(Cont’d from Part 3: Treating Chronically Sensitive Gut Like A Wired Brain)
That awkward moment when: you don’t have your headphones plugged in and your computer speakers start hitting on everyone at Starbucks:
Hey, I just met you,
And this is crazy,
But here’s my number,
So call me, maybe?
You look around, waiting for an understanding maternal figure to say “This Too Shall Pass,” but instead an elderly lady says “Ok but I need your number.” Didn’t happen to you? Your loss!
That other awkward moment when: one of the most promising treatments for your gut requires you to ask soon-to-be-ex friends & family “So you mind if I borrow your healthy child’s poop?” To which the response might vary from “How much and when?” to “Are there no boundaries? Let us just be facebook friends.”
Fecal Transplants (aka Human Probiotic Infusions or Fecal Bacteriotherapy, but we’ll call it FT) burst on the scene in recent years due to the work by Dr. Thomas Borody at the Probiotic Research Therapy Centre in Australia, where he’s treated >1000 and published a study where 60 of 67 patients were cured of recurrent C Difficile (90% success). These numbers have been duplicated in other international studies, spawning interest in FT for other GI dx like Inflammatory Bowel Disease (which includes Ulcerative Colitis & Crohn’s). When I last checked, there were physicians in Utah & Rhode Island admin-ing this, but there may be more now. Utah dr treats C Diff & UC, and the Rhode Island doctor posted publicly in this forum about her work.
Will the verdict come from patients’ homes?
Many chronically ill patients have seen enough promise to self-administer treatment by finding a healthy donor and using:
“ bottle of saline, a 2-quart enema kit from the local drugstore and a standard kitchen blender” - http://abcnews.go.com/Health/diarrhea-debilitating-digestive-ills-relieved-diy-fecal-transplants/story?id=13601702&page=3%23.Tu2kMpifznY#.Tu2p_pifznY
Ulcerative Colitis: in case studies & self-reports, there’s been more mixed results for treatment of UC than C Diff. In fact, some with both recurrent C Diff & UC report on their UC sticking around or even kicking into high gear after curing the C Diff. Others with UC report “amazing results” and a “cure..days away from having surgery”, so the jury is still out.
I’ve heard many patients wonder if they’ve just been pouring money down the drain (yes pun intended) by taking oral probiotics. In this great podcast featuring Dr. Linda Lee, she sums up the main reason why I think this FT is so promising: the beneficial changes to your gut flora from oral probiotics dissipate after a few days, but the benefits from the FT are still around after 6 months. If the clinical studies support using FT for other chronic GI disorders like IBS (which seem to occur frequently in neuroimmune illnesses), no doubt we may begin to see more home-treatment for both clinical & financial reasons.
Disclaimer: The information in this blog is not advice, and should not be treated as such. You must not rely on the information on this website as an alternative to medical advice from your doctor or other professional healthcare provider. If you have any specific questions about any medical matter you should consult your doctor or other professional healthcare provider.
