patrick.net

It makes sense.

I saw this on reddit about a month ago.

Maybe easier to just take your probiotics regularly and keep healthy intestinal flora.

As someone who has had some intestinal issues, especially a few decades ago, it has been fascinating to watch what was accepted in the alternative health care community decades ago, pick up steam (FINALLY) in the established medical world.

That is, that probiotics really work.

There is a huge population of good bacteria in your intestines, and if it's out of whack, it can lead to all kinds of problems.

For those of us with chronic problems, understanding the value of probiotics has been a godsend. I have taken them regularly for decades. Yogurt is great too, but is primarily only acidophilus. The bifuda strains are the ones for your colon.

marcus says

For those of us with chronic problems...

Wow it's tempting to list yours, but I shall refrain.

Zlxr says

Something someone could try....

You should try suggesting your experiments to a high school science teacher, they might be developed into very interesting additions to the curriculum. A related experiment regarding anti-fungal products would compare Dollar Store clotrimazole to brand name products costing 10x more, and prescription products costing many times more than that. Everybody gets yeast infections, and clotrimazole is equally effective regardless of cost. It's silly to wait for an Rx and spend hundreds of dollars (the Obamacare model) when $1 will solve the problem faster and more easily. Of course, much depends on preventing teenagers from figuring that out, or at least postponing it as long as possible; they must be lured by advertising and hooked by their own government into overpaying for the most expensive products, in order to maximize revenue for the patronage networks of their dear leaders. That's the bottom line really: these cheap things might literally be crap, but the expensive stuff is often worse than that.

I got my grandson to take probiotics when he was about 13 or 14.

As you know - boys/men have a lifelong love affair with farts - but not at school in front of girls. After he found out it worked he started asking me for them. But you definitely need the probiotics that have lots more than just lacto bacillus. The kind I use comes individually wrapped and doesn't require refrigeration. It would also help if you learn to make your own Sauerkraut and stuff like that. Check out the book "Wild Fermentation".

You need to take enzymes and check to see if you actually have enough stomach acid if you have major gut problems - but when it comes to taking stomach acid the only one I liked was HCL + 2. I haven't been taking it for awhile, though, since I seem to be much better now. And be really careful with what you eat.

A couple good colonics can do wonders as well. And even during colonoscopies the doctors can miss parasites because they hide between the placque and the colon lining.

Curious2 is right about the DE (Diatomaceous Earth - food grade). Just mix it with juice or water. It's not gross. You can also use Clarkia Extra Strong. Just know that according to most of what I have read that parasites are most active at a full moon so the best time to treat is definitely the 3 days before and after the full moon. But many treatments can continue much longer. I also understand that the DE can clean your colon out and help remove heavy metals but I'm not positive that it actually does.

However, it's also true that if you start treating for parasites that they will start to move up and away from the gut region. At this point in time I am not aware of any treatments for outside of the gut - except for the Salt +Vitamin C regimen.

Also - Curious2 - does DE work on Giardia? I don't think stool samples always show it and I know of someone who went to a parisitologist and the doctor took a scraping from the colon lining instead of a stool sample. All our water ways are polluted with it - but they hardly ever test people for it.

Also - another reason to be aware of parasites - is because if they aren't in your gut and you take pharmaceutical meds and a ton of them die and your body can't handle that much dead stuff - you could die. At least that's the gist of what I got when I was reading a veterinarian article. So the best remedy is to kill them slowly or basically keep the load down by using the safest means like DE which you can take daily and don't allow them to grow to the point where it's lethal in the first place.

And for those of you who think you have never ever eaten a parasite. If you have ever eaten a strawberry or a raw mushroom you have. They're on the list of foods for cancer patients to avoid for that very reason.

Also, unfortunately, even if you are seriously ill - doctors rarely check for parasites and/or the labs don't recognize parasite eggs. I've read of cases where a patient is deathly ill and the doctors finally decide to check their sputum for parasites (and it came back positive) but that was 2 weeks before the patient died.

How come they can't understand that we are more likely to get parasites than all other things combined and it's the last thing they check for?

The original treatment for women's yeast infections was to douche with yogurt.

If that worked before meds were invented - then it should still work - that or a good lacto bacillus probiotic.

I meant acidophilus.

Zlxr says

Curious2 - does DE work on Giardia?

I doubt it. The usual mechanism of action is, the spiky diatoms poke lethal holes in insect exoskeletons and the thin tissues of worms. It can also work as a desiccant in some environments that aren't too wet, but mammal intestines are much too wet for that. Gardia protozoans are so tiny that they would probably not be affected, unless metabolized silica might affect them. I haven't seen any studies and can't advise specifically, but if I had to bet I'd say no.

Zlxr says

How come [doctors] can't understand that we are more likely to get parasites than all other things combined and it's the last thing they check for?

Easy question. Doctors are trained by a revenue maximizing system to check for the most expensive and urgent things first. The results are often ambiguous, so they proceed based on the availability heuristic, i.e. they "recognize" the most easily recalled memory and they often don't have time to work through the many differential diagnoses. They "recognize" what they have seen before, usually what they have been taught, whether it's there or not. Because they start with the most expensive and most urgent, they tend not to work their way down to differential diagnoses that can be solved cheaply. PhRMA has co-opted doctors into salesmen. You wouldn't expect a Realtor(tm) to tell you that you would be better off with a cheaper house or apartment; they are trained to sell you the product with the highest commission - especially when the cost can be shifted onto others via insurance and subsidies. Patients are also to blame: they see a pill advertised on TV, and then lie to their doctor to get a prescription; if you go into a Ford dealership asking for a Ford, the "successful" salesman will oblige without arguing, even if you might have been better off with a Buick or a bicycle.

Zlxr says

I meant acidophilus.

You can fix the typo by editing the post, just friendly advice.

Info regarding yeast infections and what the meds do to your body.
It still bears testing and also testing to see which kinds of yeast.
I think this is the one about Cream of Tartar killing yeast infections.

http://www.totalityofbeing.com/FramelessPages/Articles/YeastInfections.htm

Potential remedies for yeast infections - but they bear testing

http://www.healthcareveda.com/post/Home-Remedies-For-A-Vaginal-Yeast-Infection.aspx

Potential remedies using 20 Mule Team Borax

Works on athletes foot, might help with curing baldness, etc. etc.

http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/borax.html#AF

http://www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/borax.html#BORAXBACKGROUND

Info regarding using garlic for a cure - this is one of my favorite OTC antibiotics

Should test the liquid Allimed and see how well it does on athletes foot

http://www.allimax.us/products.php

MMS - another cure for anaerobic bacteria - the cheapest “antibiotic” - actually all it does I think is oxidize anaerobic bacteria - read Jim Humble’s story - it’s actually very interesting. It actually smells like bleach when it is activated and works faster than bleach as well. It can purify dirty water - so you should have it around. It’s what I use to keep from getting sick during the flu season.

http://jimhumble.org/18-skin-care.html

http://jimhumble.org/basic-science-of-mms-chlorine-dioxide.html

leo707 says

Zlxr says

Then again - have you heard about the new therapy of giving fat people whip worms so they can lose weight?

Or using hook worms as a treatment for asthma, allergies, etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy

Reminds me of a an episode of 1000 Ways to Die.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/fda-grapples-oversight-fecal-transplants-154448664--finance.html

FDA grapples with oversight of fecal transplants

WASHINGTON (AP) — Imagine a low-cost treatment for a life-threatening infection that could cure up to 90 percent of patients with minimal side effects, often in a few days.

It may sound like a miracle drug, but this cutting-edge treatment is profoundly simple — though somewhat icky: take the stool of healthy patients to cure those with hard-to-treat intestinal infections. A small but growing number of physicians have begun using these so-called fecal transplants to treat Clostridium difficile, commonly referred to as C-diff, a bacterial infection that causes nausea, cramping and diarrhea. The germ afflicts a half-million Americans annually and kills about 15,000 of them.

But fecal transplants pose a challenge for the Food and Drug Administration, which has decided to regulate the treatment as an experimental drug. Stool transplants don't fit neatly into the agency's standard framework. And while regulators have shown flexibility in their approach, some critics say the mere presence of government oversight is discouraging many doctors from offering transplants. That's led some patients to seek out questionable "do-it-yourself" websites, forums and videos.

Most researchers agree that the FDA's concerns are warranted. Patients can contract HIV, hepatitis and other viruses and parasites from fecal matter that is not properly screened. Additionally, there are no long-term studies on potential side effects of stool transplantation.

FDA officials declined to be interviewed for this story, but said in a written response that the fecal transplantation "shows promise in treating C. difficile infection that has not been responsive to other therapies."

Indeed, with many patients no longer responding to potent antibiotics, fecal transplants have emerged as an effective therapy against drug-resistant strains of the C-diff superbug. The procedure works because the healthy bacteria found in donors' feces can help fight off foreign infections.

"We're dealing with something that is pretty close to miraculous," says Dr. Lawrence Brandt of New York's Montefiore Medical Center, who has performed over 200 fecal transplants.

Most products reviewed by the FDA spend years in testing before they are submitted to the agency, usually by large drug or medical device developers. Fecal transplants have followed a different path.

In recent years, a handful of doctors have published small case studies on their use of stool to treat C-diff, with many reporting cure rates of about 90 percent. In January 2013, the New England Journal of Medicine published the first rigorous, head-to-head study showing that fecal transplants were superior to antibiotics for patients with recurring C-diff.

The FDA announced last May that it would regulate stool transplants as an experimental drug, meaning doctors could only perform transplants under an FDA-approved research application. The so-called investigational new drug application must include detailed information on the drug to be tested, the study design and safeguards to protect patients. Assembling a single application can take months or years, even for large drugmakers.

Doctors pushed back, saying the requirement would force them to turn away desperate patients.

"FDA and some others are concerned about the long-term effects," Brandt said. "But my point was these people are getting ready to die now. They are not going to survive long enough to develop the diseases you're afraid they're going to get."

A few weeks later, the FDA revised its position, saying it would not enforce the requirement for doctors treating patients with drug-resistant C-diff — provided donors are properly screened and patients are informed that fecal transplants are still experimental.

But regulating stool samples as a drug presents other challenges. While it's easy to limit access to experimental drugs, everyone has access to stool. And with detailed instructions available on websites like thepowerofpoop.com, there's nothing to stop patients from trying the procedure at home — especially if they can't find a doctor to perform it.

"Some of these patients are very desperate and they're not going to take no for an answer," says Dr. Michael Edmond of Virginia Commonwealth University, who has performed fecal transplants for patients who travel from as far away as Ohio.

Catherine Duff of Carmel, Indiana, says she had no choice but to help herself. In April 2012, she was suffering through her seventh C-diff. infection, going to the bathroom 20 to 30 times a day and making multiple trips to the hospital due to dehydration.

"My quality of life had gotten to the point where I was beginning to think that it might be better to die," says Duff, 58.

Duff asked three different physicians if she could try a fecal transplant, but none were willing to perform the procedure. Her gastroenterologist did offer to test her husband's stool to make sure it wasn't contaminated.

Using instructions found online, Duff and her husband created a solution from his stool sample, mixing it with saline in a blender and administering it via an enema bottle. Four hours later, Duff said she felt good enough to get up and go for a walk.

Today, Duff runs a nonprofit group, the Fecal Transplant Foundation, which aims to raise awareness of the procedure and help patients. Duff says she gets up to 15 emails a day from patients looking for a doctor or a donor. Some even ask if they can use a stool sample from their infants or pets.

Duff says the unresolved status of FDA's oversight discourages more doctors from offering the treatment. "There are so many doctors who are suspicious that the FDA could change their mind at any given moment and decide to not exercise discretion," Duff says.

According to a list maintained by the foundation, only about 100 physicians offer fecal transplants in the U.S. There is no one method for performing the procedure. Some doctors liquefy the stool and drip it into the patient's colon via colonoscopy. Others use a tube that runs from the nose down into the stomach.

With so few providers available, proponents of stool transplantation have come up with innovative solutions. One big hurdle is the high cost of screening a stool sample, which can run up to $1,500 per sample. Insurance typically doesn't cover testing the stool sample because donors are usually healthy without signs of sickness.

Since October 2013, a Boston-based "stool bank" has managed to bring costs down to about $250 per treatment by screening samples in bulk. To date, OpenBiome has shipped over 300 stool samples in ready-to-use frozen preparations to 39 hospitals.

But in March, the FDA released an updated proposal for regulating fecal transplants, saying doctors should only use stool from a donor who is "known" to either the patient or their physician. Some doctors and patients worried the proposal, if finalized, would shutter OpenBiome and a handful of other stool banks, which use anonymous donors and ship to providers hundreds of miles away.

But OpenBiome founder, Mark Smith, says his group continues operating after having several productive discussions with the FDA. Smith says regulators have encouraged him to set up a formal study in which hospitals that work with OpenBiome will contribute data on the safety and effectiveness of fecal transplants.

"They understand the importance of making treatment available for patients today, while making sure there is adequate oversight of the risks," Smith says. "We're actually totally on the same page."

zzyzzx says

Feces transplant may help relieve severe diarrhea

Finally, a use for Fox News.

Dan8267 says

zzyzzx says

Feces transplant may help relieve severe diarrhea

Finally, a use for Fox News.

Yes - they're so full of shit, there's plenty to go around

I'm waiting for Designer Feces Transplants of the Stars, in individual, autographed containers.

If nothing else, you will wind up with absolutely fabulous shit.

Who wouldn't want Scarlett Johansson up their ass?

Ceffer says

Who wouldn't want Scarlett Johansson up their ass?

I think you got that backwards.

You don't have to take this Shit!

Regarding DE it is important to get the food grade kind as pool grade DE has been treated in such a way so as to make it toxic.

New Renter says

Regarding DE it is important to get the food grade kind as pool grade DE has been treated in such a way so as to make it toxic.

So what no turd enemas?

If only a fecal implant could cure verbal diarrhea, they'd be on to something, but the internet air waves would shrink by 90 percent.

It could be called the "Shit for Bullshit" campaign.

Does conservative republican shit work in liberal democrats?

elliemae says

Does conservative republican shit work in liberal democrats?

Maybe you're talking about the "shit for brains" transplant.