Healing Doctor

Chapter 576 Fecal Capsules (Part 1)

The patient was stunned by Director Zou's words, staring blankly at the short, stout, drooling Director Zou.

Is he serious?!

Fecal capsules? As the name suggests… if I'm not mistaken, it means you have to eat feces?!

Is he really not joking?

……

In the comments section.

The guests and the bald host were also taken aback by Director Zou's words.

The bald host tilted his head and looked at Professor Shen.

"Mr. Shen... Mr. Shen." The bald host was clearly agitated. He stammered, "Feces capsule, is that a homonym? Did I mishear? It should be 'resolution'."

"No, feces just means excrement," Professor Shen said calmly.

"..."

"..."

"..."

The atmosphere in the comment section was somewhat strange and awkward.

Professor Shen knew that this wasn't just something laymen were unfamiliar with; even some large tertiary hospitals ranked outside the top 20 nationwide hadn't implemented it, so he began to explain.

"Clostridium difficile is an obligate anaerobic bacterium of the genus Clostridium. It is very sensitive to oxygen and is difficult to isolate and culture. Therefore, the researchers initially gave it a simple and straightforward name - Clostridium difficile."

Clostridium difficile was first discovered in 1935. It was only in 1977 that it was found to be associated with pseudomembranous colitis caused by long-term clinical use of certain antibiotics, and since then it has gained significant attention.

"The emergence of Clostridium difficile is related to the long-term and extensive use of antibiotics."

"Professor Shen, is this what everyone's been talking about—the overuse of antibiotics in hospitals?" a guest asked.

The bald host glared at him unhappily, giving him ample hints.

That's really rude of you. How could you insult a bald man in front of a monk?

"The overuse of antibiotics," Professor Shen said with a slight smile. "The biggest overuse of antibiotics is in animal husbandry, but public opinion... hahaha, let's not talk about that. In clinical practice, we now need clinical pharmacy approval to use any antibiotic, which is very troublesome."

"Professor Shen, please continue talking about fecal capsules." The bald host steered the conversation back on track and maintained control of the event.

"Approximately 50% of 12-month-old infants have Clostridium difficile in their gut, and the carrier rate in children over 2 years old is about 3%, but Clostridium difficile is less common in healthy adults."

"This patient developed Clostridium difficile in their intestines due to prolonged antibiotic use. The First Affiliated Hospital's diagnostic speed was excellent," Professor Shen praised. "That's the diagnosis. Next, let's talk about the fecal capsule."

Fecal microbiota transplantation, also known as fecal microbiota transplantation, involves transplanting functional bacteria from the feces of a healthy person into the gastrointestinal tract of a patient to rebuild a normally functioning intestinal flora, thereby achieving the treatment of intestinal and extraintestinal diseases.

Other names include "intestinal microbiota transplantation" or "intestinal microecology transplantation."

"..." The bald host was slightly taken aback.

His expression was strained, his face bearing the look of a simple, brutal, and difficult struggle.

"Professor Shen, do you mean eating other people's excrement?" a guest asked.

"That's roughly the idea," Professor Shen smiled. "Actually, the main ingredients of many medicines can't be discussed in detail. For example, night-shining sand, for example... cough cough, for example, Kangfuxin liquid, which is commonly used in clinical practice."

"I know that, the American cockroach." The bald host tried his best to ease the atmosphere in the commentary room. "During the pandemic a few years ago, many people had the reaction of swallowing razor blades, and drinking Kangfuxin liquid was very effective. But I have a few friends who say it's cockroach juice and they would rather die than drink it."

"Hahaha." Professor Shen chuckled. "Fecal capsules are a different matter. Thousands of patients worldwide have received fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT). The United States has made the most rapid progress in this area, and some institutions have already established fecal banks, similar to blood banks, as a support platform for this treatment method."

"Sewage storage..."

"Sewage storage..."

Professor Shen's words were astonishing, leaving the bald host and guests speechless. Even the experienced and adept at handling awkward situations didn't know how to continue.

Actually, he wasn't averse to topics like poop and pee, after all, eating, drinking, defecating, and sleeping are major life events. But the term "feces bank" was beyond the bald host's comprehension, and he had absolutely no idea what to say.

New research published in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows that encapsulating frozen excrement can be effective in treating Clostridium difficile infections.

1.6克的合成药丸将与传统的排泄物移植技术一样安全和有效。在8周内，20名患者中18名，服用30或60粒大便药丸后腹泻完全缓解。」

"Of course, I know it's disgusting."

Professor Shen glanced at the bald host and the guests present, smiled slightly, and explained.

"This sounds disgusting, but logically speaking, human feces are human excrement, and their main component is actually bacteria."

Current research demonstrates the crucial role of gut bacteria, with some scholars even considering the gut microbiota as an important organ in the human body. Therefore, in principle, transplanting stool samples from healthy individuals into patients is very similar to the concept of organ transplantation.

"Does the gut microbiota belong to organs?" Mao Mao whispered.

"It's a metaphor, a metaphor, of course it's not a real organ," Professor Shen said. "But the production and clinical application of fecal capsules have already begun in China. Although there is no fecal bank, as far as I know, the First Affiliated Hospital of Hangzhou Medical University should be able to produce fresh frozen fecal capsules."

"..."

Fresh...

Frozen...

For the first time, the guests present were associating these two words with feces, and they simply couldn't accept it.

"Antibiotics can cause gut microbiota dysbiosis, requiring the rebuilding of the gut microbiota. To put it bluntly—eating feces is the best way. In nature, the gut microbiota of many young herbivores are built by consuming the excrement of their mothers."

……

……

In a private room at Yiyang Barbecue, Director Liu sighed.

"Old Bai, when will our hospital have similar equipment?"

"Impossible. It requires temperatures below -100 degrees Celsius. You can't just put any pile of shit in it and eat it." Director Bai clearly knew this, and he said with slight displeasure.

"You submitted an application?" Director Liu knew Director Bai too well; seeing his displeasure, she guessed why.

"I asked the gastroenterology department to bring it up, but it wasn't approved because the equipment was too expensive," Director Bai said.

"The stuff is good, but will it be very expensive?" Director Liu asked a strange question.

"If our hospital had just started using it, it would have been very expensive, but once it's widely adopted, it will be much cheaper. For example, in the US, it's $40 a pile of poop."

"That's disgusting. Can't you be a little more polite?" Director Liu frowned.

"You're a urologist, a sewer unclogger, and you're talking to me about being polite?"

"We unclog part of the sewer system, but you're talking about gastrointestinal and anorectal surgery."

(End of this chapter)