Former Director Grade Scientist, Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad, India
www.daylife.page
Don’t know, Louis Pasture should be thanked or blamed for inventing antibiotics. No doubt penicillin saves many lives, now we see its after effects. Unfortunately, most people today have become germaphobic, using germ-killing wipes, hand sanitizers, and even strong chemicals to clean their home. Dirt harbours bacteria, so naturally we worry about our children getting dirty in the mud. Researchers now recommend playing in the dirt as a way to boost the body's immune system that digging in the dirt (and even ingesting a little bit of it) actually can help decrease a child's risk of allergies and asthma.
Dirt is regulator for the immune system
Our immune system starts to develop before we are born, nevertheless immunity is made not born and the majority of it is built during childhood, the majority being developed from conception to 5 years of age. The majority of our immune systems are located in our gut. The microbes in our gut (our 'gut microbiota') educate our immune cells to begin with.
A little dirt can make kids healthier. Dirt harbours bacteria, so naturally we worry about our children getting dirty in the mud. Researchers now recommend playing in the dirt as a way to boost the body's immune system that digging in the dirt (and even ingesting a little bit of it) actually can help decrease a child's risk of allergies and asthma. Science is finally catching up with what cultures around the world have known for generations: Dirt is a super food. Unlike lactic acid and bifidobacteria, most of the beneficial bacterial strains found in productive soil are extraordinarily hardy.
Modern day life is a microbial disaster
Modern day living (e.g., constant sterilization of surfaces, fear of dirt, etc.) can disturb how microbes interact with our immune system. This can result in our immune system not working as it should and so we see the rise in chronic inflammatory diseases (inflammation is part of your immune response) and autoimmune conditions, which is where our immune system attacks things it shouldn’t. Constant inflammation can result in poor mental health, difficulty dealing with stress, heart disease and metabolic disorders like type 2 diabetes.
Early immune education
Our immune system starts to develop before we are born and the majority of it is built during childhood from conception to 5 years of age. The majority of our immune systems is located in the gut. The microbes in our gut educate our immune cells early on. Those educated immune cells don’t just stay in our gut either, they travel all over our body and set the tone for immunity later in life. Major changes to our gut microbiota can send the immune system a bit crazy causing inflammation and long-term consequences lasting until adulthood.
We get the basics of our gut microbiota from our mum while we are in the womb and she got hers from her mum and so on. The next place we acquire more microbes to add to our gut microbiota comes from birth. Babies born vaginally acquire microbes inhabiting mum’s vagina, bowel, and skin and those born surgically acquire microbes from mum’s skin and birth environment. The difference between the gut microbiota of babies born vaginally and those born surgically can persist until children are at least 7 and those born surgically are more likely to experience certain immune disorders. But it isn’t just mode of delivery that determines the make-up of our gut microbiota and immune system, environmental factors play a large part too.
Mama’s Role
Environmental exposure to microbes has a big impact on the make-up of the gut microbiota. Breast milk, a kind of nutritious bacterial and soup, is another way mum can pass on bacteria to baby and help shape the blueprint of the gut microbiota for years to come. Breast milk is also a prebiotic, meaning it contains food for our gut microbiota to thrive and supports the development of the immune system. The bacteria passed on through breast milk are associated with a reduced risk of developing asthma.
The diversity in our diet, has a huge impact on our gut microbiota and our immune system throughout childhood and into adulthood. How our own microbial fingerprint develops in early childhood can either reduce or increase our risk of developing allergies, autoimmune conditions, and inflammatory disease later on in life.
A healthy microbiota
Scientifically speaking the hallmark of a healthy microbiota is still ill-defined. Since each individual is provided with a unique gut microbiota profile that plays many specific functions in host specifically protection against pathogens. Each human’s gut microbiota are shaped in early life as their composition depends on infant transitions (birth gestational date, type of delivery, methods of milk feeding, weaning period) and external factors such as antibiotic use. Accordingly, there is not a unique optimal gut microbiota composition since it is different for each individual. However, a healthy host–microorganism balance must be respected in order to optimally perform metabolic and immune functions and prevent disease development. (The author has his own study and views)
