One common way is the failure of a child to go through the birth canal during delivery. Babies are inoculated with the healthy microbes from their mothers’ vaginas during delivery and these bacteria essentially function as the seeds that will grow into a healthy, diverse gut microbiome.
Babies born via C-section initially host more of the flora found in the operating room than the flora found in their mothers. As a result, many American babies have compromised microbiomes during infancy due to the lack of microbial diversity and the paucity of healthy organisms that should populate their gut. Or, if a baby does pass through the birth canal during delivery, but the mother’s vaginal ecology is unhealthy due to poor health, chronic antibiotic use, or yeast infections, the child will start life with poor-quality gut flora and thus develop a poor-quality microbiome.
A typical American child is then subjected to numerous other influences that have a negative impact on the formation of a healthy microbiome. One factor is lack of diversity in the family’s diet, especially in the diet of the nursing mother. Another factor is the overuse of antibiotics in medicine and their ubiquitous presence in the food chain. Yet another factor is a lack of foods with healthy bacterial cultures, including lacto-fermented vegetables such as sauerkraut and pickles; and cultured dairy such as yogurt and kefir.
These and many other factors, including GMOs and glyphosate (Roundup), create the conditions in which it is the rare modern child who is born with and able to sustain a healthy microbiome. Without a healthy microbiome, like a hillside with no grass, the intestinal villi and microvilli deteriorate, compromising the integrity of our inner ecosystem at the most fundamental (cellular) level.
When a cell is healthy, the cytoplasm is a gel, not liquid, and this is particularly relevant for our intestinal villi and microvilli, as they have such an important role to play in both absorption and interception. This gel state is the result of intracellular proteins structuring the water inside the cell into a healthy, consistently robust structure. (Think of Jello.) Side-by-side cells with healthy intestinal villi and microvilli will prevent toxins and large molecules from gaining direct access to the bloodstream. When the structure and integrity of the cytoplasm are compromised, the cells shrink and lose their connection to one another and gaps start to appear between the cells. Through these gaps, large protein molecules that shouldn’t show up in the bloodstream pass through.
Once in the blood, the body must neutralize these large proteins by the production of anti-bodies. These antibodies often cross-react with the body’s own tissue, and when they do, autoimmune disease will commence. In other words, the root of autoimmune disease can be found in the “leaking” gut. And the root of the leaking gut is the contraction of the cells as a result of unhealthy gel formation within these cells.
What factors interfere with this healthy gel formation? In fact, there are many, the main one being the loss of or imbalance in the microbiome. There are other factors that directly compromise the cells, including cellular poisons such as mercury, aluminum, formaldehyde, and some agricultural chemicals, including glyphosate. These toxins, including glyphosate, are found in modern vaccines. This process of intoxication results in shrinkage of the cells. Shrunken, distorted cells are the hall-mark of celiac disease and other autoimmune diseases.
This fact is something that modern medicine is just beginning to appreciate: That is, the etiology of autoimmune disease and allergy can be traced back to distortion of cells and damaged villi and microvilli.
And this fact is why diets such as the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet and the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) that focus on gut health and repairing leaky gut are so crucial in the treatment of autoimmune disease, autism, allergies, and other chronic conditions.