After years of battling irritable bowel syndrome, Daniel Koepke shares his experience with a fecal microbiota transplant, or DIY poop transplant.
In a new documentary on Netflix Hacking your health: the secrets of your gut, Koepke said she began experiencing indigestion, stinging pain from trapped gas and severe constipation during college.
“It's really hard to remember what it was like to eat food before it started causing anxiety and pain and discomfort,” Koepke, a clinical psychology doctoral student, said in the film. Ta.
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After five years of seeing doctors and antibiotics without success, Koepke turned to fecal microbiota transplants. According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, the procedure involves collecting feces, also called stool or feces, from a healthy donor and introducing it into the gastrointestinal tract of a sick patient.
Transferring fecal bacteria and other microorganisms from a healthy person to a sick person can help restore the bacterial balance in the gut.
“There's really compelling evidence for fecal microbiome transplantation, but the science is still developing. Whether it actually benefits more people and whether those benefits last for a long time. , we're still learning,” says microbial ecologist Jack Gilbert. The University of California, San Diego said in the documentary:
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Koepke initially rejected the proposal, but felt he had exhausted all other options and proceeded with the process. At first, she ingested the fecal transplant drug from stool provided by her brother.
According to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, potential donors should not have been exposed to antibiotics in the past six months. They must not have a weakened immune system or be at risk of infection, and must not have chronic gastrointestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel disease.
After starting the treatment, Koepke gained weight and suffered from hormonal acne like her brother.Gilbert informed me later. business insider This means that the bacteria present in the patient's stool can affect the recipient's body.
Koepke then chose to change donors and used a flight from her boyfriend. But soon after, she experienced depression similar to her boyfriend's. Reflecting on this, she said: “As time went on, she realized that her depression was worse than it had ever been in her life.”
Koepke then began using her brother's stool, and said in the documentary that her depression subsided within a week.