Feces therapy

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Against allopathy

Alternative medicine

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Feces therapy is a legitimate medical treatment, a potential experimental medical treatment, and a woo alternative medicine. The differences are in the methods and results.

Contents

[edit] Fecal transplants

Fecal transplants (or fecal microbiota transplants, FMT) are used medicine primarily in an attempt to treat problems in the gut microbiome with transplants from people with healthier microbiomes. The first fecal transplant reported in a scientific journal was in 1958, but research was minimal until 2012.[1][2]

[edit] Treatments

Treatments have been for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), colitis and Clostridium difficile infection. As such, there is a plausible rationale for such treatment and there have been successes for some treatments. These transplants have often been suppositories, but oral pills of extracted bacteria seems to be the safest method.[3][4][5] In other words, they started with a bottoms-up approach and have now moved towards a top-down approach.

[edit] Efficacy and safety

Fecal transplants have a 90% cure rate for treating C. difficile, far more effective than antibiotics.[6][7] In a small study of 55 patients with both IBS and inflammatory bowel disease, only 52% were cured or had decreased symptoms after treatment with FMT.[2] In a smaller study of 13 patients with IBS only, 70% reported improvement of symptoms after treatment with FMT.[2]

FMT is not without risk. "Autoimmune disease (rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren syndrome, idiopathic thrombocyto-penic purpura, and peripheral neuropathy) developed in 4 of the 77 patients" in one long-term study.[2] Even if you think you have your shit together and you already have everything you need to do an FMT, do not try this at home.[1]

[edit] Probiotics

Raquel Rubio et al. won the 2014 Ig Nobel Prize in Nutrition for their study on infant fecal bacteria used as probiotics in sausages.[8][9] This is one kind of sausage that you absolutely do not want to see being made. Unless...

[edit] Alternative medicine

The difference between the alternative medicine treatment and the medicine treatment is that:

Human and animal feces are in the Chinese materia medica, and have a long history in traditional Chinese medicine. "In the 16th century, Li Shizhen detailed a variety of fecal preparations called 'yellow soup' to be given for diarrhea, abdominal pain, vomiting, and constipation."[10][11] It can even be found for sale online as Excremento Hominis in a preparation called ren zhong huang (人中黄) or (licorice with human feces).[12] The laundry list of indications for ren zhong huang includes "erysipelas, sores, polydipsia with high fever, typhoid with heat disease, macula due to heat-toxin."[13]

In Korea, a "wine" has traditionally been made from human feces called ttongsul (똥술). Ttongsul is still available in Korea, but it is not as popular as it once was.[14][15][16]

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. 1.0 1.1 Alternatives needed to do-it-yourself feces swaps by Erika Engelhaupt (February 20, 2014). Science News
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Intestinal Microbiota and the Efficacy of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Gastrointestinal Disease by Olga C. Aroniadis & Lawrence J. Brandt. Gastroenterol Hepatol (N Y). 2014 Apr; 10(4): 230–237.
  3. Poop-transplant pills treat intestinal infection: Freezing donated gut bacteria keeps them fresh to fight Clostridium difficile by Kate Baggaley (October 16, 2014). Science News
  4. Introducing the first bank of feces by Erika Engelhaupt (February 12, 2014). Science News
  5. [Oral, Capsulized, Frozen Fecal Microbiota Transplantation for Relapsing Clostridium difficile Infection] by Ilan Youngster et al. Journal of the American Medical Association November 5, 2014, Vol 312, No. 17
  6. Fecal Transplants Bring Hope to Patients, Challenge the FDA by Janis C. Kelly (December 15, 2014). MedScape
  7. BBC: Woman's stool transplant leads to 'tremendous weight gain'
  8. http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html Winners of the Ig® Nobel Prize]
  9. Characterization of lactic acid bacteria isolated from infant faeces as potential probiotic starter cultures for fermented sausages by Raquel Rubio et al. Food Microbiology Volume 38, April 2014, Pages 303–311. doi:10.1016/j.fm.2013.07.015.
  10. Intestinal Microbiota and the Role of Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) in Treatment of C. difficile Infection by Lawrence J Brandt. The American Journal of Gastroenterology 2013;108(2):177-185.
  11. Should We Standardize the 1,700-Year-Old Fecal Microbiota Transplantation? by Faming Zhang et al. The American Journal of Gastroenterology 107, 1755 (November 2012). doi:10.1038/ajg.2012.251
  12. [1]
  13. TCM Wiki: Ren Zhong Huang
  14. Vice: Korean Poo Wine
  15. Korean Feces Wine is a Real Thing and We’ve Got Two Bottles of it
  16. Bottoms up? The bizarre traditional Korean rice wine that uses human POO to 'heal' everything from broken bones to epilepsy
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