RePOOPulating Your Gut

It may sound like a new gag item on the shelves at Spencer Gifts, but rePOOPulate is no joke. It is the product of extensive medical research, developed by an enterprising team at the University of Guelph in Canada: fake poop designed for the treatment of conditions such as C. diff colitis, a gastrointestinal infection caused by the bacterium Clostridium difficile (CDI).

How is rePOOPulate produced? It is a feculent witch’s brew, distilled by taking beneficial bacteria from the poop of a
healthy donor and purifying it into a multi-species mixture capable of curing antibiotic-resistant C. diff, along with a
number of other autoimmune diseases.The RePOOPulate mixture contains 33 species of beneficial bacteria. In
tests, it was administered using a fecal transplant method, injected into the colons of subjects with recurrent C. difficile
infection. Subjects achieved normal bowel patterns within two days and remained symptom-free for the remaining
6 months of the study.

The idea of fecal transplants may seem bizarre, but it is not a new one. The procedure was used in traditional Chinese
medicine as far back as the 4th century for the treatment of severe diarrhea. The Mayo Clinic alone has done
hundreds of transplants since 2011. The idea behind them is medically sound. Our intestines are normally inhabited
by colonies of “good” bacteria that check the growth of CDI. But these beneficial bacteria can be killed off, and
when they are, CDI grows uncontrollably, poisoning the gut and producing inflammation. When fecal material from a
person with a healthy gut is transplanted into the GI tract of a patient whose own bacteria is depleted, the “good”
bacteria takes hold and regrows in the patient’s tract on its own. The procedure has been shown to have a success
rate close to 90%, which is astonishing, given the close to 0% track record of traditional treatments.

I applaud medical science for having the balls to examine this approach. Fecal transplants have a distinct “ick” factor,
spawn regulatory headaches for the FDA and are counterintuitive to the traditional symptom-oriented Western medical
approach. But here’s what my own shit detectors can’t help but notice — C. diff colitis is a condition that might not
exist, were it not for Western medicine. This disease is very rare in the general community. It is most likely to
afflict patients in hospitals or long-term care facilities. The prolonged use of broad spectrum antibiotics is the primary
cause of C. diff, but GI surgery, chemotherapy and the use of stomach acid reducers such as Prilosec and Nexium
also increase the risk. All of these pharmaceuticals and invasive treatments kill off the healthy bacteria in the GI
tract, allowing CDI to grow and poison the system.

What is truly ironic is how doctors typically treat the disease. It’s just another game of Whac-A-Mole on the midways
of medicine. When C. diff symptoms pop up, physicians whack them down with a 10- to 14-day course of oral antibiotics.
Improvement usually happens quickly, but … surprise! The symptoms soon return. Whack! Another round of antibiotics
is given. There is another quick improvement, followed by another return of symptoms. And so the game goes on, the plop plop of mallets on soft furry heads.

I asked my own GI doctor, who is a very savvy and intuitive woman, why physicians didn’t anticipate the depletion of
beneficial bacteria that follows antibiotic treatment and recommend probiotic supplements to help return the gut to
normal. In fact, why don’t they recommend probiotics to all their patients? This over-the-counter supplement has
been valued for many years in alternative medical circles. My doctor’s response was one I am becoming accustomed
to hearing: “There is no proven scientific link at this time, so we can’t recommend probiotics as part of medical treatment.”

OK, your doctor can’t tell you this, but I will: Anyone who is taking antibiotics or exposed to other risk factors should
be taking therapeutic doses of probiotics to help replenish the beneficial bacteria in their digestive tracts. While probiotics
are an “unproven” supplement and your insurance won’t cover it, these can be the best line of defense against myriad GI woes. I’d recommend consulting a nutrition specialist; not all probiotics are created equal and there are many strains that can be combined and specified for individual needs. But for anyone who has stomach and gut problems, this is an essential supplement. I have lived with Crohn’s Disease for 40 years, and one of the greatest improvements I ever saw to my own health was when I began including probiotics in my daily diet.

I’ve said it before and I will say it many times in the future: Prevention is always the best medicine.