How treating your gut can help your joints

Gut dysfunction has been recently linked to osteoarthritis, with the prevailing theory being that dysbiosis can increase inflammation in the body, and that increase in inflammation can subsequently contribute to joint degeneration, pain, and stiffness.

The term ‘dysbiosis’ refers to an alteration in the balance of gut bacteria, and one way of redressing this balance is to take probiotics (good bacteria). The idea is that taking probiotics can improve gut function and reduce inflammation, and by reducing inflammation, we can potentially reduce the pain associated with osteoarthritis.

However, before you rush out and start taking lots of probiotics, here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

To increase you good gut bacteria, it’s usually better and safer to begin by eating high fibre prebiotic foods like onions, leek and garlic. These are food for your ‘good’ bacteria and by increasing your intake of these, you can naturally increase your good bacteria and improve the balance of your gut bacteria.

Beginning with high fibre prebiotic foods is also important because diving straight in to taking probiotics could make things worse if you happen to have SIBO.

SIBO is an acronym for Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. This is when there is excessive bacteria in the small intestine, and if you have this condition, taking probiotics (i.e. adding more bacteria into the mix) can aggravate your symptoms and make things worse.

This is why it's often more sensible (and safer) to begin with foods that help balance your gut bacteria naturally.

In addition to this, appropriate lab tests also provide valuable information about the balance of your gut bacteria as well as overall digestive function.

This is the approach I like to employ with my clients.

It provides clarity and eliminates guesswork.

It means that diet, supplementation, and various other interventions can all be tailored to your specific situation.

When this is carried out properly, you’re going to reduce inflammation.

And when you reduce inflammation, you’ll reduce the damage and the pain associated with osteoarthritis.

When you do this, you’ll start to feel better. To find out more,watch this.