Treatment Options & New Research - What's New??

As someone fighting the battle of UC, I'm always hesitant to cut my colon out (unless absolutely immobile) due to the hope that new research will lead to a great breakthrough soon. What is the future looking like right now?

Thanks!

My friend with Chron's sent me a link about synthetic poop being developed to help with certain things. I haven't looked at it yet, but saw a similar thread on here lately.

I'm interested in the research into the bacterial make-up of the colon, and how different bacteria have different effects. There is a lot of promise in that I think.

I'm also interested in LDN. I know it's not new, but I've seen on here that a biotech company bought the rights (or something along those lines) from the Penn State researchers. I feel less like the disease is autoimmune, and more like it is caused by a mis-firing immune system (as opposed to continuously firing immune system). I get sick pretty easy a lot of times, and can't see why this would be if my immune system was so great (referring to pre-Remicade time, as I know I am immune suppressed presently).

Fecal Transplant does look to be a great option for some. Just like everything, it works great for some, and is just a load of **** for others. Pun intended, lol.

The disease reminds me more of a headache, in a metaphorical sense. A headache has many different causes, but the symptoms are often the same. UC is very similar in that the results are blood, urgency, inflammation... but what leads one person to that flare is very different than another person.

I'm open to trying it! I just have been in an either/or position. When I was really sick I needed proven medical intervention that would help immediately. Now I'm in remission technically, so I'm savoring it at the moment. My doctor has told me he would do FT for me if I run out of options and am facing surgery.

There's a member, subdued I think (?) that really thinks that these homemade transplants work great for her. I'll put all my options on paper and discuss them with my GI doctor next week!

Did you get it done at Borody's clinic?

I can see FT being beneficial if your problem is just a bacterial imbalance but most cases are autoimmune and if it is truly autoimmune I don't see FT being much of a help long term. It might be of help short term. Thoreau, many doctors and others don't go into detail about autoimmunity and often times just call it an overactive immune problem but the truth of autoimmunity is just as you described - a misfiring of the immune system. It is when the immune system starts attacking something in the body that it isn't supposed to be attacking in the first place. In UC figuring out what our immune system's are attacking and figuring out a way to fix it is what they can't figure out. Your immune system may have started attacking a good bacteria in your colon, causing the bacterial imbalance. If that is the case a FT won't help because if you repopulate your colon with a good bacteria that your immune system targets and kills you will be back to square one all over again once the bacterial imbalance is off again. More than likely every person with autoimmune UC has a different thing their body's immune systems are attacking. There are literally thousands of different kinds of good bacteria and my body might be attacking one kind while yours is attacking another. It may also be attacking something else other than a good bacteria. This could be one explanation why different probiotics seem to work in different UC cases.