November 29, 2017 - Eye Health
Hey everybody, it’s Dr. Sam and I want to report on an exciting study that came out in July 2017 in the Pediatric Journal of the AMA.
The question that was asked by researchers had to do with whether the microbiome in the mother’s breastmilk and on the skin of the breast actually transferred to the baby’s body. The results showed that almost 30% of the bacterial community in the maternal breastmilk was transferred to the infant’s microbiome. Almost 10% of the bacterial community around the skin of the breast transferred to the infant’s microbiome.
This is really exciting because we know that the microbiome does many important things. It increases our immune system, improves cell permeability and motility – so we are able to absorb our nutrients better, and it also reduces our inflammatory response in the gut and body. The fact that infants are building their microbiome at such an early stage underscores how important breastfeeding is to having a healthy baby.