IT’S one of the most exciting advances in science, yet the idea is hard to stomach. Tiny “crapsules” — yes, that’s pills filled with poo — could help save the lives of people with a host of life-threatening diseases. The therapy, known as faecal microbiota transplant, involves administering a healthy person’s stool, and all their gut bacteria into the bowel of another unwell person.
It has the “yuck” factor, but FMT could one day be a groundbreaking treatment for a number of diseases, with trials ongoing for insomnia, Parkinson’s, allergies, bowel diseases and even cancer. Last month Rick Dallaway , from Stratford-upon-Avon, West Mids, became the first person to finish treatment during a study looking at how FMT could help ease a rare liver disease . The 50-year-old knows there is no cure for his chronic condition — primary sclerosing cholangitis — which causes scarring of bile ducts and can lead to cirrhosis.
Rick who works in data protection, tells Sun Health: “Because I had an interest in gut health anyway, I thought, ‘Wow, this seems like the trial for me’. I signed up the next day.” Rick is the one of 58 people in England taking part in the Fargo trial, led by Dr Palak Trivedi, a clinician scientist at the National Institute for Health and Care Research Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre.
It will test whether FMT can improve quality of life in those with PSC, which mostly affects the under-40s. Participants do not know if they are �.