindicated in pregnancy.
- Do not use if you have a tree nut allergy. This formula contains black walnut, Juglans nigra, and the allergen warning is printed on the label.
- Talk to your physician first if you take prescription medication. Berberine has well-documented interaction potential, particularly with anticoagulants such as warfarin, with medications used for blood sugar management, with cyclosporine, and with drugs metabolized through CYP3A4 or transported by P-glycoprotein. This is not a formula to add quietly on top of a medication list.
- The Berbevis® matrix contains pea protein isolate, sunflower lecithin and grape seed extract. Relevant if you have a legume sensitivity.
- Do not exceed the recommended amount. If you feel significantly worse, cut the amount in half, increase binder and water intake, and rebuild gradually.
- Not for anyone under 18.
- Persistent digestive symptoms deserve a workup, not a guess. If something has been going on for months, get evaluated and tested. A botanical protocol is a reasonable tool inside a plan. It is a poor substitute for knowing what you are dealing with.
What a full run actually looks like.
We are not going to hand you a calendar of promised outcomes. What we can describe is the shape of the protocol itself, which is the part you control.
PHASE 01
Opening stretch
Get the timing right before you worry about anything else. Four capsules a day with food, binder doses spaced 90 minutes clear in every direction, water up, bowels moving daily. Some people feel a bit off early on. That is usually the protocol moving faster than the elimination side can keep up with, and the answer is to slow the dose and push the binder and hydration, not to quit.
PHASE 02
The working middle
This is where the structure earns its keep and where most consumer cleanses have already ended. Nothing about this phase is dramatic. You keep the schedule, you keep the water, you keep the binder spacing honest. Running out of capsules halfway is the single most common reason these protocols underdeliver, so plan bottle count at the start rather than in week four.
PHASE 03
Finish and hand off
Complete the window, then stop. This is not a formula to stay on indefinitely. From there, the useful move is to build on the terrain rather than keep clearing it — probiotic and prebiotic support, and a maintenance block of two weeks per quarter if your travel or eating pattern warrants it.
Individual response varies with adherence, starting point, and everything else going on in your life. Nothing here is a guaranteed outcome, and no supplement protocol substitutes for finding out what is actually happening.
What to look for in any botanical gut formula.
Apply this to us, and apply it to whatever else you are considering. The questions matter more than the brand on the bottle.
| Checkpoint | GI Clear Elite™ | Typical off-the-shelf cleanse |
|---|---|---|
| Extract concentration | 10:1 on black walnut and neem, stated on the label | 4:1 or raw powder, often unstated |
| Standardization | 20% flavonoids on neem, 40% oleuropein on olive leaf | No standardization percentage given |
| Berberine form | Berbevis® phytosome from Indena, a branded ingredient with published human pharmacokinetic data | Unformulated berberine HCl, or none at all |
| Ingredient count | Six, each at a disclosed milligram amount | Fifteen to twenty, most present in trace amounts |
| Blend disclosure | Every active listed individually. No proprietary blend | One blend total, individual amounts hidden |
| Protocol length | 30 to 60 days, with a cycled advanced option | 7 to 14 days, then nothing |
| Binder guidance | Included, with exact timing windows | Absent, or a vague mention |
| Capsule composition | Hypromellose capsule and rice flour. No stearates, silica or titanium dioxide | Gelatin capsules with stearates, silica and flow agents |
| Safety disclosure | Full contraindication and drug-interaction list, stated on the page | A single generic line, if that |
Comparison reflects category norms across widely sold botanical gut formulas. No individual brand is referenced.
Proof, not promises
What we will stand behind.
There is a great deal we could claim about a formula like this. Here is only the part that holds up on the label and in the published literature.
- Six botanicals, each standardized to its active compounds and printed with its amount
- No proprietary blend anywhere on the panel
- Berbevis® from Indena S.p.A. — a patented, branded ingredient with published human pharmacokinetic data
- Manufactured in a cGMP-certified, FDA-registered facility in the United States
- Vegetarian capsules, free of gelatin, magnesium stearate, titanium dioxide and silica
- Rice flour is the only excipient on the label
- Contraindications and drug interactions disclosed in full rather than buried
Manufacturing and standardization
How this one is made.
Sourcing is where a botanical formula is won or lost, because the same plant name can mean two completely different ingredients depending on how it was extracted.
- Manufactured in a cGMP-certified, FDA-registered facility in the United States
- Every botanical standardized to a stated extract ratio or active percentage — no whole-leaf dust
- Berbevis® supplied by Indena S.p.A. of Milan, Italy, a patented and branded phytosome
- Vegetarian capsules. No gelatin, magnesium stearate, titanium dioxide or silica
- Rice flour is the only excipient on the label — nothing else is along for the ride
- Every active listed individually on the panel with its own milligram amount
The full Supplement Facts panel is shown in the product images above and transcribed on this page.
Dr. Andreas Boettcher at an Ironman finish with his son. This image is a photograph of the founder, not a claim about what this product does.
From the formulator
You cannot out-supplement or out-train a gut that is working against you.
I have watched patients spend years and real money on protocols that did not take. Not because the protocols were wrong, but because the terrain underneath them could not absorb or respond to anything we asked of it.
So we built this the way I build a clinical protocol. Six botanicals rather than twenty. Every one standardized, so what is on the label is what is in the capsule. A defined 30 to 60-day structure rather than an open-ended habit. A binder protocol with real timing, because clearing without eliminating is how people end up feeling terrible and quitting in week one. And a safety section that says plainly who should not take this.
It is the same standard I apply with Wealthy Body Protocol™ clients, who are paying for precision rather than platitudes. Run it properly, or do not run it.
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P.
Founder, It's Only Halftime®
Ironman Triathlete / Master's Men's Physique Competitor / Medication-Free at 56 / 33 Years of Clinical Practice
One companion is not optional, and we would rather say so plainly.
This is the part most consumer cleanses leave out, and it is the reason people abandon them early. When the microbial terrain shifts, byproducts are released into the gut lumen. Bind them and they leave. Leave them unbound and a portion is reabsorbed across the intestinal wall and recirculated — which is how a protocol ends up feeling like it is going backwards before it goes forwards.
That pattern is not the protocol failing. It is the protocol moving faster than your elimination pathways can keep up with. The fix is a binder and better timing, not quitting.
Run these together
IOH Detox Binder™
Modified citrus pectin specified to 8.1 kilodaltons, shilajit standardized to over 50% fulvic acid, clinoptilolite zeolite, activated charcoal, silica, and Albion® molybdenum. Six components across several distinct binding mechanisms, chosen so different classes of byproduct each have something to attach to — plus the enzymatic cofactor that binding alone does not address.
One to two capsules twice daily, taken at least 90 minutes away from GI Clear Elite, from meals, from medications and from your other supplements. Binders do not discriminate between what you want removed and what you paid for.
Add IOH Detox Binder™ →The protocol, in one day
Same schedule as above, here so you do not have to scroll back for it. Two products, four touchpoints, and 90 minutes of clearance in every direction around the binder.
4 capsules of GI Clear Elite™ daily · 30 days per bottle · a 60-day run takes 2 bottles
Water at roughly half your body weight in ounces · a daily bowel movement is not optional
I do not put my name on a protocol I would not run myself, and I do not sell one without telling you what it costs you in discipline. Four capsules a day, a binder on the clock, water, and a finish line you actually cross. That is the deal.
Stay Strong,
Dr. Andreas
Dr. Andreas Boettcher, B.S., D.C., C.F.M.P.
Before your first capsule.
How many bottles do I need?
On the standard protocol you take four capsules a day, so a 120-capsule bottle covers 30 days. A full 60-day run needs two bottles. The advanced tier runs six capsules a day, which is 20 days per bottle, so a four-week cycle at that level needs roughly a bottle and a half. Work this out before you start. Stopping halfway because you ran out is the most common way these protocols underdeliver.
Do I really need the binder, or is that just an add-on?
You need it. Shifting the gut environment releases byproducts, and if they are not bound they get reabsorbed rather than eliminated. That is what tends to produce the general feeling of going backwards in the first stretch, and it is the thing that makes most people quit. The binder is genuinely half of this protocol, and the 90-minute spacing matters as much as the binder itself.
What if I feel worse early on?
Cut the amount in half, push water and binder intake up, make sure your bowels are moving daily, and rebuild gradually. Feeling somewhat off early is common when a protocol is moving faster than the elimination side can keep up with. That said, feeling significantly unwell is a reason to stop and talk to your physician, not a badge to push through.
Is this safe with my medications?
Talk to your physician or pharmacist before you start, and be specific with them about the berberine. Berberine has well-documented interaction potential with anticoagulants such as warfarin, with medications used for blood sugar management, with cyclosporine, and with a range of drugs metabolized through CYP3A4 or moved by P-glycoprotein transporters. That is a wide net, and it includes some very common prescriptions.
Separately, the binder side of this protocol needs 90 minutes of clearance from any medication, because binders are non-selective and can reduce absorption of what you actually need. If you take a medication with a narrow therapeutic window, that spacing is not a suggestion.
Can I take it with my other supplements?
GI Clear Elite, yes. The binder, no — that needs 90 minutes of clearance from everything, including your other supplements, your medications and your food. Binders do not distinguish between what you want removed and what you paid for.
Should I be on a probiotic at the same time?
Most people get more out of running this first and adding probiotics afterward. Part of the reasoning behind the whole protocol is that a probiotic performs differently depending on the environment it lands in. If you are already on one you like, keep it — just take it outside the binder window.
Is this my berberine supplement?
No, and we would rather be clear about that than let the label do the implying. A standard day here provides 200 mg of the Berbevis® phytosome complex, which is well below the amount Indena used in its own 60-day human trial on the ingredient. Berberine is here as one of six botanicals working in the gut, in a phytosome form so that absorption and GI tolerance are not working against us. If a full berberine amount is what you want, run a dedicated berberine product as its own decision and discuss it with your physician first.
Can I run it continuously?
No, and it is not designed for that. This is a defined 30 to 60-day protocol, with an optional maintenance block of two weeks per quarter. Botanicals at this concentration are tools for a specific window, not a permanent daily addition.
How is this different from a drugstore cleanse?
Concentration and structure. Standardized extracts at stated percentages rather than raw powder. Six deliberate ingredients with individual amounts rather than a long trace-dose list under one blend name. A phytosome berberine chosen for absorption. A protocol length that matches how microbial populations actually turn over. Binder timing written into the instructions rather than sold to you afterward. And a safety section that tells you plainly who should not take it.
Do I need testing first?
If your symptoms have been going on for months, yes — get a proper workup rather than guessing. Comprehensive stool testing tells you what you are actually dealing with, and it changes what the right protocol looks like. This formula is a good tool inside a plan. It is a poor substitute for knowing.
Clear the terrain before you build on it.
Everything downstream depends on the environment you are asking it to work in. Nutrient absorption. Steady energy. Normal immune function. How your body responds to every other thing you take, including the ones you are already paying for.
Six standardized botanicals. Every amount printed. A defined window with a finish line, and the elimination half nobody else builds in. Start where it actually starts, and finish strong.
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