You may hear a lot about the intestinal microbiome these days-it was mentioned everywhere, wellness podcasts at the alley of the grocery store. Doctors draw there to try to treat certain diseases differently.
The intestinal microbiome is the community of all bacteria and viruses in our intestines, including more user -friendly microbes that promote health as well as certain enemies that can cause a disease.
An evolving procedure is the Fécale transplantationWhere a small sample of colon stools of a healthy person is given to a recipient for therapeutic purposes. Despite the Ick factor, they were used to treat potentially fatal and recurring bacterial infections for which antibiotics were less effective.
From now on, doctors and researchers are looking to see if fecal transplants can be used for other difficult -to -treat diseases.
Avoid the burned earth diet
Health Canada has approved feces for recurring clostridium infections (C. Difficult) In 2015. Encouraging the colon, these infections lead to diarrhea and, in the event of recurrence, to dehydration which can wreak havoc on the body. The objective with transplantation is to ensure that healthy bacteria exceed the C. difficult and wipe out the stubborn infection.
Overall, for C. difficult recurrent, fecal transplants were significantly more efficientgreater than 85%, compared to less than 50% for antibiotics.
Dr. Nikhil Pai, a pediatric gastroenterologist and clinical professor associated with McMaster University in Hamilton, said antibiotics can create a terrible cycle.
“What ends up surviving after this antibiotic diet of the burned earth are bacteria that cannot only worsen things, but can affect many other things such as general nutrition and metabolism,” said Pai.
In adults, A 2023 review Clinical trials published by the COCHRANE BOOTHERISTED COCHRANCE concluded, Fécale transplants can also help control Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, two forms of inflammatory intestine disease that harm the intestine when the body’s immune system is wrong.
Fécale transplants have shown a lot of promises of diseases like C. difficult. As the list of claimed uses of treatment increases, we demysts myths
Bruce Vallance, professor of pediatrics at the University of British Columbia, said that inflammatory intestine disease is essentially chronic inflammation of gastrointestinal tract, perhaps triggered by bacteria living in our intestines. It can happen at any age, he said.
“We are trying to determine if some microbes cause the disease and if we could target these microbes, exhaust them and remove them from the intestine so that there is no more disease trigger.”
Some researchers are also considering Use of fecal transplants for adolescent anorexiaknown for its difficulty in treating and a high mortality rate. Research suggests that there is an intestinal connection, and scientists find that there is an association between anorexia and imbalances in the intestinal microbiome, which could influence a person’s behavior.
Build viscous “mini-boots”
Vallance and his team also study if some microbes that can drive Crohn and colitis can pass through a layer of key mucus in the intestines.
To this end, he worked with doctors from the BC Children’s Hospital to take samples and fecal biopsies that offer an instantaneous of what is happening in the human colon.
Vallance builds “mini -boots” – a 3D model of the intestines in the form of a ball – to study the operation of the microbes. It focuses on the growth of bacteria in the epithelium, or intestinal lining, which contains proteins with sugars that form a viscous coating.
“It doesn’t look good and it doesn’t sound well, but this sticky coating is actually really important in ways in which we interact with our intestinal microbes,” said Vallance. This is what creates the barrier against dangerous bacteria that can cause diseases like Crohn and colitis.
Another trial focuses on short intestine syndrome in children who have had parts of their large intestine surgically removed. It can cause excessive accumulation of bacteria, causing abdominal pain, bloating and diarrhea traditionally treated with antibiotics.
There have been other involuntary advantages of fecal transplantation. Pai remembers having treated an autistic child who had a recurring C. difficult at McMaster.
“After their treatment, there were comments from the family that this child also showed real improvements and changes in their behavior as well as their teachers at school,” said Pai. “I don’t think it’s a surprise that other aspects of him are also improving.”
Why we are what we eat
Bringing healthier bacteria also benefits the body as a whole, which could be the reason why child has seen improvements in other areas, said Pai, who also works at the Philadelphia children’s hospital.
“The commentary or the idea that we are what we eat is very true,” said Vallance.
What we eat and digestons is also individualized, to this extent that everyone’s poop is like a fingerprint-or an impression of poop, he said. “Everyone has their own unique plan.”
When people follow a diet rich in fiber full of vegetables, for example, more fibers reach the colon, where microbes ferment and release beneficial factors such as butyrate,, A short chain fatty acid.
Vallance said the butyrate can help report to our immune system what to do and when. But people with inflammatory intestine disease tend to have much less butyrate, a useful regulator to prevent the immune system from reacting excessively, he said.
Carrie Daniel MacDougall, Associate Professor in the Epidemiology Department of MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, specializes in nutrition and microbiome, including the role of dietary fibers.
Daniel MacDougall and his team have shown that adding dietary fiber in the form of canned beans has changed the intestinal microbiome of cancer patients in the eight weeks and is supposed to encourage beneficial intestinal bacteria to do their thing.
Cancer prevention directives already highlight the increase in fibers with whole foods such as beans, as well as fruits and vegetables.
“A large part of what we learn about scientific mechanisms and the intestinal microbiome also have a huge impact on public health,” said Daniel MacDougall. Intestinal health “has a lot of crossing with other diseases such as heart disease, inflammatory intestine disease.
“We all learn research from the other.”