Posts Tagged ‘Crohn’s Disease’

Colitis may be on the increase, but ‘old friends’ can help

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

If a study recently conducted in Northern California is any indication, Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is on the increase. The study found a sharp rise in cases of ulcerative colitis in children, with rates increasing nearly three-fold in the ten years up until 2006. A smaller increase was noted in cases of Crohn’s disease.

The study does not pinpoint the reasons for this rise, but one possible factor may be the changing demographics of the region surveyed, which has seen a significant increase in the proportion of Asian and Hispanic residents. This group’s risk of IBD tends to go up, as a result of westernization, after they leave their home countries – a process also observed in South Asian immigrants to the UK and Mexican immigrants to the U.S.

One of the key elements of westernization which may adversely impact immigrants is the reduction in exposure to commensal organisms, otherwise known as our ‘old friends’.

Remission from colitis can certainly be facilitated by replacing selected ‘old friends’ in the guts of patients, particularly probiotic worms and the the so-called ‘friendly’ bacteria.

Previous studies have indicated an association between a disturbance of intestinal flora and colitis, and beneficial gut bugs are already known to have an important role in balancing the intestinal bacterial population. But past studies looking at the effects on colitis of taking probiotic bacteria were of limited size and offered no definitive conclusion.

Now, however, a Chinese meta-analysis has concluded that probiotics can indeed be of value in maintaining remission in colitis.

Related posts:

New worm whips colitis into shape.

Worm-derived proteins effective against colitis.

A probiotic for IBD.

Breast milk probiotic may help ease gut disorders.

Genetically engineered bacteria effective against IBD.

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New worm whips colitis into shape

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

For some time, the small intestine-dwelling hookworm, Necator americanus has proved remarkably effective in the treatment of Crohn’s disease, without any long-term side effects. However, people with ulcerative colitis have found hookworm to be less effective in treating this disease than it is for other autoimmune diseases. Fortunately, reports are now starting to appear of just how effective the colon-dwelling whipworm, Trichuris trichiura, is against colitis.

Some people are using the eggs of the pig whipworm, Trichuris suis, to treat colitis but, as this organism only survives in humans for a couple of weeks, regular dosing is required, and the cost of this continued treatment is considerable. By comparison, the human whipworm survives in humans for approximately two years, representing much greater convenience and much lower cost.

The only side effects of human whipworm treatment are very minor, temporary symptoms in the first few weeks after taking a dose of the eggs (in a drink), and there are no long-term adverse effects, which puts this treatment in an entirely different league from the current therapies offered by mainstream medicine in the form of pharmaceutical drugs, the majority of which carry serious risks from long-term use, and some of which may prove fatal.

Both hookworm and whipworm can be obtained, for self-administration, from Autoimmune Therapies.

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Crohn’s disease needlessly claims another victim

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.

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Hookworm vaccine: double-edged sword

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?

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Getting real about antibiotics

Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010

While taking an antibiotic can, in some circumstances, be a life-saving intervention, it will also inevitably lay waste vast numbers of indigenous intestinal microorganisms – a loss from which we may only slowly, and possibly never completely recover, as less desirable organisms can win control in the repopulation process.

Our gut microbiota represents a ’second genome’ that is essential to our health, and any bacterial imbalance can have long-term consequences, due to the fact that we rely on beneficial bacteria to perform a number of crucial tasks such as digesting food, manufacturing vitamins and protecting us from invading pathogens.

When the normal, healthy balance of bacteria is knocked off kilter in the aftermath of antibiotics, the stage may be set for the development of a range of diseases, including Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, food intolerance, and even obesity.

In addition to this, any use of antibiotics has the potential to encourage drug resistance on the part of bacteria, leading to the possible development of new ’superbugs’.

Until recently, the process by which antibiotic resistance develops had been thought to be a passive phenomenon, occurring when a mutation or a bit of newly acquired DNA enables a microbe to evade the effects of antibiotics or render them harmless. Natural selection was thought to then allow these particular microbes to outcompete their non-resistant peers.

However, in the last 6 years, researchers have discovered that mutation rates in bacteria may respond to other factors, such as the production of free radicals in response to antibiotics, which can then cause mutations in bacterial DNA, including some that happen to cause resistance.

A new study explains how this can occur as a result of using lower strength, non-lethal antibiotic concentrations, and how the resulting resistance may not be limited to the particular antibiotic used, but affect other antibiotics as well.

Put simply, antibiotics are not only selecting specific mutations, they are actually causing them.

And the issue of increased antibiotic resistance is not just a problem in clinical settings, but also in the wider environment. New evidence shows that even soil microbes have become progressively more resistant to antibiotics over the last 60 years, and that this has even occurred in the Netherlands in spite of stringent rules on the use of antibiotics in medicine and agriculture and improvements to sewage treatment technology.

It’s clearly a no-brainer that antibiotics should be reserved for life-threatening situations, rather than being squandered on every run-of-the-mill infection that develops. And it also seems madness to continue to allow the value of these drugs in combatting serious infection to be compromised by routinely injecting chickens and dosing pigs and cattle to promote animal growth and producer profits, when the result is low-level exposure to all who eat these animals. While Europe now eschews the use of antibiotics for growth promotion, US farmers apparently remain unpersuaded about the need for this change.

There is really no need to use antibiotics for everyday infections in humans because there are effective natural alternatives to pharmaceutical antibiotics which are ideal for this purpose.

Arguably the best natural antibiotic is colloidal silver, which is actually far safer, more effective and less expensive than the side effect-laden mainstream antibiotics, contrary to the disinformation about this substance that continues to be regurgitatied by mainstream medicine. Even the best and strongest of FDA-approved antibiotics are only effective for a handful of bacteria at best, whereas colloidal silver is effective on a much broader scale and can kill even the most deadly pathogens. Used sensibly, colloidal silver is entirely harmless to humans and it does not create resistance or immunity in the pathogens it kills.

Additional effective, safe and cheap natural antibiotics have recently been discovered in the form of essential oils, which are even able to combat drug-resistant hospital superbugs. Thyme and cinnamon were found to be particularly efficient against a range of Staphylococcus species, with thyme being able to almost completely eliminate bacteria within 60 minutes.

Clearly, the best course is to avoid infection in the first place, and a healthy diet and healthy lifestyle will go a long way towards this goal by enhancing immunity. In particular, the optimisation of one’s vitamin D level will effectively seal the fate of most marauding pathogens, as demonstrated by this must-read article. And vitamin D is very ably supported by vitamin C, a very potent nutrient that continues to be cold-shouldered by mainstream medicine as a result of the double standards applied by Western medicine when assessing the efficacy of vitamins compared with pharmaceutical drugs.

Probiotics can also assist in preventing infection, as shown by yet another new study that has added further data in support of this approach, which is both safe and non-invasive, and does not create bacterial resistance. Moreover, it was found that not only are harmless probiotics able to protect animals against falling prey to pathogenic bacteria, but they can also treat an existing infection, and can do so as effectively as the best available antibiotics.

Finally, if you want a vital and vigilant immune system, be careful what pharmaceutical drugs you take, as some can prevent the body’s attempts to fight invading organisms. For example, the statin drug, simvastatin, which is widely prescribed to prevent cardiovascular disease, actually impairs the ability of macrophages to kill pathogens, and then, in a double whammy, it goes on to enhance the production of cytokines that trigger and sustain inflammation.

Related articles:

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics – avoid like the plague

Kefir benefits the sickest young children on antibiotics

Good bugs prevent colds and flu

‘Friendly’ bacteria: side-lined healers

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Crohn’s disease treatment update

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.

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Appendix: backup bug bank

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

When my appendix was removed, many years ago, I was assured by my doctor that it was just a useless vestige – all that remains, according to Darwin, of a much larger organ, the caecum.

However, recent observations and experiments have disproved Darwin’s theory, and suggest that the appendix may have a use after all – as a ’safe house’ where beneficial commensal bacteria can ride out bouts of diarrhoea, before emerging to repopulate the gut.

The internal walls of the intestine are coated by biofilm, a thin, delicate layer consisting of microbes, mucous and immune system molecules, the role of which is thought to be the protection of good bacteria. These biofilms extend into the appendix, where they are even more pronounced.

The location and position of the appendix are such that, even if diarrhoea is severe enough to flush away the entire contents of the bowels, including its biofilms, the beneficial bacteria within the appendix are likely to remain intact, and able to repopulate the lining of the intestine before more harmful bacteria can take over.

The appendix also has other benefits, such as the manufacture of white blood cells, antibodies and associated chemicals, and it’s presence reduces the risk of developing Crohn’s disease. Furthermore, it can, if necessary, be used in reconstructive surgery, to provide a substitute ureter, for example, or an effective sphincter for a reconstructed bladder. So this seemingly insignificant appendage is not something to be cast aside lightly.

The problem with the appendix is that it is prone to inflammation (appendicitis) which hospitalises 320,000 and kills up to 400 Americans each year. This inflammation has, since Darwin’s time, been thought to be due to a defect in the appendix, such as obstruction of its opening. However, it now appears that Darwin was probably also wrong about this, and it is much more likely that the appendix has fallen foul of the effects of the cultural changes and improved sanitation that are associated with industrialisation and which have left the human immune system with far fewer legitimate targets, thus exposing our own tissues, including the appendix, to its marauding agents.

The author of the first-ever historical study of the appendix suggests that, now that we have a better understanding of the function of the appendix and the effects on it of modern lifestyles, we should be looking for ways to challenge our immune system in much the same manner that it was challenged back in the Stone Age. He of course anticipates that this will eventually be achieved by the use of synthetic medicines, and is seemingly unaware that the immune system can already be effectively challenged by reintroducing some of the organisms that were, for millennia, the natural quarry of the immune system - ‘old friends’, such as helminths.

By reinstating a few benign intestinal worms (available from Autoimmune Therapies), we can introduce an effective mechanism for controlling inflammation throughout the body and thereby not only reduce the liklihood of our appendix becoming inflamed and needing to be removed, but also ensure that we will continue to benefit from the valuable functions that we now know are performed by this odd little organ.

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Wriggling out of food intolerance and fatigue

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)

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Can you worm your way out of depression?

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.

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Genetically engineered bacteria effective against IBD

Sunday, August 23rd, 2009

Researchers have genetically modified one of the trillions of bacteria that inhabit the human gut so that it will produce human growth factors which help repair the layer of cells lining the intestine, thus reducing the inflammation seen in Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

The groundbreaking aspect of this work is that the bacterium – Bacteroides ovatus – can be switched on at will by adding a plant sugar, xylan, to the patient’s diet, and switched off again by removing the sugar.

Xylan is naturally present in foods – in tree bark, rice husks, and oat kernels, for example, but in low concentrations, making it ideal as a trigger for the bacteria. Animals are able to tolerate high concentrations of xylan and have never exhibited any adverse signs from excessive xylan consumption.

This development overcomes the problem with existing bacterial and viral delivery systems, namely that they produce their drugs non-stop. As there is often a narrow concentration range at which drugs are beneficial, and beyond which treatment becomes counterproductive, control is of critical importance.

The latest study focused on mice with colitis, in which the new treatment reduced rectal bleeding, inflammation, and weight loss, and also produced faster healing of colitis-damaged tissue and an improvement in stool consistency.

Trials of the treatment should begin in humans in about 18 months. These will involve patients swallowing capsules containing the bacteria in freeze-dried form, followed, once the bugs are in place, by a drink containing xylan. The bugs will then begin to produce the protein – a human growth factor called KGF-2 – and deliver this directly to the damaged cells that line the gut.

It is hoped that, after modification, this same approach will also be able to produce different proteins which will prove to be effective for bowel disorders other than colitis and offer a solution to the often serious side effects produced by existing treatments. Initially, it may be used as an adjunct therapy to patients’ existing medicine but, eventually, it may be sufficiently successful to become a stand-alone therapy.

The same strategy could eventually be used to deliver agents to interfere with the formation of new blood vessels that feed intestinal tumors and to produce vaccine antigens to build the gut’s immunity against harmful bacteria and viruses.

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Another reason for Crohn’s patients to try helminths

Thursday, August 20th, 2009

The FDA has announced that it is to demand stronger warnings on TNF blockers – the drugs taken by many with Crohn’s disease and other inflammatory diseases – to reflect new information about the increased risk of cancer in children and adolescent patients.

TNF blockers in common use include Remicade (infliximab), Enbrel (etancercept), Humira (adalimumab), Cimzia (certolizumab pegol) and Simponi (golimumab).

This provides yet another reason to try Helminthic Therapy. There is compelling evidence for this treatment, in Crohn’s as well as other autoimmune diseases, and patients continue to report stunning improvement.

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AHFMR research

Friday, July 17th, 2009

AHFMR research

I recently came across an interesting series of reports on research being carried out at the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research.

Eat your worms

Derek McKay and his group are working with tapeworms to try to understand how treatment with a parasite can block inflammation, with the ultimate aim of identifying molecules that could be used as drugs to treat IBD.

Interestingly, McKay suggests the possibility that, if IBD patients were given a helminth infection to deliberately trigger the interleukin-10 response, and these worms were then eradicated, the patients’ immune systems might ‘remember’ the infection, and respond to treatment with a worm antigen, if their IBD were to flare in the future.

Eat your bacteria

Karen Madsen, who is working on how intestinal bacteria influence the development and progression of IBD, has found that both adult and pediatric patients with ulcerative colitis experienced significantly increased remission rates when given probiotic supplements, although the treatment was not as effective in Crohn’s disease.

Turning off inflammation, rebooting the immune system

Paul Beck is looking at the possibility that, in IBD, there may be no switch to turn off inflammation, with the result that T cells continue to make the inflammation steadily worse. He considers it possible that, one day, stem-cell transplants might be used to restore the normal, pre-disease state by rebooting the immune system.

Challenging the idea of autoimmunity

Controversially, Andrew Mason is challenging the widely held belief that many gastrointestinal diseases are caused by the body turning against its own cells, and suggests that at least some of these diseases may actually be of viral origin. He has already identified a virus associated with primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC), an autoimmune disease which gradually destroys the bile ducts, resulting in scarring of liver tissue, but clinical trials using antiviral therapy to treat PBC have not been conclusive.

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Return of the lost worms

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Replacing lost worms to regain health

Helminthic therapy is an experimental approach to the treatment of asthma, allergies and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, which involves the administration of controlled quantities of selected, benign intestinal parasites such as hookworm and whipworm.

The treatment developed out of understanding gained from scientific studies which showed that, while these illnesses have escalated in developed countries during the past 50-100 years, they remain much less common in parts of the world where intestinal parasites are still prevalent.

The aim of the treatment is to rebalance the host’s immune system by replacing one or more of the harmless organisms which have been lost in recent decades due to improved hygiene, sanitation and lifestyle changes.

The organisms used have become masters of the human immune system during millions of years of coexistence with man and are adept at regulating their host’s immune response. In fact, the codependent relationship between worm and man is so close that the human genome is now arguably incomplete without the genes contributed by these organisms.

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Autoimmune & biotherapy news 2009/7/9

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

Narcolepsy confirmed as an autoimmune disorder

The long-held suspicion that narcolepsy is an autoimmune disease has been confirmed by a Stanford University School of Medicine scientist, raising the prospect that a worm infection may benefit those who have this condition.

Alzheimer’s disease may be triggered by inflammation

According to this research, inflammation may be the factor responsible for preventing the removal of amyloid beta protein – the substance scientists believe is responsible for Alzheimer’s disease – from the brain. The medical solution proposed to correct this inflammation is, not surprisingly, a drug, but if inflammation really is the culprit, then an infection with helminths might offer a drug-free solution.

This finding may also mean that those of us who are already hosting helminths may be able to look forward to a dementia-free old age as an additional bonus to the effects we already enjoy in terms of a reduction in symptoms from our respective autoimmune conditions.

The risk of developing autism is up to three times greater in children whose mothers have an autoimmune disease

New findings support the theory that autism is somehow associated with disturbances in the immune system.

This is an interesting development in view of the fact that children with autism have shown improvement in their condition when exposed to parasites.

Bees ‘milked’ for their anti-inflammatory venom

A New Zealand honey producer milks honeybees using electric milking machines (no, don’t check the date – it’s not 1 April!) to obtain venom which is then added to honey for sale to people with arthritis.

The article points to a lack of scientific evidence to support the claim that the ‘bee sting honey’ has any therapeutic effect, but there are people who swear by bee stings as a source of relief from their arthritis.

Maggots on trial

Clinicians at Cardiff University in Wales are teaming up with a commercial producer of larvae to assess whether maggots really can deliver their anecdotally renowned wound cleaning abilities.

The UK’s National Health Service spends 3-5% of its budget on wound healing, so the team hope that maggots may provide substantial savings by cutting the length of hospital stays and reducing the number of expensive dressings used.

However, the study team may have difficulty finding willing volunteers – as the team on the Nottingham Hookworms for Crohn’s trial did – due to the strong repulsion response which such creatures cause in many people.

When a few maggots were found on the floor of a UK hospital operating theatre this week, the incident generated national headlines.

and the story ran for several days, until the carcass of a chick was found in pipes above the theatre and removed.

Bugs as good as drugs

Researchers examining antimicrobial treatments for bacterial vaginosis concluded that intravaginal lactobacillus is as effective as oral metronidazole.

But medicine can’t take its eyes off the ‘chemical universe’

Small chance of interesting medical clinicians in natural treatments like bee venom, lactobacillus, or even tried-and-tested worms, when they have their eyes set on a projected 970 million chemicals suitable for study as lucrative new drugs!

Better sleep without drugs that may affect your worms

Researchers at the University of Virginia have developed a unique Internet-based intervention, based on well-established face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy techniques, that has shown remarkable results in improving patients’ sleep.

Alternatively, a simple meditation technique can have a profoundly beneficial effect on sleep, as I have found myself, although this isn’t a quick fix. Regular practice will certainly deliver improved sleep quality, and provide many other health and performance benefits as well.

Teenager diagnoses own Crohn’s disease in science class

If you thought you could rely on your doctor’s diagnostic skills, this report may shatter your illusion.

A teenager, who had suffered pain, diarrhoea, vomiting and fever for eight years, but whose pathologist had insisted she didn’t have Crohn’s disease, found evidence herself confirming the diagnosis when she looked through a microscope at slides of her own intestinal tissue during a high school science class.

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