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Woman Suffers Significant Weight Gain After Fecal Transplant

Posted by timothy on from the watch-the-upstream dept.

Beeftopia (1846720) writes In a case reported in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases, a woman suffering from a drug-resistant intestinal infection gained 36 pounds after receiving a fecal transplant from her overweight daughter. Previous mouse studies have shown thin mice gain weight after ingesting fecal bacteria from obese mice. The woman previously was not overweight. After the procedure, despite a medically supervised liquid protein diet and exercise regimen, the woman remained obese. Her doctor said, "She came back about a year later and complained of tremendous weight gain... She felt like a switch flipped in her body, to this day she continues to have problems... as a result I'm very careful with all our donors don't use obese people."

5 of 378 comments (clear)

  1. Okay, so... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Figure out which bacteria the obese patients have in common that the thin ones don't, and figure out a way to eliminate it.

    1. Re:Okay, so... by DexterIsADog · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The whole point is many skinny people violate this law but do not get obese.

      No, they don't. If they did somehow take in more calories then they put out without gaining weight they would be destroying matter and energy, which is physically impossible in our universe. Our bodies are not some magical boxes where the laws of physics suddenly stop applying.

      Um, no, you're wrong. One possibility is that their bodies excrete a higher percentage of the food they take in without metabolizing it. No magic involved.

      I think you have a too simplistic view of human bodies. They are not machines that perfectly process whatever is put into them.

  2. Doubtful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The presence of gut bacteria with such high efficiency (they ones that make you fat by being too good at their job) won't be counter-acted by the presence of the less efficient variety.

    What this means, though, is that I can no longer feel the familiar sense of derision for fat people. Their obesity really may be a product of their microecology, rather than their laziness and hedonistic eating habits. Now I have to feel pity for them instead.

    I guess I can still feel superior to them, since I still am physically fit compared to them...I just can't feel like this was the result of superior decisions any more.

    Oh well, there are plenty of other ways to save my fragile ego.

  3. Re:what about skinny people? by Immerman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why boring? We've established that psychopaths are far more successful in modern society, so obviously the first thing anyone who wants the best for their children should do is have them engineered for psychopathy. Empathy is for the weak. Should make things *extremely* interesting...

    --
    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  4. Re:Maybe just not being ill by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If you watch "My 600 lb Life" on Discovery...

    ...then you will see exactly what the producers of "My 600 lb Life" want you to see, which is a tiny sliver of the truth that has been carefully selected, edited, and re-contextualized to tell you what they know you want to hear.

    Reality TV - isn't.