The surviving bacteria will certainly multiply; but “offspring of bacteria that survived freezing” may well be a quite different biome than “offspring of biome that seems like an improvement”; and the reason we are just forklifting in an entire biome that seems good is, in part, because we don’t necessarily understand how all the pieces fit together.
Doesn’t mean that it definitely won’t work; it might we’ll be fine, or at least harmless; but unless your die-off is evenly distributed it will be a significant change to the resulting population.
I can’t speak for Rob; but I’d draw the distinction between DIY being a good idea and DIY being a relatively good idea under adverse circumstances.
DIY isn’t a good idea per se because (while tedious and not free) testing for antibiotic resistance and potentially some specific bugs of particular concern is quite doable; so doing it without access to the appropriate labs means going without a useful safeguard.
That doesn’t make it a bad idea under circumstances where you don’t necessarily have the option of doing it optimally and have a reason unpleasant enough to be worth the increased risk.
We have to have a very important discussion before moving forward.
The phrase “fecal transplant” is just … gross. grody. repugnant. nauseating even. Especially when we’re accustomed to the world of existing medical euphemisms and clever acronyms.
I would like to suggest we come up with some better names for this procedure. I’ll go first:
Microbiome Re-Assignment Procedure (MRAP)
Gut Flora Re-Ingestion (GLRI)
Flora Assay and Re-introduction Technique (FART)
There’s a company that already sells poop pills as a treatment for C. diff. Maybe they don’t have an optimal ratio of bacteria strains (if we can even figure out what optimal is, in this case) but they’re incredibly effective at treating this potentially deadly condition. The “traditional” way of doing fecal transplants isn’t necessarily better–doctors and hospitals are reluctant to do it because there’s a risk of rupturing the intestine.
The techniques you ( and @HomeBoy) cite are not how fecal transplants are done medically. The problem lies in the fact that we are in very early days of understanding the microbiome, our ability to culture and even identify the organisms responsible for success or failure is extremely limited, and we are basically limited to identifying donors who seem to have high success rates. I would not suggest taking poop pills without some pretty extensive research to back that . The standard method amounts to wiping the recipient microbiome with broad spectrum antibiotics then essentially giving a poop enema. Works wonders for certain disorders, like C. diff. There are rat studies suggesting other areas where it might be almost magical, but not there in humans yet.
Donations? What the fucking fuck? NO! You take a sample of what intestinal fauna is left, possibly from the appendix as research suggests this may be an emergency bunker for said bacteria. Then you culture that bacteria and reintroduce it into its native environment.
You can’t use someone else’s poop without it kicking off an infection, its Biology 101!
Nope, sorry, can and do with a great deal of success (usually.) The complication here is the patient being immunocompromised, and the donor carrying something nasty. With appropriate controls, it is a borderline-miracle treatment, but obviously not without risks. As was noted above, there are even folks doing this DIY.
