Gut bacteria starts at birth and has lasting effects on our health

You are what you eat, as one of my parents regularly admonished me when eating something rubbish. What's probably more true is - you are what is consuming your food.

- Dr Ali A Smith

The difference being your gut bacteria. We sort of ignored them for most of the history of medicine. An obvious error as they outnumber the total cells in our body by about three to one. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think of humans as a mobile bacterial growth unit. They sort of keep us because we are useful.

On the whole the bacteria do a good job of keeping us. It's in their interest to keep us well.

The story of how our gut bacteria keep us well continues to be uncovered. Another chapter of the story was released recently. It's about bacteria in babies. Newborn babies are particularly interesting because they are born without bacteria in their guts. Most of the bacteria come from mum and the breast milk the baby consumes. We normally try to bring up babies in a sterile environment. If they are bottle fed, we sterilise the bottles. We keep babies separate because they are vulnerable. Wash anything that they might suck on.