Okay, no puns. No polite, squeamish euphemisms. This is big news.
A team in the Netherlands has shown that fecal transplants are wildly effective in curing intestinal infections. Fecal transplants! That's the taking of a healthy person's stool and putting it into your gut.
The technique was so effective that the trial was actually stopped. Why? It was considered unethical to continue while withholding the wonderfully-effective fecal transplants from the other control groups.
The way it works is that the healthy bacteria in the stool transplant essentially repopulate the flora in the barren ecosystem of the sick person. Though there has been talk of this method for a long time, (occasional papers on it, doctors practicing it here and there), this study represents the first randomized trial comparing transplants to antibiotics. The results were pretty astounding. 43 patients. All of them have a vicious intestinal infection called Clostridium difficile. 17 got the fecal transplants. 13 got an antibiotic (vancomycin). 13 got the antibiotic plus an enema (to deep clean the colon). One of the fecal transplant patients had to drop out for unrelated reasons, and from there, 15 of the 16 were completely cured. Of the folks on antibiotics, only 7 of 26 were cured.
There's been a lot written about this in the last few days, but I found Maryn McKenna's article at WIRED to be the most thorough. She had written about this treatment a year ago and received overwhelming interest from patients -- those suffering from intestinal infections and desperate for a cure -- and almost complete radio silence from doctors. Her read is that the main barrier to the treatment being widely available is reluctance from doctors: "physicians’ own distrust of the procedure, or distaste for it."
It's true, the nuts and bolts of fecal transplant are pretty grody. Since doctors don't know exactly which bits of the healthy stool are necessary for the transplant to fight off the bacterial infection, they have to transplant it basically as-is. Stool is taken from a healthy person (and screened to make sure there are no parasites or infectious organisms). It's put in a blender. It is mixed with salt water. It is then pumped into the gut via enema or nose. Yes, nose -- a tube full of stool is fed in through the nose and down the throat, past the stomach and into the intestines.
The hope is that, over time, it will be possible to isolate the helpful bacteria from the healthy stool, and come up with an easier (and less stomach-churning) way of getting it into patients. But for now the stool needs to stay intact. So, poop in a blender it is.
So, here is my question for you. Couldn't we come up with a better sounding name than "fecal transplant?" A Canadian group came up with the term "RePOOPulate." Cute, but I'm still not feeling it. Couldn't we come up with something more soothing-sounding? Something that would sound reassuringly potent and healthy if you had a painful infection? Something you could brag about to your coworkers on your way to the doctor's office?
Please post your ideas below! And heck, if we get some good ones, I will gladly send them over to the good folks in South Holland who conducted this trial. Onward folks, poop to the people!
To get your brain whirring, remember -- the way this works is that the sick person's intestine gets repopulated with lots of nice healthy flora (bacteria) from the transplant. So maybe something about fertilizer?
Avoid marketing mistakes from times past. Turns out this treatment has been around a long time. A really long time. The Chinese were doing it as far back as the 4th century (according to this New York Times article); they'd give it to people by mouth. But they apparently called it (again, according to the New York Times)... "yellow soup."
Lulu makes radio, pie, and stories in the hills of Charlottesville, VA. She first heard Radiolab when she was working as a woodworker's assistant in Brooklyn. And that changed everything. She thinks it is Miracle Gro for the mind and hopes to be making the stuff till she is blue in the hair. You can read and listen to her stories at LuTimesTwo.com.
Comments [79]
Lulu,
I need help, urgently. I have c. diff., and I need a fecal transplant. The FDA has put a hold on such transplants as done by doctors in the US. I need to know where they are done outside the US, ie, for example, where in the Netherlands? I will fly there if I need to, though it might be easier for me to fly to Canada.
Plz help if you can; you might be helping others as well. Thanks, Margar
does lulu miller have her own show i thought i heard mention of such an endeavor.
I'm already starting to fill test tubes with my crap. I fill them very carefully then cork the little suckers, and comes with a bulb syringe for $19.95. It comes with an aerosol air freshener to be used prior and during the procedure, along with nose plugs and is delivered in a plain brown paper wrapper coated with lip balm.
Is there a homeopathic version?
Floratine.
I see a lot of older patients from nursing home are infected with C-diff, and never heard about stool transplant. This treatment provides a better outcome and seems more cost effective than to give more antibiotics like Flagyl and Vanco to patients. Hope to see this as a treatment option in the hospital soon.
ReColonizing
This is the one I would vote for. Before reading this article, I was unaware of this. Blenderizing with, let say caramel syrup, would be a mighty taste and healthy treat.
Fecal Recall
Duty Calls!
Poo--Take Two
Italian Style-- I Adora flora no mora!
Stories from The Dirt Road
stem stool therapy
loop the poop
bon appetit
back to the throne
He's got his head up his ass
stool therapy
(Gastrointestinal) Microbial Transplant...
..is a decent euphemism for all the fecalphobes.
poop water
helpful link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQoJo81lujk
Coprophagous therapy
BBR-Butt to Butt Resuscitation ;)
I am a board certified equine veterinarian living in Bend, Oregon and was a staff veterinarian at Oregon State University College of Veterinary Medicine from 1983 - 1994. My medicine mentor introduced me to fecal transfaunation then and have been using the technique in Cattle, Sheep, llamas, alpacas, and horses for many many years. This is an excellent treatment technique for gut floral imbalance. My suggestion for some commenting is get over the thinking that the treatment is gross. Focus on what works.
))<>((
I think that the key to making this treatment for appealing is to get away from any term relating to feces. Instead the name should focus on the bacteria that are being replaced. For example:
Enteric Bacteria Recolonization
Enteric Bacteria Replacement Therapy
scatoimplantation
For naming the procedure, I suggest:
Cross-Fecalization
ReColonizing
Deuce doping
All of these suggestions are perfectly crapulent.
Interflora? Oh, wait...
~Fecalkegel
~Scatshare
~Pooplining
~Turdsplant
~Mudwifery
My sister-in-law in PA suffered from c-dif as a complication of chronic illness. Because she had already been on a heavy course of antibiotics for other health issues, they did nothing for the acute diarrhea that the c-dif caused. She did her own research and found out about fecal transplant having saved another woman's life. She drove to an out of state facility that would not only actually perform the procedure, but show her how to do it at home, should subsequent transplants be needed to completely resolve her bacterial imbalance. She only needed one more treatment at home after the one she received at the facility in order to re-balance her intestinal flora. One side note: a blender was not used in this process (as it was described in Lulu's article). Also, her brother, the donor, followed a regimen of his own in preparation, part of which was supplementing with probiotics. It's frustrating to me that this type of intervention isn't more widely used, and that sick patients have to go out of their way for treatment; as with other natural/homeopathic remedies, fecal transplant can't be patented or sold. If a hospital or pharma company can't make money off of it, they're less likely to use it. Even in life-threatening situations such as this.
flora auctus
flora + latin growth
tbh anything with flora I think is a good starting point. Already a nice sounding and currently used euphamism for intestinal bacteria.
Lateral promotion
Bastardizing a word that Jad enjoyed earlier.
Refenestration.
Great suggestions all! You might be interested to know that a friend from India, an R&D manager here in California, regularly consumes small amounts of cow feces as preventative and cure, especially when traveling. He says it's a common practice in India.
I can see the ads now... A handsome, slightly greying man and his gorgeous, slightly younger wife each swallow a small brown pill, turn to the camera, and proclaim, in unison, "That's some great sh@%!" Subsequently, a deep, concerned, disembodied voice from afar informs us that we should not take any sh@% if we are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant.
How about "The Shitaqua Treatment." Like the Chautauqua Institute. Hey, after all, it is poop and (salt)water.
Fecalifloranation?
Thierapooinyou?
Loadincolon Treatment?
Taking Love Potion Number Two?
Getting a re-doo-doo?
Pooinya Procedure?
Pooreception?
Externacrapulation?
Poolisec OTC?
Getting a dump tuck?
Latrinal infusion?
Restooling?
Turds with Friends
STiA (Shit, this is amazing!)
Flora Assistance/Replacement Therapy = F.A.R.T.
Humanure Hand-me-down
Chocolate custard pie, special recipie from The Help.
Refloralization
Trectal Ransfusion.
Retrograde Feco-phagia.
Brownsfusion
Re-use Re-cycle Re-Deuce
My daughter suggested Pooh-Pooh-ectomy.
I think the 'biota smoothie' gets my vote
Beneficial Bacterial Repopulation, or BBR
I call it a nightmare for BIg Pharma because they can't mass produce it and call it "FloSlo" or "C-difference maker". I call it a wakeup call for the doctors whom have forgotten that organic medicine has a place within modern medicine. For everyone else, think of it as a better way to view your stool. One day you could save a life by dropping the deuce.
Return to the Hershy Highway "Re-visited"
how about Re-Blast from the Past
or fortified smoothie
Dregulation Therapy
in-stool-ation
de-poo-sit
re-crap
Life Loaf or diareplant.
Floralizer maybe? "I was was Floralized last week, I feel awesome!"
Florafabbed
Bioflora Smoothie " I had a Flora Smoothie, wow to I feel revitalized"
Maybe instead it's time to get more comfortable healthy bodily functions including feces?
As others have said, call it whatever you like so long as it helps!
I've done a fecal transplant on myself, and after years of using a composting toilet (check out the Humanure Handbook for that) I'm pretty comfortable thinking about this essential part of my bodily functions. I'm much less likely to think of it as gross than I was in the past. Though the idea of a tube through a nose does make me a bit squeamish, I guess I have a ways to go still!
transpoosion
transhitzu
recrapture
shareshitting
refecesiture
TransPOOsion
How about "Beneffluence?"
It sort of rolls off my tongue, except that would be gross!
I also liked the beneflora shift above!
in-scat
Pro-biotic transfusion.
Flora delivery.
Down with O.P.P. (other people's poo)
How about "Mi caca es su caca"?
Cross-poopination.
This procedure just saved my Grandma's life! NIH was at a loss on how to help stop the cycle of dehydration from C.Diff and antibiotic overload. At 87 years old there was no reason for her to come this far and die from diarrhea! Thankfully this "experimental" procedure was approved to be done on her, and now she will enjoy her 88th birthday next month. I don't really care what you call it. This is a simple idea, albeit gross concept, that saves lives. Thank you RadioLab for giving this procedure some publicity!
Microbial Booster
I don't know, I'm pretty sold on "RePOOPulate"
Poo it forward.
Intestinal microbiome replacement
NewPoo
Bacterial Inheritance
Apparently, in portuguese and spanish it's also called "bacterial therapy". I think that sounds ok, medical but still harmless enough.
i suggest getting away from words we are familiar with. Hence "Ordural Transfer" based on the seldom-used "ordure."
Flora Infusion -- sounds ready for Rodeo Drive.
I propose a merry game of Musical Stools.
My grandmother just fell and broke her hip Christmas night. She should have been in rehab by New Years but got C diff colitis in the hospital. Twenty days and a ton of vancomycin later, she can finally start rehab. Call it whatever you want-if the could have cured her with poop, it would have saved my family so much stress and my grandmother would probably be healthier!
How about a Large Intestine Flora Transplant (LIFT)? It would sound so normal... "I got a LIFT and it saved my life!"
Infeculate
Floral Arrangement?
I'm starting to feel really bad for stopping my dog from eating poop. Poor guy probably knew something I didn't. Poobiotics -- it does a body good.
Fascinating story. Naming suggestions:
Repotting soil.
ICBM (intra-commununal bowel movement)
and just for grins but not exactly on-the-mark: Dropping somebody else's kids off at the pool.
Surely something like "biotic transfusion" or "flora rebalancing" would be innocuous enough. But I'm sure some would be unable to resist the "Dutch chocolate shake" pun.
How about Beneflora shift?
It was called a transpoosion on a Freakonomics episode.
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