While everyone is different, it did not help me. I had a fecal transplant in February for recurrent c. diff. While it finally cured me of the c. diff infection, it did nothing to help my Crohn's disease. If anything, it made it worse. I had my worst flare ever a few weeks afterward. I had to be hospitalized for 2 weeks and had to start Humira, which I was hoping to avoid. I hope that it works for you.
thanks for telling us your story. but i would caution you not to conclude and interpret this to mean a fecal transplant would not cure or improve your crohn's disease.
Here are a few reasons why-
1. the amount of bacteria that were simultaneously dieing may have caused a strong immune reaction, which you experianced as a flare.
2. Professor Borody's experimental results presented at the American College of Gastroenterology in 2011 demonstrated fecal transplants ability to put crohn's in remission, in 3 patients. so this observation is in direct opposition to your interpretation and conclusions from your own experience.
3. Considering the health of your donor they may have passed a few more pathogens on to you then you would have liked.
4. The state of crohn's has the property of intestinal permeability. It is my opinion that putting a large amount of bacteria into the digestive tract of a crohn's patient, with no substrate to feed on, will also provoke a stronger immune reaction as even the good bacteria seeping through the intestinal wall, will be confronted by the immune system. by using a smaller amount of fecal bacteria, and combining it with a source of fiber, they can attach to these fibers, instead of seeping through the leaky gut, and also create beneficial antibiotic compounds to really correct the environment in the intestine, and they will slowly grow in number as they ferment these fibers on there way down to the colon. once in the colon, they will reach a very large number, so ingesting a large number initially, is not necessary.
5. The type of bacteria that tend to reside in the guts of crohn's patients, are intracellular and live within the cells making them harder to eradicate, while c. difficile, may not have this capability, thereby this may explain the difference between results in Using fecal transplants and why the number of transplants needed to have any efficacy in C. difficile may less then what is required in crohns or ulcerative colitis. Borodys experiments on crohn's patients used 30-65 transplants, this was using enemas and not an oral route. an oral route utlizing the method i suggested above, could lower the # of transplants greatly. and even more so when on a low lactose and sucrose diet.
These disease have a beautiful complexity to them.
so sorry.
