Don't poo-poo technique: Fecal transplant can cure superbug, doctors say

cbc dot ca ^ | 12-2008

[Osage Orange]

Respectively....are you two medical Doctors?

[muawiyah]

Distance ~ plus, I’d imagine folks who’ve had this bug take over have exceedingly fragile intestinal tracts.

[Patriotic1]

Otherwise we'd be doing the squirts all the time like other primates.

Really?!? They don't have solid waste?

[muawiyah]

Ever walk through a monkey cage? A big one ~ not a little one ~ and watch what they're throwing and how EASY it falls into their hands for a toss (at will).

In the wild canines produce exceedingly dry fecal matter. It's so dry the adults are able to clean the communal den by picking it up in their teeth and carrying it outside.

Think of it this way, without those canine bacteria in your gut you'd probably not be able to wear modern clothing ~ and come to think of it, ancient societies without a lot of dogs around the village wore "bathrobes".

Now the difference is probably not as stark as I describe it, but it's fairly obvious.

Man's best friend serves us in many ways.

[RJS1950]

I caught this in passing when my wife was watching Grey’s Anatomy a few weeks back. It caught my attention because I was originally trained and worked in pathogenic bacteriology and had read about this before. I watched that segment of the episode and they have some pretty good medical advisors because they explained it pretty well. When the good bacteria in your gut becomes compromised this can reestablish the good bacteria that keeps the bad ones at bay.

[John S Mosby]

You’re right. Darned important. People get treated with vancomycin and then can die from difficile. I seem to recall from my horse owner friends, the use of healthy horse poo in gelatin capsules that are rectally inserted in a sick horse to repopulate its lower tract with healthy bacteria, like e.coli.
E coli outcompetes the difficile. Too bad some Freepers here don’t understand the seriousness. This treatment is difficult to admin as obvious from the story. And testing for Hepatitis, etc. is essential. Looking up Healthy Trinity.

[Snapping Turtle]

An ounce of Chartreuse liquor and it’ll kill off any bad bug you may have contracted (i.e., bad fast food). Then some probiotics or the Betaine HCL for a while. This problem must be especially horrible for anyone to resort to this state-of-the-a$$ treatment.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

In other medical news....Polish surgeons today announced the first successful hemmorhoid transplant....

[Slump Tester]

They smell just like a big ol' bunch of flowers!

[null and void]

If that doesn't work, I may have to undergo this disgusting therapy. NOT looking forward to it.

We all thought that you were already full of...

[null and void]

Hmmmmm, mohammedans don’t like dogs.

[TNdandelion]

I hope it doesn’t come to that. Good luck with your treatment.

[Slings and Arrows]

Finally, a use for Democrat brain tissue!

[aruanan]

E coli outcompetes the difficile. Too bad some Freepers here don’t understand the seriousness. This treatment is difficult to admin as obvious from the story. And testing for Hepatitis, etc. is essential. Looking up Healthy Trinity.

There is E. coli in human feces, but that amounts to only a few percent according to some researchers I know here at the University of Chicago who are working on inflammatory bowel diseases. The concept sounds gross, because who likes to ingest waste products--well, except for ethanol, which is yeast crap--but there are solid reasons for doing so. A gut unpopulated by good bacteria is just sitting there waiting to become the intestinal equivalent of a crack house (oh, ha ha, I just got that).

Sometimes even cow bile is given in capsules for medicinal reasons. Osage Orange, my doctorate is in human nutrition/nutritional biology with my thesis work and post-doc in neurobiology. Some gut bacteria are responsible for making short chain fatty acids that are required for gut health. Breach the gut immune defense and you're subject to all sorts of danger. Also, certain gut bacteria make vitamin K, required for blood clotting.

[Kozak]

Why not make a milk shake?

See “Making of a Surgeon” by William Nolen published in the 1970’s.....

[vetvetdoug]

C.Diff. is sensitive to an older antibiotic, Tylosin, which is dirt cheap and effective. Some animals with the toxin producing strain have to take a small amount of Tylosin daily to keep it in check. So far, that is the only way internal med veterinarians have found to control the bug in animals that have the toxin producing strain.

[metmom]

They couldn’t just use probiotics or something?

After all, by reading the advertising, it’s supposed to cure everything from stomach upset to hangnails.

Seriously, if it’s the good bacteria, why not just chow down on Acidophilus and Bifidus?

[muawiyah]

It’s the Arabs who have a cultural disdain for dogs.

[null and void]

Yeah. Them. And Pakistanis. And Afghanis. And Persians.

[Titan Magroyne]

I'm trying to imagine asking one of my parents or other close relations to save up their deposits for this kind of procedure, and - woof! Can't go there. Such a treatment is truly for the desperate, and I feel for them who are at this point.