Arthritis is inflammation of the joints. The gut microbiome controls the inflammatory response of the immune system. Gut health can affect arthritis severity.
Do you deal with achy, creaky, or flat-out painful joints? Whether you have an arthritis diagnosis or not, inflammatory joint conditions are a pain to deal with. Did you know that gut health can significantly affect your arthritic pain levels? Read on to learn more!
What is arthritis?
Arthritis literally translates to joint (arthro) inflammation (-itis). There are many types of arthritis, and each one is thought to have a different origin. Some are induced by wear and tear (osteoarthritis), while others are more autoimmune in nature (rheumatoid arthritis).
Symptomatically, arthritis is accompanied by:
- Pain
- Degeneration of the tissues in the joint
- Inflammation
- Restricted movement/range of motion
- Warm to the touch
- Redness of the affected area
The levels of pain and inflammation are typically affected by how damaged the area is, the type of arthritis, how long you’ve been dealing with it, and the state of your gut health.
You’ll want to know which type of inflammatory joint disease you have so you can figure out a treatment plan that is effective for that type of arthritis.
- Ankylosing spondylitis — affects your spinal ligaments and other joints
- Enteropathic arthritis — affects patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
- Gout — typically affects the big toe and joints in the lower body
- Juvenile arthritis — a chronic arthritis that begins in childhood
- Osteoarthritis — one of the most common diagnoses of arthritis, typically diagnosed in elderly people. This is the “wear and tear” arthritis that has been associated with overuse, repetitive movements, or injuries that worsen with age.
- Psoriatic arthritis — affects people who have psoriasis and often affects the same joints that have psoriatic patches on them
- Reactive arthritis — happens after an infection and typically clears up after a few weeks
- Rheumatoid arthritis — an autoimmune condition where the immune system attacks the joints
Regardless of the type of arthritis you have, they are all affected by inflammation, which is highly controlled by gut health.
How does gut health affect joint inflammation?
The immune system controls your inflammatory response. When there is an injury or damaged tissues/cells in an area, the immune system sends out pro-inflammatory cells that help to stabilize the area, remove damaged tissues, and hopefully repair the damage. Some of the cells sent out during an inflammatory response include:
- Mast cells
- Lymphocytes (T and B cells)
- Macrophages
- Monocytes
If this is continually happening in one area, it can cause damage over time. In cases where the immune system is overreacting, the inflammatory response happens for longer periods of time than needed and causes more harm than repair.
This reaction is often the result of a gut disturbance, such as leaky gut or microbial imbalance. We also see conditions where there is a gastrointestinal issue and an arthritis associated with it like we see with enteropathic arthritis. Seeing these connections shows just how much gut health has to do with arthritis and its severity.
Gut Microbes that Affect Arthritis
This section is going to be a bit more complex. We will go over the types of bacteria that are associated with different types of arthritis and why they’re significant for disease progression, prognosis, and repair.
- Patients with osteoarthritis have elevated levels of Actinobacteriota and Proteobacteria. They also have lowered levels of Firmicutes. All of this contributes to a constant state of low-level inflammation.
- Synovial fluid is part of our joints. It helps with the padding, movement, and fluidity of that joint. Studies have shown that patients with Rheumatoid arthritis have bacterial species (Prevotella, Fusobacterium, Porphyromonas, and Bacteroides) in the synovial fluid, which causes the immune system to attack these joints.
- Another study on RA found that patients show symptoms of dysbiosis before their RA symptoms begin. They have distinct microbial profiles that can alert physicians to a higher potential for RA. Many RA patients have Prevotella-dominant microbiomes.
- Spondylarthritis patients often have coexisting conditions like ankylosing spondylitis, IBD, and others. Their gut profiles have significantly higher levels of Salmonella, Shigella, and Campylobacter.
Another issue with gut microbiome dysbiosis is that it can lead to intestinal permeability, otherwise known as leaky gut.
Leaky Gut and Arthritis
Leaky gut is linked to so many different conditions. A leaky gut happens when your gut microbiome is unbalanced, referred to as dysbiosis.
Different bacteria are required for breaking down different types of food. When you eat unhealthy foods, the good bacteria get starved because they don’t have the right fibers to break down. When you eat healthy foods, it starves the bad bacteria.
When you have more problematic species of gut bacteria, they take over the gut microbiome. They make less space for the healthy strains that keep your intestinal lining healthy. The pathogenic bacteria start damaging your intestinal wall, which allows the bacteria to flow through into your body. This causes your immune system to go on high alert because it’s found an intruder.
Unhealthy bacterial species not only damage the gut lining, but they also give off unhealthy chemicals that can cause damage throughout the body. These bacteria and their metabolic byproducts contribute to inflammation and damage throughout the body, including your joints.
Obesity was thought to contribute to osteoarthritis because of the added weight, putting too much strain on the joints. However, a recent study found that with dietary modifications and supplementation with Oligofructose to boost the Bifidobacterium pseudolongum population, osteoarthritis symptoms were reversed. Patients with obesity have distinctly different microbial profiles than their lean counterparts, and during this study, the changes to their guts mimicked those of the lean controls. While the patients were still considered obese, their microbial profile was balanced, and arthritic pain was decreased.
This study helps us see that the state of our gut microbiome has more of a role in arthritis than we initially gave it credit for. It also shows that weight isn’t necessarily the issue of pain for people with obesity. Dietary changes should be the focus to reduce pain, so patients have an easier time exercising to lose weight.
How to Improve Gut and Joint Pain
Changing your gut health can sound really overwhelming. How do you know what species you have or are lacking? Luckily, you don’t really need to know that. You just need to know how to support your gut properly, and thankfully, that is pretty easy, just make healthy lifestyle decisions.
- Sleep well
- Eat a healthy, diverse diet
- Exercise daily (nothing crazy, light to moderate is enough to positively improve your gut health)
- Spend time in the sunshine
- Enjoy time with people who make you happy
- Take Atrantil to restore your microbiome and reduce inflammation
Learn more about joint and gut health in these articles!
