You should save your poop when you’re young. You might want it when you’re older.
In a new opinion article, scientists suggest that freezing your stool at a young age and using it as transplant fecal matter could help to restore your microbial community. This process could help treat some diseases like asthma, colorectal cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes and Clostridioides difficile infection. C. difficile, or C. diff, kills 29,000 people in the U.S. each year.
With the advent of antibiotics, processed foods and highly sanitized environments, our gut has undergone massive changes since the industrial age. Researchers are suggesting to “rewild” our microbiome, meaning to restore it to its pre-industrial state. To send your microbiome back in time, physicians can transplant stool collected from nonindustrial hunter-gatherer societies either using a colonoscope, a nasal tube or a “poop pill.”
However, the pool of potential donors for rewilding is limited, and ...
