Wall Street Journal Best Seller Dr. M's Seven-X Plan for Digestive Health
Use of probiotics has been gaining in popularity over the years. However, all probiptics are not created equal. Just like antibiotics, certain probiotics can be specific for specific disorders.
Fecal transplantation or bacteriotherapy
Realistically speaking, the stool from a healthy donor would be an ultimate example of ideal and wholesome probiotic.
Is It Leaky Gut or Leaky Gut Syndrome?
There has been increasing interest in fecal transplantation in recent years especially for treatment of drug resistant recurrent C. difficile infection of the gut. However, the use of this form of therapy has been tempered by the cumbersome procedures involved including selection and comprehensive testing of the person donating stool, not to mention the reluctance of labs to get involved in such uncouth process.
OpenBiome to the rescue
This non-profit FDA-approved fecal bank venture has been described as the Red Cross for the stool! The advent of the bank obviates the need for hospitals to have expensive and cumbersome screening and processing protocols.
Advantages of stool bank
This bank makes the process of fecal transplantation cheaper and probably safer, while ensuring greater consistency and reliability.
The cost of this rigorously tested specimen is about $250 as compared to about $600 if a facility were to come up with their own specimen after testing.
Wall Street Journal Best Seller Dr. M's Seven-X Plan for Digestive Health
Stool bank process
The Open Biome process is very comprehensive starting with 105-item questionnaire, clinical examination of donor and comprehensive testing for stool sample for any pathogens. Stool donors can earn about $40 per day just for daily poop!
The specimens are isolated and preserved until all tests have been completed prior to the stool being transported for use by physician using a standardized protocol available at the OpenBiome website.
Potential future uses of OpenBiome
While currently FDA approved for C. difficile infection, the Open Biome opens up the possibility of testing fecal transplantation for diverse other illnesses like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and obesity.
Dr. Minocha's comments
The science of bacteriotherapy is in its infancy and evolving fast with limitless potential to affect our health. Initiation of this bank is a huge step forward in our understanding of how gut bacteria affect our bodies potentially leading to newer treatment strategies involving difficult to treat chronic diseases of many organs including gut, skin and brain.
Wall Street Journal Best Seller Dr. M's Seven-X Plan for Digestive Health
