Dr. Thomas Borody on Fecal Transplant and Cure for Crohn's?

Recently an article came out about Dr. Thomas Borody claiming that a fecal transplant might be used for a whole host of things from multiple sclerosis, to Crohn's, to Parkinson's disease. In the article nurse Suzanne Heskett had Crohn's and seems like she had a bad flare up in 2001. She was going to the bathroom 18 times a day and thought she would have to get part of her colon removed. In trying to help her dire health situation she went to Dr. Thomas Borody (who even I will admit is a gastro star doctor in Australia and has done tremendous research in gastroenterology in general).

Suzanne had a nasal tube and three different donors donate their "stuff" which took about 5 hours and she felt better right after and several months later her condition improved. What is interesting is that 11 months after having a colonoscopy and Dr. Borody didn't even recognize she had Crohn's. Borody first did a fecal transplant for Crohn's in 1988 according to this journal article.

Borody goes on to say that he has done a fecal transplant for someone with a young person with rheumatoid arthritis and it went away after the transplant. He also claims that he has "cured" dozens of people with colitis and Crohn's. Dr. Borody also claims that three Parkinson's patients was helped by fecal transplants. Fecal transplant even has the potential to help patients with Alzheimer's, autism, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, acne, insomnia, major depression, autism, and even diabetes. 

I am a little skeptical of the claims that fecal transplants will "cure" Crohn's, however I don't think a fecal transplant would hurt Crohn's patients. Speaking as someone who actually had a fecal transplant in 2013 I did feel a little better after the transplant, however still had a flare up (which could have been caused by the c diff I had). However, I feel pretty great now and some days don't even realize I have Crohn's. All the research I have seen tends to show fecal transplant work better for ulcerative colitis. 

If you don't live in Australia Dr. Thomas Borody will charge $10,000-$15,000 and you can be expected to stay between 2 and 10 weeks and have to have a doctor that will resume care after the procedure. The first step however is to have an initial interview which would cost $150. However, Borody has been doing fecal transplants since the 1980's and as I wrote here does 5-6 per week and I estimate by now has done close to 2,000 fecal transplants.

The application of fecal transplant for multiple illnesses sounds exciting. Perhaps the reality will be it won't be apply to as many things as possible but could have an impact on people with Crohns, ulcerative colitis, and other major diseases. Hopefully, with time we will learn even more about fecal transplants and how they can help hundreds of thousands if not millions of people suffer less and enjoy life more. 

Fecal Transplant Cures C Difficile! Fecal Transplant for Crohn's and Ulcerative Colitis

Recently, this New England Journal article came out showing that 100% of patients who had a fecal transplant for clostridium difficile (c difficile) saw improvement. Usually the treatment for c difficile is taking vancomycin which can cost $55 per ill (ending up costing $2,000 or more over the course of treatment).  This is great news for people with c difficile. Upon doing further research I learned that this procedure now is being experimented on (not formally though for patients with ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease). One great piece of literature I found was this meta-analysis which essentially looked at every single study done on fecal transplants for inflammatory bowel disease. Nearly all the studies so far have only been for c diff and not for inflammatory bowel disease.  One conclusion from the meta-analysis was there was a reduction or complete resolution of symptoms in 76% of patients and prolonged remission in 63% of patients.

Dr. Thomas J. Borody seems to be an expert in fecal transplants. He is based in Australia and has done some good research in the area. He did his first transplant according to this article in the 1980’s on a woman who had incurable colitis. It seems after the transplant her colitis never came back. What we need is more experimentation like this in order to get medical advancements. The problem today is the red tape involved with the FDA or federal government that prevents people like us from getting the treatments we need. Borody has performed over 1,500 transplants and currently does 5-6 fecal transplants a week (most are for irritable bowel syndrome which I actually was diagnosed with in February of 2012 in the same year I had Crohn’s). He has even use fecal transplant for non-stomach related issues like acne, multiple sclerosis, and even people with Parkinson’s disease.

In this study of 6 people that Borody conducted with ulcerative colitis all 6 had no signs of ulcerative colitis after 13 years! I looked on Dr. Borody’s website and it seems you can get a fecal transplant for $12,000-$15,000 (in Austrilian dollars which is about the exact same as American dollars) which is just for the transplant and doesn’t include travel or even nursing care. If this could really could help “cure” Crohn’s I really would consider it. However, there are too many unknowns like a) will it work b) how long may it work c) possible side effects and complications. One major problem in the United States is that the FDA has not approved fecal transplants which makes it hard not only to help people but increases the costs of fecal transplants. Insurance companies will not often pay for something that isn’t approved by the FDA or lacks evidence. As more data comes it showing that fecal transplants can help c diff patients that will change. However, we need experimentation with other conditions like Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, and other autoimmune diseases to really get the ball rolling.

Other doctors in the United States have performed fecal transplants as well. Dr. Alexander Khoruts of University of Minnesota has performed over 130 procedures according to this article. Dr. Colleen Kelly has performed 45 procedures according to this article. Dr. Lawrence Brandt has performed 17 of these procedures (he has been doing it since 1999), while Dr. Christina Surawicz of the University of Washington has performed 16 procedures. Dr. James Versalovic of Baylor College of Medicine in Houston plans to start a intestinal microbiome transplantation program.

Due to the fact that fecal transplants are not approved yet many people are doing it themselves at home. I found and interesting website where a guy who had ulcerative colitis for 12 years did at home fecal transplants and now is in complete remission (he started feeling much better only after 2 days). This sounds good to some people but I personally worry about whether people are doing it correctly, the risks involved, and these people are also not screening the poo that they use to transplant which can present risks.  Right now donors are usually family members or relatives since their medical condition is usually known. The largest cost of the whole procedure is screening the donor which can cost $1,000 according to this article.

This article discusses how the fools at the FDA seem confused since “feces” doesn’t fit into anyone of their main categories. We need many doctors and patients experimenting with fecal transplant in order to spread knowledge of the best way of doing the procedure. Knowledge is power. It looks as if fecal transplants may have a role in ulcerative colitis but time will tell if it can help for Crohn’s. I would also wouldn’t mind seeing a market for feces where people could give it and collect money for it like they do for sperm or blood. Companies could pop up that would screen the feces and could grade it and let people decide which kind they wanted to supply. I have a feeling drug companies might be interest as well because they pay be able to find a mechanism that works similarly like feces to give the same result. Given there are 500,000 cases of c diff every year we will need a lot crap. Also it would be interesting to see if fecal transplants can help other autoimmune diseases like psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis or other things like acne, Parkinson’s. Every day that goes by is another day a patient suffers. People need to get over the gross factor and we need to start doing things that are proven to work.