Fecal Transplants: The Poop Cure?

Fecal transplants may be more effective than antibiotics when treating certain forms of bacterial infections in the gut, according to the results of a newly released study published in “The New England Journal of Medicine.”

As gross or unsettling as it sounds, fecal transplants—or inserting one person’s poo into another’s body—is a surprisingly effective cure for life-threatening infections, specifically those stemming from Clostridium difficile, or C. diff. C. diff infections kill 29,000 Americans each year, and make more than 450,000 people sick annually, the article reports.

Antibiotics don’t kill C. diff, “but so-called good bacteria that keep things in balance,” according to the article. “Once other bacteria are killed off, C. diff […] can come back and even proliferate—without competition.”

The introduction of another person's healthy gut bacteria into a sick person’s body (via a fecal transplant) is found to help restore the balance of good bacteria. Transplants can be done via an enema – as was the case in this study – or by taking a series of pills, etc.

A significant amount of patients who underwent fecal transplants, including the participants in the study mentioned above, saw immediate relief. Others saw relief after antibiotics were later introduced. The participants who began with antibiotics treatments did not find the same relief. Such results force scientist to consider fecal transplants be used as a first – not last – treatment choice.