Posts Tagged ‘Autoimmune Disease’
Tuesday, August 17th, 2010
Restless Leg Syndrome (aka ‘Ekbom’s Syndrome’) was a problem for me for many years.
Having M.E./Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I desperately needed all the rest I could get and relied on a good sleep at night and two lengthy periods of deep relaxation/meditation during my waking hours in order to get through the day without feeling too dreadful.
But, as my health steadily declined, I began to develop a tendency to become uncontrollably restless just as I was going to sleep, and also after I’d been meditating for 10 or 15 minutes, a situation that threatened to scupper the energetic equilibrium that I was already having to work so hard to maintain.
I reported the problem – which mostly affected my right leg – to my GP, but he didn’t recognise any specific condition and could only suggest that I take sleeping tablets to knock me out at night, and prescribed an …azepam drug, which was fine for one night, but, if I took it for more than two nights, it actually made the problem worse.
When I returned to see the doctor, after doing some homework, I was able to give him detailed information about Restless Leg Syndrome, which was clearly the problem I was experiencing. He admitted that he had not heard of this, but he was willing to learn and, together, we explored several therapeutic approaches. Unfortunately, none proved successful.
I then tried electroacupuncture – again unsuccessfully – and sought, but could not find, an osteopath familiar with the use of the Dalrymple pump technique, which I had heard might help.
The usual nutritional approaches – taking magnesium, calcium and potassium, and avoiding caffeine – didn’t work either, nor did vitamin E or a strong B complex formulation, nor even drinking tonic water (for the quinine). And, as the problem got worse, I began to find that drugs taken for other conditions, such as metoclopramide to treat gastroparesis, could dramatically worsen the symptoms.
It was at this point that I first encountered hookworm, a development that was eventually to transform my health in many ways.
So many of my multifarious symptoms disappeared or were significantly reduced after getting ‘hooked’ that I was overcome by all the remarkable improvements I was enjoying, and didn’t immediately notice the actual moment of cessation of several of these, my restless legs included.
I was looking at a list of autoimmune diseases when I happened to notice that RLS was among the 150-plus diseases included, and the realisation suddenly dawned that this – one of ‘my conditions’ – was no longer a problem for me. I was almost as shocked to acknowledge that I hadn’t noticed its passing as I was relieved that it was finally gone.
I immediately looked up the record I had begun after getting my hookworm, and found that references to RLS began to reduce rapidly from the fifth week post inoculation. There was no record at all of restlessness from weeks 6 to 10, only a few mild episodes between weeks 10 and 19, and then absolutely nothing from then onwards!
It’s now 18 months since I adopted my treasured harem of hookies, and there has been no sign at all of any restlessness in my legs since week 19, a fact about which I am even more relieved, having just read that, in the absence of other effective medical options, doctors have recently begun to use the drug Qualaquin to treat RLS.
Qualaquin is approved for the treatment of a type of malaria, not RLS, and it has the potential to adversely affect almost every body system. The list of its effects includes permanent kidney damage, deafness, blindness, cardiovascular problems, severe nose bleeds, dizziness, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. The FDA have already released a statement alerting consumers to these dangers, after receiving a slew of reports of side effects including serious and life-threatening reactions.
My hookworm initially caused some temporary gastric symptoms, particularly diarrhoea, but the small number I have will never cause any worse effect than this, so I’m hugely relieved that I discovered them before my GP got round to suggesting I try Qualaquin!
Tags: Autoimmune Disease, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Gastroparesis, Hookworm, M.E., Metoclopramide, Qualaquin, Restless leg Syndrome, Sleeping Tablets
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Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
While this heading is, in itself, remarkable, it’s only half the story, because the treatment, which uses an attenuated bacterium, may also benefit other autoimmune conditions.
The recently completed research sought to establish the safety and efficacy of BCG vaccination as a therapeutic agent for the prevention and reversal of existing type 1 diabetes and to define the exact dose and timing of administration of the vaccine.
Previous preclinical studies by the same team had established that temporarily elevating levels of an immune modulator called tumor necrosis factor (TNF) can selectively and permanently eliminate the autoimmune T cells found in mice and humans with type 1 diabetes, and thus precipitate the regeneration of insulin-producing islet cells and restore the production of normal levels of insulin.
The BCG (Bacillus Calmette-Guerin) vaccine, which contains a live but weakened form of Mycobacterium bovis – the bacterium responsible for tuberculosis (TB) – was used because its administration is known to increase levels of TNF in humans.
Until recently, it had been generally believed that, in humans, beta cells divide only very infrequently after the first year or so of life and that they do not readily proliferate once type 1 diabetes is diagnosed, but recent research has shown that insulin-producing beta cells can proliferate in patients recently diagnosed with type 1 diabetes and even that different pancreatic cells can change into functional beta cells.
Having now shown that low-dose, multi-dosing regimens of BCG vaccination are safe in individuals with type 1 diabetes and that there were no severe reactions to the vaccine, the Massachusetts team are now planning the next stage of their research.
Not only is the possibility of reversing type 1 diabetes now on the cards, but it looks likely that this may be achieved by administering the already available BCG vaccine, and what works for type 1 diabetes may potentially benefit patients with other types of autoimmune disease, so this work offers a glimmer of real hope to many.
Tags: Autoimmune Disease, BCG Vaccine, Beta Cells, Insulin, Islet Cells, Mycobacterium bovis, T-cells, TNF, Tuberculosis (TB), Type 1 Diabetes
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Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
An article in a Scottish newspaper recently revealed that a thirty nine-year-old Crohn’s patient had died of starvation after doctors had said there was nothing more they could do for her.
Wendy Ritchie’s case is reminiscent of that of Annabel Senior, an M.E. (CFIDS) sufferer who also found there was nothing left that she could eat without suffering unacceptably severe symptoms, so bravely chose to stop eating.
As someone with both Crohn’s disease and M.E., and very severe food intolerance, I was fortunate to discover Helminthic Therapy before I began to react to the last remaining item of food that I could tolerate.
Sadly, this treatment was not available when Annabel was alive, but I can’t help wondering what the outcome might have been for Wendy, had she been offered this option.
Helminthic therapy has been exhaustively tested in countless humans over millions of years, and optimised by evolution. There is already clear scientific evidence for its beneficial effect on Crohn’s and other autoimmune diseases, and, unlike the majority of drug treatments, helminthic therapy is safe and free from any long-term side effects.
While doctors continue to turn a blind eye to this treatment, and incorrectly advise some patients that ‘nothing more can be done’, the media are fortunately beginning to publicise helminthic therapy.
Tags: Autoimmune Disease, Crohn's Disease, Food Intolerance, Helminthic Therapy, M.E.
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Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
This test tube study suggests the possibility that manipulating the balance of intestinal bacteria by taking probiotics – such as bifidobacteria – and prebiotics may improve the quality of life for those with coeliac disease and other autoimmune diseases.
For more in-depth discussion of this topic, see this article by Dr Mercola.
Tags: Autoimmune Disease, Bifidobacteria, Coeliac Disease, Prebiotics, Probiotics
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Sunday, May 9th, 2010
This article reports the claim by Scottish scientists that secretions from the filarial nematode, Acanthocheilonema viteae (a parasitic worm) could be used, within five years, to treat conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and asthma.
Prompted by two decades of observations that these and other inflammatory conditions are less common in Third World countries, where intestinal worms are still endemic, researchers have discovered that the worm-derived molecule, ES-62, appears to prevent symptoms in mice by disrupting production of the pro-inflammatory cytokines released by mast cells.
The researchers, who are the first to describe a pathogen-derived molecule capable of directly inhibiting mast cell effector function, aim to produce a synthetic form of ES-62 which they believe could be used to develop new drugs to combat rheumatoid arthritis and, ultimately, other types of autoimmune disease.
This will be welcome news to the many people whose arthritis is only poorly controlled by currently available medications, However, apart from having to wait for several more years for the new treatment, this will be based on only one of the many (probably synergistic) molecules that parasitic worms produce, Moreover, in its synthetic form, the molecule may prove to be no less a cause of adverse side effects in humans than are most of the drugs available today.
While these and other scientists around the world are straining every sinew to wrest from our parasitic companions the secrets of their chemical wizardry, a simple and elegant solution already exists to the problem of autoimmunity, in the form of safe, tiny, live intestinal worms, small numbers of which can be replaced in the gut without causing any long-term side effects.
The human hookworm, Necator americanus (available from Autoimmune Therapies), will deliver to its host a constant supply of anti-inflammatory molecules to which humans have become perfectly adapted over millions of years. As Necator lives for approximately five years, its presence avoids the need to remember to take daily medications and obviates the problems associated with synthetic pharmaceuticals, which are invariably formulated with additional binders, fillers, excipients and various other substances to which a significant number of people experience adverse reactions.
Related article:
Worm-derived proteins effective against colitis
Tags: Acanthocheilonema viteae, Asthma, Autoimmune Disease, Autoimmune Therapies, ES-62, Hookworm, Intestinal Worms, Mast Cells, Necator Americanus, Rheumatoid Arthritis
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Friday, April 30th, 2010
Reading the information on the development of the hookworm vaccine may fill most readers with the warm glow that comes from the belief that yet another medical milestone is about to be passed en route to a disease-free world. My own response, however, is one of absolute horror!
Once this vaccine is available, it will certainly have the potential to reduce the anaemia and protein malnutrition suffered by more than a half-billion people worldwide who are infected with hookworm but, assuming that it is effective, it will totally wipe out the worm burdens of all those individuals who receive it. And, if it is effective, long-term, these people may never again be able to host hookworm, and therein lies a very significant problem.
There is a clear link between a lack of intestinal worms and many of the worst diseases of modern Western civilization – devastating autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, as well as allergies, some of which can kill in a few moments via anaphylaxis. And there is also growing evidence that replacing a controlled number of intestinal worms, such as hookworm, can effectively treat these same diseases.
The difference between disease causation and disease remediation is numbers. Many hundreds of worms will cause problems, and the more there are, the bigger these problems will be. However, less than a hundred worms will not cause any health problems, but will provide effective protection against inflammation, allergy and autoimmune disease.
Surely, it would be far more sensible to seek better ways to control the numbers of hookworm being hosted by individuals rather than wipe then out completely. But this kind of thinking is anathema to medical authorities around the world, who are now hell-bent on getting rid of what they can only perceive as a threat.
Not surprisingly, the authorities are being eagerly encouraged in this endeavour by the pharmaceutical multinationals who have realised that vaccines offer them the opportunity to sell drugs not only to the sick, but also to the well. Hence the huge increase in the number of vaccines currently being developed and pressed upon a largely unsuspecting public.
Where all this madness will end is anyone’s guess, but treating hookworm infections using vaccines will likely result in millions of people developing autoimmune diseases, which they will not be able to treat using controlled numbers of hookworm because they have been vaccinated against this organism.
Had I been given this vaccine, I would not have been able to experience the relief from my allergies, chronic fatigue, and Crohn’s disease that the acquisition of a few hookworm has produced. So, from my perspective, the deployment of a hookworm vaccine has the potential to create a nightmare scenario. The only positive side to the development will be the inevitable financial rewards for those who happen to work for, or have shares in the company that manufactures the vaccine!
Quite apart from the above considerations, there are also many question marks hanging over the safety of vaccines in general. These products are a veritable witch’s brew of toxic elements, and medical professionals are continually revealing confronting statistics showing the darker reality of what vaccines may actually do to those who receive them.
Unfortunately, so far as the hookworm vaccine is concerned, the commercial momentum is probably now unstoppable. The only hope for the unsuspecting millions who will be given this vaccine is that it will prove less effective in the long term, in the same way that the mumps vaccine has proven to be ineffective, with protection levels falling off very quickly after administration. I certainly hope that this will be the case!
Related article:
Swine flu vaccine: do you really want it?
Tags: Allergy, Anaphylaxis, Autoimmune Disease, Crohn's Disease, Hookworm, Hookworm Vaccine, Inflammation, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Ulcerative Colitis, Vaccines
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Friday, April 9th, 2010
Insulin-producing beta cells can be ‘reborn’. This article outlines groundbreaking research showing that pancreatic alpha cells are capable of changing naturally and spontaneously into insulin-producing beta cells.
After creating an artificial form of type 1 diabetes in mice by destroying 99% of their beta cells, and then giving them insulin therapy to keep them alive, the scientists observed alpha cells spontaneously change into functioning beta cells, a process which continued until enough alpha cells had converted into beta cells to allow cessation of insulin therapy.
Even if such a process occurs, or could be induced, in humans, the immune assault which kills the beta cells would arguably continue to attack any reprogrammed cells, which is why people who have had transplants of insulin-producing cells must eventually return to using insulin.
Although the article doesn’t mention the possibility, one can’t help wondering whether an appropriate dose of helminths might successfully control the autoimmune response and preserve the new beta cells.
‘I was stung by 1,500 bees and I feel great.’ This article reports on the ‘tremendous relief’ experienced by an MS sufferer who was bedridden before trying Bee Venom Therapy (Apitherapy) in which she received 1,500 bee stings to specific sites on her back over 18 months. She is now reportedly ‘back on her feet’, with a much improved quality of life.
There are two types of MS, study reveals. This piece outlines new findings that may revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of MS and give significant hope to sufferers. It appears that there are two types of MS, determined according to whether a patient has Th1 or Th17 immune responses, and that a simple blood test may be able to differentiate between the two.
The study also showed that only one type of MS responds to beta interferon – generally considered the best conventional treatment – and that the second type may actually be made worse by this treatment.
UV light may benefit MS, beyond vitamin D. Whilst it has been known for three decades that MS is much more common in higher latitudes than in the tropics, and that vitamin D may reduce MS symptoms, new research suggests that the ultraviolet portion of sunlight could play an even more important role than vitamin D in preventing and/or controlling MS.
Bacterium may be new anthelminthic. A toxin produced by the soil bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) could potentially become a treatment for roundworm infection.
Used as a pesticide for decades by organic farmers, this bacterial protein has also been found to kill intestinal parasitic roundworms in mice and may become a treatment option for humans, perhaps replacing albendazole, the current World Health Organization-approved treatment, to which hookworm and some other parasitic nematodes have shown signs of resistance.
As someone who is hosting hookworm as a therapy, this article gives me some cause for concern, as it mentions that some plants have been genetically modified with Bt genes since 1996 so that crops such as corn and potato can themselves produce the crystal protein, providing protection from insects without the use of pesticides. What concerns me is whether eating these GM foods might have an adverse effect on my highly prized team of gut buddies.
Infection with tick-borne parasite may suppress malaria. This new study suggests that monkeys chronically infected with babesia, a tick-borne parasite, are able to suppress malaria infection when exposed to a simian malaria parasite.
Can evolution explain the rise in certain diseases? This article calls for the adoption by physicians of an evolutionary perspective on health and disease instead of the traditional, Newtonian view of the human body as a perfectly designed machine.
Evolutionary concepts have already helped to explain why some diseases are so prevalent and difficult to prevent: the elimination from our lives of bacteria and worms has resulted in more allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases, and our lack of adaptation to new risk factors in modern society, such as tobacco, alcohol, a high-fat diet and contraceptives has resulted in higher rates of cancer.
Further insights may help to explain why disease is generally so prevalent and difficult to prevent – perhaps because natural selection favors reproduction over health, biology evolves more slowly than culture, and pathogens evolve more quickly than humans.
Acne drug/ulcerative colitis link again demonstrated. New evidence has been found of a cause-and-effect relationship between the acne drug isotretinoin (Accutane) and ulcerative colitis – though not Crohn’s disease – which suggests that patients on the medication are four times more likely than non-users to develop colitis within a year. The risk of developing this disease appears to climb in tandem with a patient’s daily dose of the drug.
Tags: Acne, Albendazole, Allergy, Anthelminthic, Apitherapy, Asthma, Autoimmune Disease, Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), Beta Cells, Beta Interferon, Helminths, Hookworm, Insulin, Malaria, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Th1, Th17, Type 1 Diabetes, Ulcerative Colitis, UV Light, Vitamin D, Worms
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Monday, March 15th, 2010
Our gatherer ancestors obtained so much vitamin C from their predominantly fruitarian diet that they eventually lost the gene responsible for its synthesis, making modern man dependent on food-source vitamin C.
In the same way, genes that once trained and tuned our ancestors’ immune systems were lost as ever-present intestinal worms took over this role. Unfortunately, however, we in the modern West have summarily dismissed our helminthic hitchhikers and are consequently left with no alternative source of the molecules with which they had supplied us for millennia.
Deprived of the natural regulatory mechanism provided by intestinal worms, immune systems are now attacking harmless environmental antigens (causing asthma), foods (inflammatory bowel disease), or self-antigens (multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes, and more than a hundred other autoimmune diseases).
Depression is not yet listed as an autoimmune disease, but it may not be long before it is, according to a recent article in Psychology Today.
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), which is closely linked to the Western lifestyle, and is rising rapidly up the world’s ‘top ten’ chart of diseases, may not be a mental illness after all, but a mental symptom of an immuno-regulatory disorder of the modern environment.
If this is true, it implies, to quote this article, “… that the most effective therapy is likely to be similar to those suggested by the hygiene hypothesis for other immune-related disorders – and is certainly not likely to be psychotherapy. Worms might do you more good!”
See also: Can you worm your way out of depression?
Tags: Asthma, Autoimmune Disease, Depression, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), Intestinal Worms, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Type 1 Diabetes, Vitamin C
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Monday, February 22nd, 2010
Researchers have discovered that a cocktail of ingredients obtained from common food supplements effectively forestalls major aspects of the aging process in mice.
The study found that a complex mix of supplement-derived ingredients offset the decline in physical activity of aging mice by increasing the activity of the mitochondria – the cellular furnaces that supply energy – and reduced harmful free radical emissions.
As many illnesses, including inflammatory and autoimmune conditions as well as heart disease, stroke, Type 2 diabetes, many cancers and neurodegenerative diseases, are strongly correlated with free radical processes, using an approach like the one employed in this study to intervene in free radical production could beneficially impact these conditions.
Tags: Autoimmune Disease, Cancer, Food Supplements, Free Radicals, Heart Disease, Inflammation, Mitochondria, Neurodegenerative Disease, Stroke, Type 2 Diabetes
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Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
The treatment of Crohn’s disease usually involves the use of anti-inflammatory drugs, but these are frequently only partially effective and are also associated with serious side effects. Many patients eventually require surgery in spite of the use of these medicines.
The serious risks associated with Crohn’s medications have again been highlighted recently by a study which found that the immunosuppressant thiopurine drugs – one of the cornerstones of Crohn’s treatment – can increase the risk of cancers linked to viral infections.
Patients receiving thiopurines – such as azathioprine and Imuran – were found to have a more than five-fold increase in the risk of lymphoma compared with those who had never received these drugs. Older male patients with a longer history of inflammatory bowel disease also have an increased risk of lymphoma.
Another recent study indicated that patients with inflammatory bowel disease, especially those receiving thiopurine medications, may also be at increased risk of developing non-melanoma skin cancers.
Only in the last few days, a new warning has been issued about the drug Tysabri (Natalizumab), the multiple sclerosis medication that was approved for use in moderate to severe Crohn’s disease in early 2008.
Tysabri, which had previously been linked with a rare but deadly brain disease called progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML), has now been confirmed to increase the risk of this disease. Whilst there have been no reports of PML in patients taking Tysabri for less than 12 months, the rate in patients who use the drug for two to three years is estimated to be one case per 1,000 patients.
The search for a better treatment alternative continues with a new multi-centre trial, funded to the tune of $4.7 million, which is about to compare the use of the conventional management strategy featuring gradual escalation of drug therapy with a newer approach combining immunosuppression with a tumor necrosis factor alpha blocking drug and an anti-metabolite.
Turning to studies that are already bearing fruit, potential sources of relief for Crohn’s are being revealed by research looking at the effects of certain nutrients on the activity of this disease. For example, it appears that it may be advantageous for Crohn’s patients to vary the types of fat that they consume, especially to increase the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids and decrease the Omega-6 fats that are now found in extremely high quantities in the average Western diet.
Several studies have suggested that Omega-3 fats – available from oily fish, and fish oil supplements – exert a protective effect by modulating intestinal inflammation, and a new study has found that a high intake of total, saturated and monounsaturated fats, and a higher ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, is associated with higher disease activity.
Another new study has identified a further novel treatment avenue for people with Crohn’s or other inflammatory bowel diseases, in the readily available vitamin D. The study shows, for the first time, that vitamin D deficiency can contribute to Crohn’s disease, and that supplementing with this nutrient can counter the effects of the disease.
Vitamin D impacts the immune system, specifically the innate immune system that acts as the body’s first defense against microbial invaders, and it appears that the inflammatory response, which is thought to underlie autoimmune conditions, is probably the result of a defect in the handling of intestinal bacteria by the innate immune system.
Another potentially hopeful recent study, has found that two compounds extracted from cannabis – the cannabinoids THC and cannabidiol – appear to be able to restore the gut membrane barrier by allowing epithelial cells to form tighter bonds.
Studies being carried out at Nottingham into the use of live hookworm as a therapeutic agent in Crohn’s and other autoimmune diseases is still a very long way from demonstrating efficacy, mainly due to the low numbers of worms having been used in these trials to date, and the inadequately short period that the worms have been left in place.
Nevertheless, existing research, already suggests a high degree of success from the use of hookworm, and the efficacy of this treatment is regularly confirmed by patients who have chosen not to wait for further trials, and have obtained a supply of helminths elsewhere.
Helminthic therapy is therefore arguably the current treatment of choice for Crohn’s disease, especially as it provides freedom from the long-term side effects associated with so many of the available drug treatments. Unfortunately, the FDA has recently banned the supply of helminths to anyone within the US, so American citizens who are too ill to travel are now effectively denied access to this treatment, which is available everywhere else in the world, via the internet, from Autoimmune Therapies.
Tags: Anti-metabolite, Autoimmune Disease, Autoimmune Therapies, Azathioprine, Cancer, Cannabidiol, Cannabis, Crohn's Disease, FDA, Hookworm, Imuran, Lymphoma, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Natalizumab, Omega-3, Omega-6, Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML), THC, Thiopurine, Tumour Necrosis Factor, Tysabri, Vitamin D, Worms
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Thursday, January 21st, 2010
Some people diagnosed with lupus, MS, diabetes and other diseases have found that their symptoms have disappeared when they stopped consuming products containing the artificial sweetener aspartame.
However, avoiding aspartame may be difficult, as this sweetener can be found in approximately 6,000 products worldwide, including soft drinks, chewing gum, confections, gelatins, dessert mixes, puddings and fillings, frozen desserts, yogurt, tabletop sweeteners, pharmaceuticals and vitamin products.
Those who promote aspartame claim that it helps people achieve a more healthy diet by reducing or replacing the calories in foods and beverages while maintaining great taste. Its advocates point to the fact that simply substituting a can of diet soft drink for a regular soft drink can save 150 calories, and that substituting a packet of low-calorie tabletop sweetener for two teaspoons of sugar three times each day – in coffee and tea, and on cereal etc. – can save 100 calories a day.
But all this hype covers up a quite different reality and a very sorry tale of deliberate deception on the part of big business and government in both the US and Europe. The truth is that aspartame is an addictive, excitoneurotoxic, genetically engineered carcinogen that interacts with virtually all medications!
The story of aspartame is laid bare in the movie ‘Sweet Misery’ – the film that Pepsi and Coca Cola didn’t want us to see, but which is now available, in entirety, on the internet.
Those who decide to avoid aspartame after watching this film need to be aware that a new derivative of this sweetener has been introduced by NutraSweet. Called Neotame, the new product is already availiable in the US and has recently been approved for sale in Europe.
The makers of Neotame are promoting their product to manufacturers by pointing to such attributes as its great taste, zero calories and the fact that it’s 8,000 times sweeter than sucrose. They also draw attention to reduced handling charges, shipping and storage costs that will, they say, deliver commercial users significant savings on sweetener formulations. So Neotame is clearly going to sweeten the profits of Europe’s as well as America’s food and drink manufacturing companies, but what will it do you you and me?
Well, it may allow manufacturers to reduce the amount of high-fructose corn syrup in their products, which could be good news but, as Neotame is a modified version of aspartame, and has a very close chemical relationship to the original, this new, ‘improved’ version is likely to carry similar health risks.
Anyone wondering if there is an artificial sweetener which doesn’t carry the risks attached to aspartame and similar compounds should look at stevia, a completely natural, sweet substance that is grown in soil rather than being concocted in a laboratory.
Tags: Aspartame, Autoimmune Disease, Carcinogen, Coca Cola, Diabetes, High-fructose Corn Syrup, Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Neotame, Pepsi, Stevia, Sweet Misery, Sweetener
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Friday, December 18th, 2009
Appearing at the same time as the United Nations climate change conference is meeting in Copenhagen to try to avert impending global catastrophe, this cogent essay considers the peril that threatens each individual from within, as the human microbiome reacts to changes in sanitation, lifestyle and medicine that have taken place during the last century and are continuing apace.
This piece looks not only at the implications of losses already being sustained by sections of the human microbiome, but also considers new and hopeful developments in the drive to address this trend, such as the borrowing of models from outside medical science – taking the concept of extinction from the field of ecology, for example – and the possibility of one day screening infants for native microbiota and giving ‘immunizations’ to fill in important missing niches, in much the same way that users of helminthic therapy are already doing by reintroducing lost helminths in order to treat the allergy or autoimmune disease that has developed as a result of their absence.
Tags: Allergy, Autoimmune Disease, Helminthic Therapy, Helminths, Immunisation, Microbiome, Microbiota, Sanitation
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Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
Taking part in the Hookworms for Crohn’s Disease trial at Nottingham University in 2007 had provided me with a brief but tantalising glimpse of how my health might be improved by hosting a small colony of benign intestinal worms, and I was determined to acquire a long-term infection as soon as possible.
To this end, I had secured the agreement of my gastroenterologist, who referred me back to the trial team for reinfection. However, in spite of an earlier indication that they would be willing to provide me with a further dose of hookworm, the trial coordinator then told me that this would not be possible until the study was complete.
This was a considerable disappointment because the trial was taking an inordinately long time – probably due to difficulty finding sufficient volunteers willing to host a small worm colony – and it became clear that the trial would not be complete until the middle of 2009.
In the meantime, I had required further bowel surgery, to repair yet more Crohn’s-related intestinal strictures, and I was still unable to eat any normal foods due to multiple allergies and overwhelming food intolerance, not to mention having a number of other long-term health problems, including M.E., a subgroup of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome characterised by inordinately exaggerated exhaustion following any activity, either physical or mental.
I was becoming impatient… (continued)
Tags: 'Old Friends', Allergy, Annabel Senior, Autoimmune Disease, Autoimmune Therapies, Benedryl, Catarrh, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Constipation, Cramps, Crohn's Disease, Eczema, Exhaustion, Fatigue, Food Allergy, Food Intolerance, Headache, Helminthic Therapy, Hookworm, Hypoallergenic Formula Feed, Intestinal Gas, Jasper Lawrence, Larvae, M.E., Migraine, Nasal Congestion, Nausea, Necator Americanus, Nottingham, Osteopath, Ovamed, Restless leg Syndrome, Steroid, Strictures, Surgery, Temperature Control, Worms
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Monday, November 23rd, 2009
The worm is already transforming lives previously blighted by asthma, allergies and autoimmune disorders (Which diseases have responded well to helminthic therapy?).
Now, unfolding research suggests that the worm might also be effective against a diverse range of conditions that were not previously considered to have inflammatory components, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, gastric reflux, schizophrenia and aortic dissection.
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
Recently announced research indicates that the origins of pediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette syndrome and/or tic disorder may lie in an inappropriate immune response to bacteria which cause common throat infections.
The team involved have been able to demonstrate an association between the appearance of antibodies directed against Group A beta-hemolytic streptoccoccus (GABHS) in peripheral blood and the onset of repetitive behaviors and deficits in attention, learning, and social interaction.
The revelation that antibodies alone are sufficient to trigger the onset of this behavioral syndrome will undoubtedly have medics reaching for sophisticated solutions such as intravenous immunoglobulin, or plasma exchange to remove the antibodies, in order to attenuate the autoimmune response, but the humble helminth may well do the job as effectively as any drug, and without any long term side effects.
This work may also suggest a role for helminths in treating and preventing other disorders potentially linked to autoimmunity, including mood, attentional, learning, and eating disorders, as well as autism spectrum disorders.
Schizophrenia
The provocative conclusion that a mental disorder can result from a lingering immune response inevitably makes one wonder about schizophrenia, and a Swedish study has already found that patients with recent-onset schizophrenia do in fact have higher levels of inflammatory substances in their brains.
While previous studies had analysed inflammatory factors in the blood of patients with schizophrenia, the Swedish researchers were able to examine inflammatory substances in the patients’ spinal fluid, and found raised levels of interleukin-1beta, a signal substance released in the presence of inflammation, which is not seen in anywhere near the same quantities in healthy control patients.
Interleukin-1beta is known to be able to upset the dopamine system in rats, which may explain the overactive dopamine system which has, until now, been the main focus of attention in schizophrenia in humans.
This development will inevitably raise hopes that schizophrenia may be treatable using immunotherapy, and perhaps that it might even be possible to interrupt the course of the disease at an early stage of its development.
Immunotherapy using helminths is unlikely to be considered by researchers, but these organisms would seem to be ideal candidates for the role, in view of their proven track record against inflammation and their freedom from adverse events.
Acid Reflux
According to newly released information, the common condition referred to as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) might not be due to burning by stomach acid backing up into the oesophagus, as has long been thought to be the case, but by inflammation caused by immune cells in response to exposure to bile salts.
The study has shown that gastroesophageal reflux causes tissue in the oesophagus to release immune chemicals called cytokines, which, in turn attract inflammatory cells, resulting in the heartburn and chest pain that characterise GERD.
As helminths are past masters of inflammation control, their presence could potentially bring relief from GERD.
Aortic Dissection
Aortic dissection, the condition that develops when a bulge in the aorta gives way and leaks (leading to nearly 16,000 deaths annually in the US alone), was formerly thought to be the result of a simple structural failure. However, researchers appear to have uncovered biochemical processes that chip away at the aorta from within, until it finally tears, and inflammation has been revealed as the central player in this process.
Once again, one wonders whether this condition might be prevented from developing at all in someone who is hosting helminths.
Tags: Acid Reflux, Allergy, Antibodies, Aorta, Aortic Dissection, Asthma, Autism, Autoimmune Disease, Bile Salts, Cytokines, Dopamine, Eating Disorder, GABHS, Gastric Reflux, GERD, Heartburn, Helminths, Immunotherapy, Inflammation, Interleukin-1 beta, Intravenous Immunoglobulin, Learning Disorder, Mood, Obsessive-compulsive Disorder, Plasma Exchange, Schizophrenia, Throat Infection, Tic Disorder, Tourette Syndrome
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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
The use of antidepressants in the US has nearly doubled since 1996, and over ten percent of the US population aged six and above now take an antidepressant – twenty seven million Americans using pharmaceutical drugs to help them get through the day, with very little, if any attempt to address or even consider possible underlying causes.
This pharmaceutical approach invariably produces additional problems ranging from increased depression and suicide to weight gain, insomnia, nausea, chest pain, stroke, congenital defects, and more. Thirty percent of those on antidepressants experience sexual dysfunction, and a recent report found that antidepressants blunt the ability to express and experience love.
It may be, however, that there is another form of treatment that might prove to be effective without any of the long-term side effects attached to pharmaceutical products.
It is known that the administration of neutralizing anti-TNF antibody to patients with Crohn’s disease not only alleviates the symptoms of their Crohn’s but also reduces any depressive symptoms, and treatment with anti-TNF and other anti-inflammatory drugs has also been shown to relieve symptoms of depression in other patient groups.
This may suggest that the immunoregulatory failure that is now known to be implicated in the increased incidence of chronic inflammatory disorders such as Crohn’s disease, as well as other autoimmune disorders and allergies, could also be involved in depression, and it might be that the effectiveness of some of the currently available antidepressant medications is actually due to inflammation-reducing properties.
New research in mice has in fact recently found a biological link between inflammation and depression, identifying an enzyme which appears to be connected with both chronic inflammation and depressive symptoms.
This research has therefore revealed both a new target for drug manufacturers to aim for, and also pointed to the possibility that depression – and perhaps other stress-related psychiatric disorders – may, like allergies and autoimmune diseases, be the result of a lack of the organisms now referred to as our ‘old friends’.
If this is so, then reintroducing some of these organisms by means of Helminthic Therapy – a practice which is highly effective against inflammation – may also relieve depression.
Unlike drugs, the helminthic therapy approach, which uses low doses of carefully selected, benign intestinal worms, has no lasting side effects and is readily available from Autoimmune Therapies. This company offers a ‘no benefit, no fee’ program for those with illnesses previously not treated using Helminthic Therapy, which currently include depression. This program provides treatment free for a year, after which time the clients themselves decide whether the treatment has been successful or not. If they feel they have benefited, they pay for the treatment at that point but, if they are not satisfied with the results, the treatment is terminated and they owe nothing.
Tags: 'Old Friends', Allergy, Anti-inflammatory, Anti-TNF Antibody, Antidepressant, Autoimmune Disease, Autoimmune Therapies, Chest Pain, Congenital Defects, Crohn's Disease, Depression, Helminthic Therapy, Insomnia, Intestinal Worms, Nausea, Psychiatric Disorder, Sexual Dysfunction, Stress, Stroke, Suicide, Weight Gain, Worms
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