Posted 6/7/2013 3:35 AM (GMT 0)
Yes this is all true with the FDA beginning to try to patent poop pills...the knowledge and efficacy of fecal transplants is gaining, I just don't think it is happening fast enough and many of us UC sufferers could greatly benefit from it NOW, not waiting years for the medical community to maybe begin offering it as a viable treatment. Here is a brief explanation of my procedure that I had posted on another site. I apologize if you've already read this but I don't feel like writing it out again and I want to spread the knowledge about ft as much as possible...
I ended up following a similar protocol that one guy had used because on this website because he too had been on the SCD diet prior to initiating his procedure. I felt like if I could mimic everything that he did I would increase my chances for success. So for about 2 months even before i had heard of FT, I had decided to retry the SCD for like the 3rd time, buying the ebook from the guys from SCD lifestyle and following the steps…I saw little improvement if any at all. I believe in the science and i feel like the SCD is a great diet in that it does a good job of ‘starving out the bad bacteria’ I just do not believe it does a good enough job at replenishing the gut with good bacteria. For those who don’t have severe UC, I think dietary changes are probably all that is needed, but for those who get a more severe case it is my opinion that the supply of good bacteria has been too diminished to ever establish the correct balance. Once I decided to try ft, I bought a bottle of “Klaire Labs Interphase Plus Enyzmes” along with the other necessary supplies(mini blender, fine metal strainer, 2 fleet 7.9oz enema bottles, latex gloves, gallon of distiller water, iodized salt, trash bags, and a luggable loo which is a portable toilet often used for camping…it’s basically a bucket with a toilet seat). For the week leading up to my start of the ft procedures, I would take the Klaire labs enzymes before I went to bed on an empty stomach. I would even wake up in the middle of the night and take another couple pills; the whole point of these enzymes was to eat away at my intestinal biofilm, basically the inner lining of the colon where the bacteria build homes and live, perpetuating a continual screwed up balance if you have UC…They must be taken on an empty stomach because they will digest food if you eat with them. Some people described intense cramping/gas after taking these enyzmes but i didnt really experience anything like that, maybe a little gas but not bad. I felt that because I did not want to take antibiotics prior to doing this, taking the enzymes would essentially wipe out enough bad bacteria and give the newly implanted bacteria the best chance at colonizing. I stopped taking these pills as soon as I started the transplants. My mindset was to do the transplants as long as I needed to until my symptoms went away and then do it for another week just to make sure. I know some protocols only call for 5 times but I felt like I wanted to do it 500 times to make sure. When researching FT, a lot of talk arises about the donor and getting them tested for infectious diseases, parasites etc. Luckily for me, I live with my 14 year old brother who would have a BM every morning before he went to school. I didn’t need to pay to get him tested, although kids nowadays you never know haha just kidding.
So basically every morning he would go in the luggable loo and I would mix it up into 2 enemas within a couple hours. I always made sure, especially the first week, to try to clear my system as much as possible before I would do the enemas because the first 6 or 7 times I did it, taking the first enema would automatically make me crap it out. It’s important to make 2 bottles. I put 4 teaspoons of iodized salt into the distilled gallon of water for my saline solution. So i would just take the stool and pour enough water in the blender to make about 16 oz worth of smoothie…it’s disgusting I know. Often I would go to the gym and run on the treadmill or whatever to make sure I went enough times in the morning to make my colon as empty as possible before I did the enemas. After I would do the enema and be certain that I was going to be able to hold it in, I would walk my feet up the wall and do a headstand yoga-esque pose and wiggle my torso left and right and lean to the right to really make sure that the solution made its way all the up and across the transverse section of my colon as I had pancolitis. I tried not to eat that much throughout the day, especially in the beginning, because I felt that holding it in as long as possible was crucial to my success. My first week was actually not very successful, I kept a log…of the 7 possible attempts, I only held it in longer than 5 hours for 1 day and 3 of the days I couldn’t hold it in at all. I almost look at the first week I did the transplants as a total wash where I really just kinda learned how to do it effectively. Nevertheless, even though I really didn’t have successful attempts until about day 7, meaning I was able to retain the enemas for about 20 hrs, I was pretty much symptom free with no blood or urgency, more normal stool after 8or 9days etc.
Some things I experienced while doing the transplants was really loud stomach growling…kinda weird but in retrospect I truly think it was the shifting of bacteria. It wasn’t painful at all but it kinda makes you gassy, and it’s pretty much impossible to fart if you have 8oz of poop solution at the end of your colon so I always held it in but it was always very uncomfortable. I believe the most important thing about this entire procedure, moreso than the dilemma of whether or not to take antibiotics, diet prior to or during the transplants, possibly even the # of transplants, is making sure the inflammation/diarrhea/#of bms is down enough to be able to retain the enemas for as long as possible. If you poop out the enema shortly after taking it, its effectiveness will surely be limited in my opinion. I was in a mild flare for about 3 months prior to starting the transplants. I felt like had I not been in a flare at all the first week would have worked better, but then again, I probably would never have done this if I wasn’t in a flare. I believe taking any pharmaceutical drug in the short term is well worth it if it can aid you as you do fecal transplants.
So that is basically it, I have continued to eat a scd/paleo diet because i love the way i feel/look eating this way but now I can eat anything I want. I have had zero symptoms for the past 7 weeks and I have 1 formed perfect bm per day. As far as supplements that I now take, I take glutamine and fish oil in the morning, that is it. I have stopped the probiotics I used to take, the digestive enzymes, aloe, algae….all these supplements I used to spend hundreds of dollars per month with never any true way to assess their effectiveness. As I said initially, I feel the cause and cure of colitis is 99.99% bacteria. Although it is true that many of the lifestyle factors often attributed to the cause such as diet and stress play their part in altering the bacteria in the colon, making changes to your lifestyle such as healing diets and stress relief techniques are more band aids than an actual cure in my opinion. I realize my opinions on colitis may be different than most on here, but I feel like discussion, even if I am totally wrong, is not necessarily a bad thing. I now look at IBD’s and health from an entirely different perspective. I look at it like ones health basically falls into 2 categories…everything western/eastern medicine knowledge works to correct which is the body and its cells to some extent or another, and the second category being the bacteria in and around our entire self. As far as which category dictates one’s well being more than the other, it is my opinion that these unknown bacteria our medical community still does not know much about is more influential. I feel like the body is designed to heal itself, not be sick, and the only reason many of us with colitis are never able to get better is because we try over and over again to fix the wrong category (our cells) instead of trying to fix the bacteria.