# Dangerous bacteria in your bowels



## Chris S (8 May 2017)

Your bowels contain dangerous bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli.
What stops them making their way up to your small intestine, getting absorbed and poisoning you?


----------



## postman (8 May 2017)

The vast amounts of cake, chocolate and nuts.It makes a sort of pebble dashing paste.Nothing gets through.


----------



## CanucksTraveller (8 May 2017)




----------



## vickster (8 May 2017)

Immune system?

Have you tried Googling?


----------



## Ian H (8 May 2017)

vickster said:


> Have you tried Googling?



Do you do that with a tube and soapy water?


----------



## vickster (8 May 2017)

Ian H said:


> Do you do that with a tube and soapy water?


If that's what you personally call such behaviour?


----------



## jefmcg (8 May 2017)

Chris S said:


> Your bowels contain dangerous bacteria such as salmonella and E. coli.
> What stops them making their way up to your small intestine, getting absorbed and poisoning you?


Your micro biome.

Plus you've already been exposed to any pathogens in your poop, so they are less dangerous to you than someone else's.


----------



## dan_bo (8 May 2017)

A cunning evolutionary collaboration between Biology and Physiology.


----------



## Globalti (8 May 2017)

I saw something on TV recently about a family who got shipwrecked and survived by giving themselves enemas with the filthy water slopping around in the bottom of the boat, on the grounds that the water would be absorbed by the bowel but not the bacteria. Must ask my cycling buddy about that one as he's a gastroenterologist.

My buddy quite often tells me fascinating facts about the human bowel; one was that the colon is equipped with very sensitive nerves, which allow the brain to distinguish between solid, liquid and gaseous contents. It's not always infallible though.


----------



## jefmcg (8 May 2017)

User13710 said:


> Although if your own microbiome is deficient, there is a treatment colloquially called a poo transfer, which is from someone else.


Oh dear. I never hear about that colloquially, so have only heard it referred by the very medical and not at all disgusting sounding _faecal transplant_. 

Though I gather if you have been suffering from _c difficile _ for years, your threshold of disgust is so lowered you'll arrange to do this with a friend if you can't get a doctor to help.


----------



## ColinJ (8 May 2017)

Globalti said:


> My buddy quite often tells me fascinating facts about the human bowel; one was that the colon is equipped with very sensitive nerves, which allow the brain to distinguish between solid, liquid and gaseous contents. *It's not always infallible though*.





Spoiler: Warning - faecal humour!


----------



## Chris S (8 May 2017)

Globalti said:


> I saw something on TV recently about a family who got shipwrecked and survived by giving themselves enemas with the filthy water slopping around in the bottom of the boat, on the grounds that the water would be absorbed by the bowel but not the bacteria.


I know alcohol can be absorbed through the bowel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_enema ) but can water be as well? People would be continually recycling water from their own faeces.


----------



## Globalti (8 May 2017)

The large bowel is the area of the digestive system where excess water is reabsorbed from the contents. It's where the body goes looking for water first when there's a shortage.


----------



## Bodhbh (8 May 2017)

Chris S said:


> I know alcohol can be absorbed through the bowel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_enema ) but can water be as well? People would be continually recycling water from their own faeces.



Christ that has to smart surely. Reminds me of the old urban myth at school that rubbing aftershave on various sensitive bits would give you an instant orgasm. No one was ever daft enough to try it. And lol at overdosing via Sherry enema.


----------



## slowmotion (8 May 2017)

Globalti said:


> The large bowel is the area of the digestive system where excess water is reabsorbed from the contents. It's where the body goes looking for water first when there's a shortage.


I can't imagine that it's fussy about the direction whence it came. Filtering bilge water through your bum has to be a winner.


----------



## jefmcg (8 May 2017)




----------



## Yellow Saddle (8 May 2017)

Forgive me for only watching up to 0:32


----------



## raleighnut (8 May 2017)

jefmcg said:


>


----------



## jefmcg (8 May 2017)

Yellow Saddle said:


> Forgive me for only watching up to 0:32


I didn't make it that far. Just enough to check it was relevant.


----------



## Globalti (8 May 2017)

Useful information although I won't bother with the theatricals when I stick the tube in....


----------



## User169 (8 May 2017)

The small intestine is next to your stomach, so pretty acidic which isn't very favorable for bacterial growth.


----------



## ufkacbln (8 May 2017)

jefmcg said:


> Oh dear. I never hear about that colloquially, so have only heard it referred by the very medical and not at all disgusting sounding _faecal transplant_.
> 
> Though I gather if you have been suffering from _c difficile _ for years, your threshold of disgust is so lowered you'll arrange to do this with a friend if you can't get a doctor to help.





..... it's a load of cr@p


Literally


----------



## classic33 (8 May 2017)

Chris S said:


> I know alcohol can be absorbed through the bowel ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_enema ) but can water be as well? People would be continually recycling water from their own faeces.


They're also coated in thin layer of slime, to keep everything in.


----------



## jefmcg (8 May 2017)

Globalti said:


> I saw something on TV recently about a family who got shipwrecked and survived by giving themselves enemas with the filthy water slopping around in the bottom of the boat,


I that had happened with my family, I suspect I would never be able to look them in the eyes again.


Bodhbh said:


> No one was ever daft enough to *admit they tried* it.


FTFY.


----------



## jefmcg (8 May 2017)

[QUOTE 4794371, member: 9609"]I think I heard there is some trials being done with this for babies that don't come out of women, there is research that is suggesting that these babies immune system does not developed as well or as quickly as babies born normally. Apparently when a baby is born normally it picks up its mothers natural bacteria when it pops out.[/QUOTE]
Um, yeah but no.


Caesarean babies still "come out of women" they just don't come out through the vagina daffodil.
The microbes that they are looking to adding to caesarean babies comes from the vaginal canal, not from the colon.
Totally enjoying your Shakespearean riff: "Fear not, Macbeth. No man that's born of woman. Shall e'er have power upon thee" "MacDuff [..] from his mother's womb, untimely ripped"


----------



## rikki (9 May 2017)

In the news today.
There is growing evidence faecal transplants could be causing some patients to take on the physical and mental traits of their donors.


----------



## Mugshot (9 May 2017)

[QUOTE 4794371, member: 9609"]I think I heard there is some trials being done with this for babies that don't come out of women[/QUOTE]
I think I know what you meant but it did make me giggle I'm afraid 



jefmcg said:


> Caesarean babies still "come out of women" they just don't come out through the vagina.


Might be one of those new fangled test tube ones.


----------



## Shortandcrisp (9 May 2017)

Used to go sea fishing some years ago. National Post Office Champion, 1991, don't you know! 

Dug my own bait from the local beach. Big black lugworm known locally as yellow tails because of the iodine they contained. Much more attractive to fish than the Common Lugworm, arenicola marina.

Was all this extra iodine scent in the water the main attraction? Decided to test the idea. Bought some iodine, watered it down, added it to some sawdust on newspaper and added some black lug.

Within 2 hours all the worms were dead!

Moral - what's good on the inside isn't necessarily good on the outside.


----------



## jefmcg (9 May 2017)

User13710 said:


> Oooh, you said 'vagina'!


OOPS.

Fixed.


----------

