DGL Licorice
Best-in-class: DGL Licorice
Licorice with the blood-pressure-raising glycyrrhizin removed — soothes the stomach and supports the mucosal lining for reflux and ulcers.
How DGL Licorice actually works
Deglycyrrhizinated licorice increases mucus secretion from gastric goblet cells and improves mucosal blood flow, which strengthens the barrier rather than reducing acid. Removing glycyrrhizin is not cosmetic — glycyrrhizin inhibits 11-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase, causing cortisol to act on mineralocorticoid receptors, which raises blood pressure and drops potassium.
DGL Licorice quick facts
| Suggested dose | Chewable ~380–760 mg before meals. |
| How often | Per meal, chewed |
| Who it's for | Reflux, indigestion and stomach-lining support. |
✅ Clinically validated
- Studied for supporting gastric mucosa and easing reflux/ulcer symptoms.
- DGL form avoids licorice's blood-pressure/potassium side effects.
📊 Correlative data
- Licorice root has long European and Chinese use for stomach complaints. The deglycyrrhizinated form exists because the epidemiology of ordinary licorice is clear and unpleasant — regular intake raises blood pressure and drops potassium, with documented hospitalisations. DGL removes the compound responsible.
🧪 Theoretical / extrapolated benefits
- Predicted to work by increasing mucin secretion and mucosal blood flow rather than by suppressing acid — a fundamentally different mechanism from a PPI, and the reason it is proposed as complementary rather than alternative.
- The deglycyrrhizination is the whole safety argument: removing glycyrrhizin removes the 11β-HSD2 inhibition that raises blood pressure and drops potassium. Predicted to retain the mucosal effect without the mineralocorticoid one, which is plausible but not directly demonstrated.
These tiers tell you how much human evidence exists — not how well something works. This is the research space, and most of what’s in here is new rather than disproven. Something sitting at “theoretical” usually means nobody has funded the trial, not that the trial was run and failed.
The trap runs the other way too: something can be clinically validated and still do very little for you specifically. A statistically significant result in a study population is not a promise about your body.
- ✅ Clinically validated — human randomised trials or meta-analyses support it. The strongest footing available.
- 📊 Correlative — observational or epidemiological data. Suggestive, and genuinely useful for direction, but it cannot establish cause.
- 🧪 Theoretical / mechanistic — the mechanism is understood and often demonstrated in cells or animals, and the human trial doesn’t exist yet. Unproven is not the same as ineffective. Plenty of what’s standard practice today sat here five years ago.
✗ is a safety flag, not a grade. Where you see it, the concern is harm — not a disappointing trial. A compound tested for one purpose and found not to help there can still be worth studying somewhere else, so a negative result never gets rendered as a cross. It sits alongside the tier, because something can be both well-studied and genuinely risky.
My job is to tell you which one you’re looking at, and let you make the call. Grading something low isn’t me dismissing it — it’s me refusing to oversell it. This is the research space, and being able to reason forward from a mechanism matters as much as waiting for the trial.
The deglycyrrhizinated part is the safety story and it matters: whole licorice at supplement doses has caused genuine hypertension and hypokalaemia, including hospital admissions. DGL avoids that entirely while keeping the mucosal effect. Chewable forms work better than capsules because saliva mixing appears to be part of the mechanism. Useful for reflux and gastritis where the problem is barrier rather than acid volume.
DGL Licorice — safety & side effects
- DGL is deglycyrrhizinated specifically to remove the dangerous part — glycyrrhizin, which causes potassium loss, sodium retention and hypertension. That makes DGL far safer than whole licorice.
- But check the label says DGL. Whole licorice at sustained intake has caused severe hypokalaemia, arrhythmia and hypertensive crisis, and it is worse alongside diuretics and digoxin.
- Even DGL: GI upset is the main report. Not established as safe in pregnancy or breastfeeding — not because harm is documented, but because these are the two populations systematically excluded from the trials. Absence of data is not reassurance.
Not medical advice. If you take prescription medication or have a diagnosed condition, check this against it with a pharmacist or doctor — pharmacists are underused and free.
Where to get DGL Licorice
Find DGL Licorice on iHerb →Get the complete breakdown for DGL Licorice — inside the Academy alongside the full interactive Vault.
Unlock in the Academy — $10/mo →- When to take it, and what to take it with
- Which form actually absorbs
- Who it's worth it for
- Best-in-class brand pick
- Coach Cam's stacks and notes
Get the complete breakdown for DGL Licorice — inside the Academy alongside the full interactive Vault.
Unlock in the Academy — $10/mo →Bloodwork to run alongside DGL Licorice
Run these before you start, and again after 8–12 weeks. A baseline you didn’t take is one you can never go back for.
| Marker | What it’s watching for |
|---|---|
| Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP) | Potassium. Whole liquorice lowers it and raises BP; DGL shouldn't. Verify yours |
| hs-CRP (High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein) | The gut inflammation it's taken for |
| Ferritin | Reflux and gastritis are common causes of occult iron loss |
The Gut Health & Absorption panel covers these in one order — 11 markers, $208.80 with the discount applied.
Check results you already have → · All 102 markers A–Z
DGL Licorice — frequently asked questions
What is DGL Licorice?
Licorice with the blood-pressure-raising glycyrrhizin removed — soothes the stomach and supports the mucosal lining for reflux and ulcers.
What is the suggested dose of DGL Licorice?
Chewable ~380–760 mg before meals. This is a general reference for education only — statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and this is not medical advice.
Where can I find DGL Licorice dosing and the full breakdown?
The suggested dose and the full evidence — clinical, correlative and theoretical — are on this page. What's inside the Academy is when to take it, which form actually absorbs, the brand worth buying and Coach Cam's stacks.
Where can I buy DGL Licorice?
Coach Cam sources DGL Licorice from vetted, top-rated brands on iHerb — use the buy link on this page.
Build your foundation with Coach Cam
The full Supplement Vault — 350 products across 14 categories with clinical, correlative & theoretical evidence, plus my Thorne partner links — lives inside the Academy alongside 237 peptides.
Join the Academy — $10/mo →What DGL Licorice is used for
DGL Licorice appears under 2 goals in the Vault’s goal router, grouped by the mechanism it works through rather than by how much trial evidence exists. Each link opens that pathway in full, with the alternatives beside it and the bloodwork that tests it.