Posts Tagged ‘Worms’
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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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 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.
Tags: 'Old Friends', Antibodies, Appendicitis, Appendix, Beneficial Bacteria, Biofilm, Bowel, Caecum, Crohn's Disease, Darwin, Diarrhoea, Helminths, Immune System, Inflammation, Intestine, White Blood Cells, Worms
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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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Saturday, November 7th, 2009
All that is required to effect significant improvement in asthma is a small dose of benign intestinal worms.
‘Helminthic Therapy‘, as it is called, is entirely safe, and one dose is effective for an average of five years.
However, medicine is going through a period of parasite paranoia at the present time, so doctors are ignoring the evidence and denying patients this very simple and natural preventive/treatment option, offering, instead, a range of pharmaceuticals which, in many cases, have devastating long term consequences; surgery; and, now, an electrical stimulation technique in which an electrode is inserted under the skin of the neck into the tissue surrounding the carotid artery and vagus nerve and used to deliver electric shocks of up to 12 volts.
A small but growing number of asthma sufferers are turning their backs on these modern medical options and choosing to place their health in the hands of a few of the gut worms which had effectively protected humans from asthma for millennia, until we interrupted their life cycle by donning shoes and deffaecating in toilets.
The first group of pioneers who obtained their worms from Autoimmune Therapies have reported an average response rate of 83 per cent, and an average degree of improvement of 4 on a 5-point scale – a significant reduction in symptoms, which became evident from an average 4.8 months after the worms were reintroduced.
I don’t have asthma myself, but have acquired a small colony of hookworm to treat overwhelming food intolerance and chronic fatigue, both of which are responding remarkably well to this approach. Having had my worms for several months I am now completely unaware of their presence, except for the huge improvement in my health, for which I am constantly thankful. If I did have asthma, there is no way that I would subject myself to any of the medical treatments currently on offer, when such a simple, natural and safe option is available.
Tags: Asthma, Autoimmune Therapies, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Electrical Stimulation, Helminthic Therapy, Hookworm, Pharmaceuticals, Shoes, Surgery, Toilets, Worms
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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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Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
What would we do without worms? They aerate our gardens, provide an invaluable research model for scientists, ease our allergies and autoimmune diseases and, now, the fascinating sandcastle worm has given us the secrets of its underwater building prowess.
Scientists had long been on the lookout for an injectable, biocompatible, biodegradable medical adhesive suitable for repairing bones shattered in battlefield injuries, car crashes and other accidents, and especially for fixing small bone fragments, but had not found anything suitable.
Natural adhesives from mussels had been explored in the 1980s but these had not been successful enough to replace the standard mechanical connectors – nails, pins and metal screws – preferred by orthopaedic surgeons.
Enter the sandcastle worm, the inch-long marine worm which builds its underwater home by sticking together bits of sand and broken sea shells using a natural water-based adhesive that is able to bond to wet surfaces yet not mix with water – ideal qualities for an orthopaedic adhesive.
Mimicking the worm glue, researchers have produced a new adhesive which sets in response to changes in pH and can even deliver bioactive molecules to allow it not only to fix bone fragments but also to deliver medicines to the fracture site to prevent infection, relieve pain and accelerate healing.
The new glue, is at least as strong as Super Glue and twice as strong as the original adhesive used by the sandcastle worm, and it has already passed toxicity tests and looks unlikely to cause any damage to tissues surrounding the fracture site.
Tags: Glue, Worms
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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’.
Tags: 'Old Friends', Allergic Rhinitis, Allergy, Autoimmune Therapies, Gut Buddies, Hookworm, Inoculation, Intestinal Worms, Itchy Eyes, Kissing, Nasal Congestion, Post-nasal Drip, Rhinitis, Sanitation, Sex, Sleep, Tiredness, Worms
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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!
Tags: 'Old Friends', Allergy, Asthma, Autoimmune Disease, Daycare, Hygiene Hypothesis, Microorganisms, Worms
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Friday, August 21st, 2009
Parasites appear to have been responsible for making some of our immune proteins into the inflammatory defenders they are today but, equally, they have also sculpted some genes into risk factors for intestinal disorders.
Of 91 genes assessed in this study, 44 bore signatures of evolutionary selection, meaning that the genetic variation was due neither to chance nor to the migration of populations over time. And some of that variation correlated with the diversity of parasites that live alongside humans.
In general, parasitic worms appear to have had a more powerful influence on the development of our immune system than smaller microbes such as viruses, bacteria, and fungi, perhaps because of the slower evolution of worms.
More related research here…
Tags: Fungi, Genes, Immune System, Intestinal Disorders, Parasites, Worms
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Saturday, August 15th, 2009
As each new piece of technology appears on the horizon, we embrace it without question and add it to the ever-growing collection of ‘must have’ gizmos that adorn our lives. Perhaps, however, we should be a little more circumspect about what we adopt.
When I first moved into a house with an inside loo, I was overcome with joy that I would no longer have to empty my chamber pot each morning into the tippler at the far end of the yard. And our tippler was quite a posh affair – a fully enclosed, brick-built ‘thunder box’, unlike the more usual, ramshackle wooden structures. Users of the latter would relate stories about how they had had their posteriors pecked by hens while answering the call of nature, or prodded with sticks by local miscreants looking for a quick giggle.
An indoor flush toilet was just the most amazing thing, and little did I realise, back then, that this technology might actually be involved in the causation of the eventual collapse of my health, of years of pain, and the loss of a job that I loved dearly. I knew nothing at that time about the effect on the parasitic worm cycle of sanitation and the wearing of shoes, and their consequent relationship with allergy and autoimmune disease.
I never even questioned why I didn’t have worms like those that my aunt had told me she had pulled from her anus on one occasion. I just thought that such things were, like chamber pots and tipplers, ‘of the past’, and good riddance to them! Only now, after reintroducing worms to my intestines and beginning to regain a degree of health that I had come to think impossible, have I realised the price that we in the West have paid for using flush toilets and wearing shoes.
Another contributor to the steep learning curve that I have experienced recently is a realisation about the effects on human health of the plethora of microwave-emitting electronic devices, on which many in the West have now come to rely.
Soon after I installed Wi-Fi in my home, and I began enjoying the freedom provided by this, I noticed that, whenever I used my laptop computer on my knee for any length of time, my legs began to tingle, and this was certainly not due to the weight of the laptop. I wondered if it might be the heat but, eventually, discovered that the tingling stopped when I disabled the Wi-Fi function on the laptop.
This led to a series of related discoveries, including the fact that my DECT telephone was bathing me and my family in microwave radiation 24/7!
The Wi-Fi went into the bin and I switched to a dLAN internet connection which works via the household power main. The DECT phone was replaced by an alternative which only emits radiation when it is actually being used, and I now use a wired land-line phone whenever I can.
Prompted by this experience, I began to research the whole issue of radio-frequency radiation, and was, frankly, astounded by what I discovered. This article looks at most of the many sources of microwave radiation to which we are now exposed, the effects which these can have on humans, and what we can do to protect ourselves.
It is now clear that we need to be constantly vigilant when assessing new technologies, whatever form they may take, and adopt a skeptical approach to protestations about safety from manufacturers and representatives of the UK and US governmental and medical establishments in particular, especially as the latter have yet to take any action at all on radio-frequency radiation… and still insist that mercury dental fillings and the fluoridation of public water supplies are both completely safe.
In spite of our obvious technological sophistication, we are still, physiologically, simple hunter-gatherers, biologically unadapted to many aspects of twenty-first century ‘civilization’, such as diet, sedentary working practices, the absence of parasites and exposure to ubiquitous industrial pollution. We ignore this reality at our peril.
Related post:
Cell phones and their threat to health
Tags: Allergy, Autoimmune Disease, Bluetooth, DECT Phones, Electromagnetic Radiation, Fluoride, Hunter-gatherer, Mercury, Microwave, Mobile Phone, Parasites, Sanitation, Shoes, Telephone, Toilets, Wi-Fi, Wimax, Worms
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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.
Tags: Antibiotic, Cipro, Floxin, Fluoroquinolone, Helminths, Levaquin, Prostate Infection Fluoroquinolone Syndrome, Sinusitis, Tequin, Urinary Infection, Worms
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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.
Tags: Autoimmune Disease, Bile Duct, Crohn's Disease, Helminths, IBD, Immune System, Inflammation, Interleukin-10, Primary Biliary Cirrhosis (PBC), Stem-cell Transplants, T-cells, Tapeworm, Ulcerative Colitis, Worms
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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.
Tags: Allergy, Arthritis, Asthma, Atherosclerosis, Autism, Autoimmune Disease, Cholera, Coeliac Disease, Colon, Crohn's Disease, Depression, Diphtheria, Dyspepsia, Eczema, Enema, Faecal Bacteriotherapy, Fibromyalgia, Foods Matter, Genes, Genome, Heart Disease, Helminthic Therapy, Helminths, Hookworm, Hygiene, Immune System, Inflammation, Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS), Larvae, Lupus, Microorganisms, Migraine, Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Nottingham, Parasites, Probiotics, Psoriasis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Sanitation, Superbugs, Type 1 Diabetes, Ulcerative Colitis, Whipworm, Worms
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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.
Tags: Alzheimer's Disease, Amyloid Beta Protein, Arthritis, Autism, Autoimmune Disease, Bacterial Vaginosis, Bee, Crohn's Disease, Dementia, Diarrhoea, Fever, Helminths, Honey, Hookworm, Immune System, Inflammation, Lactobacillus, Maggots, Meditation, Narcolepsy, Sleep, Vomiting, Worms
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