In my time as a health writer I’ve written about some weird and often wonderful things. A medicinal fungus which grows on sleeping caterpillars, a specialist wine which fights disease and even the occasional bizarre weight loss methodology. This is perhaps the strangest and least appetising thing I’ve ever had to write about. Healing potential aside, you have to wonder how doctors or health researchers think up this kind of thing. I’m talking about faecal transplants which are exactly what they sound like.
The procedure involves the transplants of faecal matter from one individual to another. Strange as it may seem, this procedure actually does have a medicinal purpose. We each have a unique set of bacteria, good and bad, in our digestive system. Those bacteria will be more powerful at fighting off certain things in certain people. This rationale led scientists to the use of a faecal transplant for the treatment of C. dificile colitis, a serious infection of the colon. In a study, 16 people were given faecal transplants and 13 of those people showed a marked improvement. Only one-third showed any improvement when more traditional antibiotics were used, which shows that despite its strange nature the treatment clearly does have some medicinal value.
One of the best things about medicine is its ability to innovate. Most treatments are put to the test against more than their initial diseases and as technology evolves so do our treatment techniques. The things which seem so mundane and simple today would astound and amaze our ancestors. This evolution is necessary as we face bigger and nastier diseases. True innovation is totally necessary as we enter an age where the antibiotics may simply stop working as well as they once did.
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