Fecal Transplant - I took the plunge! PART III

katmom, do you have a contact at the university, please?

subdued said...

...My donor, who was my six-month old granddaughter, was breastfeeding at the time. The consistency of her poo was perfect for doing fecal transplantation. I did not need a blender. I don't remember what I used if anything. I probably just used the syringe to mix the poo and water. Of course, I'm not recommending donors to breastfeed.

That's hilarious....!

It also brings up a good point. Some people think that a very young child may not have developed sufficient amounts/strains of bacteria at such a young age, so they may not be a good donor. But your experience shows that a child might still be a suitable donor.

I'm going to try FT, and now I'm trying to gather the materials I will need. Here's Dr. Borody's protocol for doing FT's: http://docs.google.com/View?id=dc4nwm3v_216gznsqmg8

I'm looking for tips on the equipment that needs to be purchased:

The enema itself: Borody says to use enema bags + rectal tips. where did you buy this? what size? was it filled with anything when you bought it?

Saline: where did you find this?

Hanging the enema bag: what did you use to do this?

Funnel: did you use a funnel?

Blender: did you use a blender? I see a lot of people used ziplock bags to mush up the stool, or a fork.

Also, where did you do the actual procedure? Some people have said they do it in bed and just lay down or go to sleep. Others say they did it in the tub. Is it too messy to do in bed?

I bought prebiotics by mistake when I first heard about probiotics. Prebiotics did not work for me. Probiotics, in particular acidophilus probiotics, work for me.

I did not know about prebiotics or probiotics when I did fecal transplantation.

Does anyone know if one sample can be saved for use over multiple days?

For those who have had success doing this, were you taking antibiotics before trying the infusion? Or did you have success applying the infusion on top of your existing flora?

Has anyone with arthritis tried this procedure? If so, has your arthritis been positively effected?

I am definitely going to try this. I've had UC since 2007 and have had decent success controlling the bleeding and urgency associated with this disease, but I have had little success controlling my axial enteropathic arthritis.

I don't think you should use any bowel movement older than 20 minutes because it will start to decompose , i think thats how they do it at dr Brody's clinic.

Hi RUNCYCLE i also have a form of arthritis (ankylosing spondyltis) but am also dealing with major intestinal dysbiosis.
I haven't done a fecal transplants yet because of my disability movement problem but will be soon hopefully. My email address is
***** you can email me as i also arthritis and intestinal health problem, there is also a connection that people with antheropathy type arthritis like AS have intestinal lesion in there intestine just like uc suffers there might be a connection there.

joe

I'm sorry, but personal contact information cannot be included in posts.  If you like, you can include it in your profie and people can access it that way. --fruitgirl

Post Edited By Moderator (fruitgirl) : 3/12/2010 2:57:25 PM (GMT-7)

sorry fruitgirl

Hi lupo joe,

Axial enteropathic arthritis is also a spondylitis (inflammation of the spine), but I don't think my joints are going to fuse (ankylose). It has been very limiting, though, so I feel your pain. My SI joints and thoracic spine have been effected the most.

I will definitely keep you posted on my progress (when I get all of the logistics straightened out). I'm not keeping my hopes up too high, though. Even though my arthritis is caused by my UC, in general, axial arthritis symptoms can have a life of their own.

My advice to you would be to try FT before you even hear from me again (if you can manage it). You really have nothing to lose.


All the Best,

runcycle

Hi all, still counting down until the end of the school year when I will do my HPI (a little more than 2 months, fingers crossed!). When my intestinal problems started (IBS they say) almost exactly 2 years ago, I did a stool test to check bacterial levels that came back reading 0 of the good guys and excess Clostridia. I plan on doing another test of this sort at the beginning of summer before I try the fecal transplant to see whether a course of antibiotics is necessary before beginning, like Dr. Borody talks about in the protocol.

If that is the case, I'm worried about yeast overgrowth. If I do a ten day antibiotic in preparation for the transplant, should I also follow a candida diet for those ten days to keep the yeast in check before I replenish my intestines with beneficial flora to compete?

Thanks,

-Jesse

Hi All,

This thread has been running for a couple of years or so, hence it is now "Part III". I have just read it all over the past couple of days and I wanted to add my well meaning thoughts. BTW I don't have UC but I do have an undiagnosed GI problem which I have been struggling with for 19 months and I am desperate to find a solution.

Yesterday morning I spoke with Prof T Borody who is the Director of the Centre for Digestive Diseases in Australia where they not only treat patients they also carry out a lot of research. This doctor is highly qualified and highly experienced and for those of you who don't know, had a lot to do with the Nobel Prize won by Barry Marshall for discovering that Helicobacer Pylori causes ulcers. Barry Marhsall spent many years in trying to get the medical community to take his ideas seriously as is often the case in the sciences.

Prof Borody told me that they have carried out Fecal Transplant (FT) treatments on over 1300 patients and that their success rate is exceptional to around 90% and they have been doing it for many years. I do not believe for one second that this Professor of Gastrenterology would make such claims if they were not true.

He explained that medical science had not even scratched the surface in identifying all the different strains of flora that live in the intestinal tract. He also explained that it was highly probable that not all pathogenic bacteria have yet been identified. And he went on to say that human feces is alive with billions of probiotic flora. He believes that digestive diseases are caused by infection and a subsequent upset of the flora of the gut. He said that swallowing probiotics are mostly ineffective because they are so unlikely to be the right strains and also unlikely to reach the colon in sufficient numbers to make a difference. He said that the most pure and highly abundant form of good probiotic bacteria comes from feces from a healthy human donor.

The fact that FT has worked for some people on this board on a DIY basis surely proves the efficacy of this treatment because none of the people here were able to follow the protocol that Borody and his team have formulated over many years and yet they still got good results. Yes, there are some here didn't have success but then that is arguably because they were not able to follow Borody's protocol.

Borody puts people on a strict low fibre diet for 2 weeks prior to treatment. He also treats them with antibiotics as he wants to reduce pathogenic numbers as much as possible to help the good bacteria take a foothold. He also ensures that the donors are tested to be healthy and that their stools are also tested (many asymptomatic people carry C. Difficile). He then does FT a number of times over a number of days. And when he does the FT he uses a colonoscope so that the whole colon can be implanted or he places the implant via a nasal gastric tube into the duodenum (I believe) so that the small intestine can also benefit as some people have Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth. After the FT the patient then embarks on a high fibre diet.

So if we consider the above protocol it is not surprising that some people here have not been too successful but it is equally amazing that some people here have been successful and I propose that this just adds weight to the potential success of this treatment.

In addition some people here used babies poo which I understand because it is readily available if you have a baby but again this is not ideal as a baby's poo has not yet evolved completely and will not have all the desired healthy bacteria (when a baby is born it has no bacteria at all in its gut).

The thought of using someone else's feces is a bit stomach churning but most people would be quite happy to have a blood transfusion or a liver transplant wouldn't they.

I have to say that if anyone here is consdering trying FT but are unable to go to Australia to have it done then they should follow Borody's protocol as much as possible as surely it stands to reason that he knows a darn site more about it than anyone here (no disrespect meant).

I should say thank you so much to the people here that have tried this themselves as it never occurred to me for a second that I could do it myself and this could save me a long trip and a lot of expense going to Australia (I am in the UK) although of course I cannot use a colonoscope on myself but as others here have proved a simple enema might just work. 

(edited, rule 4)

I hope that more of you try FT on yourselves and keep us posted with the results. If it doesn't work out, don't be too downhearted as it might work in the future if you can follow Borody's protocol more exactly. I have no doubt that this procedure has cured a numerous amount of people and I mean "cured".

Good luck to you all.

PS If anyone discovers a doctor in the UK or Europe that is able to do fecal transplantation please let me know as I would much rather it be done by someone else.............................................although I will do it myself if I have to!

 

Post Edited By Moderator (fruitgirl) : 4/16/2010 9:36:32 AM (GMT-6)

idkwia said...
Prof Borody told me that they have carried out Fecal Transplant (FT) treatments on over 1300 patients and that their success rate is exceptional to around 90% and they have been doing it for many years. I do not believe for one second that this Professor of Gastrenterology would make such claims if they were not true.

It's interesting that the noted 90% success rate is not consistent with the percentage documented on the center's web page (www.probiotictherapy.com.au/physicians/diseases_4.html).

PROBIOTIC THERAPY RESEARCH CENTRE said...
We have noticed that if patients are given standard anti-inflammatory therapy until their bowel wall is completely healed, HPI can achieve long term reversal of colitis in more than 50% of patients in our experience, but the result is still unpredictable in the individual case.

Maybe the 90% success rate is not long term reversal of colitis but some lessor goal such as reduced colitis symptoms. It would be great if it was clarified.

Yes. The 90% success rate most likely refers to C-diff. If I remember correctly, Prof Borody was trying the procedure out on patients who had C-diff.

I am the one who used poo from my six-month old granddaughter even though I had read that poo from an infant may not have as many strains of bacteria as that from an adult. My reasons were as follows:

My six-month old granddaughter had never taken antibiotics.
Poo from a breast-fed baby dissolves well in tap water.
I did not have access to testing the poo for diseases. Six months isn't much time to pick up a disease.
My six-month old granddaughter is a blood relative.


The FT was a success. It took hold right away. I did it only three times, and I went immediately into remission. I did get another flare two years later, but that flare was due to taking antibiotics.

idkwia,
How did you manage to speak to Dr. Borody? I've been waiting for months to get an appointment with his assistant to get the protocol?