The scientific desire to learn and discover how everything around us works has made researchers look under the rocks to draw new conclusions and continue advancing for the benefit of all humanity . When it comes to the human body, science is able to take advantage of any matter and substance that it understands. Blood, organs, tissues, fluids and poop are the focus of the studies .
Experiments based on poop analysis are becoming more and more common, but there is no specific term that allows them to be referred to as ‘ in vivo ‘ ( research done with live animals ) or ‘ in vitro ‘ ( research carried out outside the body, usually in Petri dishes ). A team from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill decided to put an end to this situation and have popularized a new term: ‘in fimo’ .
Aadra Bhatt and his team , tired of having to use expressions like “fecal waste from…”, investigated the different Latin words with which the Romans referred to feces. ‘ Fimus ‘, from which ‘ in fimo ‘ derives, was used for both human and animal excrement and was often used for manure . Another option considered, as reported by Bhatt, was ‘ in feces ‘ but they rejected it because it does not have the same eschatological richness and because it was originally used to designate the wine grounds. The chosen term was revealed in an article in the journal Gastroenterology in December 2018.
The reception from the scientific community has been considerably good and everything indicates that its use will gradually spread and normalize. Bhatt and his team have stated that compared to the laborious work involved in putting together and publishing a scientific work , this article has been “a pleasure and it did not take us too long”.
The fact that the researchers themselves have highlighted the need for a specific term for the studies carried out from the analysis of human and animal feces is a clear indication of the importance that these have been acquiring in recent times. A lot of valuable scientific information can be obtained from poop such as monitoring microbes, tracking enzyme activity or using the DNA found to gather information on the general health of the subject.
The use of poop as a treatment to improve health is also not new . Some regions of Asia were already using it in the 4th century to cure intestinal pain, and Joseph Stalin, the former Soviet leader, conducted experiments based on the theory that a person’s mental state could be known from their bowel movements . Currently, stool pills or poop transplants to repopulate the digestive systems of patients with colitis , diarrhea or chronic stomach pain with beneficial bacteria are beginning to be studied as possible techniques, although they are still in the experimental phase and their possible consequences are unknown. long term.
As a final curiosity, in 2015 he opened the first stool bank in the United States . The place was opened by the non-profit foundation Open Biome and uses the samples to investigate the microbiome (shared space with the millions of organisms expelled with the feces) and treat diseases such as Crohn’s disease or irritated colon syndrome . Donors go through a rigorous screening process and feces can be paid for up to $ 40 .
