Gut Wars: One Man's Adventure with Antibiotics and Ulcerative Colitis
ubiomeblog.com
ubiomeblog.com
http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-upd...
Most facilities do it the fancy way (use a tube down the nose or up the rear), run tests and, as usual, charge you and your donor out the a! But I've read of DIY'ers who simply spun out the solids, held their nose and swilled the goods(I suppose a real man would use a spoon) or took them in an enema:
http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2013/05/29/why-diy-fecal-...
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27503660
Either way it works.
"Compatible" donor? Healthy family member(s).
As the author of the article notes, probiotics can't possibly match the variety of organisms that a typical human has in their gut.
Business proposal: a repository where people deposit feces prior to taking strong antibiotics, so that, should they find themselves consequently absent intestinal flora and fauna, those could easily be restored. Kind of a new twist on the old curse "Eat shit and die!"
End result, new drugs to wipe out the bad then a few months with specific medications and kefir and related food products to rebuild the bacteria in my gut. It is no fun planning any drive, even to work, where the primary issue is knowing who is open and has public bathrooms
As an aside, even talking to the doctor made me immediately feel better. Being a pessimist, I assumed the worst and was already planning out my will. This doctor, who looked like Gene Simmons, asked me how many days off I wanted from work, and told me "You gotta take it easy, bro" with a jerky boys accent, he completely snapped me out of whatever I was going through with his amazing personality.
David frequents HN (which is how I found it) and he even took the time to personally answer questions for me via email.
There is no probiotic on the market like it and it is based on real science.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140929181156.ht...
Although it is looking into obesity, they did find that apples restored abnormal microbiota.
I suffer from mild IBS myself, and find that eating an apple a day seems to help (although it's impossible to know for sure without doing a double-blind trial on myself).
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00SXBWDOY
Seems to work. My wife uses it regularly. Just a couple of data points for what it's worth.
Me, I've had UC since 2012. I take Pentasa 2mg granulated mesalazine per day. I am an ex-smoker and internalize stress. My UC is definitely exacerbated by poor sleep and high stress. Antibiotics were also what started me off on this horrible disease. I'd love to get rid of it.
Some lab experiments definitely bear out this idea. Animals with sterilized guts fed sterile diets live way longer, and are stronger/healthier.
Like I said I don't know, but I advise extreme caution on this stuff where there's any tangential connection to probiotics/prebiotics/tests.
I'm sure this commenter means well but this person is severely misinformed. Any person with even a minimal understanding of our gut microbiome would never argue for a relatively sterile gut. We rely on out gut bacteria to digest foods and there is a healthy, normal exchange of metabolites between the microbes and our bodies. Microbes digest foods such as fiber and starches into (for example) short-chain fatty acids that have been shown to have beneficial effects on our bodies. They also prime our immune system so that we are better prepared to combat invasion of potential pathogens. LPS is a necessary component of all gram negative bacteria. Many of our commensal bacteria are gram negatives. The problem with LPS is when it gets to places where it shouldn't be (e.g. crossing our gut epithelial barrier).
Some labs utilize germ-free mice to investigate the causative role of the microbiome on the host. While these animal models can serve as great systems in which to investigate certain hypotheses, every germ-free model researcher would no doubt agree that the immune system of germ-free animals is completely different and severely compromised compared to a normal, conventional animal. They, in fact, do NOT live longer and are NOT stronger/healthier.
I felt that the above comment needed to be rectified before people starting actually believing it.
1) Bacteria in the gut make stuff you need and helpfully digest things for you.
2) Endotoxin is only a problem when it crosses the gut.
3) By various magic bacteria in the gut strengthen the immune system.
Well #1 just isn't really true. There aren't any identified compounds that are at all hard to get from food that you need gut bacteria to make for you. Maybe some vitamin K and that's about it, but a serving of liver or some other foods will more than cover your vitamin K dose.
#2 is a silly argument because endotoxin is constantly crossing the gut barrier. LPS endotoxin is a continuous stress on the liver to detoxify. Whether it's a real problem in an otherwise healthy individual or not is a separate question, but the argument presented here is totally specious. It is quite plainly a continuous stream of toxic material the organs work to clear.
As for #3, that's the big totally open question I guess. You see the claim made but nobody ever really breaks it down in detail in terms the experimental physiology proving the idea. It's usually some eye-roll-worthy trials.
The fact that the sterile rats can't survive outside the lab environment is not the point. No kidding they have under-trained immune systems. The point is that absent the chronic stress of bacteria load they do in fact live longer and are in fact stronger in the literal definition of strong. This guy is being deliberately hand-wavy.
This also applies to larger biomes.
Are there any case studies of people maintaining a sterilized gut and living healthier lives? Therapies like fecal transplant or helimintic therapy actively introduce third parties into your gut with positive outcomes. Which at least suggests that bacterial balance in the gut is important for some people.