• Question: How Much Bacteria Do We Have In Our Stomah??

    Asked by wally95 to MarkF, Mark, Michael, Panos, Sarah on 18 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Mark Fogg

      Mark Fogg answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      There’s not as much in your stomach as there is in your intestines. I don’t know the precise figure, but there are more bacterial cells in your digestive system than there are cells in the rest of your body!

    • Photo: Sarah Burl

      Sarah Burl answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      I think MarkT is better to answer this! As far as I am aware there are very few bacteria that can survive in the stomach acidic environment however some bacteria that do get into the stomach like H. pylori can cause stomach ulcers.

    • Photo: Michael Loughlin

      Michael Loughlin answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      only a few species of bacteria survive well in the acid conditions of the stomach. (pH 2) so most bacteria just try and survive to get to less acid intestines

      Helicobacter pylori however can produce ammonia to protect itself and burrow into the mucus of the stomach (pH7) with its corkscrew shape
      most bacteria are in the large intestine..colon…about 1 kg per person

    • Photo: Mark Travis

      Mark Travis answered on 17 Jun 2010:

      Not too many bacteria in the stomach (very acidic, most bacteria don’t like acid). It is in the lower intestine there are loads of bacteria- approx. 100 trillion bacteria (more than 10 times the number of human cells that make up our body- so we are more bacteria than human!).

    • Photo: Panos Soultanas

      Panos Soultanas answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Hello Wally,

      Most bacteria live in our guts and not in our stomach. The stomach is very acidic and most bacteria (only with very few exceptions) cannot live in the stomach. In the gut we have an astronomical number of bacteria. It is a very big number indeed…! Way more than the number of people living on earth..!

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