Who has cured their autoimmune disease with hookworms/parasites? page

[BestBetter]

Last week I listened to a captivating episode of Radiolab (same topic was also on This American Life) about how Jasper Lawrence went to Cameroon (since he couldn't find a single lab that would sell them to him) to infect himself with hookworm - which immediately cured his horrendous allergies. He then formed a company called AutoImmune Therapies that sells sterilized hookworms so that people can infect themselves.

My husband and I have been obsessively reading scientific papers and articles about the Hygiene Hypothesis and about using helminths to treat autoimmune issues, and I have to say that once we were able to get over the yuck factor of microscopic worms (afterall, probiotics are buggies, too), we are both revving up to give it a try.

Anyone else have any experience with this?

Some links if you're interesting in learning more:

Sculptors of Monumental Narrative - Radiolab

Worm therapy (more correctly helminthic therapy) is an immunotherapy based on nature's most powerful probiotics: Hookworm and whipworm balances the immune system and quells inflammation naturally. Autoimmune Therapies was founded by Jasper Lawrence a

Even Mercola chimed in pro-parasite:

How Parasites Can Trick Your Immune System into Health

[namelesswonder]

A parasitic nematode is not the same as bacteria/probiotics! I understand the idea behind it, but I feel like there must be another way to accomplish this.

What particular autoimmune issues are you looking to treat? Personally, this is way beyond anything I would be comfortable trying.

[BestBetter]

A parasitic nematode is not the same as bacteria/probiotics! I understand the idea behind it, but I feel like there must be another way to accomplish this.

What particular autoimmune issues are you looking to treat? Personally, this is way beyond anything I would be comfortable trying.

I felt the same way - but the more I researched, the more sense it made...seriously! Check out some of the links.

[AMonkey]

I understand the evidence for it is pretty good. But the idea of crapping out worms is too much for me.

[BestBetter]

I understand the evidence for it is pretty good. But the idea of crapping out worms is too much for me.

Actually, that was one of the first things I visualized (remembering when my cat had tapeworms...shudder) and it made me immediately reject the idea. But unlike tapeworms, which are actually not beneficial, hookworms don't come out as worms - just microscopic eggs which I believe are invisible to the naked eye.

Plus, they don't reproduce inside humans, so there's no danger of getting overwhelmed by them. If you infect yourself with 10 hookworms, then 10 is all you'll have.

[Nady]

Gotta laugh here~ when my eczema was at it's worst, I was getting 'cure' advice from just about everyone. One 'experienced' self-taught nutritional consultant (health food store) insisted eczema was caused by parasites (worms) and I needed to take some sort of supplement to 'cleanse' my system. I tried the stuff~ didn't do diddly except make me feel stupid.

[ciavyn]

This is wild...but I don't have a way to investigate it further in the US. Curious to see what else comes of this.

[jojohaligo]

Uh...no, don't think so.

" The most significant risk of hookworm infection is anemia, secondary to loss of iron (and protein) in the gut. The worms suck blood voraciously and damage the mucosa. However, the blood loss in the stools is not visibly apparent.

Ancylostomiasis, also known by several other names, is the disease caused when A. duodenale hookworms, present in large numbers, produce an iron deficiency anemia by sucking blood from the host's intestinal walls.

Hookworm is a leading cause of maternal and child morbidity in the developing countries of the tropics and subtropics. In susceptible children hookworms cause intellectual, cognitive and growth retardation, intrauterine growth retardation, prematurity, and low birth weight among newborns born to infected mothers. In developed countries, hookworm infection is rarely fatal, but anemia can be significant in a heavily infected individual.

Hookworm infection is generally considered to be asymptomatic, but as Norman Stoll described in 1962, hookworm is an extremely dangerous infection because its damage is “silent and insidious.”[3] There are general symptoms that an individual may experience soon after infection. Ground-itch, which is an allergic reaction at the site of parasitic penetration and entry, is common in patients infected with N. americanus.[2] Additionally, cough and pneumonitis may result as the larvae begin to break into the alveoli and travel up the trachea. Then once the larvae reach the small intestine of the host and begin to mature, the infected individual will suffer from diarrhea and other gastrointestinal discomfort.[2] However, the “silent and insidious” symptoms referred to by Stoll are related to chronic, heavy-intensity hookworm infections. Major morbidity associated with hookworm is caused by intestinal blood loss, iron deficiency anemia, and protein malnutrition.[4] They result mainly from adult hookworms in the small intestine ingesting blood, rupturing erythrocytes, and degrading hemoglobin in the host.[5] This long-term blood loss can manifest itself physically through facial and peripheral edema; eosinophilia and pica caused by iron deficiency anemia are also experienced by some hookworm-infected patients.[2] Recently, more attention has been given to other important outcomes of hookworm infection that play a large role in public health. It is now widely accepted that children who suffer from chronic hookworm infection can suffer from growth retardation as well as intellectual and cognitive impairments.[5] Additionally, recent research has focused on the potential of adverse maternal-fetal outcomes when the mother is infected with hookworm during pregnancy." (Wikipedia)

[jammies]

Worm infection was next on my list of things to try right after primal/low lectin eating. Fortunately, primal eating was successful for me.

However, this treatment is fascinating to me. I am an immunologist and have read several very good papers on how immune function is modified by parasitic infection. There are clinical trials underway in the US using "egg" milkshakes to treat MS - but the eggs don't hatch. I have heard that preliminary data is encouraging. A great deal of work is being done to identify which components of the worm are responsible for the immune changes.

I was desperately sick and if I ever get back to being that bad I would try the worms.

[cori93437]

Meh... I don't think it's a terrible idea.

In areas where they are a problem the people are exposed frequently and repeatedly from childhood on... and have no means of ridding themselves of high parasite loads.

If you've ingested them on purpose, you have a controlled load... and if it doesn't work, or you become anemic... just take some medicine and oust those little devils.

I grew up running barefoot in the countryside on a farm... I was wormed every fall as a matter of course I'm pretty sure, and I imagine I alternately picked up and expelled a decent number of them in my lifetime. *shrug*