Probiotics in baby POO ‘could help you lose weight and boost your health’
IF you suffer from bloating or poor digestion, you've probably been told to up your intake of probiotics.
Lots of foods contain the beneficial bacteria, from yoghurt to pickles and even bread.
But it's also present in something a little less savoury: baby poo.
Scientists at Wake Forest School of Medicine have developed a probiotic "cocktail", made from gut bacteria strains found in baby poo - which they say might help in the fight against weight gain and poor gut health.
"Short-chain fatty acids are a key component of good gut health," said the study's lead investigator, Hariom Yadav, assistant professor of molecular medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine.
"People with diabetes, obesity, autoimmune disorders and cancers frequently have fewer short-chain fatty acids. Increasing them may be helpful in maintaining or even restoring a normal gut environment, and hopefully, improving health."
The study, published in the Nature journal, examines the effects of probiotic strains derived from baby poo.
"Babies are usually pretty healthy and clearly do not suffer from age-related diseases, such as diabetes and cancer," Yadav said.
"And, of course, their poop is readily available."
This isn't the first time that experts have claimed the health benefits found in poo.
Poo transplants already exist and are said to show promising signs of offering new cures for obesity, diabetes and autism.
A stool sample is taken from a healthy donor, who has been tested to check for harmful bugs.
Once they have been cleared as having the right gut bacteria, their stools are mixed with saline.
That is strained and then placed into the patient, via a colonoscopy, endoscopy or enema.
Studies have already found that these kinds of procedures may well help obese or overweight people to lose weight.
What are probiotics?
Probiotics are the good bacteria that feed off prebiotics (non-digestible food that are rich in dietary fibre).
They come in the form of fermented foods like yoghurt, sauerkraut, miso soup, kimchi and other tangy delights.
As well as having anti-inflammatory properties, probiotics keep your gut tract clear, which is why they've been touted as being helpful in combatting irritable bowel syndrome and urinary tract disorders.
It's important to try to maintain good gut health because not only does it impact on how lean you look, but it can also lead to things like depression and anxiety, acne, constipation or diarrhoea and low energy levels if it's not looked after.
There are plenty of ways to naturally introduce more probiotic foods to your diet, without having to resort to eating infant faeces.
Foods rich in them include:
- Greek yoghurt
- Kefir
- Dark chocolate
- Pickles
- Kombucha
- Sauerkraut
- Miso soup
In this latest study, the team collected poo samples from the nappies of 34 healthy babies and following a lengthy safety check of baby gut-born Lactobacillus and Enterococcus probiotic-rich strains, they then selected the 10 best out of the 321 analysed.
A single dose was given to mice, followed by five shots of the 10-strain probiotic cocktail. And then the same was done to human faeces.
The scientists found that both the single and five-dose shots enhanced the number of short-chain fatty acids in both mouse gut and human poo.
WHAT IS A POO TRANSPLANT?
Faecal microbiota transplant, or FMT, is a recognised procedure, used by doctors in a small number of cases to treat recurrent superbug C.diff infections.
It is only used when other treatments, such as long-term antibiotics, have failed.
How is it performed?
The treatment should only ever be performed by a qualified doctor.
It involves collecting a stool sample from a donor, who is tested to ensure they carry no harmful bugs and have the correct bacteria in their digestive tracts to help combat the bug.
The sample is then mixed with saline, strained and placed into the patient via a colonoscopy, endoscopy or an enema.
How does it work?
FMT aims to replace good bacteria that has been killed or suppressed, often by the use of antibiotics.
This killing of good bacteria allows bad bacteria, specifically C.diff, to over-populate the colon.
The infection can then lead to a condition called C.diff colitis, which causes painful and sometimes fatal diarrhoea.
By restoring the balance of bacteria in the intestines, the idea is that the patient will be better able to fight infection.
Who can be a donor?
Donors can be family members, or others who are known to you.
But, they must:
- be tested for a wide array of bacterial and parasitic infections
- be free of health problems
- lead a healthy lifestyle
Donors are screened for a range of infectious diseases, including HIV, hepatitis A, B and C and syphilis.
Source: Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital
"This work provides evidence that these human-origin probiotics could be exploited as biotherapeutic regimens for human diseases associated with gut microbiome imbalance and decreased SCFA production in the gut," Yadav said.
"Our data should be useful for future studies aimed at investigating the influence of probiotics on human microbiome, metabolism and associated diseases."
In other words, scientists believe that baby poo may contain probiotics useful in speeding up our metabolisms and strengthening our gut health.
Just don't, whatever you do, go about collecting your own samples.
Experts have already warned that adult transplants come with risks of contracting a host of diseases, from HIV to multiple sclerosis.
And we definitely don't know enough yet to determine how safe baby faecal matter is when it comes to gut health.
If you are trying to lose weight, why not follow our 10 step guide to shedding pounds without exercise?
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