About a third of all babies in the U.S. are delivered by cesarean section. Now a new study has found that newborns delivered by C-section (cesarean) face an increased risk of a number of chronic health problems later in life. The bacteria that come to colonize the bowel are acquired during birth and shortly afterwards, a process that is very much influenced by how a baby is born. The bacteria inhabiting the lower intestine following a cesarean birth can differ significantly from those found in the vaginally-born baby. Whatever the mode of delivery, a core gut microbiota is well established within a few weeks of life and persists largely intact into adulthood. A less stable peripheral microbiota-one that is more sensitive to changes in diet and environmental factors, like antibiotics-is created as well. In the hours and days following birth, the newly-arrived gut bacteria stimulate the newborn to produce white blood cells and other immune system components, including antibodies directed at unwelcome, disease-causing microorganisms. The bacteria of the microbiota also "teach" the newborn's immune system to tolerate their own presence-to differentiate bacterial friend from foe, in other words. British researchers studied 600 healthy babies to identify their gut bacteria using DNA fingerprinting techniques. The C-section babies had more than 800 potentially-dangerous bacteria, of the type that cause life-threatening, blood-borne infections in hospitalized patients. In a cesarean birth the fledgling immune system is confronted with unfamiliar, often hostile bacteria-including Clostridium difficile, a particularly troublesome hospital-acquired bug. In addition, the healthy probiotic bacteria associated with vaginal birth arrive later and in lower numbers. These changes in the composition of the normal gut microbiota occur during a critical time in immune system development. Clostridium difficile infections strike nearly 500,000 patients a year in the United States, and about 29,000 die. These infections are most common in patients who get intensive medical antibiotics or have weakened immunes. When the composition of the microbiota is imbalanced, or unusual germs like Clostridium difficile appear, the immune system doesn't like it. A low-grade, long-lasting inflammatory response directed at these intruders begins at birth, leading to a kind of weakness and "leakiness" of the intestinal lining (leaky gut). Proteins and carbohydrates that normally would not be absorbed from the intestinal contents-including large, incompletely digested food molecules-make their way into the bloodstream. The colonies of biota a person has varies with time and from person to person which is medically very complex and not well understood. Only recently has there begun to be some progress in diagnosis and treatment. It has been established that about 70% of your immunes live in your gut which seems to be related to most disease, both physical and psychological. To make a very long story short, collectively our microbiomes are in trouble because our food is ever more highly processed, which starves the microbiomes. This abnormal processing of food appears to lower immunities and increase the risk of inflammation, asthma, eczema, diabetes, obesity, depression, and other chronic conditions, especially later in life. Commonly there is also inability to digest some types of food, or to assimilate some vitamins and other nutrients, which can not only cause indigestion, but low energy levels and even depression or other psychological irregularities. Though administering healthful probiotic bacteria to correct an imbalanced microbiota makes intuitive sense, studies to date have been disappointing, with only minor, short-lived changes to the gut microbiota. But you can up your intake of foods with natural probiotics. The key is consistency if the good bacteria is to stay strong enough to regularly overwhelm the bad bacteria, viruses, etc. Find some probiotic food you can eat daily and stick with it. Homemade ferminted cabbage or kimchi is an easy choice.
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