Anybody hear of helminthic therapy?

My mom's always calling me to tell me about the latest health craze.  Today she called me to tell me all about helminthic therapy, which is the deliberate introduction of whipworms or hookworms (called helminths) into your body.  It's said to kickstart the immune system and get it back on track.  They're testing it right now on several different autoimmune diseases, including Crohns.

I'm skeptical for a number of different reasons.  We don't know what exactly causes MS - is it an overactive immune system?  Or an underactive one?  So I told her that it would be a bad idea to jump on every bandwagon - there's so many out there.

[Quixotic1]

My question is who are "they"?  This might be a legitimate avenue for clinical research, but because these worms are easy to come by I fear for the next round of charlatans.

MS behaves differently from most traditional autoimmune diseases.  Things like the anti-TNF (Tumor Necrosis Factor) drugs - like Embrel, Humira, Remicade - which are proven to have effectiveness in purely autoimmune diseases can cause MS to take off and worsen like wildfire.

This would be a very bad idea to run out and do (and rather a repuslive one, I might add) until we knew more about how a helminth might influence the immune system.  the theory that autoimmune disease is caused by our conquering of the universal gut parasites is just that - a theory.

It is not even necessarily a weird theory.  About ten years ago it was proposed that the abundance of allergies in the US was due to the rising level of hygiene and espeically due to the push to the American mom to santitize everything.  I scoffed at this, but the research into it has shown the theory to hold up.  Basically, by not allowing our little ones, ages 1 to 4 to revel in the dirt, we have stunted the proper development of their immune responses.  Their systems begin to recognize too many antigens as foriegn and mount an IgE allergic response against them.

As a side note - this is part of the argument against the theory that by immunizing we "overload" our children's immune system.  The older baby and toddler is primed to recognize and fight millions of different antigens.  Their immune systems benefit from early exposures.  Too few and the immune system can go haywire.  I didn't mean to equate dirt and vaccines, but you get the idea.

Quix

Quix

[HVAC]

They have done such studies in Germany. Pig farmers do not get MS was the basis. The theory is they get parasites from the pigs. Managing such a thing seems rather difficult.

Working over twenty years with animals and seeing first hand what hook and whip worms do I am not signing up for that one.

I am not ingesting tapeworms to diet either.
Alex

[twopack]

I'm a firm believer in letting the kiddos handle some dirt and a few million germs to build up the immune system.  My own kids played outside in all kinds of weather (properly attired) but had trouble finding playmates out there.  They've ended up pretty darn healthy as adults.

Think I'll pass on the helminths though.  After constant worming of cats, dogs and horses I have a hard time even looking at candy gummy worms.

[jensequitur]

My dog had tapeworms once as a puppy, and there are few things more horrifying than the mouth of a tapeworm!

So I'm with ya'll - I think introducing something that will make my immune system more active would be a bad idea.

[Lulu54]

I am vaguely remembering something on a tv shows recently about Hollywood stars using tapeworms or some similar parasite to lose weight - I need to shed some pounds but I am not willing to go this far.

The whole idea gives me the creeps!
Lulu

[Quixotic1]

Jen - total agreement with the image of the worm "mouth".  It is no accident that we see this many-sided mouth now as the image on so many creepy monsters in the media.  Just remember the SG-1 Goa'uld.

Q

[jensequitur]

The vampires in Blade II had that nasty mouth too, and the monster in Star Trek was definitely lamprey-like.  Yup, they really know how to manipulate me!

While reading the wiki article about helminthic therapy, I was reminded of the tapeworm diet, so I googled it - and found that they're still doing it.  You injest two 'cysts' which develop into tapeworms.  After 85 days you drink the cure, and flush them out.  Then you decide whether you want more cysts or not.

Since the procedure is only done in Mexico, costs $2000, and involves TAPEWORMS, I think I'm out!  Yuck.

I think the site is called wormdiet.com, but I'm not sure - take a look if you're curious.

[patientx]

If I hadn't heard of this from other sources, I would have written it off a as quackery, but:

http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00645749?term=multiple+sclerosis+helminth&rank=1

I believe Dr. Fleming is fairly well known in neurology and MS circles.  I think a previous completed study did show some benefit from taking the worms.

Like Quix pointed out, I think the general theory is that MS might result because the immune system isn't exposed to enough antigens early in life, or the loss of evolutionary conditions.

[steph74]

I totally buy the theory that "too clean" of an environment leads to more allergies.  I keep a clean home, but I've always tried to allow exposure to dirt for the kiddos (lots of playing outside, don't use antibiotic soaps, have several pets).  Ironically, my daughter who most loves digging in the dirt, playing with animals (including all kinds of bugs!), and the all-around tom-boy, has the worst allergies of any of the kids (nothing for one, and the other has mild seasonal allergies).  

Poor thing is allergic to her new pet guinea pig (or his hay).  She loves him so much and lets him crawl around on her neck and she puts her face right up to him, then promptly breaks out in hives!  She loves him too much to get rid of, but I've told her to try and keep him on her clothes (instead of her skin) and to wash her hands after playing with him.  As long as she's not having trouble breathing or swallowing, we'll keep him.

As far as the worms, yuck!  But if it actually worked... but it sounds like it needs a lot more research.

Worms for dieting are scary.  After losing weight due to undx celiac, I don't think I'd want a worm--I was ravenous all the time and still losing weight.  (I actually wondered if I had a worm.)  It was due to malnutrition and my body was slowly starving.  Why anyone would voluntarily do that is beyond me.

Stephanie