The Tribune

For the average 22-year-old, life has just begun. But for Colton Carroll, life as a young adult was more about facing challenges and dealing with restrictions brought on by a recently diagnosed disease.

Thanks to treatment at the Taymount Clinic at the Bahamas Medical Centre in, he is getting a new lease on life.

Two years ago, Colton, who hails from Fresno, California, was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that causes long-lasting inflammation and ulcers in the digestive tract. Over the past year, Colton’s symptoms got worse and although he had tried traditional medical approaches, nothing worked.

“I tried an inhibitor drug called Remicade. When I tried it the first time, I got these rashes all over and the second time I tried it, I got a seizure,” he said.

This has also been quite the journey for his mother, Kelli Carroll, who added: “They called me and said ‘you need to get here right away; we have a problem’. I walked in, they had this thing in his mouth, he was biting his tongue and (shaking).”

After that experience, the Carrolls decided that this medication wasn’t an option they wanted to continue with and so they started looking at more natural options in finding a cure for Colton. This led them to consider faecal microbiota transplant (FMT).

FMT is the harvesting of the natural gut flora of a healthy person and implanting it into someone else in an effort to replace the bacteria and yeasts lost through illness and/or drug treatments like antibiotics.

The aim of this treatment is returning the gut health to its original state.

“By returning gut health to normal, body health returns to normal,” said microbiologist and Taymount UK Clinic co-founder Glenn Taylor.

“We are really rather dependent on bacteria to maintain homeostasis, much more than we ever could have dreamed of before. We never realised that we are actually very dependent on having just the right number of the correct bacteria living inside of us, doing functions we never thought that we actually depend upon. Our immune systems and our neurologic systems seem to absolutely need bacteria as a foundation to create good health.”

Mrs Carroll, who belongs to a support group back home, found out about the Taymount UK Clinic in England, but since the Carroll’s reside in California, being able to travel a shorter distance to the Bahamas where the new Taymount Clinic was about to open, was ideal.

Colton and his mother arrived in Nassau for the inaugural treatment session – a standard two weeks – and both Colton and his mother were thrilled with the preliminary results.

“By day two or three, his energy level was a little bit better, but our big break through was on day five. We left our room around 11.30am and we sunbathed, we went to get spa treatments and shopping till 7.30pm and he never went to the bathroom once,” said Mrs Carroll.

“Normally, if he was even feeling well enough to go, he would have had to go (to the bathroom) at least every hour and he would have just not been relaxed. He was laughing, he was talking, he was relaxed. It was a big turning point.”

So what is the next step for Colton? Although his treatments at the Taymount Clinic are complete, Colton’s journey is not quite over when he and his mother return to California.

“At home I’m going to continue to do the same thing; the FMT’s. I’m going to do it myself at home.”

The Taymount Clinic programme includes patient education on how to conduct their own FMT’s once they return to their home, whether in Nassau or any other part of the world using strictly tested samples from the same donor pool as is used in England and The Bahamas.

Once home, Colton intends to slowly wean himself off of the medication he is now taking for his condition.

“The drugs will eventually become redundant, but you have to work with your physician and he will make recommendations based on your state,” said Mr Taylor.

Overall, Colton and Mrs Carroll are thrilled with the experience they have had at the Taymount Clinic.

“It’s been interesting. Some of it was the nutritional counselling and just some of the emotional support, mom-to-mom here, has been just as valuable as having the treatment. It’s been very helpful. The good thing about this too is, we’re trying to get things back to normal and they’re teaching us how to keep it that way. When a lot of the times, you just go in and they give you a drug and then people think ‘Oh, I’m in remission, I can go back to my ‘evil ways’; I can eat, drink and be merry’, and it’s not like that. This helps you to know that you have to do the right thing and change your lifestyle, because this is a gift you’ve been given and you can’t keep destroying it by whatever put you there in the first place, may it be food, drinks, stress, genetics…whatever it is,” Mrs Carroll said.

As for Colton, he’s ready to get back to living his life as a young adult and not be so restricted in the things he is able to do: “For me it would mean getting my freedom back, doing the things I want to do, like golf. I haven’t played golf in over a year because there isn’t a bathroom on the course when you need it, you know?”