Ease Joint Pain and Fatigue: Autoimmune Wellness Begins with Omega-3s

Autoimmune diseases affect one in 10 people and can be chronically debilitating. Even simple daily habits may exacerbate symptoms by triggering inflammation. The good news is: omega-3s are nature’s warriors proven to combat your body’s inflammatory response. Discover how to supercharge your immune system for sustainable mind/body well-being.

Your immune system is crucial for survival. It searches for foreign invaders and attacks them to keep your body healthy, preventing everything from colds and viruses to infections and cancer. However, sometimes the immune system goes into overdrive and mistakes healthy tissues and organs for an invader. That’s when autoantibodies attack healthy cells. This is known as an autoimmune disorder.

Autoimmune disorders

Autoimmune disorders affect more than 24 million people in the U.S, and while scientists have identified more than 80 autoimmune disorders, some are more common than others, including:

Type 1 diabetes: An autoimmune disease that prevents your pancreas from making insulin.
Multiple sclerosis: The body’s immune system attacks the central nervous system.
Lupus: A sometimes life-threatening condition. The body’s immune system attacks tissues and organs.
Rheumatoid arthritis: Healthy cells come under attack, resulting in inflammation in the joints.
Pernicious anemia: An autoimmune condition that prevents the body from absorbing vitamin B12, causing irreversible damage to the nervous system.
Celiac disease: An inherited autoimmune disorder that causes the immune system to attack gluten in the small intestine, often causing permanent intestinal damage.
Psoriasis: Often found with other autoimmune disorders including lupus, it’s the result of white blood cells attacking healthy skin cells, leading to inflammation and a rash.
Graves disease: The immune system attacks the thyroid gland, resulting in the overproduction of thyroid hormones or hyperthyroidism.
Hashimoto’s thyroiditis: The opposite of Graves disease, the antibodies attack the thyroid cells resulting in too few thyroid hormones being produced.
Crohn’s disease: An inflammatory bowel disease where the bacteria in the digestive tract trigger the body’s immune system to attack the intestines, often resulting in severe inflammation.

Many autoimmune diseases have similar symptoms, making them difficult for doctors to diagnose. Some people spend years going to countless doctors trying to figure out what’s wrong, which just exacerbates the difficulties of living with the disorder in the first place.

Food for thought:

Omega-3 fatty acids

While there is no cure for autoimmune disorders, your diet and lifestyle can help prevent the production of autoimmune antibodies common in early-stage immune disorders. The EPS, DHA, and DPA fatty acids found in omega-3s can rebalance your immune function during the pre-autoimmunity stage.

Inflammation is an essential response when the body is fighting off infection (signaling the body that an injury has occurred), but ongoing inflammation can cause tissue damage, leading to arthritis, muscle and joint pain, and heart problems. It can also confuse the immune system, leading to a malfunction.

The optimal diet to reduce the inflammation that leads to a malfunctioning immune system includes:

Antioxidants: Foods like green leafy vegetables, citrus fruits, cruciferous vegetables such as kale and cabbage, beans, tomatoes, and beets.
Omega-3 fatty acids: Olive oil, krill oil, fish oil, fish such as salmon, sardines, and mackerel, as well as soybeans and walnuts, which are loaded with omega-3s. Researchers found a diet rich in omega-3s was able to reduce the risk of several autoimmune disorders. Unfortunately, the typical American diet is deficient in omega-3 fats.
Probiotics: Yogurt, sauerkraut, and soft cheeses can improve your gut’s microbiome and prevent intestinal inflammation.
Foods rich in choline: Eggs, organ meats, shiitake mushrooms, and fish contain this essential nutrient that mitigates the effects of inflammation. Unfortunately, many people don’t get the required amount of choline in their daily diet to benefit their immune system.

Supplements to boost your autoimmune wellness

It can be difficult to consume the nutrient-dense foods you need without consuming too many calories. That’s why nine out of ten Americans don’t get the vitamins and minerals they need to stave off autoimmune disorders. The lack of nutrition often manifests itself in joint pain and fatigue. Omega-3 and vitamin D supplements are crucial to supporting immune health. As with any vitamin or dietary supplement, it’s important to check with your doctor to make sure they won’t interfere with any other medication you’re currently taking.

Vitamin D supplements will give your immune system a slight edge, but scientists say it’s the omega-3 fatty acids that remodel the lipids in T-Cells, enhance B-cell activity, and strengthen immune cells. Omega-3 supplements that contain phospholipids have an added advantage; These molecules are major membrane lipids that act as a barrier and protect cells against various invaders.

Best supplement for autoimmune wellness

There are a number of omega-3 fatty acid supplements on the market, but most contain fish oil and leave a bitter aftertaste. There’s nothing fishy about krill oil supplements – as long as they contain 250 mg of omega-3 fatty acids.

Kori Krill Oil contains 250 mg of essential omega-3’s needed for autoimmune wellness, as well as 60 mg of choline to reduce inflammation. Each serving also contains 480 mg of phospholipids to help the body absorb essential nutrients. The best part? You won’t experience any “fishy burps” or mercury poisoning since the product is made from krill, which is sourced from the much cleaner Antarctic Ocean. Krill feed on algae and reproduce abundantly. Kori Krill Oil gets a thumbs-up from the Marine Stewardship Council for sustainably sourcing the krill without harming our oceans or sea life.

Many autoimmune disorders (such as arthritis) start to appear later in life, but the time to take a proactive approach is during your younger years. Supplements like krill oil may help.

No one’s immune to autoimmune disorders

The body’s immune system is a well-oiled machine consisting of your internal organs, proteins, and cells. The human body relies on it to fight off deadly bacteria, viruses, and pathogens. It sometimes needs help recognizing invaders, such as the COVID-19 virus and other inflammatory illnesses. By training it at a young age to fight off harmful substances, you may be able to keep it from attacking healthy cells. If everyone would up their intake of omega-3 fatty acids, we may one day be able to achieve herd immunity from COVID-19 as well as other deadly viruses.

Further reading for additional reference:

Advent Health: 10 Most Common Autoimmune Diseases

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: Autoimmune Diseases

Mount Sinai: Autoimmune disorders

Celiac Disease Foundation: Autoimmune Disorders

National Institutes of Health: How does the immune system work?

Important Note: The information contained in this article is for general informational purposes only, and should not be construed as health or medical advice, nor is it intended to diagnose, prevent, treat, or cure any disease or health condition. Before embarking on any diet, fitness regimen, or program of nutritional supplementation, it is advisable to consult your healthcare professional in order to determine its safety and probable efficacy in terms of your individual state of health.

Regarding Nutritional Supplements Or Other Non-Prescription Health Products: If any nutritional supplements or other non-prescription health products are mentioned in the foregoing article, any claims or statements made about them have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and such nutritional supplements or other health products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.