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beautiful pink lava erupting in this dreamstate horizon
2008-04-04 5:43 p.m.

Hookworms could be the answer to my prayers. Last night I reacquainted myself with some info I'd run across. I always want to know more about my confused immune system. This winter it has been causing me BIG troubles- at least the places it has chosen to run amok are not as life threatening. I just thought to share what I kept Bob up for hours listening to me rant about...

In the industrialised nations, we live in a relatively sterile environment. The development of vaccines, hygienic practices and effective medical care have diminished or eliminated the prevalence and impact of many parasitic organisms, as well as bacterial and viral infections. This has been of obvious benefit with the effective eradication of many diseases that have plagued man. However, while many severe diseases have been eradicated, our exposure to benign and apparently beneficial parasites has also been reduced commensurately.

The Old Friends Hypothesis says T regulator cells can only become fully effective if they are stimulated by exposure to microorganisms and parasites that have coexisted universally with human beings throughout our evolutionary history. It is thought that appropriate immune response is in part learned by exposure to these microorganisms and parasites.

Helminthic Therapy is the treatment of autoimmune diseases and immunological disorders by means of deliberate infection with parasitic worms, or nematodes, such as hookworms. It is currently becoming a promising treatment for several (non-viral) auto-immune diseases including Crohn's disease, Multiple Sclerosis, asthma, allergies, Ulcerative colitis, and Autoimmune liver disease.

Correct development of T regulator cells may depend on exposure to organisms such as lactobacilli, various mycobacterium and helminths. Lack of exposure to sufficient benign antigens, particularly during childhood, is now widely accepted in the scientific community as the cause for the increase in autoimmune diseases and diseases for which chronic inflammation is a major component in the industrialized world.

Depending on the particular autoimmune disease in question, infection with helminths results in remission of symptoms in 70% of patients. This is strong evidence that our own immune response, and particularly the dysfunction of regulatory inflammatory response, may be a key factor in the development of autoimmune diseases, and that a helminth infection can bring this response into balance.

Hookworms