Could Obesity Be Cured With Freeze-Dried Fecal Pills?

It might sound a bit unsanitary, but could poop pills help curb obesity?

Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston are looking at a type of bacteria that lingers in the digestive tract that could help curb obesity. The way it works is that gut microbes are taken from lean, metabolically healthy donors, according to U.S. News and World Report, and then put in the bodies of those who are obese or dealing with insulin sensitivity.

A new clinical trial that is not yet available to participants will study the effects of these microbes. But how do you get them from one person to the other? Well, scientists actually have to freeze the feces from donors and then case the material into pills that are given to the subjects orally.

"We have no idea what the result will be', but that she and her colleagues are cautiously optimistic," Dr Elaine Yu, an assistant professor and clinical researcher, told Ars Technica, an online magazine, according to EmaxHealth. "At the moment, there is a lot that scientists don't know about the microbes in the body - or what they do," which Dr Yu said is "‘highly unsatisfying'."

The information is based on a 2013 trial in which groups of mice were given gut microbes from lean and obese humans. Findings showed that mice who received the lean human poop stayed slim. 

The study builds on a 2013 trial in which groups of mice were given gut microbes from lean and obese humans. The mice that got the lean human poop stayed slim.

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