Month: April 2019
Is the microbiome the key to health?
Interest in the microbiome – those trillions of bugs (bacteria and other microorganisms) in your gut – is increasing and according to an article in the NY Times, drug companies are trying to get in on the action.
As I’ve written before, these bugs may be important in the development of chronic disease leading to the possibility that you can “transplant” healthier bugs into someone with a disease. In fact, transferring the feces (poop) from one person to another has been shown to cure cases of Clostridioides difficile (C. diff) colitis (a life threatening infection of the gut caused by overuse of antibiotics). This is called fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). Studies are ongoing to see if FMT can be used to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and other chronic conditions. But there are a limited number of places doing FMT so people are doing their own transplants by harvesting the feces of a friend or family member and using a home blender (I’ll spare you any additional details but the DIY instructions are readily available online).