When we dreamt of a magic pill that could cure anything, we weren’t thinking of poo pills — also known as “crapsules.”
Recently, small capsules filled with freeze-dried feces have demonstrated potential in addressing a range of conditions, from severe cancer to life-threatening liver disease.
There are even claims that fecal transplants—which involve transferring the feces of a healthy individual to another person—might be the secret to excelling in workouts and potentially reversing signs of aging.
Currently, researchers in the UK are exploring the possibility that capsules with freeze-dried stools from healthy donors might effectively eliminate antibiotic-resistant bacteria residing in patients’ intestines.
Translation? Someone else’s s–t could save you from a superbug.
In the trial, 41 patients who had recently battled drug‑resistant infections were split into two groups.
One received three sets of these poo pills over three days, while the other was given placebos.
A month later, those on the real treatment were found to have healthy donor bacteria successfully colonizing their guts — a sign the pills may have flushed out the bad bugs.
“It’s very exciting,” Dr. Blair Merrick, the lead researcher at Guy’s and St Thomas’ hospitals in London, told The BBC.
“There’s a real shift from 20 years ago where all bacteria and viruses were assumed to do you harm; to now where we realize they are completely necessary to our overall health.”
Superbugs — germs that are resistant to antibiotic treatment — are expected to cause up to 39 million deaths globally by 2050.
Microbiome researcher Chrysi Sergaki told the BBC that if the poo pills prove to be successful in further studies, fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) could be the new prescription drugs.
“We could potentially, in the future, replace antibiotics with microbiome [therapies],” she said.
“That’s the big picture, so there’s a lot of potential.”
