Is a million dollars enough for your poop?
Highly effective stool donors will now be paid 1 million dollars per stool. And we’re offering a half-a-million-dollar reward to anyone who recruits one.
The last blog asked: How badly do you want a cure for yourself or your loved ones? What are you willing to do for it?
I emailed it to 1.2 million people, and the response was overwhelmingly "absolutely nothing". I've experienced this same phenomenon in virtually every patient community over the past two decades. It's bizarre and nonsensical. Hundreds of millions of people are suffering from conditions that are likely curable with an existing, simple treatment, yet virtually none of them are willing to spend some time learning about it or lift a finger to help acquire it. This includes people with all the time and money in the world.
Someone told me "I need HM (Human Microbes) so I can afford insulin for my diabetes". I responded, "No, you need HM so you no longer have to purchase insulin". They insisted that no, they just need the money; the diabetes isn't the problem. This example seems to represent the current ethos. People couldn't care less about getting rid of chronic disease. "Chronic disease is normal, why are you trying to get rid of it?"
Lots of people seem to not understand what the Human Microbes project is, and what they're applying for as a donor, despite all the information on our website, blog, Youtube, and social media. Human Microbes is not paying thousands of people $500 for their poop. We're looking for donors who are highly effective for treating and curing chronic health conditions. I'm looking for a cure for chronic disease. I'm looking for a panacea.
Raising donor payouts to $500 per stool seemed to be a major catalyst that resulted in over a million donor applicants. But most applicants are average people looking to make some extra money. They are not the target demographic and don't come close to qualifying.
So I'll raise the payouts even further. $1 million per stool to any highly effective donor, and half a million USD to anyone who recruits such a donor.
This change should make it more obvious that we’re targeting exceptionally rare and healthy people. It also reflects the magnitude of what such a donor is likely capable of.
Why trust me? I get a portion of the sale, and I get cured in the process. It's a win-win for everyone. You can read more about me here, here, here, and here.
PDF: $500k referral agreement.
Since I have signed and dated the agreement, you do not need to mail or email it back. It will be discarded if you do. You’re welcome to sign and keep a copy for your own reference. Referrals are tracked by the “name or email of the person who referred you” question in the screening questionnaire on our Donors page.
This blog post goes into detail on the criteria you may want to aim for when searching for someone who is likely to be a highly effective donor. Donors who have already applied are eligible for the $1 million payout; you do not need to apply again.
To put things in simple terms, if I think you’re a good enough donor to be able to sell your stool for $1 million, I will attempt to do so. The buyer pays $2 million, half goes to the donor, and the recruiter and I split the other half. There are a variety of ways to determine a donor’s safety and efficacy. The exact method(s) used may depend on the buyer’s preferences. All details are negotiable.
If you are a licensed physician, willing and able to run a small clinical trial with a potential super-donor, please let me know. US-based may or may not be preferable. It will likely depend on the buyer's preferences and the donor & buyer's locations.
Who would pay a million dollars for my poop?
I once got an offer for 200 million dollars if I could provide a stool donor good enough to cure balding. I said I needed help acquiring a donor that good, but they weren't interested in helping. Virtually no one has been.
If someone is willing to offer that much for something as mild as balding, you can imagine what someone would pay for a cure for more severely life-altering conditions. The offer I received is not unusual. There are many very wealthy people spending large amounts of money on health & longevity. Bryan Johnson is one example.
There are wealthy people who hire "blood boys" to receive regular blood transfusions from young, healthy donors. Blood is downstream from the gut microbiome, and FMT is a far more promising and complete intervention [1].
There are world-class athletes who've had their careers ruined by antibiotics. There are wealthy, world-class athletes who have conditions that are likely to be cured with FMT, or whose children are suffering from poor health & disease. There are plenty of millionaires and billionaires suffering from disease, wanting to increase their healthspan, and often spending huge amounts of money to do so. It was never my interest to cater to this demographic, but I've tried everything else.
Luka Doncic is someone I find very interesting — a very dominant athlete despite being visibly unhealthy. If Mbappe turned out to be a highly effective donor, I’m sure wealthy athletes like Luka would be eager to pay for Mbappe’s stool to improve their own health, performance, and longevity. Imagine if one of the best athletes in the world could be upgraded. I think he can be. It’s also quite possible that these top athletes could extend their careers by 10+ years with FMT [1].
Pharmaceutical companies looking to make synthetic FMT may be interested.
Why wasn't the balding person willing to help find a highly effective donor? Why haven't any of the wealthy and influential individuals with chronic, disabling health conditions been willing to help? Why aren't any of the organizations dedicated to finding treatments for chronic conditions willing to help? Why aren't philanthropic organizations willing to help?
I can only guess since all I get is silence. From what I can tell, they're waiting for a catch-22. They're waiting for FMT to be shown to be a cure in a human clinical trial, which can't happen without finding a highly effective donor, and I'm the only person in the world pursuing that.
There should be millions to billions of people helping me. But since 8 billion people are leaving this all up to me, this is what I'll do, since I don't know what else to do.
The best piece of journalism on this project is still a 2019 South Park episode. Yes, I am the one seeking the spice.
Despite the many reasons/excuses (some listed below) for why people might fail to recognize an obvious "solution" and take action to obtain it, this level of apathy from so many people suffering and dying from disease seems nonsensical to the point where I'm siding with the people speculating that this is merely some dystopian simulation [1][2].
The people who I think are most likely to qualify, Mbappe for example, probably don't care much for a million dollars. But perhaps they are not aware that they may be flushing a panacea down the drain every day. Perhaps this will make them aware of that, and notify them that this is a way to find out. Surely they are not informed that they are essentially holding the fate of humanity in their hands and choosing to do nothing about it.
If you are interested in purchasing a million-dollar stool from a super-donor, let me know and I'll let you know when I have a super-donor.
Why do you think poop can be a panacea?
There are educational videos and links throughout our website. The "What is FMT page" has an overview.
This 10-minute video on our Youtube channel has a detailed overview of this project, FMT, and my history & motivations.
I did a Q&A in Nov 2023.
HumanMicrobiome.info is where I've been cataloging the scientific research on the microbiome for the past decade. The Intro page has articles, podcasts, documentaries, layperson-friendly books, and more.
Everyone is welcome to join the microbiome forum to learn and discuss.
I saw Kylian Mbappe voicing political opinions. Kylian, please read this and this. You likely have more power to change things than you think. And if it turns out not to work, what have you lost? A bit of your time and poop.
It’s possible to go through most of the screening process completely anonymously.
Why is it so hard to find a highly effective donor?
Chronic disease is so rampant that it has become the norm. Most people are very unhealthy. When I was scouting major universities for stool donors, 95%+ of the people on campus were visibly unhealthy. Many people who look healthy have underlying conditions. Many people who don't have underlying conditions have dysbiotic gut microbiomes due to a wide variety of modern perturbations. Even many of the world's top athletes have conditions that FMT is likely to treat.
People got hooked on a magic pill that seemed to solve all their problems. This “magic pill” has long-term detriments that compound over generations.
People wanting immediate reward without regard to the widespread, long-term damage they were doing have been allowed to poison our air, water, and soil. In some cases, the responsible party is the majority of the human population.
People using their unhealthy bodies to create more unhealthy people.
Humans have nearly completely overridden natural selection without regard to the important functions it performs to keep populations healthy, and without replacing it with ethical alternatives. Thus, the consequences of bad decisions have been drastically reduced. Many of these decisions detrimentally impact the health & development of their offspring [1][2]. Many people in the medical community support and enable some of these decisions despite the long-term consequences [1][2][3]. Thus, the proportion of the population that is biologically deficient has proliferated and become the majority.
One of these factors that has stood out to me while screening donors is the correlation between intelligence and breastfeeding. If everyone had "breastfed/not breastfed" on their foreheads I think most people would recognize the stark differences, and breastfeeding rates would increase. The same probably applies to many other behaviors such as alcohol consumption around the time of pregnancy, and many other similar factors that impact the health and gut microbiome status of the parents.
(No offense intended to people who weren’t breastfed. It is certainly not your fault.)
I originally thought Ja Morant would be an ideal candidate, but he apparently abuses alcohol and that may have done significant damage to his gut microbiome. This is a widespread phenomenon throughout much of human history.
Despite all these major obstacles, I was still able to find two ideal donors on my own, prior to starting up HM. Neither of them wanted to be a stool donor though. There has been some discussion in previous blogs and on the microbiome forum about the fact that the most likely people to qualify seem to be the least likely to apply:
A previous blog discussed research groups going to secluded tribes due to the issues above, as well as why that won't work for FMT.
One interesting note is that this phenomenon doesn’t appear to be exclusive to modern humans. One of Human Microbes’ recipients went to the Hadza to do FMT from them and this person also experienced that the most ideal donor-candidates were the least likely to agree to give him their stool.
The FDA and FMT
To follow up on the previous blog on this topic, I had a video meeting with the FDA. The information I shared with them, and their response, is covered in Part 2.
I strongly encourage the following groups of people to read the FDA blog and take action: Everyone in the medical and research fields, patients, patient advocacy groups, legislators, individuals and organizations that fund medical research, regulatory agencies around the world, and anyone who wants a cure for themselves or their loved ones. People who want to be a stool donor may want to read it too :)
The FDA was nice enough to answer one of my questions, but they were unwilling to use their authority to force people to help me find a highly effective donor, so I’m forced to resort to these drastic measures.
Even before the FDA’s actions, the current business model didn't seem sustainable. Without a large advertising campaign, or integration into the medical system, there is not enough demand for the quality of donor where you pay $1000 for a 50% chance of getting 50% better.
But the FDA’s decisions have set in stone that the current model is completely non-viable. So these changes are the path forward that I can see. If you don’t like these changes you’ll have to get involved to work to change things. You can find opportunities on our social media and the Human Microbiome Forum.
Note to donors: You are not at legal risk for providing stool to Human Microbes (HM). HM carries the legal burden depending on what HM decides to do with that stool.
But most people can't afford a million dollars per stool!
People had the option to help and thus change/prevent this outcome. Virtually everyone chose not to. So now only a few rich people will have access to a cure that could & should have been available to everyone many years ago.
I've spent the last decade reaching out to patient communities, individual patients, advocacy groups, and virtually everyone and anyone I could. As far as I can tell they couldn't care less that a possible cure exists and a single patient is being left to obtain it on their own. So if that's a dead end I'll switch my sights to obtaining a treatment for wealthy people.
Most of our donors will remain available at the current price, but not for the purpose of FMT. You can read "The FDA and FMT, Part 2" and get involved and take action.