why don't digestive bacteria enter the rest of the body?

Answer 1

Humans and doughnuts have many things in common. A doughnut has 1 surface and 1 hole. Humans have the same anatomy. The alimentary tract consists of the mouth, stomach, intestine and anus. It is nothing more than a hole running through the body. Doughnuts are covered in crust. In a doughnut, the crust is the same everywhere Humans are covered in skin, but the skin changes when it lines the alimentary tract. In terms of tissue classification, the lining of the stomach is still composed of modified skin cells.

The lesson to be learned from observing doughnuts is that the inside of the doughnut is completely sealed from the outside. To get inside the doughnut, one has to penetrate the crust. Therefore, one could fill the doughnut hole with dirt, but the inside of the doughnut would still be "clean". Once again, the same is true of humans. We may be walking dirt bags, but the dirt stays completely separate from our insides.

If the skin is damaged however, an infection might result. Fingers get injured quite a lot, but a disinfectant and a bandage is usually sufficient to prevent any serious infections. The same is not quite so easy to do with the alimentary tract. Swallowing bandages just leads to indigestion. Swallowing disinfectant is a very bad idea.

Humans don't have eyeballs on the ends of their fingers, but they do have a pair just above the mouth. The mouth in turn has a pair of lips as sensitive as fingertips and backed up by a tongue capable of not only feeling food, but tasting it too. Molars can crush anything spikey or sharp. If this fails, the alimentary tract itself can handle some fairly nasty things almost as though it had fingers. For example, there are medical records of people safely passing open pins through their guts without any injury.

This is not a foolproof system however. Massive injuries can rupture the skin of the alimentary tract and since it is a tube, the bacteria inside can spread into the body cavity. This is a very serious medical condition known as perintonitis. One other flaw the system has is structural. The human appendix is about as useless as a horse's thumb, but unfortunately we still have ours. It can trap things such as small seeds which can decay and cause an infection. The appendix can even rupture and this will cause a generalized infection.

Therefore the answer to the question is that bacteria can't enter the body cavity because it is completely isolated from the outside of the body, even though, technically it is inside the body.

NOTE: mathematicians study surfaces quite frequently. They play games transforming the shape of objects without introducing any new surface features. Therefore, the doughnut and the cup of coffee are technically examples of the same surface. The spoon and saucer are not, but the person is.

Answer 2

Same reason blood stays in veins. Brains stay in the head. It has evolved that way.

The bacteria in digestive tracts have a nice comfortable habitat in which to complete their life cycle. If the bacteria did the host harm. The bacteria would suffer as well as the host. It's called a symbiotic relationship. One which is beneficial to both host and bacteria.

Answer 3

Technically the bacteria in your gut (part of the alimentary canal) are outside your body. Unless there is a breach in your squamous epithelials in your mouth to the columnar epithelials in your intestine the bacteria are maintained in the alimentary canal. The bacteria are too large to enter the blood stream where nutrients are small enough to pass though the intestinal walls.

Answer 4

Because only the digestive tract provides the environment in which they thrive. If they moved towards other parts of the body, they would die pretty quickly due to relatively minor changes in temperature and pH.

Answer 5

The body prevents it. They are pretty quick to do it when the stomach or intestines are punctured. In the old days, pre-antibiotics, it was practically a death sentence.

When the Vikings were injured to the abdomen, they were fed onion soup. Later, people sniffed at the wounds, and if they smelled onions, indicating that the stomach or intestine was punctured, it was acknowledged that the warrior was going to die and nothing was done except to make him comfortable.

Answer 6

because the inner lining or endothelium of your stomache wont let it. the ph levels in our stomaches is very low (high acidity). so if it could contain that type of ph level then it should be able to contain digestive bacteria unless you poop it out