Recently, an episode of This American Life (my all-time favorite podcast) aired a segment about a man who found that hookworms were capable of suppressing allergic responses in people who suffer from allergies and asthma, among other conditions.
Hookworms. That's right. Meaning, in order to get this relief, one has to intentionally invite a hookworm infestation into their own body. And unbelievably, this isn't that new of a concept.
Almost a decade ago, a scientist by the name of David Pritchard visited New Guinea and found that those inhabitants infected with a small amount of hookworm seemed to exhibit far less allergic and asthmatic response than those who were not.
Amazed at such a strange phenomenon (most of us think worms = bad), he began an investigation and thorough testing to explain what was going on.
What he found was really interesting. Parasites have evolved alongside humans in a way that they are able to interact and thrive within a human host by literally switching off (through a bodily excretion) the very immune responses that humans had evolved to battle and expel... parasites!
Isn't turning off the immune system a bad thing? After all, hookworms are the leading cause of maternal and child morbidity in developing countries, says testing by the University of California, San Diego.
Well, in small doses (about 10 hookworms), Pritchard found that the parasites turned off the immune responses just enough to help the host not experience the suffering of allergies or asthma. A more substantial dose, however, say, 25 or 50 hookworms, and the host would become anemic and more susceptible to auto-immune problems.
In 2004, Pritchard experimented with the parasites on his own body. He dropped a pile of hookworms onto his own arm and wrapped it tightly with a gauze dressing. Within a few days, the worms had burrowed under his skin and the experiment had begun.
A New York Times article explains the process:
"Hookworm infiltrates a victim's system when the larvae, hatched from eggs in infected people's excrement, penetrate the skin, often through the soles of the feet. From there, they enter the bloodstream, travel to the heart and lungs, and are swallowed when they reach the pharynx. They mature into adults once they reach the small intestine, where they can subsist for years by latching onto the intestinal wall and siphoning off blood. After sieving the fecal samples to extract hookworms eliminated when the worm treatment pill was given, the team reached an intriguing conclusion: Villagers with the highest levels of allergy-related antibodies in their blood had the smallest and least fertile parasites, indicating that these antibodies conferred a degree of protection against parasite infection.
And the hookworms seemed equipped to retaliate. After colonizing a digestive tract, the host often showed signs of a blunted immune response, leading Pritchard to suspect that the worms were reducing the potency of the body's defenses to make their environment more hospitable."
Researchers from Corvas International, a biotechnology company in San Diego, have identified a compound which helps the hookworms to evade their host's defence systems. The compound, called neutrophil inhibitory factor (NIF), blocks the action of neutrophils, the white blood cells which trigger the immune system at sites of infection or tissue damage.
Jasper Lawrence, the subject of the aforementioned This American Life story, had to travel to undeveloped countries to find hookworm, which (sit down for this) can be harvested from other people's excrement. Yup, he romped through piles of poop to find the worms he would eventually ask to move in. To his body. You can read his whole story here.
So amazed by the change in his physical well-being after allowing the infestation of hookworms in his own body, he began selling the worms publicly for other asthma and allergy sufferers. He has his own site to offer information and sales. As one reporter mentioned, "Now you can buy hookworms without having to go through all that crap."
So the question remains. The track record for hookworm treatment is pretty solid. People seem happy with the effects and allergy and asthma sufferers would rather keep the colonies of parasites swimming happily amoung their guts than to feel again the way they did before.
Would you do it? Would you do it for your asthmatic children? What if it would mean the difference between life and death?
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Comments
Oh my gosh, that is unbelievable!
OK. totally disgusting. Not unlike the show I saw where the man in England cured his infection with maggots. Totally could not do it! My leg would drop off first before I put maggots under my skin.
Do you have asthma? I am betting not, or the process wouldn't be so abhorrent to you. Not being able to breathe...that's disgusting.
I, as well, listened to that episode and was actually amazed that someone was able to literally stumble on this finding. I have suffered with allergies my whole life, both food and environmental. They suck! Certain seasons and areas are worse than others, but when you have to be on so many medications and what seems like lethal amounts of Benedryl just to function is ridiculous. I am at the point now, that I would try this, as nasty as it sounds.
I have severe asthma and allergies, i cant find where to buy these damn hook worms anywhere! can anyone please help!!
suzanne_h88@hotmail.com
Suzanne (and Liz), there are links in the article to Jasper Lawrence's website which sells and ships hook worms (except to the US and Mexico, then you need to travel to a country they can ship to). This blog does not allow URLs, so reconstruct it from: autoimmunetherapies dot com
Good Luck
Because the immune system is depressed by parasites of man, it can't destroy tumors before they become malignant.
Parasites increase the risk of cancer, so you're trading the risk of anaphylactic shock with the risk of cancer. Not to mention that despite having co-evolved with man, these parasites are far from harmless, hookworms cause iron deficiency anemia. Even a species like pinworms, which infects most young children in developed countries, can be fatal in some cases.
Selling people worms to cure disease is really reckless, it would be much safer to create drugs that can mimic the chemicals secreted by the parasites, which could allow for a finer control of the immuno-suppressant action.
Do you work for a pharmaceutical company?
Stating that all parasites have co-evolved with humans, and are thus safe to be used as treatment, is really a half-truth.
It is true that it is usually (!) in the parasite's interest to keep its host alive, however, there are several species which are know to actually modify their host's behavior to get them killed!
The fluke euhaplorchis californiensis matures in matures in egrets. It first infects killifish and reduces its ability to avoid predators, and thus increases the chances it reaches egrets, which are predators of killifish.
There is also the example of toxoplasma gondii, which matures in cats but can be carried by many other mammals. Uninfected rats avoid cat odors, but rats infected with T. gondii are drawn to this scent, a change which may increase transmission to feline hosts.
There is absolutely no proof the same thing can happen with humans, however, this is proof, that host-parasite relationship is not always symbiotic, ultimately, the strategies employed are always in the parasite's interest to spread its eggs. Any beneficial effects to hosts are coincidental.
Parasites which commonly infect humans depress the immune system.
However, most parasites species do not usually infect humans, and when accidentally acquired by humans, they are usually much more dangerous than parasitic species specific to man.
For example, ascaris lumbricoides, also called the giant roundworm, commonly infects man, mostly in developing countries, although there was reportedly a 0.8% prevalence in the USA, back in 1987, and according to specialists, the prevalence is increasing.
Infection with a. lumbricoides is usually not fatal in the huge majority of cases, unless the worm burden is very high (in endemic areas, people constantly reinfect themselves through air, water, soil, and food contaminated by a. lumbricoides eggs, so some people can have hundreds of worms) because these round worms which can measure up to 35cm like to wander around the body, and can puncture organs.
On the other hand, baylisascaris procyonis is a cousin species of a. lumbricoides, which is not adapted to man, so the worms can't actually get past larval stages in human hosts. B. procyonis infects most racoons in N. America.
A. lumbricoides might look more dangerous on first glance, yet b. procyonis is a lot more dangerous, because the immune system reacts violently to b. procyonis larvae.
There have been only 13 documented cases of people getting infected by b. procyonis in medical literature, but 5 of these people died, and the rest were left with severe neurological and ocular damage.
When a species usually infects humans, there are usually less complications, however, this usually depends on the parasitic load, while rarer species which haven't evolved to infect humans, because of lack of exposure to humans, are usually much more dangerous.
Excuse me for saying so, but you sound as if you merely want to show the world how much you know about parasites. What does anything you have written here have to do with the hookworms highlighted in this story or the controlled introduction of them into a person?
The story was from Radiolab on WNYC, not This American Life.
http://www.radiolab.org/2009/sep/07/
I got some really bad allergis and astma and i have had it whole my life, my body is really in bad shape cuz of that. I can say even do it's disgusting whit hookworms and maybe dangerous, I will try it.
Sorry for my bad english
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