Can A 'Poop Transplant' Change Your Weight?

In this study, 70 patients received FMTs to treat C. diff infections. Twenty-five of the patients received stool from donors who had normal BMIs; 30 received stool from overweight donors, and 15 received stool from obese donors. [5 Ways Gut Bacteria Affect Your Health] In the six months before the transplants, many of the patients lost weight, which is common with C. diff infections, said lead study author Dr. Monika Fischer, a gastroenterologist and an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine. But in the year after the transplants, the researchers didn’t observe statistically significant changes in these patients’ BMIs. Interestingly, however, the researchers noted that patients who received stool from normal-BMI donors actually gained a bit of weight following the transplant, while patients who received stool from obese donors did not gain weight. Still, “it is highly unlikely that one would gain or lose weight following a single fecal transplant, regardless of their stool donor’s BMI,” Fischer told Live Science. She noted that there was some concern about using stool from overweight or obese donors after a 2015 case report was published that described a woman gaining 30 lbs. (14 kilograms) after receiving a transplant from her overweight daughter. However, Fischer said that based on her anecdotal experiences, she wasn’t expecting people’s BMIs to change after the transplants. Originally publ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news