Tired of sneezing all the time? Just inject a bunch of parasitic worms into your system and say goodbye to those pesky allergies.
How can you stay mad at this face?
Scientists are looking at the possibility of using hookworms to combat hay fever, asthma and even Crohn's disease. The worms grow to approximately a half an inch long, feeding on...
...nutrients in the intestines of their hosts.
Researchers have long noted that humans in tropical areas known to be hookworm hotbeds have much lower rates of allergies. Recent research also suggests that hookworms may indeed prevent allergy attacks. The speculation is that in an absence of such parasites, people's immune systems have essentially too much time on their hands, causing the disproportionate and inappropriate immuno-responses that result in allergies. The hookworms must avoid detection in order to survive and thus "damp down" humans' immune systems with proteins.
When you hear the crunching noise, you know that they're working!
A gentleman by the name of Dr. David Pritchard of the University of Nottingham is currently conducting experiments with hookworms and getting pretty positive results. Testing samples of people with hay fever and asthma, his findings have yielded conclusive evidence that injecting a small number of hookworms into a person's system can indeed help prevent these ailments. Says Dr. Pritchard, "Many of the people who were given a placebo have now requested worms. And the people with worms, many of them have decided to keep them for the next hay fever season." They're like this year's Tickle Me Elmo!
There is also evidence that the hookworms can be used on multiple sclerosis and Crohn's disease, two other disorders caused by aggressive immuno-responses in humans' bodies. Seriously, is there anything they can't do?
Medicine & Health
Comments
Well. Nothing else you've posted has ever creeped me out, but this article - with that smiling face at the top - has done it.
*shudder*
Posted by: G Felis | September 20, 2007 1:08 PM
And it's an entirely natural cure !!!
Posted by: _Arthur | September 20, 2007 1:41 PM
So do we reclassify them from parasites to symbiants?
Posted by: cephyn | September 20, 2007 1:44 PM
And do we classify them as a cure or a pet!?
Posted by: Benny | September 20, 2007 2:35 PM
Some people, however, are too impatient to wait for scientists to finish researching this potential treatment... (Warning: serious ick factor at that link.)
Posted by: Davis | September 20, 2007 3:17 PM
I'd totally take them if they help my allergiesi, but not if it means having those tunnels under your skin. Now that's just nasty.
Posted by: Mus | September 20, 2007 3:45 PM
Dave Pritchard has been working on putting real data behind what was a parasitologist's anecdote for a long time; kudos to him. You wouldn't want a serious dose of hookworm though -- they actually suck blood from your intestine, and are supposed to be one of the causes of rural poverty in the South before indoor plumbing became common.
Posted by: Andy | September 20, 2007 5:41 PM
So what's with the foot picture? If the worms live in the intestines? Do they make detours? Eee!
Posted by: Katherine Sharpe | September 20, 2007 5:43 PM
Feet are the portal of entry, as the life cycle usually involves a host wading barefoot in water contaminated with community waste. The larval form of the parasite enters the bloodstream from the sores on the feet, arriving by an indirect route in the intestinal lumen.
Posted by: Coleman JP | September 20, 2007 9:09 PM
Oh gosh, I have never commented before... but this story! Through all of my disgust, I thought if it would cure my psoriasis, I would do it!!
Posted by: Nurby | September 21, 2007 12:42 AM
I would try almost anything to get rid of my allergies, but.....
Posted by: salem | September 21, 2007 12:40 PM
And if you like fishing, you will apprecialte having a delivery of fresh hookworms every morning.
Posted by: milkshake | September 21, 2007 12:55 PM
I Heart Hookworms.
Starring Samuel L. Jackson
If you thought the snakes were bad...
Posted by: hookers4life | September 21, 2007 3:43 PM
Hookers,
I'll go you one better. Instead of Snakes on a Plane, how about:
Candirus in a Swimming Pool!
Posted by: Mrs Tilton | September 21, 2007 8:35 PM
Does the full treatment cover getting rid of the worms after you're done with the allergies?
Posted by: yop | September 25, 2007 10:50 AM
Are there any plans to test them on the auto-immune forms of arthritis?
Posted by: Jim E-H | September 25, 2007 3:57 PM
Have they studied any other forms of intestinal worms? I only ask because I had terrible allergies in high school, but after a few bouts of pin worms (less nasty than hook worms, from what I can tell) they've died down considerably.
Posted by: lllama | October 22, 2007 4:33 PM
And do we classify them as a cure or a pet
Posted by: kozmetik | December 23, 2007 1:27 PM
I Heart Hookworms.
Starring Samuel L. Jackson
If you thought the snakes were bad...
Posted by: mirc | February 3, 2008 3:16 PM
My little girl got this from a sandbox. She had tunnels all over her legs, buttox and feet! She cried miserably for a month until the ivermectin pills killed them all. They really do tunnel under the skin and I don't wish this on my WORST enemy! (and she still has allergies...so I dont believe this at all!)
Posted by: Lisa | February 4, 2008 4:32 PM
i have hookworms - they are in the roof of my mouth and lips - gums are they trying to make me swallow them or kill me ... i can't take it... someone please give me some insight
terra_myst21@yahoo.com thanks
Posted by: tereesa | February 26, 2008 3:24 AM
arriving by an indirect route in the intestinal lumen.
Posted by: evden eve nakliyat | March 23, 2008 5:08 AM
Thanks!
Posted by: Rüya tabirleri | March 23, 2008 5:09 AM
thanks!
Posted by: abiye | March 23, 2008 5:12 AM
Thanks.. good
Posted by: web tasarim | April 3, 2008 6:15 PM
Wow, thanks for the watch! I wanted the chance to flip through your book more but when I got back I couldn't find you! Thankfully Matt let me look through the book he got from you.
Beautiful stuff!
Posted by: ankara nakliyat | April 21, 2008 9:45 AM
ty
Posted by: mirc | June 16, 2008 7:43 AM
this is freaken gross.
Posted by: miley cyrus | June 26, 2008 4:23 PM
Well, I'd better not sneeze on campus; they might kidnap me and fill me with hook worms.
Posted by: University of Nottingham Student | June 26, 2008 5:25 PM
I'm not really game for this. I mean, I would love to get rid of my allergies and do whatever I can-- but hookworms? With those tunnels under my skin? No thanks. What happens when they go overboard, and start breeding hectically or something? What happens if they end up in your brain instead of your intestine? They used to warn me about worms in school – and there was probably a reason for that!
Posted by: shopping | July 8, 2008 10:58 AM
I actually got a dose of 25 hookworm yesterday thanks to autoimunetherapies. Don't let the picture of the foot scare you. When deliberately receiving hookworm, they are placed on a bandage on the arm. At worst you will have a patch of an itchy rash for a few weeks. I seem to have gotten off with 24 hours of mild itch and barely a mark.
While getting a parasite may seem like a strange or mildly disturbing thing to do, it is a far better option than many of the prescription drug alternatives that have serious side effects. Hookworm can be removed very quickly and easily if desired with no long term effect. There are some potential side effects such as diarrhea and cramping. Compare that with steroids that can cause cataracts, bone fracture, organ failure, etc. Or in my case - Ulcerative Colitis - I could take Remicade, a prescription drug that can lead to tuberculosis, sepsis, pneumonia, lymphoma, or a host of other things that are potentially fatal!
Bottom line, I will take hookworm over suffering with a debilitating condition and taking drugs of dubious benefit and known dangers.
Posted by: David Phillips | July 9, 2008 12:42 AM