I have a few comments about an article from New Scientist magazine online, “Parasitic Worms: Just what the Doctor Ordered?” which discusses the use of helminths (worms) to treat allergic and autoimmune conditions. As a disclosure, about 13 months ago I went to Tijuana Mexico to be infected with 50 Necator Americanus hookworms for treatment of a severe autoimmune disease. It gave me my life back, so as you might expect I have strong opinions about this topic.
The article is a heavy on scare language by using terms such as, “grim” and “playing with fire.” And through his use of examples, Kaplan also makes things sound somewhat more uncertain than I think they are by lumping relatively benign species of helminths together with extremely harmful ones. (Although later in his article he does somewhat correct this impression, by saying that different helminths affect the immune system in different ways.)
Because of the uncertainties involved, the speculation that by repressing the immune system people could become more vulnerable to certain infectious agents, and the average person’s aversion to deliberately infecting themselves with worms researchers are busy trying to discover how helminths influence the immune system and obviate allergic and autoimmune conditions, so that they can come up with new medicines that will do the same thing. A problem with this is that helminths function like little biochemical factories that very likely interact with our immune systems through a series of feedback loops, and that reproducing that interactive chemical dance will not likely be possible through injections based on one or several simple molecules. Another obvious problem is that this will take years, and in the meantime many people will suffer and die from such diseases as asthma, IBD, and Crohn’s, etc.
So as a plug for the therapy which probably saved my life, I want to point out the following: Necator Americanus has been ubiquitously infecting humans for millions of years in what was probably approaching a symbiotic relationship. There is good epidemiological evidence that the human immune system came to expect and depend upon it, just as our bodies depend upon the approximately 1 Kilo of bacteria which live in our gut and on our skin. With modern medicines available, if the worms did cause any serious problems they could be eliminated for a few dollars with a very safe medication, and also their side effects are temporary. They don’t reproduce inside a person, and aren’t a known vector for any other pathogen. They can’t be transmitted accidentally under modern living conditions, and take very little nutrition from the human host.
Others will choose to wait for years until researchers figure this all out, but as for me, I didn’t intend to suffer for years and possibly die before they did. I’m sure I made the right decision.
Tags: Allergies, Asthma, Autoimmune Diseases, Crohn's, Helminths, Hookworms, IBD, Natural Living, Necator Americanus, Primitivism