Submitted via IRC for Bytram
Transplanting human donor fecal microbiota into the colon of a patient infected with Clostridiodes difficile (C. diff) may be the best treatment for those not helped by C. diff targeted antibiotics, according to an article in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.
C. diff is the most common healthcare-acquired infection in the United States. It affects nearly half a million patients each year and becomes a recurring infection for nearly a third of them. If untreated, C. diff can lead to sepsis and death.
"Twenty five years ago C. diff infections were easier to manage and often resolved with discontinuation of the initiating antibiotic," says Robert Orenstein, DO, an infectious disease specialist at Mayo Clinic and lead author on this article. "However, these infections have become increasingly common and pernicious."
The standard and FDA-approved treatment for C. diff is a course of oral vancomycin, an antibiotic. However, even the medications used to eliminate C. diff can perpetuate the infection by killing off beneficial microbes. Newer antibiotics that more specifically target C. diff have been developed but they can be prohibitively expensive, according to Dr. Orenstein.
"Think of your gut as a forest and C. diff as a weed," says Dr. Orenstein. "In a thriving forest, weeds barely get a foothold. But if you burn the forest down, the weeds are going to flourish."
Unlike antibiotics, which are destructive by definition, fecal transplants or microbial replacement therapies, repopulate the gut with a diverse group of microbes that may block the C. diff's spore from germinating and propagating disease via its toxins. Transplants have several delivery methods, including enemas, capsules and direct instillation, to replace the diverse flora that maintain health and improve metabolism.
[...] Currently, there are no FDA-approved fecal transplant products and performing fecal transplants is considered an investigational procedure. Dr. Orenstein notes there are several companies with products in Phase 3 clinical trials that could come to market as early as 2020. For this reason he strongly urges healthcare providers to refer patients with recurrent C. diff for these trials rather than for fecal transplants. In the meantime, the FDA reserves fecal transplants for patients who have experienced a second recurrence (third episode) of C. diff infection.
Journal Reference:
Robert Orenstein, Roberto L. Patron, M. Teresa Seville. Why Does Clostridium difficile Infection Recur?The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association, 2019; 119 (5): 322 DOI: 10.7556/jaoa.2019.054
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @02:25AM (9 children)
Like I keep telling all you motherfuckers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @02:36AM (8 children)
Dogs eat the tootsie rolls out of the cats litterbox... so I guess it works.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @03:55AM (1 child)
Thanks, now I'll never eat another Tootsie Roll for as long as I live.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Saturday May 04 2019, @04:11PM
My sincere thanks as well. Tootsie Rolls are highly processed blobs of nearly 100% sugar. It's terribly unhealthy.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @04:16AM (5 children)
Oh god, that reminds me of a friend who described his dog snarfing up all the tootsie rolls.
The dog the promptly barfed up said tootsie rolls on my friend's bed.
To this day, the dog is "The tootsie roll fiend."
Next up cat farts into CPAP with not so hilarious results. True story I'll never fully recover from.
Cat farts are evil incarnate.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday May 03 2019, @04:23AM (1 child)
That dog was smart to learn the lesson after being lucky enough to survive - cocoa is poisonous to dogs and cats [wikipedia.org]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday May 03 2019, @02:47PM
Common household poisons for dogs.
Chocolate. They darker the more toxic it is. Hyper. Jittery. Panting.
Onions. Garlic. Destroys red blood cells. Extremely poisonous to dogs.
There is no evidence garlic kills fleas. So don't feed it. Tons of evidence garlic kills dogs.
Macadamia nuts. Too expensive for dogs. Causes hind end weakness and paralysis.
Grapes. Kidney failure. Raisins inconclusive but best to avoid.
Xylitol. Artificial sweetener. Sugar free gum. Low fat yogurt. Causes extremely low blood sugar. Seizures. Destroys liver. This sweetener is the one item people know about the least.
People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Friday May 03 2019, @05:06AM
Really? I'm laughing already.
(Score: 1) by redneckmother on Friday May 03 2019, @05:24AM
Too Much Fucking Information.
All the while, funnier than Who Shit Where!
Mas cerveza por favor.
(Score: 1) by Goghit on Saturday May 04 2019, @02:33PM
Goddamn! Lauging so hard.
My cats aren't flatulent but I'm still going to look at blockading access to the CPAP machine.