Ep 87 C. diff: Fighting poop with poop

Ep 87 C. diff: Fighting poop with poop

In this week’s episode, we cover a bacterium whose recent emergence and rapid spread has been largely an epidemic of our own making. Clostridium difficile isn’t your typical pathogen - in many cases it’s not even considered a pathogen, just a normal member of our gut microbiota. But when something disrupts our gut microbiota, like antibiotics, C. difficile is given the freedom to spread its wings, wreaking deadly havoc on our bodies especially when it refuses to leave. We explore the characteristics of this bacterium that make it such a terrifying public health threat, delve into its recent-but-not-as-recent-as-you-might-think history, and chat about the current status of C. diff before asking the question, “what can poo do for you?” That’s right, we’re taking this opportunity to talk about one of our all-time favorite medical interventions, fecal microbiota transplantation. Helping us navigate the ins and outs of fecal transplants is Dr. Majdi Osman, Chief Medical Officer at OpenBiome, a nonprofit stool bank that aims to expand access to safe fecal microbiota transplantation and fund research into the human microbiome. By the end of this episode, we think you’ll find yourself in awe at the healing powers of poop.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Avsnitt(282)

Ep 187 Hypothermia Part 2: How it helps

Ep 187 Hypothermia Part 2: How it helps

Last week, we took you through all the ways that cold can harm us and the harrowing history of humans perishing at its icy hands. Ending the story there would be skipping over the parts where cold get...

9 Sep 20251h 5min

Ep 186 Hypothermia Part 1: How it hurts

Ep 186 Hypothermia Part 1: How it hurts

For all our wondrous adaptations as a species - our big brains, our capacity for language, our opposable thumbs - we humans are not well-equipped to deal with the cold. Take us out of our insulated dw...

2 Sep 202557min

Special Episode: Lina Zeldovich & The Living Medicine

Special Episode: Lina Zeldovich & The Living Medicine

The development of antibiotics was one of the greatest turning points in the history of medicine. Bacterial infections that were once death sentences were cured within a matter of days after administr...

26 Aug 202551min

Ep 185 The Great Smog of London: “Thick, drab, yellow, disgusting”

Ep 185 The Great Smog of London: “Thick, drab, yellow, disgusting”

Some things just go together: peanut butter and jelly, bacon and eggs, milk and cereal, London and smog. Or at least, that’s the way things used to be until the Great Smog of 1952. (Don’t worry, the f...

19 Aug 20251h 14min

Ep 184 The Gallbladder: Humor us

Ep 184 The Gallbladder: Humor us

For most of us, there probably hasn’t been a good reason for you to think about your gallbladder. Ever. Much of the time, it sits there, silently storing, concentrating, and, when needed, churning out...

12 Aug 20251h 22min

Special Episode: Carl Zimmer & Airborne

Special Episode: Carl Zimmer & Airborne

In the first years of the COVID pandemic, a debate raged: was the virus transmitted via respiratory droplets, or was it airborne? For some, this distinction seemed overly technical, pedantic even. But...

5 Aug 202549min

Ep 183 SSRIs Part 2: Action

Ep 183 SSRIs Part 2: Action

Last week, we took you on a journey of discovery and innovation, and this week we’re gonna tell you how the heck it all works. That means a deep dive into the nitty gritty of SSRIs, from what serotoni...

29 Juli 20251h 10min

Ep 182 SSRIs Part 1: Origin

Ep 182 SSRIs Part 1: Origin

Since first hitting the shelves nearly 40 years ago, SSRIs have become one of the most commonly prescribed classes of antidepressants around the world, as well as one of the most discussed and misunde...

22 Juli 20251h 2min

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