Posts Tagged ‘‘Old Friends’’

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.

An education in evolution

Sunday, May 2nd, 2010

Visitors to this blog may be more interested than most in evolutionary biology, and may wish to know that the complete course in evolutionary biology, as taught by Stephen Stearns at Yale, is now available on the web.

Setting an example that should be emulated by all academics and, hopefully, one day, will be, all of Stearns’ 36 lectures can be accessed, free of charge, by anyone.

The course presents the principles of evolution, ecology and behavior in a form that is accessible to all undergraduates, and should arguably form part of the toolkit of not only all would-be biologists but also all educated citizens.

Evolution, Ecology and Behavior (36 lectures)

Lecture 21 (Evolutionary Medicine) will be of particular interest to anyone exploring the ‘old friends’ hypothesis, ‘hygiene hypothesis’, or helminthic therapy.

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.

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)

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.

Rhinitis can ruin your sex life, but a few worms may restore it!

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Many of us who suffer from nasal allergies have long known that even the simple act of kissing can be compromised by frequent sneezing, a blocked nose and, worst of all, by post-nasal drip. Now, at last, research has finally caught up with reality and confirmed our experience.

When polled for this new study, 83 percent of people with allergic rhinitis said it affected their sexual activity at least sometimes, with almost 18 percent of those affected saying that their allergies nearly always got in the way of a satisfying sex life.

Itchy eyes and other allergy symptoms can be extremely distracting and make a person feel less than sexy and, if embarrassment caused by many of the other aspects of rhinitis doesn’t cramp one’s style, tiredness from chronic loss of sleep, induced by nasal blockage, almost certainly will.

A friend of mine who spent many years trying unsuccessfully to get help from the UK medical profession for his rhinitis and the problems that it caused, finally found that the only solution was a small dose of tiny worms!

Dave (not his real name) had had rhinitis from childhood, but had managed to live with it well into adulthood before it began to have a major impact on his life. His nose would physically swell up and block, and this prevented him from sleeping and left him extremely exhausted.

He tried everything that his GP offered, but the latter finally told him he would just have to live with the problem! Only after constant baggering of the GP was an appointment arranged for Dave to see a specialist, but this proved to be just another dead end, as did several further consultations with private specialists.

Dave struggled valliantly to hold down his job, although his work inevitably suffered because of his constant tiredness. His performance in other areas also suffered, and his wife eventually left him. At that point, he felt he had nowhere to turn and nothing left to live for, so took an overdose. Fortunatley, this was discovered in time and, as this type of acute problem is something the medics are good at dealing with, he survived.

Shortly after this, I told Dave about my recent therapeutic inoculation with hookworm and how this had completely cleared my own nasal congestion. He didn’t hesitate, despite the significant cost of the treatment, and promptly ordered a dose of hookworm from Autoimmune Therapies.

“Anyone who doesn’t try this,” he said, “isn’t suffering enough!”

After the few weeks that it took for his worms to mature, he began to improve, and I began to get almost daily excited phone calls with updates about his progress.

To cut a long story short, his life has been transformed. He can now once again breathe freely through his nose and he sleeps like a baby – right through the night. His job is going really well and he now also has a new girl friend. In short, he’s ‘full of the joys of Spring’, and all thanks to a few little buddies living in his gut!

This remarkable new treatment, which can turn lives around but which most doctors still know nothing about – and a few are violently opposed to – is called Helminthic Therapy, and involves aquiring a small, controlled dose of tiny (less than a centimetre long), harmless intestinal worms that have co-evolved with our own species for millions of years and which are therefore fully adapted to us – and we to them – but which our modern sanitation practices effectively banished from our lives several decades ago.

Dave and I have both found that having these amazing little creatures back inside us is a simple but very effective long-term solution to nasal problems as well as other forms of allergy, with none of the harmful side effects of regular medical treatments, which, in both our cases, had proved ineffecitve anyway.

Now that we have realised the remarkable benefits of hosting a few carefully selected beneficial organisms, neither of us will ever willingly be parted from our new ‘old friends’.

Hygiene hypothesis pronounced dead by the media

Wednesday, September 9th, 2009

In the past few days, media representatives have flocked around the carcass of the hygiene hypothesis, apparently believing that they were witnessing the passing of this decades-old idea.

Following the release of details about a single new study, an unprecedented number of news outlets ran articles declaring the demise of the hypothesis which had proposed that the increasingly germ-free surroundings of modern life are actually contributing to the recent increase in allergies, asthma and autoimmune diseases.

The study in question has found that, contrary to what some previous studies have suggested, children who enter the bacteria-rich environment of daycare at an early age may not have a reduced risk of allergies and asthma in later childhood.

The most objective comment on the new research has been provided by NHS Choices. Other media reports of the research include: Reuters, EurekAlert, BBC News, The Daily Telegraph, Science Daily, Medical News Today, The Nursing Times, The National Examiner, The Los Angeles Times and The Australian.

What none of the reporters involved seem to have realised is that the hygiene hypothesis was already dead, having been superseded by a new ‘old friends hypothesis’ which emphasizes the need for exposure not just to infectious bacteria, but to a particular range of organisms with which our species has coexisted throughout much of its evolutionary history – notably harmless microorganisms from soil, untreated water and fermenting vegetable matter and, critically, parasitic worms.

Not a single one of the above media reports mentions the old friends hypothesis!

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 our genes change more often than we thought, but we may have far greater control over them than we imagined possible. And those of us who are hosting helminths may perhaps be having our genes changed for us – for the better – by our ‘old friends’.