In this blog, I would like to discuss fucoidan and autoimmune disease. I believe it is not well-known that fucoidan is capable of balancing and backing immunity. Immune balance is crucial for the body. However, the immune balance may collapse due to food, environment, and lifestyle.

According to Dr. David J. Bilstrom, autoimmune disease is quite a significant health crisis in the US. According to studies, 50 million Americans suffer from autoimmune disease and of which 80% are women.

In his opinion, increasing in autoimmune disease is most likely caused by food, environment, and trade and industry change. These circumstances will accumulate toxins into our body. As an example, a study conducted in 2006 to investigate if newborns had any identifiable environmental toxins in their body at their time of birth. Researchers found that they had more than 200 identifiable environmental toxins in the newborn’s blood at birth. Imagine, if newborns have this amount toxin, adults’ body may have even more toxins in this modern society.

However, the human body is always trying to heal itself. On the other hand, if you overload toxins in the body, your immunity would start screaming. Too many toxins will cause to lose the balance of immunity system. It will start attacking your organs because of a weak immune system and later lead to autoimmune diseases.

I am going to explain how the fucoidan effect on autoimmune diseases. As we go further, I will share how can fucoidan work on autoimmune disease, because a lot of people suffer from it.

Firstly, I will discuss Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and fucoidan effect. According to Atsushi Iraha et al. “Fucoidan enhances intestinal barrier function by up-regulating the expression of claudin-1”. IBD is associated with epithelial barrier disorder characterized by impaired absorption function and increased mucosal barrier disorder, which are affecting on claudins. Especially as for ulcerative colitis patients, the expression of barrier claudins-1, 4 and occludin is down-regulated in the intestinal epithelium. Fucoidan enhances intestinal epithelial barrier function by up-regulating the expression of claudin-1. Thus fucoidan may be an appropriate therapy for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.