Scientists say preserving stool samples can be a good insurance policy against disease.

Could freezing your stool sample while you’re young and healthy be the secret to fighting disease later in life?

That’s the distasteful suggestion from a group of American doctors claiming that putting fecal matter on ice for decades at -80°C, without thawing it and putting it back into the body when you’re sick, can help fight everything. side effects of chemotherapy. in asthma and heart disease.

Scientists from Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, both in Boston, USA, say that storing stool samples this way can provide good insurance against health problems.

“It would be a similar situation for parents to store their baby’s umbilical cord blood for future use,” they wrote in June in the journal Trends in Molecular Medicine.

Umbilical cord blood is rich in stem cells that have the potential to grow into any new healthy tissue after they are transported into the body. Stem cells derived from donor umbilical cord blood are currently used in the treatment of some blood cancers.

There are seven private umbilical cord blood banks in the UK and they pull a total of around 27,000 deposits per year. Parents using the service have to pay a clinic about £100 a year to have the sample frozen if their child develops a serious illness for which there may be no effective treatments.

The NHS accepts donated umbilical cord blood for use in medical care, but does not offer a custody service. And there is no evidence that stored umbilical cord blood has ever been used to treat babies.

But can feces frozen in our childhood help us when we get sick years later?

The theory is that when we’re young and fit — in our teens or early 1920s, researchers say — so does our gut microbiome, our gut “soup” made up of trillions of microbes.

This microbial mix is ​​believed to be crucial in keeping a number of diseases at bay, including obesity, heart disease, food allergies, dementia and even Covid-19, according to some studies.

Any imbalance in the relationship between good and bad bacteria in the gut can increase the risk of these conditions.

Since feces are thought to contain the same bugs as our guts, they are a potentially rich source of healthy microbes that we may then need to restore the bacterial balance to normal.

This microbial mix is ​​believed to be crucial in keeping a number of diseases at bay, including obesity, heart disease, food allergies, dementia and even Covid-19, according to some studies.

Despite the nonsense factor, fecal matter transplants have been performed, in which a healthy person’s poop settles in the patient’s intestines (through a tube to the stomach through the nose or rectum, or swallows a capsule containing the donor’s treated and dried sample). It is authorized by NICE for the treatment of C. difficile infection.

This intestinal infection kills around 1,600 people a year in the UK – at risk include patients hospitalized with antibiotics, as well as the elderly and those whose immune systems have been compromised, for example by chemotherapy (which kills “good” bacteria, causing disease). “bad” bacteria). bacteria such as C. difficile may develop).

A fecal transplant from a healthy donor to an infected patient can restore good bacteria levels and keep C. difficile at bay.

The demand for donated stools is so great that Microbiome Treatment Centre, a Birmingham clinic that pays healthy volunteers up to £100 for their donated stool, has been approved by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority to provide NHS stool samples. Treatment of C. difficile.

While the center does not currently freeze samples for later use on behalf of patients, at least one clinic in the United States, OpenBiome in Somerville, Massachusetts, offers the option to do so at an undisclosed cost. This currently only applies to C. difficile infection if they get it one day.

But if current research gives them the green light to provide stool transplants for other conditions, stool storage centers may not have a shortage of customers.

For example, a recent study found that giving some cancer patients sediment from their stool helps them cope with the toxic effects of chemotherapy drugs.

In a study conducted at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France, published in Nature Communications in May 2021, stool samples were collected from 25 patients just before they received chemotherapy for leukemia.

Any imbalance in the relationship between good and bad bacteria in the gut can increase the risk of these conditions. Since stool is thought to contain the same bugs as our gut, it is a potentially rich source of healthy microbes that we may need later to restore the bacterial balance to normal.

After chemotherapy was completed, doctors transplanted healthy stools into half of the patients; the remainder received placebo treatment.

In those who received stool transplants, the microbiome was quickly returned to a healthy pre-treatment state, with normal levels of “good” bacteria reducing inflammation.

So will we soon have to set aside our waste for future processing?

“There is not enough scientific evidence to support this at this point,” said Dr Duane Mellor, a dietitian and lecturer in gastroenterology at Aston University School of Medicine in Birmingham.

“For example, you can’t assume that the bacteria in the stool are exactly the same as in the gut.”

This is because there are several meters of intestinal tissue to pass through, and the surrounding environment has changed significantly.

Another problem is storage: it’s feared that umbilical cord blood won’t survive the freezing process for years.

While it may be tempting to save crutches for future use, Dr. “I can think of much better ways to spend money on improving our health,” Mellor says.

under the microscope

Former Premier League and France forward Louis Saha, 43, takes our health test

Can you climb stairs?

I can’t right now because I hurt a tendon in the back of my left knee while playing football. But normally I do at least two gyms a week, do some cardio and play tennis twice a week.

How has the pandemic affected you?

In a way, it saved my life because it slowed me down. I have traveled extensively for meetings in Asia, the United States, and the Caribbean. I was almost tired, but the curfew got me thinking about my priorities and spending time with my family.

Are you taking five a day?

Not regular enough, even though my parents tried to force me to eat more.

Have you ever dieted?

Since I don’t play professionally, I pay much more attention to what I eat now. I try to eat two meals a day, sometimes just one. I’m 1.80 meters tall and weighed around 13.7 (87 kg) while playing games. They are currently around 14.6 (93kg).

Any flaws?

Croissant. Because as a football player, I was training very hard. [he retired in 2013]I could eat them all the time and probably have two every day – with strawberry jam.

Any problems in the family?

My mother has asthma, it bothered me a bit.

Worst injury or illness?

I’ve had hamstring, knee, ankle and calf injuries while playing football.

take the pills?

I’ve taken quite a few pain relievers and anti-inflammatory drugs throughout my football career.

Has anything been deleted?

After fighting with the goalkeepers, I had to have my tooth extracted twice.

Have you ever had plastic surgery?

No. You can look fake in show business, but not in sports.

Have you tried alternative medicines?

I’m a curious person, so I’m open to ideas.

Have you ever been depressed?

I always see the positives because of my Caribbean roots. But during quarantine I realized that I would no longer enjoy everyday things. I have now reevaluated.

Medicine for a hangover?

I’ve never been drunk in my life.

What keeps you awake at night?

think. I sleep with a notebook by my bed and only have five or six hours.

Do you have a phobia?

I’m claustrophobic. Two years ago I had a bike accident. My ribs were broken and I couldn’t breathe. I was given a neck brace and had to wear a mask. Then I had an MRI and felt claustrophobic. Now I’m afraid of closed spaces.

Do you want to live forever?

No way. Without a limited time, there is no motivation to do anything. Back then, everyone thought, ‘I’ll do it later’.

Louis is the project ambassador for the CLV 2022 Group FRI Report.