News from the world of science

[Dazed]

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/woman-becomes-obese-after-fecal-transplant-overweight-donor

So I found this article and I thought it would be an interesting talking point on this site. I feel like this type of transplant could be used in a "sexual/fetish/whatever you want to call it" context, but would it be considered off limits? Well at the very least, I probably gave ammo to one of you out there to explore your horizons.

[SayHelloToMyLittleFriend]

Yes, I'm sure people will be queuing up to literally have someone else's shit surgically fed into their body, rather than the vastly less popular pass-time of consuming high calorie food.

This is almost like the South Park episode where everyone starts shoving food up their ass.

[dedede5]

http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/woman-becomes-obese-after-fecal-transplant-overweight-donor

Just an article that caught my eye and made me think of stories and fantasies made of a weight gain potion or pill.

[Dazed]

Yes, I'm sure people will be queuing up to literally have someone else's shit surgically fed into their body, rather than the vastly less popular pass-time of consuming high calorie food.

This is almost like the South Park episode where everyone starts shoving food up their ass.

You clearly did not read the article, because that is not what they did or do with the medical application of this.

[wilan]

**Topics Merged**

[Guest myownway]

Yup, that sounds like a weight-gain pill come true. Obviously I wouldn't expect huge gains with this, and probably it won't work like that on many people, but still...

Plus, I'm not 100% sure, but as far as I know this processed extract from feces is basically without taste. Now I'm just waiting for the first news headlines about stealthily fattened up wives/fiancees/girlfriends. Or schoolgirls spiking the lunches of their less favoured female classmates in order for them to get fat.

As for less evil applications, this actually might get useful in treating recovering anorexia victims. But that would also mean that it will be more or less publicly available, which leads us back to the issues above...

[Ignatius]

Propensity towards weight gain has been linked to digestive microfauna for a good while, so not too surprising.

[Guest myownway]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but I think they may already have invented a weight gain pill.

I think it's a safe bet this one tastes better than the microbial shit enema concoction featured in the article... ;P

Perhaps, but this one has a pretty shitty "effect per dose" ratio, you know

[Guest high]

In all seriousness, this is cutting-edge medicine.

This may be a way to get rid of Crohn's disease that makes some likely to get intestinal perforations.

This may be a way to get rid of or treat diabetes.

This is already a treatment for getting rid of C. Difficile.

They are just finding out what a huge impact a person's gut flora has on their health.

[Guest pangzi]

In all seriousness, this is cutting-edge medicine.

This may be a way to get rid of Crohn's disease that makes some likely to get intestinal perforations.

This may be a way to get rid of or treat diabetes.

This is already a treatment for getting rid of C. Difficile.

They are just finding out what a huge impact a person's gut flora has on their health.

It really is.  And this article is totally misguided.  The real story here is how a girl who was once chronically sick with infection and diarrhea is now cured.

Now that her body's not spending much of its resources fighting infection and purging the major portion of its energy intake through diarrhea, she's put on weight.  Why is that surprising?  A friend of mine with Celiac disease put on 50 pounds after he stopped eating gluten.  Why?  Maybe because he was no longer shitting out every bite of food he put in his mouth.

I think blaming the donor here might be like blaming McDonald's for making you fat.  If it's such a problem, she can always reinfect herself with C. difficile.

[Guest MUSEic]

It really is.  And this article is totally misguided.  The real story here is how a girl who was once chronically sick with infection and diarrhea is now cured.

Now that her body's not spending much of its resources fighting infection and purging the major portion of its energy intake through diarrhea, she's put on weight.  Why is that surprising?  A friend of mine with Celiac disease put on 50 pounds after he stopped eating gluten.  Why?  Maybe because he was no longer shitting out every bite of food he put in his mouth.

I think blaming the donor here might be like blaming McDonald's for making you fat.  If it's such a problem, she can always reinfect herself with C. difficile.

This.

Fighting infection costs the body an exorbitant amount of calories. Plus, the fact that this was an intestinal infection probably means there was a degree of malabsorbance, like the celiac disease example.

It is really just a mistaken case of cause and effect. Introducing new bacteria is probably not the cause of weight gain, whereas the elimination of bad bacteria is.

That being said, I think our gut flora probably do play a non-negligible role in our metabolism that genetics and diet don't account for. If they were to do a fecal swap between two healthy, but different size patients, I would be very interested to see what happens.