For your body and your little one’s body to work optimally, a healthy digestive system is essential. More than 500 different kinds of bacteria are hard at work in the digestive tract. Exactly how many and what their characteristics are differs from place to place. Every person on earth has a unique gut microbiota profile that is shaped early in life. However, this profile, or biome, isn’t fixed, but is constantly being impacted upon by all kinds of factors, for example diet or illness to name just two.
Dr Anton Janse van Rensburg from Johannesburg says that unfortunately many aspects of our modern lives aren’t conducive to a healthy biome.
“Because of antibiotic use, smoking, stress, anti-inflammatories, antacids for the stomach and the absence of fermented food in our diets, we just don’t have healthy biomes anymore. This is called dysbiosis.”
The establishment and maintenance of a healthy balance of bacteria is clearly rather complex, but scientists are increasingly getting to grips with how it all fits together.
LET’S DEAL WITH SOME DEFINITIONS FIRST
Probiotics are living, natural micro-organisms that occur
