WEBVTT - Fecal Transplants and You 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.000 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.000 --> 0:00:13.280 Works dot Com. Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow 0:00:13.320 --> 0:00:15.120 your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb in my name 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.560 is Julie Douglas. In this episode, we are talking about poop, 0:00:18.640 --> 0:00:20.919 which is which is great because I feel like with 0:00:21.000 --> 0:00:23.920 my daily life with a toddler, like poop is uh 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:27.960 is an important subject. It's it's always coming up. I mean, 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.639 it's always coming out, all right, um, but it's it's 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:33.960 one of the things that I end up talking about 0:00:34.000 --> 0:00:37.040 with the child when we talk about poop and when 0:00:37.040 --> 0:00:38.879 he needs to poop and how we're going to go 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.680 about it, and then uh, and then when we have 0:00:41.720 --> 0:00:44.080 conversations about it on like the changing table, when I 0:00:44.120 --> 0:00:46.360 put his night diaper on him and he starts talking 0:00:46.440 --> 0:00:49.159 to me about poop and because he knows that the 0:00:49.280 --> 0:00:51.760 night diaper is there in case of night poops. So 0:00:51.800 --> 0:00:54.480 it's fitting. I was on saying that I should uh 0:00:54.600 --> 0:00:57.960 hand over another portion of my day considerations of poop. 0:00:58.080 --> 0:01:02.319 It's fertile ground to tread on. Yes, um, we are 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:06.039 of course going to be talking about pecal transplants, which 0:01:06.040 --> 0:01:08.440 we've talked about in a cursory way in the past, 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:10.400 but we thought, you know what it really deserves this 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.120 day out there in the sun. Yeah, like the episode 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:14.560 that we talked about it, and like we didn't even 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.520 have fecal transplant in the in the title and uh 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:19.520 and afterwards, I kept kicking myself. It's like people are 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:22.640 going wild about pecal transplants, wild about it. They are, 0:01:22.680 --> 0:01:26.440 I mean, the headlines everywhere about fecal transplantation and and 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:29.319 you know Coldbert Daily Show, everybody's throwing in jokes about 0:01:29.360 --> 0:01:33.319 it because you just can't resist the scatological implications here. 0:01:33.720 --> 0:01:36.119 And uh, so we decided, yeah, let's go back, let's 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:39.920 let's discuss it. Let's discuss some new uh um information 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.160 that's out there about the procedure and about the technology 0:01:43.200 --> 0:01:45.360 and the idea behind it, and uh and just really 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:47.760 own up to it. Because that's another thing about now 0:01:47.800 --> 0:01:49.760 being the father of a toddler, is that I am 0:01:50.040 --> 0:01:54.000 far more um open about poop. I'm more likely to 0:01:54.040 --> 0:01:56.080 make a poop joke, I'm more likely to discuss it, 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.320 I'm more likely to just be open about about what 0:01:59.400 --> 0:02:01.960 my my own bowel movements are doing in the course 0:02:01.960 --> 0:02:03.800 of the day. It's just really changed my life in 0:02:03.800 --> 0:02:06.800 that respect. Welcome to the world of schatology. It's a 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:12.440 beautiful place. Um. Well, yeah, Feces as a medicine really 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.600 goes back to the fourth century China, where it was 0:02:15.800 --> 0:02:19.720 orally given to those suffering from food poisoning or severe diarrhea. 0:02:20.400 --> 0:02:24.160 And in the sixteenth century in China, a fecal suspension 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:30.359 called quote yellow soup was created for the relief of constipation, fever, pain, diarrhea, 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:35.320 and vomiting. And fast forward, fecal animals were first used 0:02:35.360 --> 0:02:40.240 to treat pseudo membrennous colitis. So it's been around this 0:02:40.320 --> 0:02:44.800 concept of using this beneficial gut flora. Yeah, to your point, 0:02:44.840 --> 0:02:48.240 it's uh, it's an idea that existed before modern medicine, 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.400 and modern medicine has gotten back around to it and 0:02:51.440 --> 0:02:54.519 seeing the value in it. Yeah. I mean essentially there's 0:02:54.560 --> 0:02:57.960 gold in them their poo. Yeah. And I love to 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:01.160 throw out this quote because I think it's true. Um, 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:05.760 this is according to Stanford microbiologists Stanley Falco, the world 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:10.400 is covered in a fine patina of feces. And you 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:12.480 and I have discussed this before, Like any time that 0:03:12.480 --> 0:03:15.280 you're digging into the dirt, you have to know that 0:03:15.320 --> 0:03:18.240 there are particles of dinosaur poop there, right, Yeah, And 0:03:18.320 --> 0:03:20.920 there's there's poop in the ground, there's poop, you know, 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:23.440 potentially the air around you. I mean, you're every day 0:03:23.480 --> 0:03:25.679 you're dealing with poop. We in our lives, we often 0:03:25.720 --> 0:03:28.600 try to to limit ourselves not only from the reality 0:03:28.600 --> 0:03:31.480 of poop, but just the the notion of poop. Um. 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.560 We we don't like to think about it in terms 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:38.800 of our our water purification systems or or or anything. 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.360 It's one of the reasons our toilet systems haven't really 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.400 evolved out that much because we're we're far more content 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:46.640 just to say, all right, it works, it flushes the 0:03:46.640 --> 0:03:48.320 pool away in clean water. I don't want to think 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.360 about it anymore. But all that poop has been really beneficial, right, 0:03:51.440 --> 0:03:54.600 because if you think about all the dinosaur done, the 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.160 billions of pounds of it that seated the earth, that 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.880 helped other creatures to sprout forth, and other sort of 0:04:02.360 --> 0:04:07.080 plants and animals to subsist. So there's a definite symbiotic 0:04:07.160 --> 0:04:09.400 quality to it, although you don't tend to think about 0:04:09.440 --> 0:04:15.960 that when you're thinking about living with someone and there microbiota, yeah, 0:04:16.040 --> 0:04:19.000 I mean, the microbiot is key here because we've we've 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.600 we've devoted whole episodes of this in the past talking 0:04:21.640 --> 0:04:25.680 about just the the the the microbiota, the the the 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:28.159 creatures that that make us up. They live inside us 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:30.960 um and they live in our poop. I mean, our 0:04:31.040 --> 0:04:35.440 our poop is is mostly bacteria, and in a sense, 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.120 we are our poop and the senior we own up 0:04:38.160 --> 0:04:40.800 to that the center, we can we can really get 0:04:40.800 --> 0:04:43.600 along with a number of the the implications of the 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.080 studies that we're discussing in this episode. Yes, so it's 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:47.800 not really like I am what I eat, It's I 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:50.760 am what I poop. Right, Yeah, I mean we're not 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:52.840 just this brain where this whole body, and we're not 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:56.440 just this the body as it would exist if if 0:04:56.480 --> 0:04:58.760 it was taken to a mortuary and flush clean of 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:02.200 all its fluids, and because those fluids are essentially us 0:05:02.200 --> 0:05:04.080 as well, not only our blood but even our our 0:05:04.160 --> 0:05:06.839 waste products are kind of parts of us on the 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:08.920 way out. And as I had mentioned before, we don't 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:10.919 tend to think about this like what is what's my 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:14.440 gut microbiota doing right now? Is there any crossover with 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:17.080 someone I live with? And this is from a new 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.799 York article Roller Derby of Microbiome, the author very Nique 0:05:21.200 --> 0:05:24.120 Greenwood explores the idea of whether or not we colonize 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:28.320 each other with our own bacteria, specifically with gut bacteria, 0:05:28.400 --> 0:05:31.839 and she talked to Balfour Startur, who is a gastroenterologist 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.279 at the University of from Carolina at Chapple Hill, and 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:38.120 he specializes in inflammatory bowel disease like crones, and he 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:41.720 says that there is a growing stack of evidence, some published, 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:46.920 some not that people who have lived with inflammatory bowel 0:05:46.960 --> 0:05:50.239 disease sufferers for long periods of time had higher rates 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:54.200 of it themselves than people in the general population. He 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:56.640 also cited a two thousand seven study that was published 0:05:56.640 --> 0:06:01.000 in the journal Cell in which scientists deliberately transmitted gut 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:05.800 bacteria of mice genetically predisposed to develop intestinal inflammation to 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:08.520 healthy mice, and this caused the healthy mice in turn 0:06:08.600 --> 0:06:12.080 to develop the condition. So here we see essentially the 0:06:12.120 --> 0:06:17.240 seating of the condition through a fecal transplant, again changing 0:06:17.240 --> 0:06:20.279 the organism by changing the contents of its bowels. Again, 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.800 this is just um well, not necessarily in the case 0:06:22.839 --> 0:06:25.640 of the mice. But when star Toro was talking about 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.320 more about people just who are living together, uh, who 0:06:29.360 --> 0:06:33.400 have those trace bits of gut bacteria essentially feces being 0:06:33.440 --> 0:06:36.920 exchanged here. So that's just the tiny bit that would 0:06:36.960 --> 0:06:41.479 be colonizing your own microbiota. Yeah, and again colonization is 0:06:41.560 --> 0:06:43.120 key here. I mean, just to throw out a few 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:45.160 quick stats that we've hit in the past, I mean, 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:47.480 the human mouth alone contains five hundred to a thousand 0:06:47.560 --> 0:06:50.279 different types of bacteria, and of those, only a hundred 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:52.120 to two hundred live in a mouth at any given time. 0:06:52.160 --> 0:06:54.480 And that's just a mouth. When you take into account 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:58.320 the entire human body, Um, it really begins to skew 0:06:58.400 --> 0:07:00.800 the idea of what is an individual and what is 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:03.720 a a collective. Yeah, because we've talked about this before, 0:07:03.720 --> 0:07:06.560 like we're just host for for bacterial cells when you 0:07:06.600 --> 0:07:10.000 look at how very colonized we are by them. Now, 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:12.640 we want to talk a little bit about a couple 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:16.240 of conditions that are very difficult to treat because this 0:07:16.280 --> 0:07:19.200 will actually play into fecal transplants. And the first is 0:07:19.240 --> 0:07:23.920 something called Clostridium deficily or see death if you will, 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.160 death on the streets, and it's a bacterium that releases 0:07:27.240 --> 0:07:30.800 toxins that attack the intestinal lining and cause inflammation of 0:07:30.800 --> 0:07:33.480 the colon, and according to the Centers for Disease Control 0:07:33.480 --> 0:07:35.320 and Prevention, C DIFF is linked to a quarter of 0:07:35.320 --> 0:07:38.520 a million hospitalizations in four deaths a year in the US, 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:43.240 and deaths from CEDF increased four hundred percent between two 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:46.440 thousand and two thousand and seven due impart to the 0:07:46.480 --> 0:07:51.440 emergence of a stronger strain. Yeah, this can be especially 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:53.600 a huge problem for the elderly. UM in some sort 0:07:53.600 --> 0:07:55.920 of a care environment, and just to throw some symptoms 0:07:55.920 --> 0:07:59.080 that you UM, just to know what we're dealing with here. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:03.520 You can get more severe infections of C. Deaf causing 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:06.680 watery diarrhea up to fifteen times per day, severe abdominal pain, 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:10.400 loss of appetite, fever, blutter, puss in the stool, weight loss, 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.680 and then in extreme cases C. Deaf infection can lead 0:08:13.720 --> 0:08:16.520 to a hole in the intestines, which can be fatal 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:20.760 if not treated immediately. So is it is this is 0:08:20.760 --> 0:08:23.800 the affection spirals out of control. UM. It can cause 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:25.800 a lot of major health problems. So this is this 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:28.920 is not a condition to take lightly. Yeah, and it's 0:08:28.920 --> 0:08:32.000 been associated with hospitals quite a bit because the strain 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:35.360 that emerged is one that has become antibiotic resistant. And 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.720 so not to scare anybody who may or may not 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.800 have to visit a hospital. But it turns out that 0:08:41.960 --> 0:08:44.920 in an October issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, 0:08:45.559 --> 0:08:47.959 but they reported that the incidents is ce deaf and 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.760 hospitals nearly doubled between two thousand and one and two 0:08:50.800 --> 0:08:53.920 thousand and ten, with mortality increasing from six point six 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.920 percent in two thousand and one to seven two percent 0:08:56.960 --> 0:08:59.040 in two thousand and ten. And again, as you had 0:08:59.080 --> 0:09:01.520 mentioned in the other really this can be terrible. This 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:04.000 is this is a big blow to the body. Yeah, 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:06.240 and you know, it's it's interesting just to think about 0:09:06.280 --> 0:09:09.440 antibiotics and their role in this and another condition, another 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:12.520 condition they're going to talk about and and think again 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:16.160 about the body is this collective of all this bacteria 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:18.480 and uh and and and as as well as our 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:22.719 actual cellular structures and so forth. But in dealing with 0:09:22.880 --> 0:09:26.920 bad bacteria, when you you're using powerful antibiotics, it can 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.520 all it can almost be like carpet bombing a city 0:09:29.720 --> 0:09:33.079 to deal with some sort of insurrection or some sort 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:35.600 of a crime problem or what have you because you 0:09:35.679 --> 0:09:39.280 end up just laying waste, and sometimes you're creating an 0:09:39.280 --> 0:09:44.160 opportunity for quote unquote bad bacteria to rise up and 0:09:44.240 --> 0:09:47.600 take advantage of the new environment. Yeah, because with those antbiotics, 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:50.480 you have carpet bombed all the good bacteria. And it 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.880 turns out that in about except for a course of treatment, 0:09:53.920 --> 0:09:58.080 that of first time patients will suffer again. And up 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:01.720 to sixty percent of patients who have experienced two episodes 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:07.080 are doomed for another. So there, up until now, and 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:09.320 we will talk about people transplants and a little bit 0:10:09.360 --> 0:10:12.040 there really wasn't a good course of action to take 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.720 against this, Yeah, because again it just keeps being a problem, 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:19.520 and so you've destabilized the region and then no matter, 0:10:20.000 --> 0:10:23.920 subsequent carpet bombings don't seem to be helping somehow. Yeah. Now, 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:27.839 another bacterium reeks quite a bit of havoc and again 0:10:27.960 --> 0:10:30.839 very hard to treat. We're talking about k pneumonia or 0:10:30.840 --> 0:10:35.920 albusiela um. Pneumonia is a type of Gram negative bacteria 0:10:35.960 --> 0:10:38.719 that can cause different types of healthcare associated infections. We're 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:44.640 talking about pneumonia, bloodstream infections, wound or surgical fight infections, 0:10:44.640 --> 0:10:51.640 and meningitis, and it too has developed antimicrobial resistance and 0:10:51.960 --> 0:10:55.960 recently to the class of antibotics known as carbon panems. 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:58.840 So this is something that's really hard to treat right now. Yeah, Now, 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:01.040 it's worth noting that the of the cell of bacteria, 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.400 they're normally found in the human intestines, where they don't 0:11:04.440 --> 0:11:06.800 cause any disease. Where it becomes a problem is when 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:10.800 they enter the respiratory tract to cause this pneumonia or 0:11:10.960 --> 0:11:14.800 the or the blood to cause a bloodstream infection. The 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:17.640 thing about this is that as debilitating as they are, 0:11:18.240 --> 0:11:23.400 it is known that fecal transplants can vanquish these And 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:25.200 we're gonna take a quick print when we get back. 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.600 We're going to talk about how all this goes down. 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:38.160 All right, we're back, and yes, we're talking about vecal transplants, 0:11:38.280 --> 0:11:41.880 or to use the more official term, fecal microbiotic transplantation 0:11:42.000 --> 0:11:45.120 or f e m T. That's right, And uh, you know, 0:11:45.160 --> 0:11:46.800 we kind of touched on this. We tend to think 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:50.840 of our do is just purely waste material, but by weight, 0:11:51.040 --> 0:11:55.720 sixty of our stool is bacteria. And we're talking about rich, 0:11:56.600 --> 0:12:00.760 beneficial stew of bacteria in a healthy individual. All, yes, 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:06.720 that that turd is is alive there. Um, when when 0:12:06.760 --> 0:12:11.040 my son personifies the his waist and calls it a 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.280 mama or a daddy pooh or something often baby poos, 0:12:14.840 --> 0:12:18.000 So they tend to come late in the movement. Um, 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:21.800 he's he's really not too far off the off the chart. Um. 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:24.280 And so the idea here, I think this is one 0:12:24.320 --> 0:12:26.280 of those ideas just to to to rond a little bit. 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:28.240 You know, when when you when you get past the 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.960 shock headlines and the jokes, it really makes a tremendous 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.000 amount of sense, Like there's nothing really that wild or 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:39.560 crazy or horrific about it. Um. You know, we've thrown 0:12:39.840 --> 0:12:42.800 articles about people transplants up on our Facebook page before, 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:45.079 and we have a number of Facebook followers, and we 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:47.480 have some some very bright bulbs out there, and some 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:49.760 people who are just you know, getting their their hands 0:12:49.800 --> 0:12:52.360 around some science and as well, I mean people of 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.160 all ages and greeds and and some people you know, 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:56.959 react very viscerally to that. They're like, oh god, I 0:12:56.960 --> 0:12:59.760 would never do that. That's that's horrible, that's disgusting sounding. 0:13:00.040 --> 0:13:02.440 But but that's just the surface. Let when you actually 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:03.920 get into the science of it when you when you 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.520 look at yourself not as this singular individual, but as 0:13:07.559 --> 0:13:11.040 this this colony of bacteria. It makes perfect sense that 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:15.160 you would deal with this imbalance by by by bringing 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:19.280 balance in with a healthy um stool sample and implant 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.800 that or somehow get that to the bowels. Well, but 0:13:22.920 --> 0:13:25.720 first you have to get over the idea of pumping 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:29.960 into your colon someone else's poop, right, right, So if 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.840 you think about it more like this, Hey, it's a 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.800 treatment that's done by a colonoscopy. A lot of people 0:13:35.960 --> 0:13:39.599 have colonoscopies, right to's scary about that? I mean you 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:42.480 shouldn't be. I mean, it's just it's an orifice. It's 0:13:42.520 --> 0:13:44.360 an orifice. There's a way and there's a way out, 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:47.000 and sometimes you're gonna let professionals go in there. It's 0:13:47.000 --> 0:13:50.800 just how it works. It involves anesthesia or at least adation. 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:55.280 There's a full bowel clean out previous to a f 0:13:55.520 --> 0:14:00.200 MT in a limited diet prior to the procedure out. 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.560 How this all goes down is you get a healthy 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:07.840 stool sample. That's key. They're not just grabbing anybody. Yeah, 0:14:08.200 --> 0:14:10.160 like you you know, in the past, I think it 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.400 was done more like, hey, maybe my brother or uncle 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.920 give me a little sample, and you know that they're healthy. 0:14:16.920 --> 0:14:19.720 And then of course the stool gets sampled later to 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.560 make sure that it's healthy. Yeah, it gets betted anyway, 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.120 stool samples mixed with sailing and then pumped into the 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:29.160 colon and then, as you say, the end result, uh, 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:32.880 is a rebalance of gut flora that can eradicate the 0:14:32.960 --> 0:14:35.800 seed diff because on its own, your gut flora has 0:14:35.840 --> 0:14:39.040 been demolished. It cannot it just can't stand up to 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:41.960 the sea diff. But someone else's, which is quite hardy, 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:45.680 can really do a lot of damage to c DIFF. Now, 0:14:45.680 --> 0:14:48.280 I also want to add that the mixture can also 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.280 be fed via a naso gastric tube. So this is 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.720 the one that that goes in through the nasal passage 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.680 and down the throat and down into the stomach. But again, 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.800 rather different than poop. Just thing, don't it's it's hard 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:04.040 not to hear that and not think they're gonna put 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:07.360 poop in my nose. I know it's impossible to to 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:11.640 get past the revulsion of that and the comedic value 0:15:11.640 --> 0:15:14.520 of that, but uh, you know, again, it's just an orifice. 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.000 It's a way into the inner workings of your body. 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.480 It's actually a bit trickier than a colonoscopy, like doing 0:15:20.480 --> 0:15:24.440 it through through your bum um. So even though some 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.000 people might be put off by the idea of a colonoscopy, 0:15:27.120 --> 0:15:29.760 it's probably the better way to go. Now. Just to 0:15:29.800 --> 0:15:32.920 give you an example of of what sort of effect 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:35.880 it has and how quickly it takes effect, the Mayo 0:15:35.960 --> 0:15:39.800 Clinic in Arizona that their fm T team first performed 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:41.560 a fecal transplant in two thousand and eleven for a 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:45.880 patient with severe c diff And of course this stool 0:15:45.960 --> 0:15:50.560 was from the brother and according to Robert Ornstein of 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.000 the Mayo Clinic, he says, unbelievably, the patient left the 0:15:53.040 --> 0:15:56.160 hospital twenty four hours after the procedure after having them 0:15:56.320 --> 0:15:59.360 bedridden for weeks. That is how effective this treatment is. 0:16:00.080 --> 0:16:02.400 D there and there are plenty of examples of success stories. 0:16:02.400 --> 0:16:04.280 This is not one of those things where you know, 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.760 they say, well, one person used this crazy technique and 0:16:07.960 --> 0:16:10.000 it happened to work in this one instance, but it 0:16:10.040 --> 0:16:12.400 hasn't really been vetted. We've seen we've seen account after 0:16:12.440 --> 0:16:16.760 account of of f m T s producing results restoring 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:21.120 the balance to two bows. That are plagued by by 0:16:21.160 --> 0:16:23.720 these conditions that we've discussed. In fact, just to to 0:16:23.760 --> 0:16:26.920 go back to the K pneumonia, just last month here 0:16:26.920 --> 0:16:32.200 in UM at the Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, they 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:35.240 treated a thirteen year old girl who who had this 0:16:35.280 --> 0:16:38.320 condition with a feel microbiotic transplant and they used it 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:40.560 to successfully clear the infection. Yeah, and we will not 0:16:40.600 --> 0:16:43.520 go through the litany of things that happened to her 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:46.960 because of K pneumonia, but it was I mean, she 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:51.240 was suffering greatly because it was just one thing after another. Now, 0:16:51.520 --> 0:16:54.720 I think another good marker of this being a success 0:16:54.880 --> 0:16:58.280 is the fact that someone is monetizing it. And when 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:01.720 I say someone, I'm talking about a company called open Biome. 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:05.919 It was that's biom bio Emy. It was launched in 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:10.399 two twelve and it is the only independent nonprofit school 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.639 bank in the country in the US. It is the 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.200 brainchild of m I T post doc associate Mark Smith. 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.560 And what they do is they collect, test and provide 0:17:20.920 --> 0:17:26.280 becal samples too hospitals and thirty three states for these 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:29.480 f m T s. Yeah, I was looking around and 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.520 it looks like the prices currently you're looking at two 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:36.720 fifty per sample of the poop. And again that's vetted poop. 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:39.000 This is good stuff, this is premot poop, and this 0:17:39.160 --> 0:17:41.359 is what the hospital would pay for it. Yeah. Yeah, 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:44.000 you can't really go to the website in order or 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.000 or certainly don't binding off Amazon if it looks like 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:50.560 someone's selling it. Um. Yes, So that's a two fifty 0:17:50.560 --> 0:17:54.119 million lead sample of a fecal microbota prepared for lower 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.399 transplant delivery, which we already talked about, or a thirty 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.119 million leader sample for the upper trans planned delivery again 0:18:01.200 --> 0:18:03.879 through the nasal passage and down in the stomach. The 0:18:03.960 --> 0:18:08.080 person who donates the poop, well, they're paid forty for 0:18:08.200 --> 0:18:12.760 each deposit. Now, if you want to become a paid 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:16.800 donor to open biome, you have to undergo really thorough screenings. 0:18:16.840 --> 0:18:21.280 Of course, we're talking about question health history with a 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.800 physician to a travel history analysis, and of course recent 0:18:25.880 --> 0:18:28.399 use of antibotics, because if you've used antibotics, and you're 0:18:28.400 --> 0:18:31.320 probably not a contender, right right, because you've carpet bombed 0:18:31.359 --> 0:18:34.960 the civilization that's producing the poop that they're interested in. 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:36.959 I like how this could be a real game changer 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.679 in um UM College dudes making a little extra money, like, 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:42.880 no longer do they have to I would not restrict 0:18:42.880 --> 0:18:44.919 it to the dudes. Oh well, that's true, that's right. 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:46.359 I mean I was just thinking about it in terms 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.639 of sperm donation. Of course, the other side of that 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:53.440 being egg donation. But but the poop donation easier than both. Well, 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:55.080 I mean it's great. It's like again, it's kind of 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:58.240 again like a blood bank donation, although you're getting paid 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.800 for this now one waste material anyway, right, what are 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:03.880 you gonna deal with it? It's gonna flush it um. 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.639 Once a donor sample is reviewed by a lab for 0:19:06.680 --> 0:19:09.639 any infectious agents in the health of the bacteria. The 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:13.320 donor's blood is then tested for standard blood borne diseases 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:17.280 we're talking about hepatis, ABC, syphilis, HIV, AIDS, and then 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:21.160 finally you can progress to the actual physical donation part 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:22.760 of it all. Yeah. Again, so you can think about 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:24.800 it in terms of any kind of blood or tissue, 0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.240 uh sample that is that is taken and then reused 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.320 and sort of transplant environment. Is it's going to be vetted, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:33.560 it's gonna they're gonna look for all these various diseases 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:39.080 before it ever takes that it's the saline blended form. Now, 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:40.879 one of the one of the things about this it 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:43.480 leads you to the question of like how good is 0:19:43.520 --> 0:19:46.520 that poop sample? You know, Like then you begin to 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:48.920 really sort of great. And I'm sure, right, I'm sure 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:51.239 that lab is like, this is great. It's got so 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:56.720 much beneficial gut flora in it. But there's one researcher 0:19:56.720 --> 0:19:59.560 who really took this to the extreme, and I'm talking 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:05.560 about hunting down artisanal hunter gatherer poop. Now, this is 0:20:05.600 --> 0:20:09.439 from the first paragraph of a Popular Science article by 0:20:09.480 --> 0:20:12.639 Emily Gertz, writing about the scientists who traveled around the 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:16.879 world to give himself an f MT essentially, and it 0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.760 goes a little like this. This is him writing, quote, 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.879 as the sunset over a lake aase in Tanzania, nearly 0:20:23.960 --> 0:20:26.240 thirty minutes had passed since I hadn't served at a 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.679 turkey baster into my bum and injected the feces of 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:32.240 the heads a man, a member of one of the 0:20:32.320 --> 0:20:35.639 last remaining hunter gatherer tribes in the world, into the 0:20:35.680 --> 0:20:39.720 nether regions of my distal colon. Indeed, those are the 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.800 words of Jeff Leach Lee, and he at this point 0:20:42.840 --> 0:20:44.359 It's important to know that he'd been living with the 0:20:44.400 --> 0:20:47.399 hasda uh, these hunter gathers for for over a year. 0:20:47.600 --> 0:20:49.679 He was he was immersed in their culture, and he 0:20:49.760 --> 0:20:52.879 was His prime motivation, he claims, was to study quote 0:20:53.080 --> 0:20:57.480 microbial extinction, uh, something I believe we suffer from in 0:20:57.520 --> 0:20:59.760 the Western world and maybe at the root of what's 0:20:59.800 --> 0:21:02.560 making a six. So the idea here is he's interested 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:08.439 in these people's um microbiota in their stool because they 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:11.560 perhaps they have things that we no longer have because 0:21:11.560 --> 0:21:14.480 we've been carpet bombing our our stool for so long 0:21:14.480 --> 0:21:19.000 with antibiotics that we don't even have a natural sample 0:21:19.080 --> 0:21:21.440 to turn to in the world around us. That's his 0:21:21.440 --> 0:21:24.560 his curiosity, his his argument. Yeah, Now the heads are 0:21:25.080 --> 0:21:28.040 um wandering foragers and they eat a diet of roots, 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:30.080 berries and game. Okay, this is one of the reasons 0:21:30.119 --> 0:21:32.400 why he was interested, because they don't have the influences 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:36.359 of the Western world. Now. According to the study, which 0:21:36.400 --> 0:21:39.919 compared stool samples from sixteen Italian urban nights and twenty 0:21:40.000 --> 0:21:43.480 seven heads of foragers of both genders, the heads of 0:21:43.640 --> 0:21:47.240 guts are home to a microbial community unlike anything that's 0:21:47.280 --> 0:21:51.679 been seen before. In a modern human population. And the 0:21:51.720 --> 0:21:54.080 idea is that perhaps the gut floor is what the 0:21:54.200 --> 0:21:58.680 human gut microbiome looked like before our ancestors figured out 0:21:58.920 --> 0:22:02.120