Sell your poop for $13,000 per year

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2015/01/29/you-can-earn-13000-a-year-selling-your-poop/?tid=sm_fb

by briandear • 11 years ago

124 51 11 years ago

washingtonpost.com

username2232• 11 years ago

The really crazy part is that once some pharmaceuticals push their own versions of fecal transplants through clinical trials, they'll try to raise the price patients pay for the treatment by 10x or so to make a profit. Of course...

Since they have to come into the Medford, Mass. office, lots of them are Tufts University students. And plenty are recruited from the gym next door. "It's great to have a healthy contingent of regular gym goers right there," Smith said.

PoopDate.io has potential. DISRUPT that bathroom!

giarc7• 11 years ago

The problem with that is that it will push people back to DIY transplants. The same thing happened when the FDA changed the rules for FMT and the number of people doing it at home surged again. The FDA doesn't really know what to do about FMT and it's pushing people to complete at home transplants with untested donors and therefore putting themself at increase risk of adverse outcomes.

username2232• 11 years ago

Oh, I agree -- I don't know how to handle the problem either, and since the majority of our cells aren't human, there are plenty more microbiomes waiting to be transplanted (e.g. skin, underarms, feet). The incentives are incredibly perverse, with drug companies wanting to spend as little money as possible to develop drugs that appeal to the richest consumers, e.g. copycat drugs for old men who still want to get it up for their young mistresses.

pervycreeper• 11 years ago

Not what I thought it would be before clicking (too much internet for me, I suppose).

One would imagine that testing would need to be fairly regular (no pun intended), so I'm not sure what the $5000 figure is meant to represent.

stefantalpalaru8• 11 years ago

poop

It's a brave new world where vulgar and scientific words are replaced with baby talk.

circlefavshape3• 11 years ago

I expect the author has children. Before mine arrived saying "piss" and "shit" was the most natural thing in the world, now I say "wee" and "poo" (I live in Ireland) instead, just out of habit.

stefantalpalaru8• 11 years ago

I doubt it, it's a mainstream phenomenon that has been going on for years. Hip adults talk like children and replace "bad" words with [initial]-word all over the place. It's some sort of voluntary linguistic regression.

wtbob• 11 years ago

You could say 'urine' and 'feces' or 'bowel movement.'

josefresco2• 11 years ago

This is the Washington Post, not some scientific journal.

stefantalpalaru8• 11 years ago

Why should "feces" be used only in scientific journals?

snowwrestler• 11 years ago

WashPo kept it from the original story headline:

http://www.freeenterprise.com/story/the-key-to-a-stunning-me...

Expez• 11 years ago

This reminds of one of the greatest april fool jokes I've ever witnessed. In one of the papers there was an announcement by the parks department or some such about an effort to clean up the Vigeland park. The public was encouraged to pick up dog crap in the park and hand them in to attendants for a few bucks a pop.

The turnout was great and the park was cleared of dog crap, but unfortunately no great fortunes were made :)

kjs3• 11 years ago

My poop is worth every penny. Trust me.

giarc7• 11 years ago

I actually donate on a regular basis (not part of OpenBiome) and can answer any questions people have (a sort of AMA). Edit - this isn't a joke comment, I actually donate stool weekly.

zo1• 11 years ago

I'm curious about the... Logistics of it? Do you store it, somewhere till the end of the week? Sit on a bucket, or use a ziplock bag? Scoop it out of the bowl every time? Do you have to make sure it doesn't get contaminated with urine?

Do they care about the consistency, color, smell, etc? Or is it just pretty much anything goes? Do they request that you eat a specific diet?

spyspy• 11 years ago

From the article it seems the donors are required to go to the office and do their business there.

giarc7• 11 years ago

For me I work in the same building as the laboratory, therefore I use a collection container and deliver it "fresh" to the lab. I'm lucky because I'm fairly regular and donate around the same time everyday (9am) therefore I just walk down to the lab. A fellow donor is more of a night person, so they store it overnight in a container and bring it in the next day.

The containers are just plastic containers (like a margarine container)m, single use. You place it in a trapezoid shape holder. Then place it on the toilet. If you place it one direction it collects stool, if you place it the other direction it collects urine. So yes, we do keep them separate.

If I have a bout of diarrhea, I stop donating and wait for it to clear. I then collect samples and send to the lab for testing (ova and parasite, regular fecal culture, norovirus, hepatitis and some other viral testing). If I'm clear, I can continue to donate. This same process happens if I go on antibiotics or if I travel out of country. So anything goes, minus liquid stool.

As for diet, I'm actually encouraged not to change my diet. My flora has shown to work well for recipients, and therefore if I change my diet I might change my flora.

fapjacks• 11 years ago

What sort of poop do they prefer? I mean here the raw physical consistency, and do you prepare yourself to donate this specific kind? Or do they just take any old shit you give them? This is very interesting to me, thanks for answering questions.

giarc7• 11 years ago

I don't donate for OpenBiome so I don't know about their process, but for me they take my normal stool. I don't change my diet (you can see my other comment for that reasoning). As for preparation, there isn't much that changes from what I give them and what the patient takes (we mostly do pills). They want it as close to my flora as possible.

jobu• 11 years ago

The article describes the selection process as setting a very high bar - "You don't just have to be healthy. You have to be really healthy."

What sort of requirements are they talking here? General health, physical fitness, proper diet, all of the above, or something else?

giarc7• 11 years ago

I can't speak to OpenBiome specifically, but you are correct, they look for generally well people. I'm active, but they don't expect me to spend 1hr in the gym everyday. There is also research showing that the microbiome of obese and overweight people differ from healthy weight people, I'm of the latter group.

Diet wasn't so much of a concern. I once switched to gluten free on request from the recipients family, however, as both myself and the physician said, gluten is probably broken down before it comes out the other end.

phkahler• 11 years ago

Why can't they just grow the desired types of bacteria?

On a related note, how can the bacteria survive in "pro-biotic" pills that you can buy? I'm suspicious.

gmarx• 11 years ago

I was wondering that myself. One guess- the proportions are important and they don't know what culture medium to use. The gut is a complex environment. What if they grow it in a lab and some unknown minor microbe is selected out?

On the other hand, I bet they're working on it.

gww• 11 years ago

Not every type of bacteria in your gut microbiome is known and/or able to be grown in culture.

As per your question regarding pro-biotics, some bacteria such as Lactobacilli can be dried and remain viable when reintroduced to a liquid medium.

abandonliberty• 11 years ago

Yes - we can only culture a very small minority of wild bacteria.

For example, the recent antibiotic discovery that made the news came from learning how to culture soil bacteria. No, we didn't learn what it needs. We just grew it in it's natural environment: dirt.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8852487

Revolutionary. (seriously).

bduerst• 11 years ago

Anaerobic bacteria are incredibly difficult to culture, especially if the specie is one that doesn't spore or last long in aerobic conditions. Those are most likely what are in the probiotic pills, but I do not know and am only speculating.

ChuckMcM• 11 years ago

That is a crap load of cash :-) Interesting concept though.

raisedbyninjas• 11 years ago

From the donation benefits section:

"Win competitions like biggest single donation of the month, or most donations in a month for bonuses and prizes!"

Cyranix• 11 years ago

A bit off-topic, but: for an incredibly over-the-top violent-but-funny animated movie whose plot revolves around profitable poo, give Aachi & Ssipak a try: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aachi_%26_Ssipak

Sell your poop for $13,000 per year

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