Curing yourself using worms

It’s called helminthic therapy. Helminths are worms, such as hookworms, tapeworms, and pinworms. Some people are infecting themselves with these worms to cure themselves of allergies or autoimmune diseases. Most commonly, people use helminthic therapy to treat Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, celiac disease, multiple sclerosis, and asthma.

Here’s the deal: These types of diseases occur only in industrialized societies. Scientists who study this therapy believe that such diseases are caused by the loss of species diversity within our bodies—species with which we co-evolved millions of years ago but which we have eliminated by modern sanitation, water treatment, and medical practices. The absence of species from our biome leaves our immune systems in a hypersensitive state which, when combined with environmental triggers and genetic predisposition, leads to allergic and autoimmune diseases.

Scientists have long noticed the absence of allergic and autoimmune diseases in less developed countries and had considered the idea of reintroducing helminths into patients in the hope of rebalancing their immune systems. In 1976, a researcher infected himself with hookworms and succeeded in putting his own seasonal allergies into remission (as reported in the Lancet scientific journal).

Desperate people are turning to helminthic therapy. Unfortunately, a doctor can’t help: helminthic therapy is not approved as a medical treatment anywhere in the world. But there’s plenty of information on the internet. The best is a Wiki site. It is extremely thorough and includes everything you need to know, including lots of testimonials. Here’s one, contributed by someone who used the therapy to treat Crohn’s disease:  “When I began taking helminths my gut was in awful shape and my GI doc wanted to preform another surgery. I chose to begin helminth therapy hoping that it would save me and my gut. Helminths did what no stop gap surgery or drug could do, it put my CD in remission (after 30 years of coping) and has controlled it since then. It will be 10 years in Jan. 2016. Best choice I have ever made.” 

Of course, the worms can make you sick, too. But if I were continually having chunks of my intestines removed. I’d go for it.

For an introduction to this blog, see I Just Say No; for a list of blog topics, click the Topics tab.