Final answer:
Enteral therapy is preferred for nutritional therapy because it preserves the gut mucosa, maintains gut microbiome balance, and aligns with natural digestive processes. It reduces the risk of infections by promoting a healthy gut barrier and preventing bacterial translocation.
Step-by-step explanation:
Preferred Nutritional Therapy: Enteral Therapy
The physiological reasoning behind enteral therapy as the preferred source of nutritional therapy is that it helps preserve the gut mucosa. This is because enteral therapy maintains the gut's functionality by allowing direct interaction with food which sustains the intestinal mucosal barrier. This barrier is essential for preventing bacterial translocation which can lead to infections. Moreover, the constant movement of enteral nutrients helps to maintain the balance of the gut microbiome, which plays a crucial role in digestion, production of vitamins, and protection against pathogens, thereby reducing the chance of gut overgrowth by harmful bacteria.
The use of enteral therapy also aligns with the body's natural digestive process, involving the enteric nervous system which regulates gastrointestinal motility and secretion. Psychoneuroimmunology studies indicate that the gut's continuous interaction with enteral nutrition aligns with the rest-and-digest response of the parasympathetic nervous system, promoting digestion and maintaining healthy gut flora that serves as a line of resistance against colonization by exogenous pathogens. In contrast, not using the gastrointestinal tract can lead to atrophy of the gut mucosa and disturb the delicate balance of the gut microbiome, increasing the risk for infections and complications such as gastroparesis.