WASHINGTON (AP) - A superbug named C-diff is on the rise, a germ that so ravages some people's intestines that repeated tries of the strongest, most expensive antibiotic can't conquer their disabling diarrhea.

Now a small but growing number of doctors are trying a last-ditch treatment: Using good bacteria to fight off the bad by transplanting stool from a healthy person into the sick person's colon.

Yes, there's a yuck factor. But reports of several dozen cases in a medical journal and at a meeting of the nation's gastroenterologists this fall suggest that with no more inconvenience than a colonoscopy, people who have suffered C-diff for months, or longer, can rapidly improve.

"This is the ultimate probiotic," says Dr. Lawrence Brandt of New York's Montefiore Medical Center, who has performed 17 of the procedures.

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Gallstones wrote:Copraphagia is common, especially among herbivores.
The point isn't that there are nutritional faddists, but that this treatment is effective. No artificial ingredients.

If you read the article you will see that the patients aren't eating it. Although I don't know why the organisms couldn't be cultured and processed into a product that could be eaten--like yogurt.

Ironclad wrote:I will never eat a turd, ever never. Thank you.



Unless she has a pert bottom and makes really cute noises as she squats over my fa...
*sits up quickly, rubs eyes*