Making Money Selling Your Poop
Written By Ana Aleksic, MSc Pharm

Making Money Selling Your Poop

In this contemporary era where the donation of blood, eggs, sperms, and organs, serves as a monetizing source, you can also earn a handsome amount of money by selling your poop. Wondering how? This is achieved through a process called fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT or bacteriotherapy). FMT involves transferring your healthy stool bacteria into the colon of the affected patient. Broadly speaking, you’re not only raking in cash but also serving the humanity by saving lives.

FMT has become a center of attraction in recent years, presumably due to its high success rate (around 92%). You might be curious to know which individuals warrant someone else’s poop. The major indication for FMT hitherto is an antibiotic-resistant/relapsing or severe Clostridium difficile infection (CDI).

Where to go?

OpenBiome is a nonprofit stool bank, based in Massachusetts, which acts as a mediator supplying fecal microbiota to clinicians globally.

That being said, it isn’t easy to become a stool donor!

You’ll be meticulously screened to determine your eligibility as an ideal candidate. After a thorough evaluation, your blood and dump will be screened for infectious agents and the health of the stool bacteria.

Apart from being potentially healthy, one of the prerequisites for an ideal stool donor as suggested by OpenBiome is your availability and capability to drop off stool samples for five days per week daily for at least 60 days. Moreover, this opportunity is exceptionally for individuals who are under 50 years old; OpenBiome prefers younger adults since they tend to be healthier.

How much money should you expect to make?

The ideal healthy candidate will be offered compensation – around $40 per stool sample. Hence, if you donate a stool sample for 5 days a week, you’ll approximately earn $200, with a bonus of $50 if you show up on all weekdays – that’s roughly $13,000 a year.

How FMT helps the Diseased Gut?

  1. difficile is a harmful bacterium that causes colitis (inflammation of colon) and severe diarrhea. Various antibiotics disrupt the normal gut microbiome, making one prone to CDI. CDI is a serious infection that tends to affect greater than 500,000 Americans per year – that is a significant number!

By introducing healthy fecal matter into the gut (via colonoscopy, enema, or a nasogastric tube), FMT replaces the individual’s bacterial flora with the healthy ones that compete with C. difficile.

Poop Transplantation Works!

Studies suggest that with the appropriate stool transplanted, CDI can be cured for good. [1] [2]

Future Indications for FMT

Given the efficacy of FMT in fighting off the obstinate CDI-induced colitis and diarrhea, the concept of rePOOPulating the gut appears to be promising in inflammatory bowel disease as well, particularly steroid-dependent ulcerative colitis. [2] Also studied is its role in obesity. [3]

Probiotic administration is also promising for preventing CDI

Besides the conventional antibiotics and the novel fecal bacteriotherapy used to treat CDI, probiotics like Lactobacillus reuteri are also effective in averting CDI. For this reason, Lactobacillus-containing probiotics are recommended after FMT as a preventive therapy. [4]

 

Written by:

Dr. Rasheed Huma

References

  1. Gough E, Shaikh H, Manges AR. Systematic review of intestinal microbiota transplantation (fecal bacteriotherapy) for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. Clin Infect Dis. 2011;53(10):994-1002. doi: 10.1093/cid/cir632.
  2. Cui B, Li P, Xu L, et al. Step-up fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) strategy. Gut Microbes. 2016;7(4):323-328. doi:10.1080/19490976.2016.1151608.
  3. Marotz CA, Zarrinpar A. Treating Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome with Fecal Microbiota Transplantation. The Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine. 2016;89(3):383-388.
  4. Lau CS, Chamberlain RS. Probiotics are effective at preventing Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea: a systematic review and meta-analysis. International Journal of General Medicine. 2016;9:27-37. doi:10.2147/IJGM.S98280.
    Back to blog

    Statements made on this website have not been evaluated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Information provided by this website or this company is not a substitute for direct, individual medical treatment or advice. It is the responsibility of you and your healthcare providers to make all decisions regarding your health. Microbiome Plus recommends that you consult with your healthcare providers regarding the diagnosis and treatment of any disease or condition. Products sold on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

    Leave a comment

    Please note, comments need to be approved before they are published.