Replace Your Microbiome with Poop from a Bank!

May 28, 2014 · 6 comments

Pin It
Post image for Replace Your Microbiome with Poop from a Bank!

We have savings banks, commercial banks, investment banks, mortgage banks, internet banks as well as blood banks, sperm banks, egg banks and now, a stool bank. Yep. There is a company of medical students who have opened up the first stool bank called OpenBiome. They intend to provide hospitals with donor stool for Fecal Microbial Transplantation (FMT).

What is Fecal Microbial Transplantation?

Simply put, it is using stool from a healthy person and planting it into the colon of a sick person. It has been used to CURE infections from the dangerous Clostridium difficile bacteria and many people with other devastating diseases are hoping to see research put on the fast track.

History of Success

Back in 1958, doctors in Denver administered feces by enema to patients with fulminant, life-threatening pseudomembranous enterocolitis. The goal of this infusion of donor feces was to “re-establish the balance of nature” within the intestinal flora to correct the disruption caused by antibiotic treatment.

They reported “immediate and dramatic” responses and concluded that “this simple yet rational therapeutic method should be given more extensive clinical evaluation.”

Sadly, it did not take hold at the time.

Currently, those who have received a fecal transplant after suffering from recurring bouts of C. diff. — report that the next day they are 100% cured.

I’d say that’s a pretty powerful treatment modality.

The Procedure is Simple

The stool is placed in a blender with saline (salt water), and poured into a syringe. The sick patient is then given the freshly homogenized human stool via a colonoscopy, which is done through the rectum.

The donors theoretically come from a select group of Super Donors – people who did not have antibiotics as children, who are healthy, and who will be able to donate their stool.

I bet there are some Real Foodies out there that would qualify.

Do It Yourselfers

There are many patients, or parents of sick children who do not want to wait 5 – 10 years for the FDA to approve FMT for other illnesses such as Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis. They are taking it upon themselves to screen donors and to apply the simple treatment at home as an enema. Many report good success. Others need to tweek the treatments in one way or another.

There have been no reports of adverse reactions at this point.

Read more information here for DIY.

Enema is a Traditional Treatment

We have saline enemas, coffee enemas, probiotic enemas and now poop enemas, the ultimate probiotic! In the history of healing, enemas have been used for centuries.

In 1500 B.C. the Egyptians were the first in recorded in history to use colonic lavage. The Babylonians and and Assyrians followed in 600 B.C. as recorded on cuneiform tablets.

Hippocrates used enemas for fever in 400 B.C. and in 124 B.C. Asclepiades used enemas for intestinal worms and fevers.

In 30 AD, Celsus, the author of one of the first medical books, wrote about the use of the enema for treatment. In 100 AD, Galen, the celebrated Greek physician supported enema use.

During the middle ages the use of the enema became popular with the wealthy and royalty. In 1480 Louis XI was relieved of an attack of apoplexy by an enema and became a staunch advocate of it.

The 1600’s became known as the age of clysters (enema) and some people enjoyed it as many as 3 or 4 times a day! In the 1700’s Louis XIV became known as the Enema King as it has been recorded that he had 2,000 enemas during his career.

As with most traditional, safe healing arts, during the 1800’s the enema fell out of favor in the medical community as laxatives and other drugs took over.

In the 1930’s – 1950’s the enema emerged as colonic hydrotherapy which was used in hospitals, but sadly was dropped in the 1970’s in favor of prescription laxatives.

Read more for an interesting, in depth review of the history of enema.

How Does FMT Work?

We house microbes in every part of our body — intestines, skin, mouth, to the tune of 100 trillion. That means that there are more bacterial cells in and on our bodies than there are cells that make up our body, tissues and organs.

Justin Sonnenburg, a microbiologist at Stanford, has said,

we would do well to begin regarding the human body as an elaborate vessel optimized for the growth and spread of our microbial inhabitants.

Interestingly, Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride has been talking about the gut bacteria for years and addressing imbalances in their diversity in her GAPS diet.

Poop is simply thousands of strains of bacteria that assist us in detoxifying dangerous chemicals that come through our digestive systems. Clearly, it can be beneficial to people with an overriding C. diff infection, to have an infusion of new bacterial strains that will crowd out the C. diff.

Probiotics do not come close to the effectiveness of poop. Probiotics generally have only 1 – 14 strains of bacteria compared to poop which has hundreds if not thousands – many unknown to us at this point.

Stool Banks

Having previously tested stool from donors ready to be used, much like blood transfusions, is the goal of this company, OpenBiome. Hopefully the FDA will not put the kabash on this exciting new treatment by commanding unnecessarily strict regulations. (source)

Of course, screening and testing the stool is in order, but now there is talk about having the patient provide the donor which makes it more difficult. having a stool bank with ready-to-go frozen specimens makes it convenient.

The Wave of the Future

This procedure can open up treatment options for people with other disorders like Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis who are faced with disabling symptoms that are at present only addressed with expensive and dangerous drugs.

If you had a disease that could be treated with FMT would you do it? If you could replace your bad microbiome with a good one would you do FMT? Leave a comment and let me know!

For more information about this topic:

Shared at: Fight Back Friday

Photo Credit

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

In order for me to support my blogging activities, I may receive monetary compensation or other types of remuneration for my endorsement, recommendation, testimonial and/or link to any products or services from this blog.

The owner of this website is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon properties including, but not limited to, amazon.com, endless.com, myhabit.com, smallparts.com, or amazonwireless.com. Disclaimer

Tropical Traditions Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil

1 Gallon Gold Label Virgin Coconut Oil

Tropical Traditions Gold Label Coconut Oil is a product I use every day.
Pin It

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

1 DoReGaMa May 29, 2014 at 10:01 am

nice information , thanks for this post

Reply

2 Julie May 29, 2014 at 7:44 pm

Jill – thanks for putting this information out in the public. This treatment is changing lives!!

Reply

3 Jill May 29, 2014 at 8:37 pm

Hi Julie,
It sure is!

Reply

4 Rachel C. June 2, 2014 at 12:32 am

Hi, Jill. I have severe Crohn’s disease, diagnosed in 2008, and have been on those “nasty” medications for Crohn’s for six years, including a former chemotherapy med and a biologic med, as well as prednisone off and on. I have also had C. Diff about 8 times, once taking three months to get rid of it using antibiotics.

I would most definitely do the FMT treatment in a heartbeat if I could find a healthcare practitioner who would agree to try it and if I could afford it. I doubt that insurance would cover something like FMT until it’s been approved.

I have been intrigued by FMT each time you have written about it. I really think it could help people like me and could perhaps be beneficial for my eight year old daughter as well, who has had digestive issues for the last four years. It seems like it would be almost too good to be true, that something this simple would be effective. Sure would make the pharmaceutical companies that manufacture the super expensive biologic medicines angry!

Reply

5 Jill June 2, 2014 at 10:06 am

Hi Rachel,
I think there are many people like you, with conditions and issues that may respond well to such a simple fix. The concerns are with the health of the donor and not transmitting any unknown diseases and how to most effectively deliver the solution. It’s definitely in the future – but some don’t want to wait until the FDA approves it for all the other conditions it may help!

Reply

Leave a Comment

{ 1 trackback }

Previous post:

Next post: