[Bread-Baking Typewriter] Is Even Dog Poop Unavailable When Needed as Medicine? 'Admirable Poop' That Improves Gut Health

'Fecal Microbiota Transplantation' Treatment Introduced Worldwide
Gut Microbiome Disrupted by Antibiotics
Healthy Donor Stool Infused to Restore Balance

Microbiome CDI Therapeutics and More
From Transplants to Oral Treatments Approved
The Era of 'Stool Medicine' Officially Begins

There is a saying, "Even dog poop is nowhere to be found when you actually need it," meaning that even the most trivial things are unavailable when necessary. The phrase gains its power because using poop as medicine is unimaginable. However, in the past, poop was sometimes used like medicine, as records show that King Yeongjo of the Joseon Dynasty drank "Mabuncha," made from horse dung, daily to treat colds.

Now, the era of using poop as medicine has truly arrived. This is because "fecal transplantation," the main subject of "Poop is Medicine," has been widely used worldwide for about 10 years. It is a treatment method where healthy people's feces are transplanted into the intestines of patients to treat Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), a type of enteritis caused by antibiotics. The concept started from the idea that since antibiotic use causes an imbalance in the gut microbiota, introducing healthy feces would restore that balance. In South Korea, fecal transplantation has been gradually introduced since it was adopted as a new medical technology in 2016.

Going beyond that, as author Sabin Hazan expected that "the day when medicine adopts the use of the microbiome to promote health will soon come," in 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved 'Rebyota,' a microbiome-based CDI treatment derived from fecal transplantation for the first time, and the following year approved an oral treatment called 'BOWST,' marking the beginning of the full-fledged era of "poop medicine."

However, after starting fecal transplantation to treat CDI, some surprising events occurred. Just as receiving blood transfusions from an HIV-positive person can transmit AIDS, some CDI patients who received fecal transplants from obese donors gained weight, and others developed arthritis that they did not have before. This is why the authors suggest that "fecal transplant recipients may receive microbes that cause diseases rather than cure them."

Since the gut contains about 38 trillion microbes, we are still at the stage of exploring this mysterious universe inside us. Research is actively being conducted on the "gut-brain axis" theory, which suggests that gut microbes can affect the brain, including autism spectrum disorder and dementia, as well as studies indicating impacts on obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. In the case of autism, transplanting feces containing beneficial bacteria into patients resulted in about half of them showing reduced frequency of autistic behaviors. The fact that microbes influence not only the gut, their habitat, but also various parts of the body reminds us once again how important the microbiome is to us.

This is why the book devotes a significant portion not only to the "treatment" of fecal transplantation but also to advice on how and what to eat to change our gut environment. Gut microbes continuously change depending on what and how we eat.

Among the foods recommended by the authors, described as "savings through food," is kimchi, a representative Korean dish. The authors mention, "Kimchi contains many lactic acid bacteria, Leuconostoc bacteria, and Weissella bacteria," and also list sweet potatoes, spinach, carrots, and cabbage as health-promoting foods. Through these, one can clean the gut and produce bacteria that help maintain our body's health, thereby expecting to sustain overall well-being.

Poop is Medicine | Written by Sabin Hazan, Shelly Ellsworth, Thomas Brody | Translated by Lee Seongmin | Hippocrates | 17,000 KRW

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.