SPECIAL FROM Grandparents.com
“Attention ladies and germs . . . “ It sounds like the opening of a bad comedy routine, but it turns out, those comedians were onto something. Women and men—even those who subject themselves to bad stand-up routines—are 100 percent human, but only 10 percent of the cells in their bodies are recognizably human cells. The other 90 percent? Bacteria and other microorganisms.
The bacteria are everywhere. In our mouths, our guts, and under our nails. We can scrub and brush and gargle, but we’ll never win the antibacterial war; we’re outnumbered. And that’s actually a good thing! Most of the bacteria we carry around with us have our best interest in their single-celled versions of a heart and brain. But given that we’re basically walking petri dishes, maybe it isn’t so surprising that lots of stuff our bodies do is—in a word—disgusting. While some of this stuff looks like madness, there’s actually a method behind each and every unsavory bodily function. Read on for the repulsive truth:
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If you’re healthy, your poop could be used in a fecal transplant. Healthy feces contain good bacteria, and that bacteria can be placed in the gastrointestinal tract of an unhealthy person with healing results that often seem miraculous. Fecal transplant is most commonly used in the United States to treat a condition called Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), a painful and sometimes fatal kind of colitis. Well-respected institutions like the Mayo Clinic have been impressed with the results of fecal transplant for treating CDI, noting the procedure is quick, inexpensive, and has a 90 percent cure rate. Fecal transplants are now being used for other conditions, like obesity and some auto-immune conditions to great effect. In this case, at least, “sh*tty results” are actually a good thing!
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