A group of researchers think that storing a portion of poop from your youth could someday save your life. A relatively new procedure, fecal transplants, are meant to improve gut health. Researchers believe that the ecosystem in our bodies is the key to a healthier life. The group of researchers think that storing a portion of your poop from your youth can someday save your life. Autologous fecal microbiota transplantation, or FMT, is when you use your own poop to restore your health later in life.
Your intestinal tract is a microbiome that is home to 100 trillion microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. Heterologous FMT is when the feces from a healthy donor is transplanted into another person to restore the gut microbiome and boost health. Here is how FMT works. First, a young and healthy patient will provide their feces for storage and will be used later in life. The storage and processed fecal matter can be ingested in capsules, rectally by enema, or given during colonoscopy.
As of now, FMT has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but the FDA allows its usage only when a patient with Clostridium difficile, a germ that causes severe diarrhea, is unresponsive to standard antibiotics.
J. Thomas LaMont, a Gastroenterologist says, “The idea behind a stool transplant is to “reseed the lawn,” so to speak. After exposure to weeks or months of antibiotics (including Vanco) the normal bowel flora — the organisms in your colon that help prevent infection — is weakened. They simply can’t keep C. diff out. In other words, the normal barrier function of the colonic flora is gone, and C. diff gets right back in. So, putting in some normal flora from a healthy donor is like reseeding the lawn — it restores the barrier. When that happens, C. diff cannot get back in, and the infection is cured.”
There is hope for FMT. For example, curing Clostridium difficile with FMT has a 90% success rate. FMT can do many things such as combat inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and unhealthy aging, as well as rebuild a patient’s gut microbiome after chemotherapy and heavy use of antibiotics.
Your intestinal tract is a microbiome that is home to 100 trillion microorganisms including bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protozoa. Heterologous FMT is when the feces from a healthy donor is transplanted into another person to restore the gut microbiome and boost health. Here is how FMT works. First, a young and healthy patient will provide their feces for storage and will be used later in life. The storage and processed fecal matter can be ingested in capsules, rectally by enema, or given during colonoscopy.
As of now, FMT has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, but the FDA allows its usage only when a patient with Clostridium difficile, a germ that causes severe diarrhea, is unresponsive to standard antibiotics.
J. Thomas LaMont, a Gastroenterologist says, “The idea behind a stool transplant is to “reseed the lawn,” so to speak. After exposure to weeks or months of antibiotics (including Vanco) the normal bowel flora — the organisms in your colon that help prevent infection — is weakened. They simply can’t keep C. diff out. In other words, the normal barrier function of the colonic flora is gone, and C. diff gets right back in. So, putting in some normal flora from a healthy donor is like reseeding the lawn — it restores the barrier. When that happens, C. diff cannot get back in, and the infection is cured.”
There is hope for FMT. For example, curing Clostridium difficile with FMT has a 90% success rate. FMT can do many things such as combat inflammatory bowel disease, obesity, and unhealthy aging, as well as rebuild a patient’s gut microbiome after chemotherapy and heavy use of antibiotics.
