Faecal transplant eases symptoms of Parkinson's (and CFS)

B

Bob

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http://www.newscientist.com/article...-transplant-eases-symptoms-of-parkinsons.html

This is an unusual (and slightly bizarre?) bit of research (featuring 'feacal transplants'!), but it's very interesting, especially for anyone who thinks that gut bacteria might play a role in their ME/CFS. (I've always wondered if my gut or gut bacteria might play a role for my ME, for various reasons.)

The results that they got for CFS and Parkinsons patients look impressive.

Unfortunately you have to sign up to a (free) account to read this article, but I've quoted a relevent bit below.

Faecal transplant eases symptoms of Parkinson's (and CFS)

Borody uses faecal transplants to cure people infected by the superbug Clostridium difficile, and to alleviate chronic constipation. Over the past decade, Borody has noticed that some of his patients also see improvements in symptoms of their other diseases, including Parkinson's, multiple sclerosis (MS), chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and rheumatoid arthritis. "Some CFS patients, given a faecal transplant, will regain their energy quite dramatically, and their foggy brains will get better," says Borody.

http://www.newscientist.com/article...-transplant-eases-symptoms-of-parkinsons.html
Click to expand...

For your own sakes, please don't attempt to imagine how a faecal transplant might be performed!?!?


ETA. Someone in Russia has kindly posted the complete New Scientist article on their website:
http://eng.vechnayamolodost.ru/news/news/fatreasyofpas1d.html
 
Cort

Cort

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Does anyone have any good faecal material they can send me???

Unfortunately I live alone......no healthy housemates to impose on....

:D:D

In all seriousness I would try it in a heartbeat if it was done properly...

Scientists Employ “Faecal Transplant” Therapy
JANUARY 20, 2011 3 COMMENTS
“DAY RUINER” SUBMITTED BY JACOB COBY COHEN

Having a lousy day? Read this if you want to go ahead and ruin your day completely. Disclaimer: we are not responsible if your entire week is ruined.

Reuters reports:

Once a year, every year, Professor Thomas Borody receives a single-stem rose from one of his most grateful patients. She is, he says, thanking him for restoring her bowel flora. It’s a distasteful cure for a problem that’s increasingly widespread: the Clostridium difficile bug, typically caught by patients in hospitals and nursing homes, can be hard to treat with antibiotics. But Borody is one of a group of scientists who believe the answer is a faecal transplant.

Some jokily call it a “transpoosion.” Others have more sciencey names like “bacteriotherapy” or “stool infusion therapy.” But the process involves, frankly, replacing a person’s poo with someone else’s, and in the process, giving them back the “good” bugs they desperately need. Borody’s grateful patient, Coralie Muddell, suffered months of chronic diarrhea so bad she would often embarrass herself in public, and had even stopped eating to try to halt the flow.

The technique that cured her has had a success rate of around 90 percent in the experimental cases where it has been used so far. Now scientists are taking it to the next level, with randomized controlled trials to establish if it can really be a viable option when antibiotics have failed.

There’s little doubt this treatment has an image problem. Feces, including important bowel flora, is transferred from a volunteer donor — screened to limit possible other infections — into the colon of the infected patient. The treatment can be administered by a colonoscope or an enema, or by the mouth or the nose. (!)

“I used to be frowned upon and called ‘the doctor who makes people eat shit’,” says Borody, whose scientific papers have included such titles as “Flora Power” and “Toying with Human Motions.”

Khoruts published a study in the Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology in 2009 that showed a single infusion of feces reversed the absence of bacteroides — a group of bacteria vital to the body’s ability to withstand infections with C.difficile.

The main aim, he says, is to keep the poo pure.
Click to expand...
 
wdb

wdb

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Okay, I'm going to need to see some serious indisputable proof of efficacy before entertaining that idea.

Is there no way they could just culture the relevant bacteria in slightly more pleasant medium ?
 
SilverbladeTE

SilverbladeTE

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well, the idea that repeated use of antibiotics seriously damages gut flora is gaining ground as a "sound" idea.
add in the crazy poisonous stuff we spray on o food, heavy metal poisons in soil etc...seems reasonable to me.

the gut is THE biggest organ by a vast amount, in the body. we now know it's also not merely a "simple tube" but has a huge connection of nervous tissue etc

even if ME/CFS is nto caused by a gut bacteria issue, anything causing bad problems coudl affect teh gut, assuming XMRV is the cause and triggers severe autoimmune response, the "good" gut bacteria could be hammered by this, letting "bad" ones mutiply


ever since I've had ME, I've had very bad constipation and gas, sheesh, bet I could fart "Scotland the Brave" if I tried :p
before though, I had a cast iron stomach: when folk were "doing a reconstruction of Vesuvius from both ends" with Gandhi's Revenge, lol, I was ok.
So for me, I think my guts have been affected, somehow.
 
ixchelkali

ixchelkali

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I would sign up in a hot minute if they found it would cure me. But I can't help thinking, if they have trouble finding healthy people to donate blood, how much harder would it be to find fecal donors? I don't even want to think about the campaign ads. Plus, they give blood donors those bragging tee-shirts that say things like "2 gallon blood donor"; I can't see that an equivilant tee-shirt would be popular.;)
 
C

Crappy

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Mix it with some Chocolate? Wait you might not notice that.

Bread with mustard or mayo?

EEeeew, you guys are bad influence.
 
kat0465

kat0465

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wow,i saw an episode of greys anatomy about this,the husband wouldnt give his wife his poo[fighting] lol.......i thought it was a joke!
if i ever need a transplant,im in luck,hubby is full of it! hehehe

kat
 
Xandoff

Xandoff

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Best laugh I have had in a long time. I hope Mike Myers (Austin Powers) learns about this or the Cohen Brothers because it would make a very funny scene in the movies.
 
alex3619

alex3619

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Hi everyone, fecal transplantation has been used in Australia since the 90s to treat ME/CFS, but I never heard about fantastic results, only moderate results. This was from talking to Aussie ME/CFS docs, so I don't have any references. Does anyone know if any of this was ever published back then? Bye, Alex
 
L

leela

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wdb said:
Okay, I'm going to need to see some serious indisputable proof of efficacy before entertaining that idea.

Is there no way they could just culture the relevant bacteria in slightly more pleasant medium ?
Click to expand...

This is what the "Progurt" people in Austraia claim to have done. I have not tried it due to excessive cost (last time I checked.) Dunno how cost compares
with a transpoosion though--could be a more "palatable" option.
http://www.progurt.com/
 
B

Bob

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leela said:
This is what the "Progurt" people in Austraia claim to have done. I have not tried it due to excessive cost (last time I checked.) Dunno how cost compares
with a transpoosion though--could be a more "palatable" option.
http://www.progurt.com/
Click to expand...

The Progurt website doesn't tell you which strains, or how many different strains of bacteria they use. So I think it might possibly be more hype than science. They just say that they use 'multiple' human strains. I'd guess that faecal matter might contain thousands or millions of different strains of bacteria. Progurt's biggest selling point seems to be that it's a potent product, i.e. with large numbers of bacteria, but if it's not transplanted direct to your colon, then the bacteria could die off before they reach the desired part of the digestive tract, and if it doesn't include therapeutic strains, then it wouldn't be helpful anyway. The feacal transplant researchers killed off the existing gut bacteria with antibiotics before the transplants, so that could also make a major difference in the efficacy of this method.
 
leaves

leaves

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I used progurt
I liked it, it did something for me at first, but too expensive
note that it is simply not strong enough to permanently alter the gut (for that you need something like vsl3ds), so I think the main effect is through its effect on your immune system. However with probiotics is not the same as a transplant: you add to your current situation, but with a transplant i can see that you can really replace it (you basically introduce a sustainable new population)
 
dannybex

dannybex

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Maybe it's something to take seriously?

Xandoff said:
Best laugh I have had in a long time. I hope Mike Myers (Austin Powers) learns about this or the Cohen Brothers because it would make a very funny scene in the movies.
Click to expand...

Perhaps in a Coen film, but fecal transplant research and also transplanting parasites and hookworms actually have many studies to back up their claims of beneficial results in some diseases -- especially some where you would think bad bugs and parasites, worms, would make things worse, not better.

Perhaps with ubiquitous and over use of antibiotics, we've become 'too' clean?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20054982

"Epidemiologic studies suggest that people who carry helminths have less immune-mediated disease. Mice colonized with helminths are protected from disease in models of colitis, encephalitis, Type 1 diabetes and asthma."

And that's just one study...
 
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