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Showing posts from March, 2019

Poop wars and the commercialization of fecal transplant

The New York Times is interested in fecal transplant. This is the euphemistic term for taking feces, poop, crap, sh*t, bowel contents from one person and putting it into another person. There are various procedures for doing this, from drying it and putting it into capsules to making it liquid and introducing it by enema, nasogastric tube or colonoscopy. It is a remarkably effective treatment for a wide range of illnesses which appear to be related to an unhealthy gut biome (bacterial community.) Politics: The New York Times has published several articles about it in the last few years including a recent one in which they introduce the politics of fecal transplant (also "fecal microbiota transplantation" or FMT). Apparently several companies have been working on ways to monetize human excrement for medical use. At the same time, doctors have been using do it yourself concoctions and a non-profit in Cambridge Massachusetts has been packaging a fully screened selected-don...