Are you a life support system for a bunch of microbes ?

[EternalOptimist]

From what I've read you pickup your gut flora mostly from your mother and your environment in the first few months of life. That's before your immune system has kicked into gear, so your body accepts them. After that your body tends to attack and kill any new types of bacteria that gets in there, including any expensive probiotics you might be tempted to buy.

So the best thing you can do for your kids, or at least newborns, is let them play in the mud and not go over the top with the Dettol.

part of this new collection of theories deals specifically with the pacts that are made between the bacteria and the immune system

[VectraMan]

From what I've read you pickup your gut flora mostly from your mother and your environment in the first few months of life. That's before your immune system has kicked into gear, so your body accepts them. After that your body tends to attack and kill any new types of bacteria that gets in there, including any expensive probiotics you might be tempted to buy.

So the best thing you can do for your kids, or at least newborns, is let them play in the mud and not go over the top with the Dettol.

[vetran]

not unreasonable idea, would explain some of the odd issues seen

[CloudWalker]

You could always try a Fecal implant from a friend to get you guts friendly bacteria back to normal.

How to Safely do a Fecal Transplant at Home - DIY Instructions The Power of Poop

[EternalOptimist]

Researchers have been studying human obesity and they started with a few basic facts. People who eat a lot get fat, people who take antibiotics get fat. People who take antibiotics and eat a lot get very fat.
generally.
The reason why antibiotcs come into the equation is that the soup in your gut actually has an evolutionary turnover that can be measured in days, rather than millenia, and so anything that affects that evolution can have a big impact on you and your body.
The biggest impact occurs when you are young, so giving kids antibiotics is sentencing them to lifelong obesity - thats the theory.

It starts to spin off other ideas. Food allergies, cravings, dependancies etc.
Another big idea is that these bacteria in your gut can produce chemicals that then go on to drive normal huan responses
i.e the bugs dont like something - they can make you depressed
they do like something - they can make you euphoric

in other words, its the bugs that are pulling the strings.

Tie this in with another big idea - the organs in your body have their own neural network, ie. their own brain, and it starts to paint a big picture, that these critters are the ones in charge