Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride on the Relationship Between Gut Flora and Brain Development
Campbell-McBride says that "What happens
in these children [is that] they do not develop normal gut flora from
birth…" she says. "Gut flora is a hugely important part of our human
physiology. Recently research in Scandinavia has demonstrated that 90 percent
of all cells and all genetic material in a human body is our own gut flora. We
are just a shell… a habitat for this mass of microbes inside us. We ignore them
at our own peril.
…As a result, their digestive system—instead of
being a source of nourishment for these children—becomes a major source of
toxicity. These pathogenic microbes inside their digestive tract damage the
integrity of the gut wall. So all sort of toxins and microbes flood into the
bloodstream of the child, and get into the brain of the child. That usually
happens in the second year of life in children who were breast fed because
breastfeeding provides a protection against this abnormal gut flora. In
children who were not breastfed, I see the symptoms of autism developing in the
first year of life.
So breastfeeding is crucial to protect these
children."
Here, Dr. Joseph Mercola interviews Natasha-Campbell McBride.