The problem with fecal transplants – and the reason they are banned everywhere except France unless you have incurable c. difficile colitis, is that there are 100 million organisms in poop and you never know what you are getting in addition to the target organism. There was a reported case of a woman who was given fecal transplant for c. difficile who became morbidly obese. When doctors checked, the fecal donor turned out to be obese. It’s well known that gut bacteria can cause obesity.
Good to know… seems like an area that should get more research investment to identify the helpful organisms and develop a safe service for broader testing and implementation…
Anybody know where I can get some young mouse poop?
Given the internal microbiome starts in the mouth, I wonder if asking your young children/grandchildren to put the fork or spoon that you are about to use into their mouths first thus depositing a small bit of their oral microbiome for one to ingest.
I have no idea if any of the oral microbiome would make it through the stomach, but it would certainly be less messy than trying to go for the other end of the body!
Is it worth trying?
Any thoughts anyone?
There’s a lot of people doing diy fecal transplants. Using a healthy relative donor. There’s been some really good papers on the subject lately. Yale did one a while back, and it discusses it healing all kinds of diseases, including cancers. There’s a lady on YouTube who does them, and show most of the process.
Could you pls post a link to that video on YT? Thanx
For those interested. This is where you can purchase healthy “crapsules” a word I pray finds its way into the dictionary.
I would caution that while this shows immense promise, we’re just at the beginning of unpacking the complexity of the human gut biome. There is some evidence to suggest that mental illness and obesity can be affected by specific gut microbes, we just don’t know enough yet, so you need to weigh up those risks.
Digestive enzymes have an effect on the diversity of the microbiome, so PERT can be an effective tool to support a healthy microbiome. Think about it
Bacteria from those who already survived to old age may also also be a viable approach. No need to transplant grandma’s poop. Korean scientists have determined what is abundant in centenarian guts.
The relative abundance of Firmicutes was found to be considerably higher in subjects from longevity villages than those from urbanized towns, whereas Bacteroidetes was lower. Age-related rearrangement of gut microbiota was observed in centenarians, such as reduced proportions of Faecalibacterium and Prevotella , and increased proportion of Escherichia , along with higher abundances of Akkermansia , Clostridium , Collinsella , and uncultured Christensenellaceae . Gut microbiota of centenarians in rehabilitation hospital were also different to those residing at home. These differences could be due to differences in diet patterns and living environments. In addition, phosphatidylinositol signaling system, glycosphingolipid biosynthesis, and various types of N-glycan biosynthesis were predicted to be higher in the gut microbiota of centenarians (corrected p < 0.05).
Full paper below.
https://www.jmb.or.kr/journal/view.html?doi=10.4014/jmb.1811.11023
The paper reveals what the centenarians eat.
Table. 1. Table 1
Dietary characteristics of each group.
| Centenarians | Elderly | Adult | p value | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects (n) | 25 | 13 | 9 | |
| Number of meals (per day) | 2.84 ± 0.37 | 3.00 ± 0.00 | 2.33 ± 0.50 | <0.001 |
| Number of snacks (per day) | 1.06 ± 0.82 | 1.69 ± 0.85 | 0.50 ± 0.61 | 0.004 |
| — | ||||
| Frequency of intake (per month) | Centenarians | Elderly | Adult | p value |
| — | ||||
| Subjects (n) | 22 | 12 | 9 | |
| Meat | 13.5 ± 22.7 | 10.8 ± 12.1 | 16.4 ± 13.0 | 0.787 |
| Eggs | 8.1 ± 8.3 | 6.7 ± 5.7 | 17.7 ± 13.3 | 0.015 |
| Fish | 8.8 ± 9.7 | 8.6 ± 10.6 | 5.0 ±2.5 | 0.536 |
| Bean curd | 12.7 ± 12.9 | 19.1 ± 25.0 | 9.0 ±5.8 | 0.354 |
| Fermented soybean pastes | 28.6 ± 27.1 | 35.8 ± 28.2 | 9.8 ± 5.4 | 0.061 |
| Dairy products | 6.2 ± 9.3 | 9.2 ± 12.8 | 4.3 ± 3.9 | 0.510 |
| Fruits | 12.7 ± 13.2 | 20.4 ± 20.2 | 21.7 ±14.5 | 0.237 |
| Eat protein | 43.1 ± 37.3 | 45.1 ±25.8 | 48.1 ±26.7 | 0.925 |
Looks like a lot of tofu and miso there. They’re not vegan.
Another one-
I have to say that digestive enzymes are the only supplement that has ever made a real difference for me and I wish that I had started taking them sooner. Mine also have pre- and probiotics. Not sure if I really need the pre- and pro- or if they are truly helpful or harmful in that they might possibly reduce genetic diversity but for now they work great.
My food is all plants with some modest quantities of fish-based supplements, very high in fiber, low but not zero in overt starches. I get about 50-65 g/fiber day with my 1500 daily kcals.