Guest Speaker fulfils President’s Prophecy!
In last week’s Advocate, President Tom congratulated PP Barry on finding the fantastic guest speakers we have had at recent breakfast meetings and for the work required to sustain this.
"Soon we will commence an online marketing push to promote Rotary locally and promote the good work we do, with the intention of attracting new members and volunteers. The quality of our breakfast meetings is critical to this and remains our best standing opportunity to welcome potential members to our club”, he said.
Well Barry, you did it again!
Elizabeth Connolly (call me Liz), originally from Cork, Ireland moved to Australia in 2008, leaving everything behind except her BSc (Hons) in Applied Biosciences and her accent. Liz began working with Lifeblood in 2014 as a Scientist and joined the Microbiome project (as a scientist) in 2019, before being appointed in the role of Microbiome Manager in 2020. At the beginning of 2023 she moved into a part-time role as a Microbiome Growth Partner and now works closely with clinicians on clinical trials and research for FMT.
FMT is shorthand for Faecal Microbiota Transplant, yes, the many bacteria, viruses, biophages and yeasts ('Microbiota') that populate the excrement ('Faecal') that most parents taught you to call “number 2”, that are going to be transplanted into another human, to save their life. No you didn’t misread this, FMT saves lives. And it’s not a new idea!
In the Bible, there is a reference to people eating and drinking their own waste (Isaiah 36:12).
According to Wikipedia, the first use of donor faeces as a therapeutic agent for food poisoning and diarrhoea was recorded in the Handbook of Emergency Medicine by a Chinese man, Hong Ge, in the 4th century. Twelve hundred years later, Ming dynasty physician Li Shizhen used "yellow soup" (aka "golden syrup") which contained fresh, dry or fermented faeces to treat abdominal diseases. "Yellow soup" was made of faecal matter and water, which was drunk by the person. The consumption of "fresh, warm camel faeces" has also been recommended by Bedouins as a remedy for bacterial dysentery.
And in Australia people who have very painful, potentially fatal dysentery caused by a bacterium called Clostridium difficiel, that is mostly resistant to a whole range of antibiotics, have been restored to health within a few days of receiving an FMT! Watch Kevin's story, only takes a few minutes.
Right now FMT is supplied as a frozen liquid, but is being trialled as an enema with good results.
Liz took us through all the protocols that Lifeblood has established to ensure and reassure that the faecal donation is safe to use. But mental barriers remain - I think it’s because we were raised to call poo, number 2! Receiving FMT via an enema might be the answer.
Liz took us through all the protocols that Lifeblood has established to ensure and reassure that the faecal donation is safe to use. But mental barriers remain - I think it’s because we were raised to call poo, number 2! Receiving FMT via an enema might be the answer.