Featured Image Credit: ABC News In-depth/YouTube
Topics: Mental Health, Health, Science
Emily Brown
Before we get going on this, let me say one thing: do not try this at home.
I wanted to get that out of the way early because there are serious health risks associated with this particular story, which involves a woman with bipolar disorder who says the use of her partner's poo helped transform her life.
The suggestion to help Jane Dudley originally came from her partner, Alex, who suggested faecal transplants as a potential way to treat her bipolar disorder.
Per the Mayo Clinic, bipolar disorder is a mental health condition which causes extreme mood swings, including emotional highs, known as mania, and lows, known as depression.
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For Jane, the condition 'stole' a whole host of things from her, including friends, education opportunities and work opportunities.
"I lost 18 years of life that I will never get back," she said in an interview with ABC News In-Depth.
Jane was immediately upfront with Alex about her condition when they met, and she described how he had a brain that was 'constantly looking for research'.
Alex explained: "I'd heard about the gut microbiome, the microorganisms involved in digesting and processing our food and also transferring all sorts of good feelings to us via the gut brain axis.
"A lot of the precursors for dopamine and serotonin are actually produced in the gut. And I knew that Jane's depression was caused by not having access to dopamine and serotonin. And I was like, well, maybe if we fix up the gut, it'll allow those things to reach your brain."
After coming across a study in which a rat developed depression after being administered the poo of a depressed person, Alex considered whether a reversed version of a 'poo transplant' could help Jane.
Jane admitted that the couple 'didn't realize at the time' how dangerous the process could be, with Alex noting that if he had any diseases, Jane was going to inherit them.
But they decided to do it as a 'shot in the dark', and Alex consequently put his poo in a blender with some saline solution, and proceeded to 'squeeze it' into Jane's bum.
The couple tried it a few times, and for about three months, 'nothing happened'.
However, Jane said: "Then the magic started happening. I started to get out of bed earlier and I noticed my depression just becoming less and less and less."
Jane began to wean herself off her medications, and though she initially suffered one manic episode, she has been free of mania and 'all depression' since March 2017.
She explained: "I thought it was about time that I started to share my pretty phenomenal story of uh curing, yes, I'm using the C word, curing my bipolar one disorder through a pretty out-there experiment with poo."
After Jane shared her story, psychiatrist Dr Jessica Green launched a pilot study on fecal transplants for depression, with other researchers getting involved after hearing of Jane's success.
But Jane admitted she has an 'ethical dilemma' in sharing her story because she runs the risk of promoting a therapy that is 'potentially extremely dangerous if the donors are not properly screened'.
Experts have agreed, stressing: "Selection of the donors has to be a scientific approach... you have no idea what they might be harboring in their gut."
"We need to do a fully um scaled trial to see whether it actually works or not," another expert added.