The surprising secret to a healthier gut - Kathryn M. Stephenson and David L. Suskind
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1,700 years ago, Chinese alchemist Ge Hong was renowned for his soup that could cure diarrhea-stricken patients. It had a surprising secret ingredient: feces. While it might seem unwise to consume feces, exciting new research suggests that taking poop into the body in other ways might benefit our health. Kathryn M. Stephenson & David L. Suskind share the science of fecal microbial transplantation.
Additional Resources for you to Explore
The history of medicine is equally full of examples of triumphs where feces helped cure disease in people. You learned about the 4th century physician Ge Hong during our video, but many other physicians and scientists have followed his lead. For example, you may be interested to browse the book Heilsame Dreck-Apotheke (“Healthy Filth Pharmacy”) written by the 17th century physician Christian Franz Paullini in which he includes multiple recipes that include feces. Have you ever wondered whether you could treat a toothache with horse droppings or poor eyesight with falcon feces? He had an idea. You may also be interested to learn about how soldiers in WWII used camel feces to survive dysentery, or how much people have paid for panda poo tea by reading this article.
And how about the future of the microbiome in medicine? There is so much potential and so much left to learn. Are you curious about the largest stool bank in the country—OpenBiome? Have you heard of Microsetta, the largest human microbiome decoding project in the world?
Or, perhaps you are most interested in what is going on in your own body. You can learn more about how to keep your gut microbiome healthy in this TedEd talk about how food affects your gut. There are even commercial companies (for example, Viome, Zoe) that will help send you a snapshot of the makeup of the very microbes that call you their home today. Precision medicine may be the future of medicine. Can you imagine what precision bacteriotherapy might bring?
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Meet The Creators
- Educator Kathryn M. Stephenson, David L. Suskind
- Director Luísa Holanda
- Narrator Susan Zimmerman
- Storyboard Artist Luísa Holanda
- Animator Murilo Jardim
- Art Director Luísa Holanda
- Sound Designer Gabriel Maia
- Composer Gabriel Maia
- Director of Production Gerta Xhelo
- Produced by Anna Bechtol, Abdallah Ewis
- Editorial Director Alex Rosenthal
- Editorial Producer Dan Kwartler
- Script Editor Shannon Odell
- Fact-Checker Charles Wallace