It sounds disgusting but could solve a serious problem. Doctors have found a way to put healthy people’s poop into pills that can cure gut infections.

It is a more practical and less repulsive way to do fecal transplants, or using stool from one person to fix a bacterial imbalance in another.

Canadian researchers extracted the bacteria, packed it in capsules and gave it to patients with severe intestinal infections. All 27 were cured after failing to get better on strong antibiotics.

Doctors think the pills hold great promise. Half a million Americans get these infections each year.

Results were reported Thursday at an infectious diseases conference in San Francisco.