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Fecal transplantation is good for abdominal symptoms for IBS patients

Placing stools from healthy people in the stomach improved both the symptoms and bacterial flora in the intestines of persons with a variety of irritable bowel syndrome.

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Abdominal symptoms聽are聽a聽common struggle聽for聽the Norwegians.聽Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)聽is a common cause to these symptoms, a collective term for聽stomach aches, bloating, diarrhea and constipation. Having IBS can be very disabling and until now the main cause is not yet known.聽聽聽

Today, the聽so-called low FODMAP-diet聽has been beneficial to a lot of people with IBS, a diet聽where they avoid聽or reduce certain聽鈥渉eavy digestible carbohydrates鈥.聽聽There is still no cure for IBS, but scientists are聽now聽investigating聽whether聽stool transplantation, also called fecal transplantation, can improve聽the everyday life of this patient group.聽聽

At the Centre for Nutrition at the Department of Clinical Medicine,聽researchers have investigated the composition of intestinal bacteria of 13 patients who have received a聽fecal聽transplantation.聽Both symptoms, using a questionnaire, and bacterial composition in the stool was measured at one, three, twelve and 28 weeks after transplantation.聽

鈥淥ur investigations show聽that 70% of the patients experienced improvement in their symptoms and ameliorated quality of life three months after treatment鈥, says聽Professor G眉len聽Arslan Lied who contributed to the聽research. They also found that the bacterial composition between the patients and the healthy feces donors became significantly less different from each other.聽

Bacterial composition in our intestines plays a significant role in how we feel, according to Lied. The recent findings indicate that it is possible to cause a lasting change in the bacterial composition in our intestines and re-establish a healthy flora in IBS patients, says the researcher.聽

More research is on the way as a large, randomized control study is about to be finished where patients received three different treatments, including placebo. 鈥淲e also received support from The Research Council of Norway (FRIMEDBIO project) for a third study where we will investigate how the intestinal bacterial composition influences the brain鈥, says Lied.聽

The main author of the project is Tarek Mazzawi from the Centre for Nutrition,聽Department of Clinical Medicine.聽