X-ray wrote:
"Infect yourself with a dose of hookworms and never know allergic reactions again."
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Not a good plan. You run the risk of anaemia and protein deficiency. And the thought of these inside me makes me wanna spew.
Don't be such a drama queen, it all depends on the quality your diet. They might be unsightly litte buggers but they aren't exactly the most dangerous parasites. As it goes, there have been some astonishing links found recently between intestinal parasites like these and allergies.
Such parasites have been with us since the beginning and our bodies evolved an equilibrium with them. It's true that in a food-insecure environment they are dangerous for the very reasons you mention, but provided you eat sufficient protein , carbohydrate, minerals etc (which of course we should be), they have no ill effects apart from the stigma of knowing the buggers are in there, and the occasional itcy back eye.
In the last century we all but eradicated them from our population, beleiving them to be nothing more than dangerous freeloaders and now we are seeing unusual side effects caused by upsetting the equilibrium. The explosion in allergies in our society can be measured against the demise of hookworm in our systems. There is a surprising correlation between the two.
It has been suggested that they helped keep our immune responses in check. Without their presence, an over zealous immune system attacks us instead when triggered by various allergens.
Research carried out in parts of South America where worming the population is an ongoing process uncovered an interesting observation to support the idea. A large kids that had not yet been wormed were largely free of allergies. Within weeks of being wormed, half those same children developed an array of allergies that are commonplace in our society. This same observation has been reproduced several times in different countries since.
One of the people researching the effect of these worms (on himself :-o) had an intense allergy to pollen. Within a week of infecting himself, his allergy was gone.
There was a documentary about this not log ago. A whole bunch of people with extreme allergies were basically cured having ingested a controlled dose of these particular worms.
One lady, in her early 20s had such severe IBS that she faced no choice but having a sizeable section of her colon removed. Her doctor, aware of the above research suggested (after her pleading to find an alternative) that whilst still very much being investigated, she might consider hookworm as a treatment. Her IBS went into total remission within six weeks.
A whole range of common (some highly dangerous) allergies have been shown to be suppressed by the presence of these parasites. The effort now is to find out what it is that these worms do in order to keep the immune system in balance and see if it can be reproduced in less wriggly ways...
