Man Claims Hookworm Treatment Led to Remission of Celiac Disease

3 minutes ago, Jefferson Adams said:

In nature, that may be true. However, these hookworm treatments apply limited hookworms directly into the small intestine. They are safe, don't reproduce, and don't cause the problems you're citing.

Something I haven't mentioned before is that my hookworms allow me to eat junk food without issue. Even if there were no gluten or meat in a food item most foods I couldn't touch for reasons I never understood. Nowadays I can eat total crap and my GI tract doesn't miss a beat. Not saying it's a reason to get wormed but it's an interesting side benefit.

1 hour ago, Jefferson Adams said:

In nature, that may be true. However, these hookworm treatments apply limited hookworms directly into the small intestine. They are safe, don't reproduce, and don't cause the problems you're citing.

Actually in this thread, they talk about applying the hookworms to the arm which I think is the normal method.

As far as them being safe or not, that is probably really complicated to figure out, and unproven:

Even the website that was linked to tons on this thread says some people should not take hookworms.  The amount of bleeding can be variable, people might not know if they have an underlying health condition and I haven't seen any links to long term scientific studies about hookworm safety.  The hookworms might not reproduce within a healthy person with a healthy immune system but I wouldn't guarantee they can't in anyone ever or under any conditions. There has also been talk about some people needing 10x the normal dosage in order to be effective.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmra032492

There are a lot of variables so I won't be taking them anytime soon.

1 hour ago, Blue-Sky said:

Actually in this thread, they talk about applying the hookworms to the arm which I think is the normal method.

As far as them being safe or not, that is probably really complicated to figure out, and unproven:

Even the website that was linked to tons on this thread says some people should not take hookworms.  The amount of bleeding can be variable, people might not know if they have an underlying health condition and I haven't seen any links to long term scientific studies about hookworm safety.  The hookworms might not reproduce within a healthy person with a healthy immune system but I wouldn't guarantee they can't in anyone ever or under any conditions. There has also been talk about some people needing 10x the normal dosage in order to be effective.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmra032492

There are a lot of variables so I won't be taking them anytime soon.

The safety of controlled infection with the hookworm, Necator americanus, had to be established before clinical trials with this organism could proceed, and was confirmed in studies at universities in the UK and Australia.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728895/ 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3050888/ 

In view of the fact that current scientific understanding of the immune system’s development and function indicates that routine exposure to helminths is probably necessary for proper immune function, it can be argued that *not* hosting helminths is likely to be more dangerous than hosing them. This is explained in detail, with citations, here:

https://helminthictherapywiki.org/wiki/index.php/Helminthic_therapy_safety#Considering_benefits_and_risks 

1 hour ago, Blue-Sky said:

Actually in this thread, they talk about applying the hookworms to the arm which I think is the normal method.

As far as them being safe or not, that is probably really complicated to figure out, and unproven:

Even the website that was linked to tons on this thread says some people should not take hookworms.  The amount of bleeding can be variable, people might not know if they have an underlying health condition and I haven't seen any links to long term scientific studies about hookworm safety.  The hookworms might not reproduce within a healthy person with a healthy immune system but I wouldn't guarantee they can't in anyone ever or under any conditions. There has also been talk about some people needing 10x the normal dosage in order to be effective.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmra032492

There are a lot of variables so I won't be taking them anytime soon.

Back when I first got sick with my trifecta of IBD issues I never would have dreamt that infecting myself with a parasite would be the solution to restore me to health. Turned out though that was exactly the case. It took me 8 years to get my head around the idea and find the resources to do the deed, but when I did, it was like flicking a switch, and all my gut issues went away.

Is Helminthic Therapy always a panacea like it was with me? Nope, sometimes it takes years to work, and sometimes it doesn't work at all. Sometimes people can't tolerate helminths, though that seems to be more of an effect of starting at too high an initial dose.

The way I look at it HT is a low risk, high gain proposition. Best case you hit the jackpot like I did. Worst case you have a story to tell.

You might want to be careful that you don't confuse the habits of Necator americanus with its less benign siblings. NA is well adapted to humans and rarely causes harm at low levels of infection. And it surely does not reproduce in the body. Eggs do appear in the stool but they have to go through several molts in the ground before they become infective.

37 minutes ago, John Scott said:

1 hour ago, Blue-Sky said:

The safety of controlled infection with the hookworm, Necator americanus, had to be established before clinical trials with this organism could proceed, and was confirmed in studies at universities in the UK and Australia.

Some people volunteer for clinical trials, but these are always done under close medical supervision for limited time periods. It doesn't mean that this is safe to do for long periods of time. Smoking for example, is one thing that can be done short term without obvious problem sometimes but could cause long term problems.

11 minutes ago, dixonpete said:

You might want to be careful that you don't confuse the habits of Necator americanus with its less benign siblings

It sounds to me from the link I gave it can do similar things as other species of hookworm. Maybe not quite as bad though. And the wiki website link doesn't talk about that. It is still a hard no for me.

The science says it ineffective for Celiac disease, or at very least unproven.

4 minutes ago, Blue-Sky said:

It sounds to me from the link I gave it can do similar things as other species of hookworm. Maybe not quite as bad though. And the wiki website link doesn't talk about that. It is still a hard no for me.

The science says it ineffective for Celiac disease, or at very least unproven.

I was reading your post exactly at the moment I was snacking on mini-wheats and a wheat flour maple cookie, so obviously I beg to differ.

2 hours ago, Blue-Sky said:

It sounds to me from the link I gave it can do similar things as other species of hookworm. Maybe not quite as bad though. And the wiki website link doesn't talk about that. It is still a hard no for me.

The science says it ineffective for Celiac disease, or at very least unproven.

Necator americanus (NA) is extremely safe, as is explained in detail here:
https://helminthictherapywiki.org/wiki/index.php/Helminthic_therapy_safety#The_safety_of_NA 

Unfortunately, most of the clinical trials that have been mounted to date to examine the therapeutic effects of NA have had serious methodological deficiencies, which are set out here: 
https://helminthictherapywiki.org/wiki/index.php/Helminthic_therapy_research#Problems_with_clinical_trials_using_live_helminths

NA is currently being used by many hundreds, if not thousands, of self-treaters to treat more than 160 different medical conditions, and you can read their reports, which include several from celiacs, here:
https://helminthictherapywiki.org/wiki/index.php/Helminthic_therapy_personal_stories 

There are many medical doctors in this community, as well as several professors of medicine, most of whom are using helminths to treat either themselves or family members. And here's what one team of researchers had to say recently about the community of self-treaters in general.

"At the present time, we would argue that the primary “lab” for helminth therapy seems to be within the community of self-treaters. This “biohacking” phenomena of science outside of the established main stream is not unique to helminth therapy. However, given that helminth therapy addresses a fundamental cause of disease in Western society, this particular biohacking endeavor may in fact be critical for public health. Unfortunately, for a variety of economic, regulatory, and practical issues surrounding the conduct of clinical trials, main stream trials have thus far been unable to accommodate the nuances of helminth therapy."
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1383576921002063?via%3Dihub

2 hours ago, Blue-Sky said:

Some people volunteer for clinical trials, but these are always done under close medical supervision for limited time periods. It doesn't mean that this is safe to do for long periods of time. Smoking for example, is one thing that can be done short term without obvious problem sometimes but could cause long term problems.

The safety of long-term use of helminthic therapy has been demonstrated by the global community of helminth self-treaters. I, myself, have hosted Necator americanus for the past 14 years, after getting my first dose in a clinical trial at Nottingham University, and they have kept me free from Crohn's disease and several other conditions during the whole of that time, all without any long-term side effects. 

The safety of helminthic therapy is discussed in detail here:
https://helminthictherapywiki.org/wiki/index.php/Helminthic_therapy_safety 

The first section on this page - "Considering benefits and risks" - was written for the site by a professor of medicine.

3 hours ago, Blue-Sky said:

Some people volunteer for clinical trials, but these are always done under close medical supervision for limited time periods. It doesn't mean that this is safe to do for long periods of time. Smoking for example, is one thing that can be done short term without obvious problem sometimes but could cause long term problems.

With me my IBD caused three surgeries, a permanent physical disability, much agony, and I don't even know how to describe the impact of the two years I had pre-diagnosis of celiac disease (constant illness) and 20x I was glutened afterward.

From hookworms I get a painless rash after inoculation that's unsightly for about a week. Twice a year. Other than that, nothing. It's like they don't exist, except that I know they are there because I have a normal life again.

The way I look at it, my body isn't complete without that colony of hookworms being there. In their absence my immune system causes things to go to hell. They are supposed to be there. It's the only explanation that makes sense to me.

For anyone interested, @dixonpete just posted a blog update on his hookworm treatment progress: