I have a question for you.
Would you donate your
poop to a friend? Or would you accept a poop donation?
Kind of a weird question. But today, we're going
to talk about Fecal Microbiota Transplants.
Okay. So before we dive into that fun realm of
research, I'll introduce myself. I'm Taylor.
I'm one of the Registered Dietitians, Nutrition
Consultants and Certified Diabetes Educators
that practices on the Diet Vs Disease Team.
I've been helping clients since 2016 and gut health
is my passion. So first before we talk about
the research, I'll explain what a fecal transplant is.
This is when they transfer or transplant, donated
fecal matter into an individuals large intestines
or colon to someone who has an imbalance
of bacteria to help support or rebalance their colon.
There is some really great research in this
area and it is something that has been used more
commonly with say C. diff, which is a type of infections
with C. diff infection. However, we're now looking
at it for other areas as well. It's so fascinating.
And in fact, C. diff infections have a 90% success
rate with fecal transplant. However, first
standard is still antibiotic treatment with it.
And I should also note that fecal transplants
are something that have to be performed by a
medical professional. I don't want any of you
trying this at home, okay? So why does
this need to be done by Medical Professional?
That might seem obvious, but of course this
fecal matter is translocated or transplanted into the
colon via a colonoscopy, so it's not just surface layer.
We want or in the kind of final areas of your colon.
We want to go right up into our colon actually wraps
around under our ribcage. We want to go up into
that full colon to help transplant this healthy
bacteria into the colon. It is also now being
done via endoscopy. So this is going through
your mouth and this goes down through your intestines
into your colon, that can be transplanted that way as well.
And there's some preliminary research
or there's some human research as well that
is doing this via capsule. And with the capsule,
it's not breaking down into lower in your GI
tract, or wanting to transplant these bacteria.
So those are the three routes that some of this
fecal transplants can be done. Okay, so there's
been lots of research related to C. diff. But
what about other digestive health conditions,
or even some digestive gut-brain access conditions
or psychoneurological conditions. There's a
lot of different potentials or a lot of different
areas of research that this is also exploring.
One area that I find really interesting in 2019.
They looked at a smaller sample size. So I think
it was about 160, 170, maybe 165 around there
individuals, with IBS that they did look at
fecal transplants from what they call a super donor.
So when they look at gut microbiota, they do
see a reduction of certain strains of bacteria
and individuals with IBS or some functional
bowel disorders. With this abnormality they
were able to replace this with a donor, replace
this bacteria via fecal transplant. The fecal
matter came from a donor that had or what they
considered a super donor that had a lot of these
bacterial strains present. Of the individuals
that partook in this study, the recipients
received their stool transplant via endoscopy.
So a tube through their mouth into their intestines,
where the bacteria were transplanted. So now
a small group of these individuals received
a placebo, so no fecal transplant or no difference in bacterial
composition, for example, some certain percentage
received, what we consider a typical bowel
and then a certain percentage received a super donor.
So high amounts of the bacteria that are often
low in individuals with IBS. The moderate donors
I should also note, donors had no IBS symptoms.
They just weren't classified as super donors.
So interestingly enough, 5% of individuals
in the placebo group, saw complete symptom improvement.
So they have no symptoms whatsoever. 35% of those
in the lower dose group. So they received a fecal
transplant, not soup from Super donors, but
they did see, 40, sorry 35% improvement
and then a forty seven percent improvement
in the from the super donors as well. They then
looked about a year later and they saw that these
improvements lasted for that entire year.
We haven't done longer term research to see
what the 5 or 10-year research looks like,
but it is important to note that this will vary
a little bit depending on how those individuals
then nurture their microbiome and maintain
the health of the bacteria that have have been
transplanted. Again, ideally, the donors going
to have some strategies to help maintain that as well.
So although it was a fairly small sample size.
I think it's a really interesting area of study.
At this point I don't think there's enough
research to say everybody with digestive health
issues should go out and get a fecal transplant
by any means for IBS. However, there are some
other areas. Like I said of research, C. diff
is a great one. If your qualifying and you have
been resistant to antibiotic treatment. Additionally,
there are a few other conditions that are preliminary
but something to keep your eye out for. Ultimately
what this says is. Wow! Our microbiome can play
such a large role in various health conditions.
We can look at and link certain bacterial
strains with the reduction or increase in different conditions.
We can look at how to nurture these bacterial
strange strains as well. As how to rebuild them in ourselves.
And so, although fecal transplants aren't
at a place where we are recommending it for other
gut health conditions or gut-brain access
or anything else like that. It is something
to keep an eye out. And right now, I think it's
really important for us to nurture our microbiome.
Help support our digestive health as much as
we can, if we can be preventative awesome.
If we're at a place where our microbiomes a little
bit in dysbiosis, or unbalance, we can do things
to help nurture it to support it and that's going
to be really important. So with that being said,
if you are watching this on Instagram, comment
“MICROBIOME” below and we'll send you our Microbiome Guide.
It just gives you a few pointers to get started.
If you're watching this on YouTube, click the link below
we can actually respond to your comments on YouTube.
If you're watching this on Facebook, comment,
microbiome below. If you're watching this
on any other platform, don't be afraid to reach
out message us or comment and we'll make sure
to get you those guides. Again, they're not going
to be be individualized to you because that
requires us to know more about your history,
but it does give you some of that baseline information,
that's really important. If you have any other
questions, let me know. And if you're looking
for the most up-to-date research related to
this, keep an eye I will also be watching it.
It's an area I'm really interested in and we
will let you know when the research gets to a
place where that's something we would recommend.
I should also say this is not individualized
medical information. So if your Gastro, your Doctor
is recommending the procedure. I would say
trust them. I trust that as well. But make sure
you're going to a recognized medical facility. Cheers!
It was so great filling you in on some of this
recent research related to poop transplants
until next time, Taylor!