Re: Not Fri: Important Medical News.
From: Anna Meenan, MD (annam@uic.edu)
Sat Sep 17 00:13:21 2005
For real? Why not just use probiotics (which folks actually have used
for treatment of resistant C.diff.)? As I recall, this subject was
touched on in the book "House of God".
Danish names are funny, BTW. My grandfather's name was Aage, but it was
pronounced "Oowe".
--
Anna L. Meenan, MD
At Fri, 16 Sep 2005, RModugno@aol.com wrote:
>
>Important Medical News . .
>By Gene Weingarten
>
>I am right now on the phone, on hold, waiting to talk to Dr. Johannes Aas, a
>prominent gastroenterologist from Duluth, Minn. Dr. Aas has been paged. I m
>calling him because I have just received a copy of a medical paper he has
>written, and as a serious journalist I consider it my duty to bring this ma ter
>to the attention of the public.
>Dr. Aas is a busy man, and this is taking a while, so I'll use the time to
>warn you that if you are currently having breakfast, or contemplating havin
>breakfast, or ever plan on eating again, you might wish to skip over the
>remainder of this column. Ah, here we go.
>Dr. Aas: Hello?
>Me: Doctor, I would like to publicize the excellent, pioneering work you ha e
> done with an alternative treatment for cases of Clostridium difficile
>colitis that prove resistant to more conventional treatment with metronida ole or
>vancomycin.
>Dr. Aas: Okay.
>Me: I want to make it clear that I am interested in this as a serious medic l
> issue and that it would be impossible for me to write about this — indeed,
>this column would not be published — if I failed to treat it in a ignified
>and responsible fashion.
>Dr. Aas: Okay.
>Me: Could you explain for my readers what this new treatment consists of?
>Dr. Aas: You mean why we have chosen this method?
>Me: Sure. However you like.
>Dr. Aas: Stool is an organ.
>Me: Excuse me?
>Dr. Aas: It is normally considered waste product, but it is in a way an
>independent organ, like the kidney, and it contains thousands of different
>bacteria living in symbiosis. These bacteria are needed for normal health. hen you
>use some antibiotics, some of this bacteria population gets destroyed. If
>you later get infected with Clostridium difficile colitis, there is this
>competitive battlefield in the colon, and without the necessary bacteria,
>Clostridium has the upper hand. So what we do is take normal stool from a n rmal
>person, make an extract of it, put it in a blender with water, take two
>tablespoons of that cocktail, and introduce it into the patient's body.
>Me: It is, in effect, a human poop transplant?
>Dr. Aas: Yes. To replace the normal colonic flora.
>Me: That's a nice word!
>Dr. Aas: Okay.
>Me: And how is this transplant done?
>Dr. Aas: Through a tube down into the patient's stomach. A naso-gastric tub .
>
>Me: It goes in through the nose?
>Dr. Aas: Or the mouth, yes.
>Me: Okay!
>Dr. Aas: Yes.
>Me: Can't it go in the other end?
>Dr. Aas: There is a doctor in Australia who does it that way, but sometimes
>the small intestine is infected, too, so it is more effective this way.
>Me: In this particular organ transplant, who are the donors?
>Dr. Aas: Most of the time, a loved one.
>Me: I can imagine.
>Dr. Aas: Yes.
>Me: And this works as a cure because the microbes remain in the colon?
>Dr. Aas: Yes.
>Me: It is the gift that keeps on giving!
>Dr. Aas: We've been doing it for 10 years without a single failure.
>Me: Doctor, on behalf of my readers, I need to ask you, am I making you up?
>Dr. Aas: No.
>Me: You exist, and I am talking to you?
>Dr. Aas: Yes.
>Me: How do you pronounce your name?
>Dr. Aas: Oze. I am Danish.
>Me: Okay. You understand why I am calling you, right?
>Dr. Aas: Oh yes. You wouldn't believe the [flora] I have taken from
>colleagues since publishing that paper.
>Me: Yes, I would. Well, I want to thank you for taking the time to speak to
>me today. As far as I am concerned, if this column saves just one life, if t
>eases the burden of one victim, then my work here will have been vindicated
>Dr. Aas: Good!
>*****************************************************************
>Robert Modugno MD MBA FACOG=20
>*****************************************************************
>Marietta, GA
