Are C-Sections Tied to Allergy Risk?
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Jupiterimages/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Deep in the bowels of our, well, bowels, lurk trillions of microscopic bacteria. But don’t be fooled by the big bad “B” word, intractably tied to infections and disease, as these bitty bugs can do us a world of good.
“There’s a certain ‘ick’ factor associated with gut bacteria,” said Lita Proctor, director of the Human Microbiome Project, a National Institutes of Health initiative to describe the bugs that colonize our every crevice — outside and in. “People tend to think of them as germs and disease-causing pathogens, but they’re actually part of our bodies.”
A pretty major part, actually. Healthy adults carry up to 5 pounds of bacteria in their digestive tracts alone — roughly the weight of a brain.
“They belong there,” said Proctor, adding that without gut bacteria, our brains and the rest of our bodies would suffer. “We need them to maintain our health.”
But some people miss out on the full potential of the microbiome, according to a new study that found that C-sections can deprive babies of the healthy dose of gut bacteria that comes from the birth canal. Without the bugs, the babies’ immune systems appear underdeveloped — a trait that could lead to allergies later in life.
“Microbial colonization of the infant gut gastrointestinal tract is important for the postnatal development of the immune system,” the study authors wrote in their report, published Wednesday in the journal Gut.
One in three U.S. babies is born by C-section, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and allergies are on the rise. So what are we to do? And will there come a time when disease treatments target our bacterial buddies instead of our own ailing cells? Proctor says yes.
Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio