Poop Therapy: Company Collects Feces Specimens From Healthy Money for a Price

GoodNature Tempe, a company that collects feces from healthy individuals recently opened for business off University Drive and Rural Road.

An Arizona News report specified that the company is collecting poop from healthy people, which is then used to develop therapies and medical treatments for people who have stomach-related infections.

According to the Marketing and Communication Director for GoodNature, owned by Seres Therapeutics, Jennie Starr, it all "needs to be done here, and that's intentional." She added, they see people in person, and thus, they have control over materials provided. Prospective donors can see if they are qualified by filling out an online questionnaire at goodnatureprogram.com.

Feces Donor Qualification

There's a need for these people to open a phone interview and have a few stool specimens to take to identify if they are eligible.

Approved donors can decide the number of times they want to stop by each week to make a deposit, earning from $25 to $75 per visit.

After the check-in, a nurse will go through a series of questions, Starr explained. One would know which bathroom to he wants to go to, know the routine, leave his business "and head on out," she continued.

Moreover, donors need to be aged 18 to 50 years old. He should be a non-smoker, do not drink excessively, and do not have a history of severe illness.

Paid as Much as $10,000 to Poop

The Tempe facility has been operational for several days, and over 150 individuals have already qualified for the initial screening process. Starr said she is hoping the allure of making money doing something done each day while helping patients in need will entice more people to sign up.

She added, she thinks at the end of the day, it appears like, one would go to the bathroom and leave what he doesn't really want, but then, "you are going to give money."

She also said, they really value donors who make time to do such an outstanding thing for individuals who are suffering. "It is a big deal," she elaborated. Some donors have already earned $10,000 doing their business with the company's program in other cities, MSN News stated in a similar report.

Poop Therapy

This is not the first time that feces is used as a treatment for a disease. The first reported case of a person receiving the said treatment was in 1958. Then, in 2012, Mother Jones reported about a young woman from Marietta, Georgia whose fecal treatment cured "a raging bacterial infection."

Nonetheless, the emerging evidence of the treatment's efficacy in some difficult to treat cases, doctors and patients are both taking much more notice.

In the treatment called fecal microbiota treatment or fecal bacteriotherapy, a small amount of human waste is placed into the gut of a patient, a gastronomical procedure through colonoscopy, enema, or nasogastric tube. Some doctors acquire "medicine" from the spouse of the patient, friend, or child. Others prefer working with anonymous donors.

While most people are preparing a liquid solution, frozen stools have been used successfully, as well. At the time of this report, no one had standardized the treatment protocol.

Related information about fecal transplants is shown on CBC News's YouTube Video Below:

Check out more news and information on Gut Bacteria in Science Times.