Pills Made From Poop...Really?

by Glen Depke, Traditional Naturopath
 
Yes I am not kidding, there really are pills made from poop. Here is a small sample from the article that exposed me to this recent news.

"Hold your nose and don't spit out your coffee: Doctors have found a way to put healthy people's poop into pills that can cure serious gut infections - a less yucky way to do "fecal transplants." Canadian researchers tried this on 27 patients and cured them all after strong antibiotics failed to help."

"Recently, studies have shown that fecal transplants - giving infected people stool from a healthy donor - can restore that balance. But they're given through expensive, invasive procedures like colonoscopies or throat tubes. Doctors also have tried giving the stool through enemas but the treatment doesn't always take hold."

To read the full article, copy and past the link below into your browser. It is a very interesting article.
http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/10/03/pills-made-from-poop-could-cure-serious-gut-infections/?intcmp=features

I will share that I am not against "odd" therapies. Heck, what I do with my clients would often be considered "odd" by conventional medical terminology.  I've heard many different "odd" therapies such as the use of parasites to treat brain tumors, the use of raw meat to regain balance, the use of high meat or fermented foods and many more.

With that said, I would not take away the potential validity of the use of these "poop pills" but there is a deep belief that I have held for some time. When people have extreme challenges, it often takes more extreme measures to assist that person find their health and balance, but with that said, you do not need to take extreme measures for typical challenges.

We also have to separate different areas of treatment. The article shared the experience of one woman as stated here, "It lasted for two years. It was horrible. I thought I was dying. I couldn't eat. Every time I ate anything or drank water I was into the bathroom," she said. "I never went anywhere, I stayed home all the time." So this was a woman that apparently had run the conventional medical treatment for C - diff with no relief. So what would that treatment be you may ask and you likely already know? It is the use of powerful antibiotics with generally no focus on underlying causes.

A holistic intervention for C - diff based on Depke Wellness would be to establish a balance within the fundamentals of health, bring some balance to adrenal function, address intolerant foods that lead to inflammation and a weakened immune system and finally at that point, the use of herbal remedies to assist the body's immune system function in the healing crisis of removal of the infection which in this case is C - diff.

Obviously there are more steps in the holistic intervention but in the end, the body is healthy, immune system function is reestablished, adrenals are balanced and you have addressed the underlying factors that lead to this challenge in the first place.

Now of course the antibiotic treatment would not address this, even though this truly can eliminate the C - diff as well as the "poop pill" could also lead to the same results. The challenge still lies in the ability to address underlying factors and to strengthen the body so this does not occur again and again.

Another point to be made.

Do not wait until you contract something like C - diff or other pathogens to address this. While this may seem like common sense saying it, this level of common sense is anything but common. So before you need the antibiotic or the "poop pill" how about simple basic measures? Taking a good quality prebiotic/probiotic formula daily, digestive enzymes and addressing adrenal/immune imbalances. When you do this, you can personally drastically reduce your likelihood of allowing these infections to take a strong hold on you. Understand that I did not say that you will reduce your chance of being exposed. Heck, we're all exposed. What matters though is what does your body do when you are exposed to these infections. If your fundamentals of health, adrenal function and immune function are strong, the likelihood of continued infection is actually very low. 

On that note I can bring up a short conversation I had with some individuals in the gym the other day. A trainer was jokingly but with a serious side blaming his client for getting him sick. Of course I jumped in and also jokingly but with a serious side mentioned that nobody can get you sick, you can only be weak enough to allow sickness. As expected the client and not the trainer enjoyed my comment but it was truly all in fun. Fun but true.

So in the end, recognize that there are always "odd" and sometimes extreme ways of treatment, whether this be the "poop pill" or other methods mentioned earlier, doesn't it sound easier and more effective to address these challenges holistically?

You decide!!!

Past articles on antibiotic treatment:
http://www.askdepkewellness.com/2013/09/antibiotoic-resistant-bacteria.html

http://www.askdepkewellness.com/2011/04/enough-with-antibiotics-already.html 

Past article on digestion:
http://www.askdepkewellness.com/2012/06/prime-digestive-support.html

Link to digestive aids:
http://www.depkewellness.com/GlenDepke/Store/DepkeWellness/index.cfm