Interesting topic. There is such a procedure as a “fecal transplant” wherein fecal matter is taken from one person and put into another. To me this seems extreme and a little disgusting, but for people with severe illnesses (typically autoimmune or gut-related, as far as I know), sometimes drastic measures are worth trying. I have no idea if there is any material about this in the scientific literature, but at least to me, given what we are learning about the effects of the body’s microbiota, it seems plausible. Who knows, maybe in X years geniuses will be auctioning off fecal transplants to those who want some of their brainpower.
From what I have seen, the effects of less extreme measures like eating Yogurt or taking pro-biotic supplements are quite modest.
Edit:
Found a post that discusses some of the findings in the medical literature related to fecal transplants. No links, unfortunately:
Apparently there is actually quite a bit of material on this in the medical literature. It dates back to 1958 and has been used in racehorses for years. Wired article: Fecal transplants work and Wikipedia page.
I’ve heard anecdotes about the effectiveness of hookworm infection for people with severe auto-immune issues. The only RCT data I’ve seen is from some brave Canadians on patients with asthma. I’ll mention the study limitations before mentioning the results so that we can decide in advance how big an update to make. 1) the patients received 10 hookworm larvae under a bandage on their arm, not a fecal transplant, but this had been sufficient to establish infection in previous volunteers 2) there were 16 participants in each arm which “powered” the study to detect a 2x change. Results:
Mean PD20AMP improved in the hookworm group by 1.49 (SD 2.00) DD and in the placebo group by 0.98 (4.02) DD, but the mean difference between these changes was not statistically significant [0.51 DD; 95% confidence interval (CI) −1.79 to 2.80; P=0.65, Table 3].
EDIT: Post facto we see that their power calculation was to detect a shift of 1 in PD20AMP with 80% power with the assumption that the standard deviation of this measurement is 1, but actually the standard deviation observed in the pool is about 3.2 (32 patients, 30 degrees of freedom). This suggests the study was underpowered to detect a shift of 1. E.g. the sample size needed to have 80% power to detect a shift of 1 if the population s.d. is 3.2 is 161 patients per arm. (calculated using: “power.t.test(delta=1,sd=3.2,power=0.8)” in R).
[From a Bayesian point of view, the results of the study data themselves are weak supporting evidence (the observed shift was favorable after all). But now I know I’m at risk of cheating mentally, because I was going to update based on the study findings.]
Interesting topic. There is such a procedure as a “fecal transplant” wherein fecal matter is taken from one person and put into another. To me this seems extreme and a little disgusting, but for people with severe illnesses (typically autoimmune or gut-related, as far as I know), sometimes drastic measures are worth trying. I have no idea if there is any material about this in the scientific literature, but at least to me, given what we are learning about the effects of the body’s microbiota, it seems plausible. Who knows, maybe in X years geniuses will be auctioning off fecal transplants to those who want some of their brainpower.
From what I have seen, the effects of less extreme measures like eating Yogurt or taking pro-biotic supplements are quite modest.
Edit:
Found a post that discusses some of the findings in the medical literature related to fecal transplants. No links, unfortunately:
Fecal Transplants
Edit:
Apparently there is actually quite a bit of material on this in the medical literature. It dates back to 1958 and has been used in racehorses for years. Wired article: Fecal transplants work and Wikipedia page.
Ultrasocial naked mole rats) eat each other’s poop. Coprophagia it’s called.
I’ve heard anecdotes about the effectiveness of hookworm infection for people with severe auto-immune issues. The only RCT data I’ve seen is from some brave Canadians on patients with asthma. I’ll mention the study limitations before mentioning the results so that we can decide in advance how big an update to make. 1) the patients received 10 hookworm larvae under a bandage on their arm, not a fecal transplant, but this had been sufficient to establish infection in previous volunteers 2) there were 16 participants in each arm which “powered” the study to detect a 2x change. Results:
EDIT: Post facto we see that their power calculation was to detect a shift of 1 in PD20AMP with 80% power with the assumption that the standard deviation of this measurement is 1, but actually the standard deviation observed in the pool is about 3.2 (32 patients, 30 degrees of freedom). This suggests the study was underpowered to detect a shift of 1. E.g. the sample size needed to have 80% power to detect a shift of 1 if the population s.d. is 3.2 is 161 patients per arm. (calculated using: “power.t.test(delta=1,sd=3.2,power=0.8)” in R).
[From a Bayesian point of view, the results of the study data themselves are weak supporting evidence (the observed shift was favorable after all). But now I know I’m at risk of cheating mentally, because I was going to update based on the study findings.]