Kissing and gut bacteria

Gerenuk

Basically the question is:
Can your gut flora change slightly by kissing a lot?
Will it have an effect on your digestion?

Can you change weight because of this?

It kind of works in lab experiments with mice and it exists for babies.

bobze

No, your GI bacteria shouldn't change with kissing. You oral flora (your mouth) and your GI flora are different flora and your GI flora shouldn't be coming up through your mouth. The vast majority of your GI flora is bacteriodies species (anaerobic bacteria), while in your mouth its mostly alpha hemolytic streptococcus species.

Ryan_m_b

It shouldn't but only the other night I had the pleasure of seeing a drunk man throw up in the street before immediately kissing his drunk girlfriend...

bobze

Gross! That made me want to wipe mouth out, lol.

On a more serious note, even after emesis I don't think the bacteria should be passing from your GI back to your mouth.

Your GI is wonderfully segmented and compartmentalized. Blocking off your stomach from your esophagus is your cardiac (lower esophageal) sphincter. Then blocking off your stomach from your SI is your pyloric sphincter. During emesis your cardic sphincter opens allowing stomach contents to be ejected. In a healthy person your pyloric sphincter should not be opening allowing passage of material from the SI up the tract. This can happen in unhealthy people when they have pyloric stenosis.


There is a good reason that the areas of your GI are so quarantined. The flora from your mouth, esophagus, stomach (not that it has much flora), SI, LI and colon have different flora and compositions of flora. As well as having different pHs of content that passes between them and having specialized epithelium that deals with specific pHs. When flora from one specific compartment gets into the incorrect compartment it can cause problems.

Ryan_m_b

It did put me off my burger lol
Ah interesting. Thanks Bobze