An exiting new science and medical field is fast gaining ground and attention. The research covers our understanding of the human microbiome and the relationship it has on our health. Some call it another organ within our body.
For a nice interactive explanation, visit The Scientific American .
Various reports have surfaced about microbiome transplants that have cured diseases or illness that doctors have been unable to cure with normal SOC (standard of care) such as anti-biotic courses. These procedures are cheap and effective without the use of countless courses of very expensive anti-biotics. Some of these procedures are even done by patients themselves. There is the story of a patient, told by his doctor, who cured himself from chronic otitis externa in his one ear by transplanting ear wax from his healthy ear into his “sick” ear. Read the story here.
Another research report just published recently document how scientists have been able to prevent sinusitus infection in mice by having the mice sniff certain lactobacillus species which protected the surface of the sinus and evaded infection by the corynebacterium species. For a good interview with one of the researhers listen to the clip or read the transcrip here.
Of course, the father of modern medicine, Hippocrates (460-370 BC) have said more than 2000 years ago that “All diseases begin in the gut”. So this is certainly not a new concept, although it has been largely ignored in mainstream medicine in favour of drug treatment which is far more profitable ! With the internet becoming more and more a part of everyday life, more published information became available to ordinary people and doctors alike. The increased access to information about the research and findings of doctors and scientists in this field of the human microbiome spurred a renewed interest in understanding the role it plays in our everyday health and how possibly to cure some diseases.
There are many more diseases that are being cured by “transplanting” normal healthy microbiome from donors to those who are sick. The last few years “fecal transplantation ” have been used to cure diseases in the gut like C. Diff (Clostridium difficile), IBS , Ulcerative Colitis and Crohns . There may be many more that we would be able to cure in the future once we better understand what bacterial mismatches in our gut or elsewhere in our microbiome is out of balance.
Specifically in the case of C.diff infections, there is a doctor in Australia, Dr. Thomas Borody , who is achieving 95% success rates with curing C.diff with fecal transplants. He is also achieving success rates of above 50% with UC and Crohns at the CDD where he works. From wikipedia, At the CDD there were indications that FMT could benefit other conditions including ulcerative colitis,[26][27] autoimmune disorders,[28] neurological conditions,[5] obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes,[13] and Parkinson’s disease.[6]. While Dr. TJ Borody was experimenting with patients that were afflicted by both CDI and Parkinson’s disease, he realized that after fecal therapy the symptoms of Parkinson’s in his patients began to decrease; some to the point that the Parkinson’s could not be detected by other neurologists.
Recently, a team of scientists performed a transplant of synthetic “fecal matter” called “RePOOPulate,” into 2 patients using a colonoscopy, the same way a fecal transplant is performed. This synthetic matter is made in a “Robo-gut”, a lab-like system that mimics the conditions inside a human gut. The procedure was successful and both elderly women were symptom-free within three days and tested negative for C. diff six months later. This is a big breakthrough and point to more such procedures in the future to cure not only C.diff, but possibly many more other related bacterial diseases. To read an interesting article about the breakthrough, click here and for the scientific publication, click here .
I believe this new field of the human microbiome could be the next frontier of medical research where significant breakthroughs are going to be made in the next few years in finding cost effective cures for many of today’s popular diseases.
Another very good article to read : Economist article on human microbiome
Some more media articles on FMT :
http://seattletimes.com/html/health/2020149085_fecaltransplantxml.html