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Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

theguardian.com

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Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#31

Post by aradox66 »

GutThing wrote: post #26

I have a gut problem. I don't really know what it is. It's been like 4 or 5 years since it started. Doctors don't seem to know what's going on but basically my stomach acid destroys my throat and I can even feel the acidity in my mouth but I don't have heartburn or any other common symptoms. I've been on omeprazole and other PPI and several more drugs without any improvement. In all these years it stopped for around…

Hope you find some relief! It's frustrating how little is understood about reflux type symptoms.

Can you explain why you say you don't have heartburn? It sounds like you're describing canonical heartburn symptoms.

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#32

Post by jdhendrickson »

GutThing wrote: post #26

I have a gut problem. I don't really know what it is. It's been like 4 or 5 years since it started. Doctors don't seem to know what's going on but basically my stomach acid destroys my throat and I can even feel the acidity in my mouth but I don't have heartburn or any other common symptoms. I've been on omeprazole and other PPI and several more drugs without any improvement. In all these years it stopped for around…

Have you been to a dentist recently? This could be related to bacteria from bad teeth being washed into the stomach which in turn over reacts.

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#33

Post by jjj123 »

GutThing wrote: post #26

I have a gut problem. I don't really know what it is. It's been like 4 or 5 years since it started. Doctors don't seem to know what's going on but basically my stomach acid destroys my throat and I can even feel the acidity in my mouth but I don't have heartburn or any other common symptoms. I've been on omeprazole and other PPI and several more drugs without any improvement. In all these years it stopped for around…

I have this same thing, but I’m pretty sure it’s just heartburn.

Omeprazole 40mg daily maybe made it a little better, but the different was subtle. What actually cleared it up for me semi-permanently was quitting a stressful job.

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#34

Post by zug_zug »

Mountain_Skies wrote: post #21
spfzero wrote: post #17

Wouldn't an easier way to do this be to control diet? For one thing, it slows the process of change down which would ease any shock-related side-effects. Of course, it takes a lot of work from the patient to adhere, but if they are at the point that they are considering fecal transplant, they're probably ready. This also gives the biome a chance to adapt to anything particular about the individual, if possible (certa…

You're probably correct that keeping the same diet could kill off the transplanted biome but a better diet can't necessarily improve the gut biome if desired microbes have gone extinct in that person. And there are likely cases where a person had the proper diet but some of their gut biome was destroyed by some other factor like a broad-spectrum antibiotic.

Okay makes sense, but exactly how do these diverse bacteria get into our GI tract in the first place if we can't ingest them?

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#35

Post by LinuxBender »

massaman_yams wrote: post #29
LinuxBender wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am also curious about that as well. How many strains of beneficial bacteria are in feces? The probiotics I use have 20 beneficial strains but the company won't send me a non-capsule pack of the powder. They also have one with 36 strains, 120 billion CFU so it takes a lot of capsules to get a meaningful amount and takes a long time to open all the capsules. Based on my limited research it appears stool has about 100…

Table S3 here[1] starting on page 9 appears to show nearly 80 different genuses within stool samples after filtering out "vegetative (non–spore form) bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses" [2]. No word on how many strains per genus, but reasonable to assume multiple, if not hundreds in some cases. [1] https://www.nejm.org/doi/suppl/10.1056/NEJMoa2106516/suppl_f... [2] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa210…

On nice! I will save that one and read up on each species. I think it would be useful to know which of those are beneficial and are missing from the 20 I utilize.

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#36

Post by GutThing »

jjj123 wrote: post #33
GutThing wrote: post #26

I have a gut problem. I don't really know what it is. It's been like 4 or 5 years since it started. Doctors don't seem to know what's going on but basically my stomach acid destroys my throat and I can even feel the acidity in my mouth but I don't have heartburn or any other common symptoms. I've been on omeprazole and other PPI and several more drugs without any improvement. In all these years it stopped for around…

I have this same thing, but I’m pretty sure it’s just heartburn. Omeprazole 40mg daily maybe made it a little better, but the different was subtle. What actually cleared it up for me semi-permanently was quitting a stressful job.

I wish I could say it's stress but it isn't.

I took omeprazole 40mg twice a day (80mg total) for months without noticing any difference. If it's heartburn that should've made a difference.

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#37

Post by GutThing »

aradox66 wrote: post #31
GutThing wrote: post #26

I have a gut problem. I don't really know what it is. It's been like 4 or 5 years since it started. Doctors don't seem to know what's going on but basically my stomach acid destroys my throat and I can even feel the acidity in my mouth but I don't have heartburn or any other common symptoms. I've been on omeprazole and other PPI and several more drugs without any improvement. In all these years it stopped for around…

Hope you find some relief! It's frustrating how little is understood about reflux type symptoms. Can you explain why you say you don't have heartburn? It sounds like you're describing canonical heartburn symptoms.

I know how heartburn feels, it's not that.

Some smoothies do give me heartburn most of the time. When I had my Esophageal pHmetry doctors told me to eat/drink anything that caused me heartburn and I did. I drank 3 berry smoothies, which usually makes me feel like I could spit fire, and my stomach handled it well. The pHmetry didn't show any spikes in acidity, everything was normal.

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#38

Post by lostlogin »

jjj123 wrote: post #33
GutThing wrote: post #26

I have a gut problem. I don't really know what it is. It's been like 4 or 5 years since it started. Doctors don't seem to know what's going on but basically my stomach acid destroys my throat and I can even feel the acidity in my mouth but I don't have heartburn or any other common symptoms. I've been on omeprazole and other PPI and several more drugs without any improvement. In all these years it stopped for around…

I have this same thing, but I’m pretty sure it’s just heartburn. Omeprazole 40mg daily maybe made it a little better, but the different was subtle. What actually cleared it up for me semi-permanently was quitting a stressful job.

If I get it, it means it means I need to lose 5-10kgs. It’s a depressingly accurate indicator that I’m getting too fat.

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#39

Post by GutThing »

sanjayio wrote: post #28
GutThing wrote: post #26

I have a gut problem. I don't really know what it is. It's been like 4 or 5 years since it started. Doctors don't seem to know what's going on but basically my stomach acid destroys my throat and I can even feel the acidity in my mouth but I don't have heartburn or any other common symptoms. I've been on omeprazole and other PPI and several more drugs without any improvement. In all these years it stopped for around…

Hoping you get well soon and figure this out. Have you heard of the inter abdominal pressure theory for acid reflux, which you’re describing or a theory like Chris Kresser’s? https://chriskresser.com/how-to-cure-gerd-without-medication... It’s a fantastic write up, that I read through when going through something similar. For me, ultimately it was controlling my weight (I’m at 12% body fat now) and tons of fiber. I f…

Thank you for the link, I'll read it.

I've been told by my doctor that weight matters but I'm a fit guy, around 12-13% body fat, non smoker and rarely drink alcohol.

I also take care of my diet. I cook my own food, don't eat anything processed (maybe once in a while yes, but it's not part of my diet), I drink a lot of water, no sodas.

What do you consider "tons of fiber"? What do you eat in a day to accomplish it?

Re: Australia gives world-first approval for fecal transplants to restore gut health

#40

Post by EarlKing »

GutThing wrote: post #26

I have a gut problem. I don't really know what it is. It's been like 4 or 5 years since it started. Doctors don't seem to know what's going on but basically my stomach acid destroys my throat and I can even feel the acidity in my mouth but I don't have heartburn or any other common symptoms. I've been on omeprazole and other PPI and several more drugs without any improvement. In all these years it stopped for around…

A number of studies have found a correlation between changes in the bacterial population of the distal esophagus and the onset of symptoms consistent with gastro-esophageal reflux disease and/or Barrett's Esophagus.[1][2][3][4] Your average practitioner doesn't necessarily keep up with trade journals, so it's unlikely most of them have any idea this is even a possibility.

What likely happened is as follows: Taking antibiotics that wipe out the comensal population of Streptococcus Mitis (read: oral bacteria) in the process of treating some other ailment created an opportunity for an invasive species to colonize your distal esophagus, thus leading to your observed symptoms. Subsequent application of additional antibiotics led to a temporary reprieve of your symptoms by virtue of partially (or even fully) wiping out the invasive species... only for them to subsequently recolonize your esophagus when no S. Mitis appeared to recolonize the area.

Prognosis: shrug Unless and until medical practitioners become aware of this correlation there's not a hell of a lot to be done. Ultimately, however, the solution would be to obliterate the invasive species with suitable antibiotics and then recolonize the area with S. Mitis or some other suitable species.

-- [1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16437628/

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23496929

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15104362/

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4120752/

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