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While many people are aware of the behavioural symptoms associated with autism, probably not so many realize that autistics often also have gastrointestinal problems. With that in mind, scientists at the University of Arizona recently conducted a study in which a group of 18 autistic children received fecal transplants from donors with healthy gastrointestinal systems. Not only did the procedure help to "rebalance" their gut flora, but it also improved their behaviour.
First of all, a fecal transplant is just what it sounds like. Feces from one person are screened for disease-causing organisms, and then introduced into the recipient's digestive tract. In this case, the recipients first took antibiotics for two weeks, to wipe out their existing gut flora. They then received the fecal transplant initially in a high-dose liquid form, after which it was delivered in a lower-dose powder mixed into smoothies.
Of all the possible ways I could imagine to treat autism, that was not one of them...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 25 2017, @11:00PM
Others have been postulating that gut biome may have a non-casual relationship with depression, etc.
Got a sweet tooth? Could be your gut biome pumps out neuroregulatory compounds that help compel you to eat more sweets...
There's at least one case report that was publicized of a person who had C. dificile, and then got a fecal transplant. Before the procedure, he was normal weight. After the procedure, while the C. dificile did get knocked out, within like 3 months he'd put on quite a bit of weight. They looked back and the fecal donor, and that person was rather obese to begin with...
[sorry for "he". I remember the story being about a woman who got the treatment, but I am most likely recalling it badly]
scientists doing research in this can reproduce the above in their animal models (knock out biome in "normal" mice, fecal transplant from obese mice, and the treated mice get obese), and I believe they've also done it in reverse.