谁说“人中黄”不能治病?
(2012-01-30 13:44:42)
标签:
保健人中黄粪便肠道感染健康 |
分类: 健康要闻 |
人中黄~百度百科如此描述“人中黄,中药名。是一种加工制品。为甘草末置竹筒内,于人粪坑中浸渍后的制成品。具有清热、凉血、解毒之功效。《本草备要》:“泻热,清痰火,消食积,大解五脏实热……”。由于人中黄的制作过程有违常理,故用其治病一向颇受争议,可争议归争议,事实归事实。这项源自中国、且被人看起来实属荒唐的技术近日来已被西方学者证明确实可以治病。
路透社由纽约发出的健康通信报告“加拿大学者已经证实通过灌肠的方法将健康志愿者的大便注入某些患难治性肠道梭状菌属感染(Clostridium difficile infection)的患者肠道内,确可发挥显著的治疗作用”。学者们推测“注入健康志愿者的大便之所以能够有助于治疗肠道难治性细菌感染,可能与其帮助恢复患者肠道菌群平衡有关”。该项研究的成果发表于2012-01-23的内科学档案(Archives of Internal Medicine),有兴趣者请参阅原文。
Enema transplant works for stubborn infection: study
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - For patients with nearly no options to treat a persistent bacterial infection wreaking havoc on their bowels, a transplant of someone else's fecal matter, delivered by enema, helps heal in nine out of 10 cases, according to a new study.
"It's unbelievably effective," said Dr. Neil Stollman, who was not involved in this research, but who has reported similar success using colonoscopy to deliver a stool transplant.
The procedure is used primarily to treat patients with infections from the bacterium Clostridium difficile (see Reuters story of January 19, 2011).
Typically, the bugs colonize the gut after antibiotics used to treat other infections have disrupted the body's normal bacterial harmony.
"C. diff," as doctors refer to it, can cause chronic diarrhea, weight loss, abdominal pain and complications such as kidney failure or a hole in the colon.
Most people recover from the infection, often with another course of antibiotics.
But a minority have recurrent cases of infection, or never respond to treatment.
The idea behind fecal transplant from someone with a healthy gut is to restore bacterial balance to the patient's intestines.
In the study, led by Dr. Christine Lee at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, the researchers asked two healthy volunteers to donate fecal matter, which was diluted in water and given to 27 patients who had failed to recover after antibiotic treatments.
Unlike earlier studies that have used a colonoscope or a tube through the nose into the stomach, Lee's group used an enema to inject the feces.
"The rationale for using an enema is it can be used in any setting and it's not an invasive procedure," Lee told Reuters Health.
All but two of the patients recovered after the procedure, and the vast majority felt better within one day, Lee and her colleagues report in Archives of Internal Medicine.
"I would recommend it to anyone who has had recurrent Clostridium difficile infection. Right now we're dealing with a high rate of relapse, particularly in light of the type of strain that's circulating now. It's difficult to treat," Lee told Reuters Health.
Stollman, who practices at Northern California Gastroenterology Consultants, said only about 10 percent of patients have the nasty C. diff infections that might make them good candidates for the stool transplant, but that number is on the rise.
"C. diff is exploding," Stollman said.
Lee's team notes that C. diff infections tripled between 1996 and 2005, now affecting about 84 out of every 100,000 people.
Stollman said that so far he has seen no drawbacks to the procedure, but given that most studies are only several years old, it's unclear whether long term side effects could emerge in the future.
How, exactly, the transplanted material helps is unknown.
Lee said it could be that the newly introduced bacteria outcompete the C. diff bugs, or it could be that bacterial by-products in the stool help restore balance to the gut.
"The whole underpinning of this procedure is, if I don't know which bacteria to put in and in what concentration, let's put it all in," said Stollman. "It's an inelegant procedure with an elegant outcome."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/xtXkDN Archives of Internal Medicine, January 23, 2012.