Would you swallow a frozen poop pill

From: Bob K.

Sent: October 17, 2014

To: undisclosed recipients

Subject: Fw: Would you swallow a frozen poop pill?

In the U.S., Clostridium difficile causes a quarter million hospitalizations and kills 14,000 people a year. These severe-diarrhea-causing bacteria resist treatment in many patients, and the rest of the time, the antibiotics kill off normal gut microbes that help keep pathologic species in check. Doctors have increasingly turned to a procedure called “fecal microbiotia transplantation” (FMT), which delivers fresh fecal material to help restore the normal balance of beneficial microbes.

These fecal transplants are about 90 percent successful, but they typically require invasive and uncomfortable colonoscopies or nasogastric tubes, which run from the nose down to the stomach. "Just getting the tube down is a problem," Elizabeth Hohmann of Massachusetts General Hospital tells NPR. And what if people gag and vomit? Would they inhale fecal matter? "That's pretty scary,” she adds. (Continue Reading)