Baby Poop May Be Good For Your Health, According To Scientists

Probiotics are the wave of the future! You may have heard of these living microorganisms which are often found in yogurt and kombucha—though science hasn't yet proven it conclusively, many theorize that probiotics can ease indigestion and help your guy stay healthy! A recent study published in Scientific Reports, however, believes some of the most important probiotics will be found in the most unlikely of places: our baby's poop.

Don't worry: the probiotics in the poop would go through extensive purification before it was ever ingested orally by patients. Hariom Yadav, Ph.D., a coauthor of the study, told Inverse the probiotic "cocktail," would be "a mixture of isolated probiotics that have been extensively purified in a lab and verified for safety."

The probiotics (the ones that come from baby poop) have been tested on mice with reasonable success. Yadav commented:

...we are also planning to put these probiotics in yogurt, kombucha, and several other mediums for human use.

Yadav and his team's experiment began with the collection of 34 poopy diapers from the Bright Horizons daycare center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The scientists were then able to extract over 300 samples of the bacterial strains Lactobacillus and Enterococcus, both of which have probiotic properties.

The ten most potent strains were then grown and purified outside of the baby's poop so no living thing would have to eat that. Finally, the newly developed bacteria were mixed into a cocktail and fed to mice. After ingesting the probiotics, the mice were observed to produce more short-chain fatty acids, which scientists all agree are good for a healthy digestive track. Yadav explained:

It's known that beneficial metabolites produced by gut microbiome [the short-chain fatty acids] are significantly decreased in the gut of people with diabetes, obesity, cancer, autoimmune, inflammatory bowel diseases, as well as in the guts of older people. Hence, probiotics we have isolated increase production of these. They may benefit people with those diseases and conditions.

Yadav's team is looking to bring his probiotic cocktail to market as soon as possible. Not only does he believe the new medicine will do wonders for "improving the health of individuals who are suffering from gut microbiome-related diseases," but it will also be a slam-dunk in terms of business. After all, the drug's main ingredient (baby poop) is famously cheap and abundant.

H/T - Inverse, LiveScience