Gut and the Immune System
How the gut defends itself
The gut not only has the functions of digestion and absorption but increasingly we are appreciating its role in the immune system. It is the immune system that is responsible for detecting and destroying foreign harmful microorganisms. The study of the immune system is ‘immunology’ and this is becoming an increasingly complex medical field as we learn more and more about the underlying mechanisms underpinning how our immune system works.
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Gut instinct: how the way you’re born and fed affect your immune system
We used to think foetuses had no bacteria in their gastrointestinal tract (the gut) until they began to accumulate microbes (bacteria, viruses and other bugs) on their way through their mother’s vagina.
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