Your stool sample may soon give health profile, predict future ailments

Nagpur: The Central India Institute of Medical Sciences (CIIMS) has started a unique study of stool samples, which, on its successful completion, will offer a unique parameter of preparing health profile and predicting future ailments of a person. This study of ‘gut-brain axis’ will test stool samples of a patient minutely, so that it reveals details about the future ailments of the patient well before the physical symptoms appear.

“We have prepared a stool sample bank. We have tested stool samples of hundreds of patients in our hospital. Comparative study of the type of microbes and gut microbiomes are found in ill patients and healthy patients will give us an idea of the missing microbiomes in ill patients,” said Dr Rajpal Singh Kashyap, director, research, of CIIMS Nagpur. “Initially, a sick patient may be supplied the missing microbiomes though diet. In future, we may be able to inject or insert the necessary microbiomes through a fecal transplantation therapy,” he added.

Dr Lokendra Singh, director of CIIMS, said that there is a strong connection between brain and stomach. “Our ancestral knowledge in ayurved has always given the highest importance to stomach. After all, all ailments and infections enter our body through the gut. This study aims to explore the gut-brain connection and eventually bring a remedy to the ailments either by early prediction or by treatment options,” Dr Singh said.

During Covid, CIIMS had done one such study on sewage water and they had predicted rightly the arrival of the second wave. The Covid samples were found in high percentage in sewage water a month before the start of second wave. On the same lines, the percentage of Covid virus in sewage water started reducing in May-June last year, which eventually marked the end of second wave in July.

This study inspired CIIMS scholars to initiate a stool sample based research. Dr Tanya Moaghan from UK is an investigator of the present study. CIIMS has claimed that it’s the only research institute in central India to conduct such an ambitious study. Earlier, studies on the subject have been done in foreign countries.