How Do We Acquire
And Keep Our
Intestinal Flora
Once
a baby is conceived, it grows in an entirely protected and sterile
environment in the womb. Fetuses are totally isolated from any
foreign organism (bacteria, viruses or fungi) reaching them because
these organisms could seriously harm them and may well lead to
their death. Since a fetus does not have a developed intestinal
tract there is no way it could ever develop a mutual relationship
with even the most helpful of bacteria.
When
the baby is born it begins to pick up bacteria (good and bad)
from the birth canal of the mother and the intestinal flora begin
to be quickly established at that point. If the baby is nursed
by his mother he will pick up more bacteria from her through that
process. It is very likely he will pick up milk-based bacteria
like acidophilus and bifidus in addition to other beneficial types.
However,
even if the baby is delivered by Cesarean Section, or bottle-fed
a formula, he will still rapidly pick up bacteria from the people
and environment around him as well as from the formula. Unfortunately,
he may or may not pick up bacteria that are good for him.
It
is very important for a baby to be exposed to healthy bacteria
early in life. The immune system learns to recognize and
to toleratel the bacteria that colonized it in the first year
or so of life. Once this process of colonizing the intestinal
tract is complete, the composition of the intestinal flora will
remain pretty much the same throughout the person's life.
You can see how mportant it is that the person takes in a healthy
mixture of bacteria.
Once
a person starts to age, just as he tend to become more rigid and
set in his ways in many aspects of his personhood, the intestinal
tract becomes more and more rigid at only accepting the intestinal
flora it has already been programmed to recognize. It is very
hard to get the body to either recognize or tolerate new good
bacteria that that are ingested.
Unfortunately,
as a person ages the number of beneficial bacteria in his gut
goes way down. It is not only important to supplement with probiotics,
but to start this process before the body has serious trouble
in learning to accept new organisms.
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