Fecal Microbiota Transplant and Its Evolving Medical Uses

I have received information from a Canadian man who's two young children have both been diagnosed with Crohn's Disease - they are currently being treated with an antibiotic regime that is working very well and will hopefully kill MAP (mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis) which is the bacterium implicated for causing Crohn's Disease.  There has been much debate in the medical profession about the causation of Crohn's Disease (ie:  autoimmune disease vs bacterial origin (MAP being the main player).  I believe it's time to put the "autoimmune disease" theory to bed once and for all and so do many others.  Please click here  to read a brilliant article by Dr Judith Lipton who has been cured of Crohn's for 8 years as at the time of writing.  Then, if you are convinced, as I am that MAP causes Crohn's Disease in the majority of cases, come back here and click the link at the end of this post and d...

Is this the reason that people who consume a diet high in fibre from fruit and vegetables and a lower in animal fat and protein (both animal fat and protein diets attract bacteriodes ) have a lower incidence of colon cancer?  It would seem that it is every bit as important to provide the food for our microbiota to thrive on as it is to feed ourselves.  We and our microbiota would appear to benefit mutually from the same types of food - it's not just about nutrition, it's about feeding our "helpful friends" as well! The Differences in Colonic Mucosal Microbiota Between Normal Individual and Colon Cancer Patients by Polymerase Chain Reaction-denaturing Gradient Gel Electrophoresis Authors: Huipeng, Wang MD; Lifeng, Gong MD; Chuang, Ge MD; Jiaying, Zhao MD; Yuankun, Cai MD Abstract Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the differences in the intestinal composition between normal individuals and colon cancer patients. ...

With World MS Day being 29th May, it seems appropriate to post a link to a previous entry about Multiple Sclerosis and Fecal Transplant. The link is to three case studies from Centre of Digestive Diseases, Sydney Australia (Professor Borody).   Three of his patients who had multiple sclerosis were treated for constipation (one of the many complications of this terrible disease) and to their's and Professor Borody's surprise, their MS symptoms unexpectedly also disappeared, so much so that as at the time of writing the study all patients remained in remission, one of them for 15 years!  Professor Borody speculates that a gut pathogen may be responsible for causing the neurological disease and encourages a new direction in medical research of MS. http://www.fecalmicrobiotatransplant.com/2012/08/could-multiple-sclerosis-be-caused-by.html

      This is a video which aired on TV - great news for pediatric (child) patients with c-diff    

This story comes from a mother who posted as a visitor on http://thepowerofpoo.blogspot.com.au/ - it's a very powerful story showing the tremendous results that FMT can give to a IBD sufferer (a child). It's definitely worth reading! Kathy's Success Story "Hi, I’m Kathy, mom to a nine-year-old girl diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in January 2012 and successfully treated with FMT. I don't want to know where we would be now if we hadn't tried it, or if it hadn’t worked. We went through seven months of hell trying to get her better before we started FMT. Here’s our story: E's symptoms appeared out-of-the blue. On Christmas Eve 2011, she called me into the bathroom to look at her wipe, which had some blood on it. Over the next few days, we noticed that her stool, though completely formed, had some visible blood coating the outside of it. I didn't make too much of it, which is surprising since I tend to be a bit of an alarmist when anyt...

Following the spectacular results of a randomised study publicised in last week's New England Medical Journal by van Nood et al. (The Netherlands), The Gastroenterological Society of Australia spokesperson, Associate Professor Jane Andrews has declared fecal microbiota transplantation to be "The Ultimate Probiotic".   "Fecal transplantation for recurrent C.difficile has now got very good evidence behind it" she remarked in the Australian "Gastroenterology update".  The Australian society has changed their previous view in which they had considered fecal transplant to be unsafe and warned against it's use, and are now looking at setting up a state-based service at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia next year.  The article stated that fecal microbiota transplantation had become mainstream in many centres (overseas).  This is very exciting news for those suffering from the incredibly debilitating and potentially deadly symptoms of cl...

The results of a randomized controlled study has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine this week which showed a 94% cure rate for clostridium difficile as opposed to 31% of patients taking the antibiotic vancomycin. The study was stopped prematurely becase the results were so outstanding for those who were given fecal transplant that it was considered to be unethical not to offer the treatment to all patients participating in the study. Read more below courtesy of the New England Journal.nbsp;  Here is a link to the study: Duodenal Infusion of Donor Feces for Recurrent Clostridium difficile — NEJM and a link to the editorial written by Ciarán P. Kelly, M.D. Fecal Microbiota Transplantation — An Old Therapy Comes of Age — NEJM "Fecal Microbiota Transplantation — An Old Therapy Comes of Age Ciarán P. Kelly, M.D. January 16, 2013 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe1214816 In 1958, doctors in Denver administered feces by enema to their patients with fulminant, life-...