I’m going to take a break from blogging for the summer. I just want to have some time away from thinking about worm therapy, and need to give the new things I’m doing some time to assess before writing about them. I’ll still take comments and answer questions, so keep ‘em coming.
My action plan:
15 new hookworms
SCDiet (mostly)
reservetrol 150 mg.
Udo’s Choice Super Bifido Plus probiotic (2 caps a day, working up to more) +
Udo’s Choice Super 8 Hi-Potency Probiotic (1 cap a day, working up)
Fish oil: 3000 mg EPA/DHA (Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega)
Vit D: 7000 – 10,000 IU a day
Magnesium glycinate 350 mg. (about all I tolerate before getting loose stools)
magnesium chloride baths: 2 a day (this is helping with the magnesium deficiency symptoms, thank God!!)
multi vitamin + extra Vit A (since I am low in this)
meditation (1 -2 X a day), lots of sun, exercise, and prayer
I had an MR enterography done recently. It showed mild inflammation in the ileal-cecal valve with minor scarring, a very inflamed sigmoid colon, and my first ever fistula, going from the colon to an ovary. Very disappointing. So though the hookworms have helped fabulously, the wait to reinfect (I went 9 months this time) led to some pretty bad inflammation. My GI said the entire wall had eroded through, which is what led to the fistula.
Whipworms may help more, but AIT decided not to offer them to me due to anger about some of these blog contents. I may get access to them from another source down the road. But for now, hopefully the above plan will help things heal. Enjoying the summer bounty, the fruits of my trees in strict moderation, unfortunately (will a summer ever come where I can eat my plums with abandon?)
I hope everyone else has a much easier time with helminth therapy. It has not been a fun road for me, though I am grateful for the opportunity in trying them. Hopefully good days are to come.
May all of you with Crohn’s find relief. Here’s a prayer for your suffering: may you find what you need to get well. May you live pain free and free from fear. May your meals be joyous and deprivation be an unknown concept.
Finally, please pray for all of those people suffering terribly from this disease. I am not that religious, but prayer has been shown to work, and it’s cheap and easy! For everyone who reads this, send a silent vision of wellness for humanity. May we all return to a perfect state, and send our suffering to the wind, to be whispered then forgotten. Peace to all.
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I was diagnosed with crohn’s about a year ago and have recently been looking into this hookworms cure. I am really interested in it but i would also like to know a lot more before i officially begin to pursue it.
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I would research it to death; wikepedia is a good place to start. There aren’t many trials yet, unfortunately. You can also join the yahoo group helminthictherapy and ask for other people’s experiences. I don’t know anyone personally with Crohn’s who has done well long term, but hopefully they are out there! Good luck!
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Hi Deborah! If you might remember, we talked a while ago about magnesium, because I’ve had similar problems as you (frequent muscle fasciculations, twitching etc, in addition to light sensitivity and headaches). I admit I felt discouraged last summer when I was supplementing, because things didnt seem to get better. But I also didnt go at it very aggressively (as you have), and probably did not overcome the loss due to 6 years of IBD.
My question is if you’ve come across anything about the interaction between magnesium and Vit D? I’ve read a few mentions about interaction between the two, that high Vit D may cause lowering Magnesium. Although I havent really looked into it. I too was laying out in the sun all day and taking Vit D in high doses last time I tried taking Mag, and I wonder if that could be why I didnt see better results.
Forever searching for answers, we are.
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Hi Mike.
Yes, I did read that high vit D supplements may unsmask an underlying magnesium deficiency. From:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/more-vitamin-d-questions-and-answers.shtml
” Yes, it is important to have adequate magnesium intake and most Americans do not. A number of people have written about muscle cramps after they start sunbathing or taking Vitamin D. This is likely caused from the neuromuscular hyperexcitability of magnesium deficiency that is somehow unmasked by higher Vitamin D levels.”
It certainly seemed to be the case when I started supplementing with high amounts of Vit D earlier this year. I’m actually getting some relief from magnesium chloride baths, twice daily. Since the stuff is super expensive, and I use 1/4 – 1/5 a bag (costs $30 a bag) per bath, I’ve started reboiling the water and using it 2-3 X. This is the only thing I’ve changed in the last 3 weeks (besides getting 15 more hookworms, but they usually make the mag. symptoms worse), and I’m better.
I also just saw a new endocronologist, who based on my low parathyroid hormone (a way to confirm low magnesium, as well as the RBC magnesium test.) and he’s going to let me give myself IM shots of magnesium sulphate as needed. He also thinks there are probably a lot of other nutrients that are causing symptoms, but we’ll see if increased mag reduces most of them.
Another thing, I’ve had someone confirm that worms can indeed deplete magnesium, so it would be interesting to note if your symptoms get worse after infecting with whipworms? Of course, the chronic diarrhea is to blame, and the lack of tolerance to oral supplements (even healthy people can’t absorb much of them.) Pumpkin, sunflower seeds (I’m going to attempt a puree of these; hope they don’t affect the worms), leafy greens and halibut are good sources. I’m only taking 400 mg. of magnesium glycinate right now (more gives me D), but I’m feeling better with the mag, so going to keep bathing. (The footbaths stopped working, as did the sprays. Baths are best absorbed.)
How are your symptoms now?
I was also told dehydration can cause muscles to cramp, so it’s probably both of those for us with subpar colon health.
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I am doing well on LDN, you should try it for six months.
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Hi
Did you DIY the new worms in the end ?
Thanks -
I tried two 2500 ova doses of TSO from Biomonde in Thailand. On the second dose it became clear that i was allergic to the worms. I was having more problems breathing than usual (i have asthma), so i had to stop after the second dose. In addition i was bloated most of the time, so it was mildly uncomfortable. I am going to wait to see how all this pans out with further studies before i try anything. While this leaves me with Entocort, and the associated side effects of obvious bruising and bleeding, i can live with that until something more reliable shows itself.
And in fairness to those considering TSO, i have Hep C and that may have complicated things.
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