The Bifidus Factor in Human Milk

Bifidus factor is a carbohydrate growth factor in human milk. It prevents digestive tract infections because it induces and improves the growth of good intestinal flora. Bifidus is considered a probiotic and it is found in, for example, Activa, which is a yogurt manufactured by Dannon. Probiotics are beneficial because they replace missing micro-organisms that your body needs to properly and efficiently digest food. When your body has a sufficient amount of good bacteria in the digestive track, your digestive system runs smoothly. Additionally, probiotics lessen the chance that you will be stricken with a UTI (urinary tract infection) or a yeast infection.

What It Does

• Humans need gut flora, which is the good and proper kind of flora in your intestinal tract. Bifidus factor has low protein content, high lactose concentration and low bulk. When there is high lactose content, the lactose is available to assist in generating bacterial fermentation in the intestine. This creates an acidic environment, which is good because it reduces the likelihood that bad bacteria can thrive in the intestines.

Breast-Feeding

• Bifidus factor makes lactobacillus bifidus grow; this is beneficial to a breast-feeding infant because it safeguards the baby against dangerous bacteria. It stimulates the manufacturing of acids that protect the infant's digestive system, destroying harmful bacteria. Bifidus milk provides superb nutritional health benefits for infants and children, points out Dairyforall.com.

Disease Resistant Properties

• Bifidus factor is one of the oldest known disease resistant properties in human milk. Breast milk is considered the perfect food for a newborn for many reasons, including the biochemical bifidus factor that prompts good bacteria growth. When a child is breastfed, his mother's milk somehow works to oust the growth of harmful organisms and makes way for the growth of good bacteria in the baby's belly, explains Breastfeedingonline.com. No one understands exactly how it is that the mother's immune system knows how to create antibodies against bad bacteria and pathogenic bacteria, but it does.

Human Milk

• When an infant's GI tract contains bifidobacteria from the breast milk, pH levels appear to be reduced and this makes it more difficult for bad bacteria to grow. The feces of breast-fed infants contain lactobacillus bifidus. This shows that human milk has a specific growth factor for L. bifidus that becomes inactive upon storage.