What Is Marshmallow Root? Benefits and Uses Explained

Author's Bio: Marcie Vaske, MS, LN, CNS

What is marshmallow root and what are the benefits and the uses of this very helpful herb?

Hi, and welcome back to our channel. My name is Marcie Vaske. I'm a functional licensed nutritionist with Flusso Nutrients. At Flusso Nutrients, we work very hard to educate you on different types of supplements so that you can make a decision that is best suited for yourself.

Now, of course, this doesn't take the place of a supplement practitioner that may be specialize in this such as us at the clinic. And if you have questions with contraindications in terms of any other supplements you're taking and any medications that you're on with supplements that we're talking about through the videos, please reach out to them. This video is really suited to just giving you more information about other items that might be out there that could help you feel your best.

[Video Transcript Below + Supplement Links Discussed In Video]

What Is Marshmallow Root?

So let's dig back into our topic of marshmallow root and what is marshmallow root. Well, it is a traditional herbal remedy that is derived from the root of the marshmallow plant. And this marshmallow plant root has been used for centuries to help soothe inflammation and irritation, especially in our mucus membranes of our digestive system, our respiratory, and our urinary tracts. So marshmallow root is really an herb that forms a soothing film over our mucus membranes and contains a mucilage. So it's kind of like this thick gel-like substance that becomes very slippery when mixed with water.

Common Forms of Marshmallow Root

Traditionally, you would've seen it used in teas or tinctures, capsules and poultices, and obviously the most useful form sometimes for people is through capsule form and can still be very supportive in kind of helping and soothing inflammation and irritation in our body.

Benefits of Marshmallow Root

So as I talked, how about marshmallow root has kind of this soothing ability, or what happens is it really coats the lining of the gut.

Supports Gut Health

So it can help to reduce things like gastritis, heartburn, ulcers, and even leaky gut, and it can help to reduce its inflammation in the intestines and ease constipation or even mild diarrhea. I think about marshmallow root as just kind of this soothing remedy that just kind of calms the seas, right?

Soothes Throat and Respiratory Issues

You may also see marshmallow root in tinctures to help with sore throats because it kind of coats our mucus membranes. It helps the dry scratchy throat feeling that you may have if you have a sore throat or if you have sort of that irritating cough, marshmallow root can really help for that as well, and you'll see it maybe in herbal lozenges or even in cough syrups.

Aids Urinary Tract Health

Marshmallow root can even be helpful with UTI. So urinary tract infections, it really acts as a mild diuretic and even an anti-inflammatory supporting our bladder health. But if you have mild UTI and you're having symptoms, it can help relieve that, of course, along with other treatments. But because it's just sort of that soothing, again, I've said it many times so far in this short video, but marshmallow root yes, is very soothing.

Calms Skin Irritation

It can also help calm skin irritation. So if you have a rash or eczema or burn or maybe just a wound that's not healing very well, it's just irritating. Or even dry skin marshmallow root, again, can be helpful because again, it coats, it soothes, and it helps to reduce inflammation.

Emerging Antibacterial and Antioxidant Properties

Now, there is some emerging research showing that marshmallow root may even have antibacterial and antioxidant properties. Now, this isn't the main reason you would be using marshmallow root, but it is fun to see that even in these old remedies that we've used for centuries, we're finding out the new things about them every day.

Now, when it comes to research and what it's finding with this antibacterial effect of marshmallow root is that it can help to support skin infections of certain bacterias. Also e. coli, that it's a common gut issue and urinary pathogen. So some new studies and researchers coming out saying that this can be a helpful component. And again, we're learning stuff about age old remedies even today.

So if you're dealing with some gastritis or an ulcer or you're having leaky gut and you're thinking, well, maybe trying some marshmallow root may be something that might fit for me. And so the question would be, well, how do I add it in daily?

How to Use Marshmallow Root

And there's many ways to do this. As I said, you can do teas, you can do capsules, you can do syrups or lozenges, you can do topical applications. Marshmallow wrote is found in many different ways because it can be used for many different things.

So if you are struggling with more GI stuff, using it as a tea may be really helpful. You'll just soak one to two teaspoons of just some dried marshmallow root, let it steep for several hours and then strain it and then you can go ahead and drink it as a tea capsules is probably the most efficient way to take marshmallow root. It's great for gut and for bladder support. So you'll just want to focus on the directions on the package that you get and go with that, and it can be very helpful for sure. If you're having a sore throat, you can do a lozenge with marshmallow root in it. Or if you're having a skin issue, obviously doing some topical form of marshmallow root can be very helpful. So while many different applications can be used for everything from gut health to skin health, marshmallow root is generally safe for most people, but it may interfere with medication absorption.

Safety and Considerations

So if you're taking medications, you'll want to keep a marshmallow root intake or consumption at least one to two hours away from a medication that you took just to be on the safe side and to make sure that everything that you're taking will help you at its most at its best.

So marshmallow root is a great way to kind of soothe our internal organ of our gut if we're struggling with gastritis ulcers, leaky gut inflammation, and it can be nicely supported with other products as well. A lot of times you'll see marshmallow root in synergistic forms.

There is one specific called GI Revive, and there is many other things like it, but I often use that for people because it is just such a gentle support for our mucus membranes. And as well, GI Revive has other items in there. So below in the description you'll see that I've linked two different supplements. One is just marshmallow root and one will be GI Revive. It's a much more robust and it's more for kind of leaky gut, gut healing, something much more synergistic in effect. So it just kind of depends on how you want to use marshmallow root, but I hope that this gave you more information to make the best choice for yourself.

Thanks for watching today.

Check out the high-quality supplements we discussed in this video - links below for your convenience!

1) Marshmallow Root: create an account here, then search the name "Marshmallow Root" - https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/flussonutrients

2) GI Revive: create an account here, then search the name "GI Revive" - https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/flussonutrients

3) ALL PROFESSIONAL QUALITY SUPPLEMENTS: https://flussonutrients.nutridyn.com & https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/flussonutrients