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Antibiotics are actually really more damaging than we realise. Western digestive tracts show significant differences in microbiome that those of people who do n
by PaulKeeble 4y ago
Antibiotics are actually really more damaging than we realise. Western digestive tracts show significant differences in microbiome that those of people who do not use antibiotics as treatment and some of the lost species are really important. We also have no way to fix it currently, some of the species like Faecalibacterium Prausnitzii are critical to our bodies energy system but can't survive in oxygen, so we have no way to eat it at all, you kill it then its gone likely for good. Others like Limosilactobacillus reuteri stop fungus from inhabiting our small intestine as well as other bacteria but just 5% of us still have some of it as its very susceptible to antibiotics.
We don't know what ideal microbiomes look like, we just know the bulk of people living in the western world have unhealthy ones that are missing key species and we have only scratched the surface of understanding.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bobbylarrybobby 4y agoHow are bacteria that can't be eaten first acquired by infants?
- PaulKeeble 4y agoPassed to them from their mother while in the womb. Seems to be transferred at birth but there is some evidence it happens earlier too.
- refurb 4y agoSource? Amniotic fluid and blood is sterile. Newborns acquire their biome once born by ingesting various food and contact from family members.
- steve_adams_86 4y agoPeople imagine some special mechanism of transfer, but the reality is that we get bacteria from inside and outside of our bodies all over stuff, all the time, and we’re crawling with it. The babies would be introduced to GI tract flora pretty much immediately even if you tried to prevent it (unless you prevent it with antibiotics of course).
- refurb 4y agoExactly. Even just the bacteria on mom's skin will be transferred during breastfeeding.
- throwaway742 4y agoDefecation is a common part of the birthing process.
- cycomanic 4y agoI think there is even some evidence that cesarean births have higher risks of some infections because of not being exposed, I even recall that they did some things with babies being born with cesareans because of this.
- refurb 4y agoBut the feces is sterile. It's not even feces exactly, it's meconium and doesn't look like feces and doesn't smell at all (it's basically the remains of cells from the intestine and the amniotic fluid the baby swallows). There are no bacteria in the womb.
- bjoli 4y agoPresumably he/she meant by the mother.
- refurb 4y agoOops. I read too fast. Yes, the baby would be ingesting all sorts of stuff during the normal birthing process. In a related note - families tend to have very similar biomes. Oral-fecal transmission happens despite the highest level of cleanliness.