nutrition

Combating autoimmune diseases with supplementation

Autoimmune disease causes your body’s immune system to attack your organs rather than help defend them. Therefore, good nutritional supplements such as the best protein powder for autoimmune disease are sometimes needed to improve the condition.

The issue that occurs in autoimmune disease is that the immune system can’t differentiate between cells that need to be killed and cells that should remain. So, the autoimmune disease will attack the good cells as well as the bad cells in your body. This can affect many areas of your body, such as your organs or your skin.

There are different types of autoimmune diseases and some only target one specific organ. Some autoimmune diseases that you’ve likely heard of are lupus, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis or MS, inflammatory bowel disease, and more. Certain demographics are more prone to autoimmune diseases than others, and women as a whole are twice as likely to suffer from an autoimmune disease than men. Some are genetically linked as well.

How autoimmune disease symptoms can be mitigated

But it’s not all doom and gloom, there are ways to mitigate the effects of many autoimmune diseases due to modern research and one of the most notable ways to mitigate the symptoms is by being on the AIP or autoimmune protocol diet. The autoimmune protocol diet exists to help ease the inflammation caused by autoimmune diseases. This diet often draws comparisons to the paleo diet, which is a diet based on how our ancestors lived and ate thousands of years ago.

However, the autoimmune protocol can be even more prohibitive than the paleo diet. Some researchers have drawn the conclusion that autoimmune diseases may be caused by miniscule holes in your digestive system that allow food to escape into your body, thus being attacked by the immune system and possibly confusing it.

Gut health and immunity

The goal of the AIP is to heal the gut and reset your immune system. It does this by utilizing a diet full of vitamins and nutrients, including omega 3s. In terms of what the autoimmune protocol prohibits, those groups include bread, legumes, dairy, processed food, sugar, vegetable and canola oil, eggs, nuts and seeds, sugar substitutes, and even some vegetables such as tomatoes and peppers.

Autoimmune diseases are not curable, but taking steps to combat them, such as the autoimmune protocol, can cause the disease to go into remission and make symptoms unnoticeable. It doesn’t work for everyone, which is why those with autoimmune diseases should try plans such as the AIP and take a close look at how their body responds to it with medical professional guidance.

For those who are on the AIP or who are interested in trying the AIP, one supplement that is commonly used to help along the progress of the AIP is protein powders. But taking supplements on a highly restrictive diet can be tricky, since there are ingredients to avoid. For that reason, we’ll go over some of the most vital and recommended supplements that you can take while on the AIP or while battling autoimmune disease. You should always try to be getting your nutrients and protein from your diet, but that can be easier said than done, and many times supplementation is better than failing at a diet altogether.

Protein powders that help those with autoimmune disease

When considering a protein powder, you first should distinguish whether it is a gelatin or collagen peptide powder. These are both animal byproducts as opposed to other plant-based protein powders. Once you have identified which type of protein powder it is, you can then determine if it’s the right fit for you since both can be helpful, but to different autoimmune diseases.

Gelatin works well with improving your gut and lessening inflammation in your digestive system as well as sealing up those miniscule holes in your intestines that we mentioned earlier.

Collagen can also help in these areas but is even more helpful for joints, hair, and skin, three areas that are commonly attacked by numerous autoimmune diseases.

Neither of these types of protein powder is necessarily better than the other, and in fact, they perform many of the same functions, but how they’re made can make a big difference on how much they help you. Just as processed lunch meat isn’t as good for you as grass-fed farm-raised meat, your protein powder can vary greatly in terms of its quality and manufacturing process.

You should be looking for the best protein powder for autoimmune disease that is made from grass-fed, pasture-raised cowhide. You don’t want your protein powder to be flavored since that can introduce extra chemicals and sugars that you don’t want to be ingesting while on the autoimmune protocol. You want your protein powder to be free of artificial flavors and sugar, in fact, your label should just have one ingredient.

And lastly, double-check that your protein powder is compliant with all of your AIP restrictions. It can’t hurt to double-check. Some protein powders that are recommended by asquirrelinthekitchen.com are Vital Proteins, Great Lakes, Primal Kitchen, Orgain, and Garden of Life. But, if you follow the guidelines laid out in this paragraph, you should be okay to go with any protein powder that checks all of those boxes.

Other supplements that can help those with autoimmune diseases

In addition to the best protein powder for autoimmune disease, there are other supplements that can help combat any autoimmune disease. While there are specific solutions for specific diseases, these supplements will help your overall immune system, meaning that these supplements will certainly help anyone who is struggling with any type of autoimmune disease.

The AIP is more of something to try and see if it works for you, and it has done wonders for many people, but all of these supplements should absolutely help. These recommendations were found on amymyersmd.com and are thus coming straight from a medical professional who has seen autoimmune conditions many times.

• Her recommendations include glutathione, which can help to detox your body and rid it of toxins. If you don’t eat properly, if you’re overly stressed, or if you’re sick, your body will drastically decrease how much glutathione it produces. This cessation of glutathione production can lead to inflammation. Glutathione is a recommended supplement for a variety of conditions and even for those people who have no existing conditions. You can take glutathione through an IV, although it can be pricey, or you can take it orally. The recommended form of ingested glutathione supplements is acetylated, as many other forms will be broken down before they’re absorbed and thus, they essentially don’t help you much.
  
  
• Another recommended supplement is curcumin, which helps prod your body towards healthily dealing with inflammation rather than attacking it in a damaging manner. You should take curcumin that is fat-soluble, such as a micelle option. Micelle envelopes the liposomal curcumin in fat helping it to be absorbed into your body better and boosting its benefits.
  
  
• Another great supplement is resveratrol, which can track down free radicals and neutralize them, slowing the effects of autoimmune disease and even aging (just an added bonus). It’s also known to help your heart, which is a big plus since many who suffer from autoimmune disease are in turn more prone to heart disease. Resveratrol is found in red wine, but red wine isn’t AIP friendly since its sugar content is high, so play it safe and stick to a supplement.
  
  
• Immune boosters are a supplement that you might guess are good for autoimmune disease just by their name. They’ll boost the antibodies in your system to help combat unhealthy bacteria and viruses. In addition to helping your body produce more antibodies, it also can promote a healthy response to inflammation, similar to many of the other listed supplements.
  
  
• And the last supplement on Amy Myers’ list is L-Glutamine, an amino acid that helps to cover those areas that could be contributing to a leaky gut. You’ve seen inflammation and holes in the gut mentioned many times throughout this article, and that’s because a gut in disrepair is often the main antagonist to your immune system. So, if you’re interested in boosting your immune system or fighting autoimmune disease, first focus on improving the health of your gut.

Final thoughts: Best protein powder for autoimmune disease

Autoimmune diseases vary in severity and symptoms, but they can all be helped through supplementation and eating a diet such as the AIP. And for those of us who don’t have an autoimmune disease, many of these supplements are beneficial to us as well, since some autoimmune diseases come about as a result of mismanaging the health of your immune system and your gut, while others are genetic.

We can all take a lesson in better immune health from these tips. Autoimmune diseases probably affect a greater portion of the population than you’d guess, the numbers aren’t small. So, tips like these can go a long way to helping a lot of people, and that is the goal. Do your research and stay diligent in supporting your immune health.