If your dog has some type of autoimmune condition they are most likely going to be currently taking some type of steroid or immune suppressive medication. But what other options are there in terms of natural medicines that can help bring balance to your dogs immune system.
Today let’s look at what are known as plant sterols and how they can be used to help bring balance back to an overactive immune system and be one of the tools you an use to start reversing autoimmunity so stay tuned to learn more.
So let’s take a look at what plant sterols are and what their role is when it comes to any autoimmune disease and the state of your dogs immune system. It is so easy today for our dogs immune systems to become out of balance – things such as vaccines, processed foods and other chemicals, stress and other factors can quickly lead to imbalances and in particular, autoimmune diseases. And while there are many things that can help bring balance back to the immune system and help reverse autoimmunity, plant sterols can play a highly beneficial role here.
So plant sterols (often referred to as phytosterols) and sterolins are fats present in all plants, including fruits and vegetables- olive trees, sage, thyme and oregano along with certain nuts contain quite high levels of these substances.
We know that both stress levels and poor gut health are two things that can cause your dogs immune system to become out of balance and potentially trigger off an autoimmune response. When we give a supplement to our pets that contains these plant sterols, it can help to bring overall balance to the immune system by working to either boost an underactive immune system but more importantly when it comes to autoimmunity, it can modulate and overactive immune response.
How does this work? well while the plant sterols and sterolins don’t actually ‘fix’ the immune system, they do provide all the nutrients that are needed by the immune system to regulate it either up or down. The most powerful impact of plant sterols is their high antioxidant level which not only provides lots of immune friendly nutrients but has a strong protective benefit against inflammation and free radical damage which is underpinning those autoimmune diseases. Basically they nourish and balance the immune system while also protecting it and the overall body.
But let’s look at a few ways that plant sterols help with specific autoimmune diseases- when it comes to IBD ( inflammatory bowel condition), plant sterols have been found to help control the level of attack on the mucosal lining of the digestive tract. Sterols and sterolins will decrease the release of the inflammatory factors, get the immune systems natural T cells to secrete the good factors, and help bring about a state of balance in the immune response. By so doing, it will allow repair mechanisms to kick in and recovery from such chronic conditions to take place.
What about Lupus or SLE is an autoimmune disease that causes your dog's own immune system to attack multiple body tissues or organs. If in the systemic form, it can impact every organ in the dog's body so it is a very serious condition. Plant sterols and sterolins can help here by targeting the specific cells known as T cells that can inhibit the formation of antibodies. In some cases the underlying cause of lupus is a viral infection so here, Plant sterols can increase the secretion of immune factors that activate killer cells to seek out and destroy the virus.
And in the case of hypothyroidism caused by autoimmunity, plant sterols and sterolins balance the immune system by decreasing an immune factor known as Interleukin-6 which is responsible for the autoimmune reaction. As a result, this can help your dog’s thyroid function to potentially return to a more balanced state.
Now I mentioned earlier that one of the triggers for autoimmunity is STRESS. We all know how stress can wreak havoc for our dogs especially if chronic. It can particularly affect the immune system and with an overproduction of the main stress hormone cortisol, this can actually cause the death of cells within the immune system.
The link here is between cortisol and another adrenal hormone known as DHEA (dhea is an antiaging hormone that helps produce other hormones including oestrogen and testosterone). As your dogs stress levels increase this causes an increase in cortisol but a decrease in this DHEA. The high level of cortisol causes your dogs immune system to make more antibodies- so its really important we work towards getting a better balance between cortisol and Dhea- plant sterols help lower cortisol and normalise DHEA to bring the immune system back into more optimal function.
And of course Plant sterols can also help to boost an underactive immune response as I said earlier- When pets have a chronic condition, they have a weakened immune system from the constant pressure of fighting the bacteria or virus. Adding in plant sterols can speed up the pet's ability to remove these infections by increasing natural T-cell activity and reducing inflammation.
Adding in vegetables and fruits, lean free range meats and fish and oils like olive oil can certainly be a great start when you looking to boost up your dogs levels of plant sterols naturally and of course, when it comes to any autoimmune disease, these foods are all naturally anti-inflammatory which is also important.
However, in many cases for dogs that have some type of autoimmune disease, a supplement will be needed and will bring a much faster and stronger response. When giving a supplement of plant sterols look for one that contains beta-sitosterol as this is one of the main beneficial plant sterols – most supplements will range from 100mg- 1000mg per serve and the dose will depend on your dog but an average dose would be around 300mg daily. These can be given over longer periods of time if needed and certainly when it comes to autoimmune disease 3 months or more may be required. And remember when starting any new regime please check with your vet or holistic practitioner to make sure these are suitable for your dogs condition.
I really believe that supplements such as plant sterols and sterolins are going to able to make a huge difference in helping the many dogs that suffer from autoimmune disease. And while you always must approach these diseases holistically the use of these strong antioxidant supplements can have a marked effect on balancing and healing the immune system and switching off the inflammation that is associated with this.
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