Fecal Transplants... Yes They Are Exactly What You're Thinking

There are a few problems that arise when taking antibiotics, one of the more detrimental ones is getting infected by Clostridium difficile. Before going into detail about C. difficile, let me explain one aspect in which intestines work. They contain friendly bacteria that maintain a “seesaw balance” which prevents pathogenic bacteria from causing infections. When we take antibiotics this delicate balance is disrupted and thrown out of whack, but this side affect is only temporary as the balance is restored. However, in some cases of taking antibiotics, this delicate balance is disrupted permanently. Antibiotics can cause the good bacterial communities in your intestines to lose their ability to return to normality when disturbed, and may even cause friendly bacteria to die. When this occurs, the organism C. difficile is able to take over and eat away at the inner lining of one’s intestines. The result is painful chronic diarrhea

As of right now, the common treatment is to take more antibiotics, such as metronidazole or vancomycin, which will suppress C. difficile. Initially these antibiotics will succeed as the diarrhea will go away, however the antibiotics are ineffective as they are unable to suppress all of the C. difficile and therefore the chronic diarrhea will recur. Due to failure after failure with antibiotics, many patients are willing to try anything to cure themselves of C. difficile, which brings us to fecal transplants. Yes, it is exactly what you think. Another person’s stool is injected into you. To go just a little more in depth with the procedure, the donors stool is grinded up and then filtered to remove any solid materials. From there, the stool is placed in a sterile saline solution. Once suspended, the solution is injected into the patient’s colon. The reason why this procedure works is because the bacteria found in the stool is able to take over the gut and outcompete the C. difficile. Thus the transplanted bacteria is able to restore the body’s natural health. The success rate of the treatment is uncanny as over 90% of patients whom received fecal transplants have recovered completely. However, one problem stands in the way of fecal transplants, the FDA.

To be studied by the NIH, the substance being studied must be granted investigational status by the FDA. This poses a problem as feces do not fall in the realm of the major categories studied by the FDA. This problem may prevent fecal transplants from becoming a common procedure. If the FDA does not grant fecal transplants permissions to be studied then I fell blood transfusions should not occur either. I say this because one’s blood also does not fall in the realm of major FDA categories, but yet blood transfusions are common. Like blood transfusions, donors of fecal transplants go through tests to ensure that they are healthy and to prevent any complications from occurring. Also, you cannot deny the success rate of fecal transplants as over 90% of patients have recovered completely. Even animals perform a similar action as dogs, pigs, elephants, gorillas, rabbits, hamsters and many more animals practice coprophagia, the consumption of feces. For many the reason is unknown but one would not be surprised if it was to maintain their intestines. I feel as though a simple test can be done to show the affects of fecal transplants. Once this is done, it should become a common procedure. If anyone disagrees, please do tell why.