The Gut Joint Axis

Do you ever feel achy in the morning?  Do you feel that you have less flexibility now than you did 10 years ago?  Do you have any chronic aches and pains that you can’t fully explain through a recent injury?

I have written to you before regarding the Gut Brain axis, and here is another connection between the overall health of your gut and how it connects to your overall health.  The Gut Joint Axis is the relationship between the health or the inflammation of your digestive tract parallelling the health/inflammation of your joints.

Read the article that sparked this email here: New Information About the Gut-Joint Axis
This article makes references to some other articles and studies as well.  There are 4 bullets that I will take directly from the article so you can understand more about this relationship.

For example, a recent review published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology described the connection between gut dysbiosis and the onset of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) via multiple pathways, including:

• Alterations in gut barrier function and the microbiome microenvironment
• Molecular mimicry
• Dysbiosis influences the activation and differentiation of innate and acquired immune cells
• Crosstalk between gut microbiota-derived metabolites and immune cells

You don’t have to have Rheumatoid arthritis to have this Gut Joint Connection – the article also mentions osteoarthritis – which is basically the term given to aging joints and from my own clinical experience I see that anyone that has any autoimmune issues can experience more frequent joint pain and accelerated degenerative changes.

I’ll explain the 4 bullets and how they relate to how you feel:

Alterations in gut barrier function and the microbiome microenvironment–  This is a fancy way of stating that Leaky Gut can cause joint pain.  Want more info on Leaky Gut?  Here’s my Leaky Gut page from my website.  The basics- If you have been living with gut issues that are chronic it is likely that the barrier that exists between your intestines and your bloodstream is “leaky”.  That means that things like microplastics, chemicals, pesticides, and microorganisms that would be kept from entering your bloodstream by this barrier now have a pathway to enter.
Now your body has to deal with these invaders or pollutants by setting up an immune response or by burdening your liver or spleen with more work to do.  Sometimes these substances can reach your joints and cause localized inflammation that you experience as either pain or restricted motion.

Molecular mimicry – This is a term used to describe a situation where something has entered your body that creates an immune response, you can use the Leaky Gut explanation as to how it gets into your body as an example.  Once your immune system creates antibodies to a foreign invader it can sometimes see a part of your own body that looks similar and set up an attack on that as well.

A known molecular mimicry relationship exists between gluten, your thyroid, and your cerebellum ( the part of your brain that helps with coordination and balance).  If you have an immune response to gluten you may also develop an autoimmune response to your thyroid and or cerebellum.

Dysbiosis influences the activation and differentiation of innate and acquired immune cells– Dysbiosis is the term used to describe an unhealthy balance of the friendly compared to harmful microbes that reside in your gut.  Although there is no known perfect mix of microbes that equates to optimal health, there are decades of research that can tell if you are within a “healthy range” of good to bad microbes in your gut.

If you are living with too many unfriendly microbes they can trigger an immune response more frequently – the harder your immune system works, the more inflammation you have, and the more likely you are to have joint pain.

Crosstalk between gut microbiota-derived metabolites and immune cells –  Here’s a simple way of describing this.  The microbes in your gut eat your undigested food, in fact, if you had no microbes in your gut you would see that a great majority of the food that you eat would wind up in the toilet bowl looking like chewed-up food rather than poop.
When these microbes eat your food they secrete metabolites, let’s simplify that, they sweat and poop and pee and fart.  Research has shown that these metabolites can actually direct your immune system to function in different ways than you would optimally desire.   This is very similar to the last bullet but also can lead to inflammation/joint pain.

OK, you made it through.  I know today’s topic went a bit deep but the more you understand about your body the easier it is to care for yourself.

In SUMMARY…if you have pain in your joints and it doesn’t resolve within a few days then think about improving the health of your gut by shifting your diet, supplements, or lifestyle to balance your immune response.

Want help?  You know how to find me!