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Fountain of youth — is a fecal transplant? Procedure may turn back clock on aging brain
StudyFinds.Org ^ | 3 Octomber 2020 | Chris Melore

Posted on 10/04/2020 8:35:13 AM PDT by amorphous

NORWICH, United Kingdom — What’s the secret to eternal youth? As scientists look for ways to extend life, a new study suggests the answer to healing older brains may be hiding in younger guts. Researchers say fecal transplants not only affect your gut health, they can alter your brain too.

An international team finds fecal transplants from older to younger mice impacts the learning and memory abilities of the recipient. By altering the gut microbiome of the younger mice, researchers say they began to act more like their older donors. These changes included some of the same cognitive impairments older brains suffer from.

“Research has shown that the aging process may be linked with age-related changes in our gut microbiota,” Dr. David Vauzour from the University of East Anglia says in a release. “We wanted to see whether transferring gut microbes from older to younger mice could affect parts of the central nervous system associated with aging.” What is a fecal transplant?

Simply put, fecal transplants involve taking stool from a healthy person and placing it in the colon of someone else. In humans, the recipient is usually someone who is very sick and could have a bacterial infection.

Since the gut contains both good and bad bacteria, using antibiotics can sometimes get rid of the helpful ingredients your body needs to stay healthy. Using the bacteria from a healthy donor’s poop adds in the right materials to properly balance the human microbiome. The procedure can even help patients dealing with serious conditions like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and cirrhosis. What does this have to do with your brain?

“Recently, the existence of two-way communication between the gut and the brain – known as the ‘gut-brain axis’ – has emerged as an important player in shaping aspects of behavior and cognitive function,” Dr. Vauzour explains.

After implanting the fecal material in younger adult mice, researchers studied how the transplant affected anxiety, exploratory behavior, and memory in each patient. The results show younger mice don’t display significant changes in terms of anxiety or behavior. They did however begin to show problems with spatial learning and memory. The young mice had trouble running through a maze test, just like older and mentally impaired mice do.

When examining this further, the team finds there are alterations in the proteins which have ties to neuro transmission. There are also changes in the cells of the hippocampus. This area of the brain forms new memories and helps control learning and emotions.

“Our research shows that a fecal transplantation from an old donor to a young recipient causes an age-associated shift in the composition of gut microbiota,” Vauzour adds. “In short, the young mice began to behave like older mice, in terms of their cognitive function.” Reversing the aging process

After proving fecal transplants can work in one direction, researchers are now looking at transplants from younger to older patients. If the procedure works in this direction, the team theorizes that the changes could reverse cognitive damage of old age.

“While it remains to be seen whether transplantation from very young donors can restore cognitive function in aged recipients, the findings demonstrate that age-related shifts in the gut microbiome can alter components of the central nervous system,” Prof. Claudio Nicoletti from the University of Florence says.

“This work highlights the importance of the gut-brain axis in aging and provides a strong rationale to devise therapies aiming to restore a young-like microbiota to improve cognitive functions and quality of life in the elderly.”

“Manipulating the microbiome is increasingly being seen as a way of improving or maintaining human health, and these results are an exciting indication of its potential for helping us age healthily” adds Prof. Arjan Narbad from the Quadram Institute.

The study appears in the journal Microbiome.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: fecal; fountainofyouth; modernmedice; poop
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Who knew?

Link to study in the journal Microbiome:

https://microbiomejournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40168-020-00914-w

1 posted on 10/04/2020 8:35:13 AM PDT by amorphous
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To: amorphous

Be a donor, give a s#!+!


2 posted on 10/04/2020 8:37:12 AM PDT by null and void (Democrats donate to bail money. Republicans donate to scholarships. ~ throwthebumsout)
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To: amorphous

So, we should eat baby poop?

Give it a test, and let us know. :-)


3 posted on 10/04/2020 8:37:16 AM PDT by SomeCallMeTim ( The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them!it)
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To: amorphous

Huh. I thought the Leftists had already tried this...

I assumed that is what they had swapped whatever brains they had for.


4 posted on 10/04/2020 8:38:23 AM PDT by rlmorel ("Leftism is the plaything of a society with too much time on its hands." - Candace Owens)
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To: rlmorel

So it’s not “ eat sh!t and die”?


5 posted on 10/04/2020 8:39:29 AM PDT by silverleaf (A live Biden speech is like a solar eclipse: rare, and leaves everyone in the dark)
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To: rlmorel

Wake me when the shuttle lands.


6 posted on 10/04/2020 8:40:02 AM PDT by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: amorphous

7 posted on 10/04/2020 8:40:49 AM PDT by EEGator
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To: amorphous

You can have shit for brains!


8 posted on 10/04/2020 8:41:02 AM PDT by dforest
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To: silverleaf

LOL, I supposed they had a hole bored in their heads to facilitate the sucking out of the bad and introducing the better...but I suppose they might have tried to eat it, too!


9 posted on 10/04/2020 8:41:22 AM PDT by rlmorel ("Leftism is the plaything of a society with too much time on its hands." - Candace Owens)
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To: amorphous

Maybe when I was told I had sh!t for brains, they were right!


10 posted on 10/04/2020 8:42:51 AM PDT by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.......)
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To: SomeCallMeTim
I think an alternative here is staying away from antibiotics and other "prescribed" medicine.

I'm 58 and still have never taken prescription medicine on any kind of long term basis. I'm still able to tell my doctors and dentists that I take "no prescription medicines."

I still feel as vigorous as I did when I was 25. Took a five-mile hike in the woods just this morning.

11 posted on 10/04/2020 8:43:44 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (Orange Man GOOD!)
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To: amorphous

“fecal transplant? Procedure may turn back clock on aging brain”

I remember when saying someone had “sh1t for brains” wasn’t a description of a medical treatment plan.


12 posted on 10/04/2020 8:44:47 AM PDT by LouieFisk
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To: SomeCallMeTim
According to the study, the donor "material" needs to be transplanted inside the recipient's "poop chute".

Personally, I prefer taking these:


13 posted on 10/04/2020 8:47:19 AM PDT by amorphous
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To: amorphous

Heh.

The sh** eaters are trying to get us to play along and join them by going in through the back door to desensitize us.


14 posted on 10/04/2020 8:48:58 AM PDT by Grimmy (equivocation is but the first step along the road to capitulation)
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To: null and void

You don’t want me for a donor - trust me! Lol...


15 posted on 10/04/2020 8:49:34 AM PDT by amorphous
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To: SamAdams76
I really enjoy my daily 4 mile walk, started about 5 years ago and now at 63 weigh the same as I did at 17 my senior year of high-school football.
16 posted on 10/04/2020 8:54:45 AM PDT by Jolla
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To: amorphous

Apple cider vinegar is not bad too.

So too is throwing some fresh herbs into your smoothie.


17 posted on 10/04/2020 8:56:33 AM PDT by CheshireTheCat ("Forgetting pain is convenient.Remembering it agonizing.But recovering truth is worth the suffering")
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To: Jolla
Walking/Hiking is the best.

Jogging, not so much. I don't think humans were meant to run except when their lives are in danger.

18 posted on 10/04/2020 8:56:55 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (Orange Man GOOD!)
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To: amorphous
The gut is very important to overall health. Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and a great deal of other health issue are tied to gut health. With the rise of colonoscopy there has been an associated rise in diseases that impact overall health. I believe that some day fecal transfers will be standard medical procedures, one may get their own fecal matter replaced after a medical procedure. https://www.outthinkingparkinsons.com/articles/gut
19 posted on 10/04/2020 9:01:01 AM PDT by mad_as_he$$
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To: amorphous

many people are full of shit. Now they can be full of someone else’s shit.


20 posted on 10/04/2020 9:01:07 AM PDT by PGR88
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