Other uses for fecal transplant may include autism, alcoholism, obesity, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's, rheumatoid arthritis, acne, insomnia, major depression, diabetes, cancer, peanut allergies, chronic fatigue syndrome and even anorexia,
A recent case study showed that a 82 year old man who had c difficile and Alzheimer's was treated with a fecal transplant (he received from his wife). Just 2 months after the fecal transplant there were improvements that were noticed for Alzheimer's. First the patient had a sharpened state of mental acuity and mood improved. Between 4-6 months there were further improvements to memory and mood. Initially the Mental Mini Score Exam (a metric used to determine dementia) was only 20 (which indicates mild dementia). Only two months after the fecal transplant the number increased to 26. At 6 months the score increased to 29 (the maximum score is 30). The author who published the case study is now running a double blind placebo controlled clinical trial to see if having a fecal transplant (orally) would have any effect on Alzheimer's patients. Although, this is only one reported case it would be interesting if fecal transplants could help individuals with Alzheimer's and dementia. Also given that there really aren't any drugs on the market that reverse the underlying condition of Alzheimer's (my understanding from when my grandmother had dementia was the drugs keep things stable but over time the disease takes over). Roughly over 44 million people around the world have Alzheimer's. If a fecal transplant or a fecal transplant was required once a year and it could truly improve the symptoms of the disease it would be a game changer for not only patients but their caregivers and most likely save the healthcare system worldwide tens of billions of dollars a year.
Within the next few years there will be more researchers and doctors studying fecal transplants to see how effective they are at treating various illness and diseases. The hard part too is that often times researchers stumble into these findings like with the Alzheimer's case study (since the patient had both c difficle and Alzheimer's). My view is that even if fecal transplants could help 10%-20% of people with all these illnesses and diseases (inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, etc.) fecal transplant would be something of a wonder drug that would greatly improve the quality of life of tens of millions of people around the world, improve their well being, happiness, and also make them more productive, and they are their families wouldn't be faced with the same psychological and financial burdens. The psychological aspect for Alzheimer's can be burdensome to caretakers (who are usually family members) and often times family members will take turns with other siblings to look after loved ones.
Some questions will have to be answered in terms of what method is most effective to deliver the fecal transplant: by colonoscopy, enema, pills, naso tube, etc. the frequency of the treatment and the dosage. These questions would take time and clinical trials to figure out. Also and most important is the safety of the procedure. Generally fecal transplants are fairly safe however with COVID going on there will have to be safety protocols in place to ensure COVID isn't transmitted to patients. The other thing too is that fecal transplants are extremely safe (yes one person did die (the patient also had a rare blood condition too) but that was because the transplant was contaminated-it had been stored in a freezer for several months and developed e-coli). Remember Dr. Thomas Borody and his clinic in Australia have performed over 30,000 fecal transplants for over 25 years and to my knowledge haven't had many adverse effects.
