Comments on: Happy New Year!!

By: Severe Insomnia Pregnancy | My Blog

Severe Insomnia Pregnancy | My Blog — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 06:11:06 +0000

[...] Waiting for the Cure › Happy New Year!! [...]

By: Mike S.

Mike S. — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 15:12:54 +0000

I’m not sure yet how many worms, and yes I’ll definitely be starting a blog to showcase how it goes. I’m excited & a bit nervous of course. I originally wanted to do just hookworms, but since I have “crohn’s-colitis” (my GI says that I have what appears to be crohn’s response mainly in the colon), Marc recommended that I consider whipworm too. I was thinking of starting with a dose of hookworms, then adding in whipworms later, with a possible second dose of hookworms.

We’ll see how it goes. Thanks again for your blog, and I’ll keep reading and hoping for your continued positive progress. Go worms!

By: admin

admin — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:37:48 +0000

Good luck! How many of each type of worm are you going with? Are you going to blog about it somewhere so we can keep track of your response? Fingers crossed that it works wonders.

By: Mike S.

Mike S. — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:01:05 +0000

Thanks for this wonderful summary, and am happy to see that despite the awful ups and downs that the helminths are seeming to work. I just had a colonoscopy today, and am trying combination hookworm/whipworm next month. Your blog has been instrumental in bringing what at the beginning seemed like a crazy therapy (still does a bit!) down to earth. I wish you a healthy and wormy new year!

By: admin

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 16:15:27 +0000

I’ve caused flare-ups to worsen with stress/anxiety, but I never know if the flare-up itself starts the cycle and that stresses me out, or the other way around. I have to say the anxiety has been the worst ever this year, despite the worms. But I had a lot of things culminate at once; financial stress from buying an additional property we couldn’t afford, a pregnancy, the stress of losing my “worm supplier”.

Celexa has helped to mitigate the anxiety, not the worms. The worms are helping to control the Crohn’s. I know depression is linked to the hygiene hypothesis, but I can’t say that the worms have solved that for me; perhaps if I hadn’t been under so much stress the last few years, they would have?

As far as dosage goes, it seems that the IBD patients lose their worms faster than other diseases. I don’t know what caused me to lose them last year. I don’t know the ideal dosing schedule, and I’m not sure anyone does yet. Perhaps if you dose with a greater number at once, you don’t need to dose as often. But the two Crohn’s patients I know who had a horrible reaction to hookworms tried 20 and 25 at once, and had to terminate, so you have to balance side effects with dose efficacy, which is why I went with 10, knowing I would have to add later.

No one I know is doing egg counts, so no patient is tracking how long their population lasts and if efficacy is related to egg production. I wanted to see how long the 10 worms I had in February would give me efficacy; things seemed to worsen when the egg count dropped. Now I am waiting to see how long 20 worms last. I hope reinfection doesn’t have to happen annually; but every 3-7 years doesn’t seem to be the case with most people I know trying this. Usually after the 1 year mark, they redose. But we’re extremely early days, so…

Good luck if you try the worms. I wish everyone minimal side effects and maximum efficacy!

By: A

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 03:32:54 +0000

Great to hear how well you’re doing. I check your blog everyday.

I’ve had Crohn’s for almost 8 years now and nothing has worked for me and I refuse to go on Remicade or Humira. I’m hoping the worms will be the answer for me but I’ll probably have to get a resections first.

One thing that causes flare-ups for me is anxiety/stress. I remember reading some of your posts where you mentioned you were struggling with anxiety. Did this ever cause flare-ups for you and were the worms able to prevent them in this case?

Also, I noticed you mentioned you had to re-dose after 6 months because the egg count had fallen. Is this the case with the other worm patients as well? Do you have to re-dose every few months instead of the average 3-7 years?

Thanks!

By: admin

admin — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:46:48 +0000

Of course. I just wish it were all clearer and every patient was keeping track of things. I went into this blind, and am pleased that there is enough interest now and people trying this to form some little community of “worm activists”.

Good luck if you try it, and I hope it works with minimal side effects.

By: Oleksiy

Oleksiy — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 01:01:56 +0000

Thank you very much for the summary. I use rss to track your blog updates, since I’m considering going through AIT myself, and wanted to thank you for keeping me and the rest of blog readers updated.