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Using Gut Bacteria to Fight Diarrhea
ScienceNOW ^ | 25 October 2012 | Elizabeth Pennisi

Posted on 10/26/2012 8:19:15 PM PDT by neverdem

Enlarge Image
sn-clostridium.jpg
Microbial menace. A cocktail of gut bacteria may one day be used to treat the chronic diarrhea caused by this bacterium.
Credit: David Goulding Genome Research Limited

A tonic of gut microbes may be the secret recipe for treating a common hospital scourge. Researchers have pinpointed the exact mix of microbes required to cure mice of a chronic infection by a hard-to-treat bacterium that causes bloating, pain, and diarrhea in people. A similar bacterial cocktail may one day be able to replace a controversial treatment involving the intake of fecal matter to restore the right balance of microbes in the gut.

Clostridium difficile is a menace in hospitals and nursing homes, causing nearly 336,000 infections and 14,000 deaths a year in the United States. Antibiotics can temporarily knock down the bacterium, but about 25% of infected people relapse, often multiple times, because the germ produces spores that hand sanitizers and hand washing don't kill. Antibiotics can also backfire because they kill the gut's normal microbial community, clearing the way for C. difficile to resettle.

In desperation, some physicians turned to an unpalatable resource: successfully treating patients by inserting a tube into their stomachs containing ground-up, filtered fecal material from a healthy person that contains a dose of beneficial microbes. But this treatment is controversial—and in some places, illegal—because of the risk of introducing other pathogens.

Searching for alternatives, microbiologist Trevor Lawley of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, U.K., and his colleagues examined Clostridium infection in mice. Lawley and his colleagues first demonstrated that the germ's spores do lead to recurrences of the infection after antibiotic treatment and that fecal therapy cures the problem. They then cultured the fecal material used to cure the mice, isolating 18 types of bacteria. Finally, they began to mix and match, infecting mice with different combinations of the bacteria. Of the various combinations tried, only one, a mix of six very different kinds of bacteria, cured the mice, they report online today in PLoS Pathogens.

"It is an excellent, ground-breaking paper," says Brendan Wren, a microbiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine who was not involved with the mouse study. He is now working with Trawley to determine if they can find an appropriate bacterial cocktail that will cure humans. If they succeed, Wren says, someday "a simple suppository of the bacteria could prevent C. difficile reinfection and obviate the need for antibiotics, which may exacerbate the problem."

*Correction, 5:20 p.m.: Some physicians have been successfully treating patients for C. difficile with ground-up, filtered fecal material inserted into the stomach with a tube, not via an enema.



TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS: cdiff; diarrhea; microbiology

1 posted on 10/26/2012 8:19:24 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

Do they know this works for sure or is it their gut instinct?


2 posted on 10/26/2012 8:29:02 PM PDT by BipolarBob (Willie Stark for president.)
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To: Mother Abigail; EBH; vetvetdoug; Smokin' Joe; Global2010; Battle Axe; null and void; ...
The role of the gut microbiota in nutrition and health

FReepmail me if you want on or off my combined microbiology/immunology ping list.

3 posted on 10/26/2012 8:32:22 PM PDT by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
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To: neverdem

Wouldn’t it make more sense to put the dose in an enteric-coating capsule rather than putting a tube down the poor suffering patient? And a capsule to swallow rather than a suppository, because it will all end up downstream fairly rapidly in the natural course of things, but colonizing 30 feet of intestine upward will take longer...


4 posted on 10/26/2012 8:37:36 PM PDT by heartwood
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To: neverdem
the intake of fecal matter to restore the right balance of microbes in the gut.

Eat sh_t and DON'T die ...

5 posted on 10/26/2012 8:37:54 PM PDT by IronJack (=)
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To: IronJack

How about pro- and or pre-biotics?

This is basic nutrition FGS.


6 posted on 10/26/2012 9:07:28 PM PDT by acapesket
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To: acapesket
How about pro- and or pre-biotics?

This is basic nutrition FGS.

A lot of patients won't be getting any, e.g. some surgery patients, trauma victims, etc. Some patients can only get intravenous drugs including antibiotics and fluids.

7 posted on 10/26/2012 10:02:45 PM PDT by neverdem ( Xin loi min oi)
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To: neverdem

I realize that, but it should be part of your basic nutrition EVERY DAY.

That’s why we are in a medical Mess !!!

The FDA lies to the CDC (purely political)
The CDC lies to your Dr. regarding drugs and Real fool nutrition

He/she ends up lying to you as a “Professional” .

Science has become a political football.. most of it is crap..

Antibiotics are also a game toss!

Take control of your own health and your food supplies, i.e. non gmo, non pesticide sprayed etc.

The CDC admitted in in 2003 that yes indeedy there are mercury, thimerasol and other horrib;e components in vaccines.

See thehealthranger.com


8 posted on 10/26/2012 10:45:36 PM PDT by acapesket
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To: neverdem

I realize that, but it should be part of your basic nutrition EVERY DAY.

That’s why we are in a medical Mess !!!

The FDA lies to the CDC (purely political)
The CDC lies to your Dr. regarding drugs and Real fool nutrition

He/she ends up lying to you as a “Professional” .

Science has become a political football.. most of it is crap..

Antibiotics are also a game toss!

Take control of your own health and your food supplies, i.e. non gmo, non pesticide sprayed etc.

The CDC admitted in in 2003 that yes indeedy there are mercury, thimerasol and other horrible components in vaccines.

See thehealthranger.com


9 posted on 10/26/2012 10:45:58 PM PDT by acapesket
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To: IronJack

Take that fecal matter and shove it right up your rectum.

(I never thought I’d see the day that a common vulgar phrase would become a doctor’s prescription)


10 posted on 10/26/2012 11:07:48 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 ( If you think I'm crazy, just wait until you talk to my invisible friend.)
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To: BipolarBob

LOL.

Some kind of enteric coated capsule would be the way to administer this, I think. The problem with natural repopulation of gut flora, which initially occurs in early infancy, is stomach acid. There’s no easy way of getting it back into the gut.

Once there is a ready way of doing this, maybe more people than we would think would benefit from a gut flora adjustment.


11 posted on 10/26/2012 11:54:01 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (cat dog, cat dog, alone in the world is a little cat dog)
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To: IronJack

eat sh*t and LIVE!


12 posted on 10/26/2012 11:54:38 PM PDT by HiTech RedNeck (cat dog, cat dog, alone in the world is a little cat dog)
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To: acapesket
"I realize that, but it should be part of your basic nutrition EVERY DAY."

"Antibiotics are also a game toss!"

Anybody that takes antibiotics should also take "flora" capsules...NOT yogurt.

For years, I had BAD, BAD allergies, with multiple sinus infections (to the point of requiring surgical intervention and "removal" of one sinus cavity). At no point did any physician recommend "flora" along with all the antibiotic they prescribed.

As a result, I developed a severe infestation of Candida Albicans, to the point of loss of bowel control, "leaky gut" allergies, symptoms similar to "chronic fatigue syndrome" and the whole nine yards. This developed slowly over a period of years, and was a major factor in my losing a job I loved.

FINALLY, I found a physician who admitted that the "CA syndrome" actually existed (she more or less specialized in treating it in folks who other doctors had given up on and referred to her), got onto DiFlucan and "flora". It took about a year of DiFlucan treatment to beat things down, and several more years to reach "full recovery".

"Flora" capsules are still a part of my daily regimen. Get caps that have a many different species as you can find, and take them regularly.

I still have the allergies (though much less after a geographic relocation), and pretty much live on Benadryl (2X, every four hours, 24/7). I also take 2X flora capsules on the same schedule. And my "bowel activity" is now very normal. Thank God for that.

13 posted on 10/27/2012 5:02:24 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: Wonder Warthog

Benadryl aggravates prostate problems in older men.


14 posted on 10/27/2012 5:22:55 AM PDT by csmusaret (I will give Obama credit for one thing- he is living proof that familiarity breeds contempt.)
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To: csmusaret
"Benadryl aggravates prostate problems in older men."

I'm one of the lucky few that have a good tolerance for it. It has no discernible sedative or prostrate impact for me after many years of use (and yes, I "am" an "older men"...;^) ). And unlike MANY other antihistamines I have taken, it never seems to "lose its effectiveness" with long-term dosage.

15 posted on 10/27/2012 6:31:28 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: Wonder Warthog

These combos are also effective against yeast overgrowth in the gut and urinary tract:

http://www.swansonvitamins.com/now-foods-candida-clear-formula-90-vcaps

http://www.swansonvitamins.com/swanson-condition-specific-formulas-yeast-defense-essentials-120-caps


16 posted on 10/27/2012 7:10:15 AM PDT by csmusaret (I will give Obama credit for one thing- he is living proof that familiarity breeds contempt.)
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To: csmusaret

The best solution I’ve ever used for diarrhea is shredded coconut. Works wonders.


17 posted on 10/27/2012 8:10:42 AM PDT by aimhigh
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To: csmusaret
We do use the "NOW" brand neutriceuticals (recommended by the Dr. that treated me), but typically use the non-blended "ingredients" for more flexible dosing.

Diflucan did the trick for me, but my wife (who had/has much worse GI problems (with more than simply Candida...though that was part of it)) has used pretty much all the agents listed as components in the items at your links.

She found that the black walnut did the most for her non-Candida "evil biota" (whatever it was).

18 posted on 10/27/2012 11:21:49 AM PDT by Wonder Warthog
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To: Wonder Warthog

black walnut, cats claw and wormwood are very helpful to folks in the Lyme’s community, but the probiotics are essential to everyone’s health.
Testing for Lyme is intentionally misleading, intentionally .
The CDC doesn’t want us to know what an epidemic it is, neither did the Dr.s that decided the ISDLA quantifiers.
They all had a substantial stake in Lymeatrix and other treatments for actual lymes diseaese. Lymeatrix ended up killing people!

Lyme is the biggest medical fraud perpetrated on this country in a hundred years. It’s sickening.!


19 posted on 10/27/2012 6:04:28 PM PDT by acapesket
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To: neverdem

I prefer apple cider vinegar. 2 Tablespoons mixed with some water.


20 posted on 10/27/2012 10:50:07 PM PDT by B4Ranch (Stand Up and Be Counted ... Or Line Up and Be Numbered ...)
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