Dirt and Development

Discovery

BBC

Science, Technology

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2018

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

BBC Health and Science correspondent James Gallagher explores the latest research into how our second genome, the vast and diverse array of microbes that live on and in our bodies, is driving our metabolism and our health and how we can change it for the better. In this second episode he explores how researchers are uncovering a vital relationship between the healthy bugs we accumulate in our gut and our immune system . We have over the past 50 years done a terrific job of eliminating infectious disease. But in we've also done the same to many good bacteria and as a result we're seeing an enormous and terrifying increase in autoimmune disease and in allergy. Could correcting our encounters with bugs at birth, and in the first few month of life set us on a path of good health? And in if in later life the delicate balance between our body and bugs gets skewed, leading to inflammatory diseases such as irritable bowel syndrome or frailty in old age, how can this be rectified? Illustration by Katie Horwich Producer: Adrian Washbourne

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, Marnie Chesterton from Crowds
0:02.4	here, just gate-crashing the podcast you actually downloaded
0:05.9	to mention mine.
0:07.3	If you're the type of person who's ever wondered
0:09.7	anything about the world around you,
0:11.5	then we are the podcast for you.
0:14.0	We take your questions on anything scientific and scour the globe for answers.
0:18.5	That's crowd science which you can find wherever you get your podcasts.
0:22.0	I'll get out of your ears now as you were.
0:24.3	Hello and welcome to Discovery from the BBC World Service with me James Galah.
0:29.7	It's the start of one of life's most important relationships between parents and child.
0:40.0	But an invisible bond is forming too, between baby and bacteria.
0:48.0	We might be sterile in the womb, but when we emerge into the world,
0:52.0	our body becomes a marriage of human and micro.
0:55.4	It's a relationship that will last a lifetime and what happens in these first few months of life
1:01.3	is as important as a first date.
1:04.0	By the way, did any of you have antibiotics when they get good?
1:08.0	So did I.
1:10.0	I was hoping to avoid it completely, but then I had quite a high fever during delivery so
1:15.1	The drugs were given the food were fed and even the way we're born shape our microbiome that collection of bacteria, fungi,
1:24.5	Arkea and viruses that live on and in all of us.
1:28.4	We were told that with twins initially we were told you've got to keep everything
	...

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