Luke Winkie, a staff writer, discusses the underground world of fecal transplants, exploring their potential to treat various health conditions. The podcast delves into the online black market for poop and the controversial DIY approaches to gut health, shedding light on the risks and benefits of FMT as a medical revolution.
Fecal microbial transplants have potential health benefits but DIY methods from online sources pose risks.
Rocket Money app helps users save money by tracking and canceling unwanted subscriptions effectively.
Deep dives
Rocket Money - Managing Subscriptions and Bills
Rocket money is an app designed to help users track and cancel unwanted subscriptions, reduce spending, and save money. With over 5 million users, Rocket Money has saved a total of 500 million in canceled subscriptions. Users can easily identify and eliminate subscriptions they no longer need, potentially lowering bills by up to 20%.
Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) - The Online Black Market for Poop
The podcast delves into FMT, a treatment involving transplanting healthy microbes into individuals with gut issues. It explores how some people turn to online sources for FMT due to eligibility restrictions in hospitals. The episode highlights individuals resorting to unconventional methods to obtain fecal samples, like ordering them from strangers online.
DIY FMT - Risks and Challenges
Discussions in the episode reveal the dangers associated with DIY FMT, emphasizing the untested and unregulated nature of such practices. The FDA has raised concerns about the lack of screening and legal issues surrounding the sale of FMT treatments. Despite the experimental and communal approach of the DIY FMT community, medical professionals caution against engaging in unregulated FMT treatments due to potential health risks.
“Fecal microbial transplants” treat someone’s unhealthy gut with poop from someone else’s healthy gut, and proponents of FMT claim it can help treat everything from IBS to autism. But if your doctor isn’t ready to fill you up with someone else’s poop, the internet will happily oblige.
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