1. How Faecal Transplants can Change our Health By Daniel Bleckinger
Microbiome Diversity
How Faecal Transplants can Change our Health
By Daniel Bleckinger
How the microbiome can modify aspects of our physical and mental health,
how it can be supplemented through fecal and specific microbe transplant,
and what some of the side effects might be.

2. But many of them do much more.
Our bodies contain 10 times more microbial cells than human cells (Davis, 2015 and Hsiao, 2013).
They form many important functions, especially when it comes to digestion in the gut.
But many of them do much more.

3. 90% of the cells in our body are BACTERIA
Microbes help with:
Digestion
Immunity
Mental health
Other major body functions
Human vs Microbe
90% of the cells in our body are BACTERIA
Many of them help digest various nutrients that our own bodies would normally not be able to use. Others aid in our immune defence by attacking or inhibiting other potentially harmful microbes (Yong, 2015).
Some of the by-products released by microbes can have direct effects on our physical and mental health. Specific links in mice have been made with stress responses (anxiety and depression), social behaviour (autism) (Hsiao, 2013), and metabolism (obesity) (Hamzelou, 2015).

4. Sterile Bubble World Purina (Hand sanitizer) Antibiotics
Indoor lifestyle
Cesarean sections
We live in an increasingly sterile world.
Children are not playing outside as much.
Antibiotics and sterilization have left our world free of many of the microbes that help our body to function properly.
Humans are born sterile and require interaction with various sources of microbes in order to colonize our gut and overall microbiome.
There are a number of disorders and infections that can be treated through fecal transplants which help to restore a healthy gut flora.

5. Social disorders (Autism) Anxiety Depression Infection by SuperBugs
Obesity
Social disorders (Autism)
Anxiety
Depression
Infection by SuperBugs
When our microbiome is disrupted, due to a course of antibiotics, for example, much of our healthy microbiome will die off.
This can cause temporary disruptions to normal digestion and immunity, but in most people is restored once the microflora returns.
Sometimes, however, resistant strains of harmful bugs such as Clostridium difficile, or C. diff., can take advantage of the absence of normal flora and cause serious and life threatening infection.

6. Infection of Clostridium difficile
Resistant to antibiotics
Causes severe diarrhea
Often recurring
500,000 cases per year in the USA
26,000 deaths
C. diff. is becoming an increasingly prevalent problem in hospitals as it becomes more resistant to antibiotics.
There are about 500,000 cases per year in the U.S., with over 5%, or 26,000 of them being fatal.
Compare that with only 13,000 people dying of AIDS related complications in the U.S. each year (Davis, 2015).
One form of treatment for C. diff. that has shown real promise over the last few years is fecal transplants.
A study published in Gastroenterology (Mattila et. al., 2012) demonstrated that fecal transplants can have as much as a 90% success rate.

7. Poop Transplants Trans-poo-sions Faecal transplant The Power of Poop
A poo or fecal transplant is when feces is taken from someone with a normal, healthy gut, and transplanted into a patient, either by colonoscopy or in a pill.
While this may seem gross, many patients show immediate and lasting improvement.
Yet this can result in other problems if unknown or unwanted microbes are introduced.

8. Who is Using Poo Transplants What are they treating
Naturopathic Doctors
Poo Transplant Clinics
DIY
Clostridium difficile
Crohn's Disease
Irritable Bowel
Multiple Sclerosis
Dr. Mark Davis (2015) is a naturopath who specializes in stomach and intestinal health. He has used fecal transplants to treat many gastrointestinal ailments such as Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and irritable bowel syndrome as well as other debilitating disorders such as multiple sclerosis.
Due to recent FDA (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) regulations, he is now only allowed to treat patients with C. diff. Infections and must turn away patients who could be helped by a fecal transplant.
Poo Transplant clinics, such as OpenBiome maintain a stool bank and offer various faecal transplant services.
Many people are also choosing the DIY method.

9. Sky Curtis, Author, The Fecal Transplant Guidebook
“I decided, after hemming and hawing and talking to my son, that yes, he would let me put poo up his bum to see if that would work”
Sky Curtis, Author, The Fecal Transplant Guidebook
Don’t think about it too much…
No, really...
Stop thinking about it…
Seriously...

10. FACT: Poop is legally a Drug (Don’t do Drugs)
The FDA has defined poop as a drug, which means it needs to go through extensive testing and trials before it can be used clinically.
Because the evidence for treating C. diff. is so overwhelming, they have made an exception, so it is the only ailment that can be treated by fecal transplant (Davis, 2015).
Stool banks may receive a further setback as the FDA is considering requiring that a fecal recipient must know the donor (Kremer, 2014).
One such stool bank, OpenBiome, has implemented a rigorous screening protocol where anyone with a possible disorder is excluded from donating (Kremer, 2014).

11. Can poop make you fat? Can I get depression? Can I catch a disease?
Could I get anxiety?
At least one suspected case of fecal transplant induced obesity has been reported and there have also been studies in mice where feces from obese mice was transplanted into lean mice who subsequently gained weight (Hamzelou, 2015).
With the number of studies that have been done to indicate that the microbiome is responsible for traits such as anxiety, mood and emotion, learning and memory, and appetite (Hsiao, 2013), it is more than reasonable to be concerned that there could be adverse effects of to receiving a poo transplant.
Most of the unexpected side effects that have been reported, have, however, been positive, such as people losing their anxiety or depression (Hamzelou, 2015)

12. There are many obvious benefits of poo transplants, however, I think transplanting a donor’s entire microbiome just to insert a few specific bugs, is a bit primitive and messy.
A few researchers are working on creating a cocktail of specifically selected microbes that are the most beneficial in fighting specific ailments.
Once the specific beneficial microbes are identified, they can be grown in a lab, processed, and placed in pill form without the messy endeavour of finding suitable donors and processing raw feces.
Dr. Elaine Petrof (2012), a Canadian researcher, has successfully used a specifically designed sample containing 33 different microbes while Trevor Lawley (Kremer, 2014) at the Sanger Institute in the UK is using only 18 microbes to treat C. diff.

13. The Future of our Microbiome
A “Fat Pill” that works
Anti-depression bacteria
Insulin production
MS treatment
Early childhood prevention of mental and social disorders
Cancer treatment and prevention
I think that these specific disease fighting microbe samples are just the beginning of a much larger industry.
As we learn more about which microbes serve various functions in our body, and when they need to be introduced for maximum benefit, I think we may start to see children and adults taking more specifically tailored probiotics and babies getting bacterial transplants on a similar type schedule to those getting vaccinations.
This could help prevent or treat any number of ailments ranging from childhood obesity, anxiety and depression, to autism, and even MS and cancer.

14. Works Cited
Davis, M., (Nov 3, 2015) Fecal transplants and why you should give a crap: TEDxSalem [video of speech] retrieved on 13th March 2016 from
Hamzelou, J. (Feb 14, 2015) Not just obesity - faecal transplants’ weird effects, New Scientist [online magazine] retrieved on 12th March 2016 from
Hsiao, E. (Feb 8, 2013) Mind-altering microbes: how the microbiome affects brain and behavior: TEDxCaltech [video of speech] retrieved on 13th March 2016 from
Kremer, W. (May 27, 2014) The brave new world of DIY faecal transplant, BBC World Service [online magazine] retrieved on 12th March 2016 from
Mattila, E. et. al. (March 2012) Fecal Transplantation, Through Colonoscopy, Is Effective Therapy for Recurrent Clostridium difficile Infection; Gastroenterology vol. 142 Issue 3 pgs Retrieved on 13th March 2016 from
Petrof, E.O., et. al, (Jan 9, 2013) Stool substitute transplant therapy for the eradication of Clostridium difficile infection: ‘rePOOPulating’ the gut, BioMed Central [online journal] retrieved on 12th March 2016 from
Yong, E. (Feb 3, 2015) Outnumbered: Are your bacteria controlling you? Naked Scientists [Interview with Kat Arney] retrieved on 12th March 2016 from