Posts Tagged ‘Helminths’

The erosion of choice in healthcare

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Those who frequent the Yahoo Helminthic Therapy forum will know that, in early November, 2009, the US Food and Drug Administrtation moved against Autoimmune Therapies, the company that supplies therapeutic doses of hookworm and whipworm to individuals who wish to use these organisms as a treatment for allergy and autoimmune disorders.

By declaring these natural ‘probiotics’ to be pharmaceuticals, the FDA effectively ended AIT’s production and shipping of helminths from within the US but, with no other company anywhere in the world able to supply these particular organisms to the scores of very sick individuals who need them, Jasper Lawrence and his colleagues were determined to continue to meet their obligations to customers, so Jasper was left with no option but to abandon his home, and leave family and friends in order to relocate in haste to another country.

Shortly after this event, I heard of two somewhat similar cases in which small companies selling completely natural products have been prosecuted by government agencies.

A small US farmer selling unadulterated, raw milk – as drunk by humans since animals were first domesticated – was prosecuted after a sting operation by a local Health Department, and a small UK firm selling a sleep-aid made solely from common grasses was prosecuted by local Trading Standards officials in Wales.

Unfortunately, these are not isolated incidents, but just further examples of the steady – one might even say stealthy – erosion of the choices available to individuals who prefer alternative or natural approaches to healthcare. And, sadly, the vast majority of citizens in the US and Europe are blissfully unaware of what is taking place.

Those who are not already aware of the situation will find enlightenment in these two blogs by Jon Barron – Alternative Health – Now You See It, Now You Don’t and Nutritional Freedom, the Frog in the Water.

I feel sure that, one day, justice and common sense will prevail and consumers will assert their right to have whatever form of healing they choose for themselves, but it could be a long time yet before this happens and things may well get much more difficult in the meantime.

Those who ask what can be done about this situation might care to examine the work of Dr Joseph Mercola, whose website has been the most visited natural medicine site in the world for the last seven years, and is now also in the top ten most visited general health sites.

In the last year, mercola.com has been instrumental in educating the public about the truth behind the Swine Flu debacle. In partnership with the National Vaccine Information Centre, mercola.com helped avoid the use of squalene in the H1N1 vaccine in the US, as well as helping to prevent mandatory H1N1 vaccination, and saving the majority of US citizens from being duped by the massive PR media campaigns into accepting an unsafe and ineffective vaccine.

This is just one example of what can be achieved when individuals are appropriately informed and enabled by the internet to make a stand against scheming corporations and a clueless government, and I urge everyone who cares about maintaining freedom of choice in healthcare to join the Mercola online community and/or to bookmark the Mercola Natural Health Newsletter (or RSS link) and the Mercola Vital Votes Blog (or RSS link).

This will keep you up to date with the latest news on health and provide sound, impartial advice on how to maintain your well-being by the most natural means possible. It will also keep you abreast of the activities of those who would sacrifice your health for dubious motives. The latter are clearly stealing some of the skirmishes but, if they go on to win the war, it will be because we have let them!

As for the three companies mentioned above, the prosecution of the Bechard family by the Missouri State Milk Board and Attorney General for selling raw milk in contravention of state regulations is ongoing. The Welsh sleep-aid manufacturer is now getting back on its feet following its prosecution, and has already picked up an award for its reformulated product, Asphalia, which I can personally vouch for as a remarkably effective and side effect-free sleep-aid. Autoimmune Therapies, meanwhile, have completed the relocation of their production department and should begin shipping hookworm again this week, with whipworm to follow in a few weeks time.

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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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Gut bacteria play a crucial role in food intolerance

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Medicine still has no ready solution for the problem of food intolerance and, in general, doctors have shown little interest in finding one. In the absence of medical help and with no test for the condition, most patients are left to search alone, often in vain, for answers, and for whatever scant relief they can find.

A few doctors, such as allergist Prof. Jonathan Brostoff and gastroenterologist Prof. John Hunter, have taken more of an interest in this condition, and published very helpful books (The Complete Guide to Food Allergy and Intolerance and Solve your Food Intolerance respectively), but these doctors are very much the exception.

For those who don’t want to have to purchase and read their way through a book, Prof. Hunter, and agri-food scientist Karen Huntley, have recently condensed the wisdom gained from many years of clinical practice and research at the Gastroenterology Research Unit, Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge, into an online article (The Management of Multiple Food Intolerances).

The authors assert that food intolerance is caused by undigested food residues being wrongly metabolised by gut bacteria, and explain how this situation can best be managed by using means such as an elimination and/or rotation diet, a liquid elemental diet, fibre reduction, small, frequent meals, careful chewing or blending of foods and taking pancreatic enzymes and probiotics while avoiding prebiotics and antibiotics. Also discussed are the benefits of breath retraining, psychotherapy, EFT and meditation, and the merits of using laxatives and bowel washouts.

In spite of the remarkable breadth of the authors’ approach to food intolerance, this does not yet extend to the use of helminths, about which they were apparently unaware until their attention was drawn recently to my own very successful experience of using helminthic therapy for this condition (Wriggling out of food intolerance and fatigue).

Unfortunately, when doctors are made aware of this option, many tend to be extremely resistant to the idea of replacing even small, controlled doses of organisms which their training has conditioned them to perceive only in an extremely negative light. However, given Prof Hunter’s demonstration, over many years, of the critical importance of gut fauna in the development and management of food intolerance, the idea of using a few additional organisms that have a glowing therapeutic track record should not present too great a leap of imagination.

It is possible that the success of helminthic therapy in treating my own severe food intolerance may be due not just to the effect of the worms on my immune system but also to their effect on the composition and integrity of my gut microbiota, and it seems to me that the use of helminths may be a much more straightforward, powerful and elegant solution to the problem than the collection of measures which Prof. Hunter and his colleague advocate.

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What happens when the good guys disappear?

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.

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The worm’s next success?

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.

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Blood tests to detect colon cancer

Friday, September 25th, 2009

People who need, or wish, to undergo screening for gastrointestinal cancer, but are hesitant about having a colonoscopy, may soon be able to have a simple blood test instead.

Two new non-invasive screening tests have been developed which are able to identify the genetic fingerprints of tumor growth circulating in the blood.

These new tests will be ideal for anyone who is who hosting human whipworm to treat ulcerative colitis or one of the other autoimmune diseases, because they will offer a way to check cancer status without the possibility of disturbing the helminthic helpers living in their colon.

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When did you last change your genes?

Friday, July 24th, 2009

Probably more recently than you realize!

Many of us have come to believe that our genes are an immutable endowment which underpins our health – for good or bad – but this may not be the case. Our genome may be only a starting point which environmental factors continually modify, with surprisingly rapid effect. And the role which these environmentally-induced changes play in disease may be as important as the genetic blueprint which they modify.

Not only might we be changing our genes more often than we thought, but those of us who are hosting helminths may perhaps be having our genes changed for us – for the better – by our ‘old friends’.

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Fluoroquinolone antibiotics – avoid like the plague!

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

Sometimes antibiotics are necessary, and can be a life-saver, but they are best avoided if at all possible. Over half of all antibiotics cause adverse reactions, sometimes resulting in fatalities and, even when they don’t do this, they kill good bacteria as well as bad, and inevitably encourage antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. If you are hosting helminths for therapeutic purposes, antibiotics will also have an adverse effect on these, possibly only temporary, but sufficient to cause a return of whatever symptoms they have been acquired to treat.

Fluoroquinolone antibiotics (e.g. Levaquin, Cipro, Floxin, Tequin) are one particular type to be avoided at all costs. This group of drugs, often prescribed for mild infections such as sinusitis and urinary or prostate infections, can cause severe reactions with long-term consequences. The reactions can occur after just a few doses, can be acute, frightening, extremely painful, and can last for weeks, months or even years. Worst of all, there is no effective treatment for them.

Doctors frequently dismiss any suggestion of a connection between these effects and fluoroquinolone antibiotics, but there is clear evidence for the link. For more on Fluoroquinolone Syndrome, see FQResearch.org, Mercola.com, MedicationSense.com and FQVictins.org.

Antibiotics are often prescribed unnecessarily by doctors who feel obliged to give their patients at least something for their symptoms, but infections will usually clear up without any treatment. One particularly wise medic who I once consulted because of an infection told me, “If I treat it, it will take two weeks; if I don’t, it will take a fortnight.”

If someone is intent on treating an infection, there are natural alternatives to pharmaceutical antibiotics, which do not have any adverse side effects but which are nevertheless effective, and are worth trying first, if the condition is not life-threatening. However, many of these alternatives do have the potential to adversely affect therapeutic worm colonies.

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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

(This article first appeared at foodsmatter.com)

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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Safe dental anesthesia for helminth hosts

Saturday, July 11th, 2009

Since pioneering individuals began hosting helminths for therapeutic purposes, there have been reports of local anesthetics causing a return of symptoms – possibly due to a temporary adverse effect rather than an actual loss of worms.

In one case, the local anesthetic Marcaine was suspected as the possible culprit, and it has been suggested that, being a particularly strong pain killer with a long period of action, Marcaine might indeed have been responsible. Lidocaine, which is a shorter acting anesthetic, may be safer, but the jury is still out on all of this.

In the case of anesthesia for dental treatment, one solution to this dilemma may lie in a remarkably simple breakthrough in pain management which completely removes the need for any drugs – a cryo-anesthetic mouthpiece called the gumEase G100, which is made from latex-free biocompatible PVC and filled with a saline solution. After being chilled in a temperature-controlled freezer to minus 7 degrees C, the device is placed around the teeth, where it acts to produce a surprisingly powerful pain relief effect.

Up to three devices can be applied in succession, for 4 minutes each, until the required amount of anesthesia is achieved. In tests, the average patient experienced 100% pain relief in 2 to 3 minutes, and this lasted for up to twenty minutes.

The device is suitable for use with most procedures, including fillings, crowns, extractions and root canals, as well as brace application and adjustment.

Patients can even apply this device post-operatively, after storage in a household freezer. Proprietary ingredients in the solution within the mouthpiece prevent it from freezing, and allow it to form comfortably to the patient’s mouth when put in place.

The device is obviously also likely to be of interest to anyone with an allergy or sensitivity to any of the constituents of regular injectable anesthetics, anyone with an aversion to needles, or anyone who simply wishes to avoid the prolonged numbing of the face which typically follows injections.

Anyone who wishes to use this new technology should approach their dentist well in advance of their appointment to check whether this type of anesthesia is routinely offered to patients and, if not, suggest that the dentist obtain a supply and try them. As the device is likely to save dentists both time and money, s/he will probably be grateful for the suggestion!

Supplies of the gumEase can be obtained in the US from http://www.cryodevices.com or http://www.olympicdmd.com ($109.45, including shipping, for a box of 10) and, in the UK, by contacting George Harrell at gharrell@cryodevices.com (£69.77, including shipping, for 10).

PS

Patients who have migraine and tension-type headaches who have tried this device have reported that, in addition to delivering effective dental anesthesia, the device has also provided relief from their headaches. In fact, such has been the success of the device in this respect that a trial is about to begin to test this new application. See: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2009/05/prweb2480164.htm

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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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