The new microbiota transplant treatment is a sigh of relief for IBS patients

Posted by Grace Dervishi on August 9th, 2017

A human body is a home for trillions of microbes which are all together called as human microbiota. They carry approximately 150 times more genes than the total of it found in the entire genome. In certain situations, the human microbiota interacts with the host body which leads to emergence of major diseases like Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), gastrointestinal cancers, low metabolism, infections, alcoholic liver diseases (ALD), cirrhosis and mental and psychological diseases. It is a very serious kind of issue for both the patient as well as for the society.

Human microbiota transfer is the new treatment invented by various scientists and researchers. They have declared it to be the most effective tool for the treatment of IBS and various other microbiota related diseases. Human microbiota transplant is a very simple and easy procedure in which a healthy human donor donates his stool. The bacterias are extracted from it and then recycled. They are transplanted into the colon of the patient. This technique is a powerful tool for the treatment but there are still high risks involved in the procedure due to the complex nature of stool. Though a proper screening of the donated stool is done, but chances are there that it may fail to detect a pathogen.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a very common disorder characterized by chronic abdominal pain with various other symptoms like bloating and flatulence, abdominal distension and many others. Alteration of bowel habits is a very common symptoms of IBS which may include sometimes constipation, while at other times diarrhea or maybe both together or maybe none. It causes a huge discomfort in a patient's health status, physically and mentally.

There are two main factors that give rise to this disease-

1. Host Factors like abnormal stress response, low grade immune   system and many more.
2. Diet Factors also have a major contribution in maintaining our body functioning in a proper way.

Positive effects of microbiota:

• The microbiota protects the host from various pathogens that try to reside in the host body.
• They help in digestion of various kinds of foods like oligosaccharides, fructooligosaccharided, xyloglucogens and various others which cannot be digested by the digestive fluids of the stomach and the small intestines.
• Besides digestion, they supply various essential nutrients to the host’s body. It produces short chain fatty acids (SCFAs) like acetic, propionic, butyric acids and helps in generation of energy.

Negative effects of microbiota:

Disturbance is caused in the human microbiota due to various diseases like Hepatitis B virus (HBV), Human immuno-deficiency virus (HIV) and various others. This has proved that new diseases which further attack the host, results with the interaction between the viruses and the microbiota.

Thanks to the years of researches and studies as there is now a relief in the minds of the people with the possibility of treatment for IBS.