Doctors Are Now Transplanting Poop — & It’s Saving Lives

“Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is the transfer of feces from a healthy donor into the colon of someone who’s sick, explains Scott Olesen, PhD, scientific director at OpenBiome, a nonprofit stool bank that conducts research and works with clinicians to facilitate FMT. Specifically, we know that FMT can be helpful in treating C.Diff, a serious and sometimes fatal gut infection caused by bacteria. The belief is that FMT can help “re-shape the environment of the gut,” he says. In clinical trials, FMT has been shown to resolve 80-90% of recurrent C.Diff, and that’s major.”