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Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: thedoc on 04/02/2015 10:43:11

Title: Would you eat someone else's poo to get healthy?
Post by: thedoc on 04/02/2015 10:43:11

Faecal transplants, or "transpoosions", might be a way to
restore good bacteria to your insides. But will people be able
to stomach this?  
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Title: Re: Would you eat someone else's poo to get healthy?
Post by: CliffordK on 04/02/2015 11:12:42

Part of the repulsion to feces is protection from a broad group of fecal-oral transmitted diseases covering a wide variety of diseases from Cholera to Worms.

If one could eliminate or screen for those diseases, then the bacteria or flora in the feces should be reasonably safe. 

I would, however, anticipate a movement towards lab cultured bacteria rather than raw feces. 

Perhaps one could give a person traveler's diarrhea BEFORE heading off on a trip   [xx(]

Title: Re: Would you eat someone else's poo to get healthy?
Post by: Don_1 on 04/02/2015 11:53:27

Its the very thought of it which is repulsive.

I well remember, as a young lad (yes I was once) half a dozen of us went on a European tour in an old Ford Transit mini bus. In a French village in the Loire region, we piled into a restaurant. Two of us had the regional specialty, two had something else and two had the local speciality, Offal Sausage.

I think it was a miss-spelling, not Offal Sausage, but Awful Sausage. Being something of a Gannet, I'm always willing to give anything a try, but certainly NOT that sausage. When cut open, there was only one way to describe the odour that emanated  from it. I'll ask you to pardon my French (pun intended): Dog sh1t.

Now this may be the human version rather than the canine version, but I still think the idea a tad on the unsavoury side, to put it mildly.

Title: Re: Would you eat someone else's poo to get healthy?
Post by: CliffordK on 04/02/2015 18:29:13

Have you tasted some Durian Fruit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian)?  They actually don't taste too bad, but do have a quite a pungent odor. 

I had thought some of the fecal transplants were being done with an enema or Rectal Suppositories. 

However, many "pills" that a person takes orally have bad flavors, and either are swallowed quickly, or have a sugar coating.

Title: Re: Would you eat someone else's poo to get healthy?
Post by: syhprum on 04/02/2015 19:42:37

It was reported that Hitler's doctors tried faecal transplants to cure his well document digestive problems, I don't know what they told him but they were very brave !