Very small tears in the delicate anal tissue are apparently a common problem in humans, obviously more so in certain groups than others. Whether they’re microscopic or severe enough to cause bleeding, why doesn’t the faecal matter enter the blood stream and make you very ill? If you ate faeces you’d get gastroenteritis I assume, so wouldn’t faecal matter in the blood be really dangerous?
In: Biology
Every time you brush your teeth, bacteria get into your blood stream. Every time you have a bowel movement, bacterial translocation through the colonic mucosa does the same. But you have a mighty fine immune system capable of wiping out those small bacterial incursions. Additionally, mucosal tears don’t violate large enough blood vessels to allow large amounts of fecal matter into circulation.
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