Fecal transplants. Yes, they may seem gross, but they may just completely change one's gut health.
WHAT ARE FECAL TRANSPLANTS?
Fecal transplants are known under many different names - fecal bacteriotherapy, stool transplant, fecal microbiota transplantation, etc. It is a method to cure gut illnesses by taking a sample of feces from a person with a healthy gut microbiome to replace that of an unhealthy person's.
Clostridium difficile are bacteria that can cause serious diarrhea to life-threatening colon inflammation. Fecal transplants have been proven to treat this illness.
DR. KHORUTS' STORY
In 2008, Dr. Khoruts received a patient with a serious infection of C. difficile. For 6 months, no antibiotics has worked and he finally turned to fecal transplant. He took a sample of the patient's husband's stool and delivered it to her gut. Her diarrhea was gone within a day, and within two weeks, his healthy bacteria took over her gut, where normal bacteria previously didn't exist. Her gut was insantly healthier than it had been just days before.
HOW DO FECAL TRANSPLANTS WORK?
As it is becoming more popular, there are many different approaches doctors are now using to replace an unhealthy gut. Below listed are a few ways that has been used:
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through nose with a tube
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orally with pill
Dr. Khoruts, gastroenterologist at University of Minnesota. (I-43)
C. difficile (I-44)
OTHER HEALTH ISSUES TREATABLE BY FECAL TRANSPLANTS
While their primary treatment is not fecal transplants, it has been considered to be used against these disorders.
WHY DO WE CARE?
Since it has first been proven to work, fecal transplants have been a breakthrough in the medical field of science. Although there is still a safety concern, more research is taking place with what might be the cure to multiple hard-to-treat illnesses.
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