helminth therapy

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Excellent Article on the Depleted Microbiome

October 14, 2010 in helminth immunology, helminth therapy, hygiene hypothesis, old friends' hypothesis, studies by admin | No comments

http://evmedreview.com/?p=457

The light of evolution points toward reconstitution of the biome as the only reasonable therapy for a wide range of immune-associated disorders, including allergy, autoimmunity and perhaps autism.

By William Parker, Duke University

It is now widely appreciated that humans did not evolve as a single species, but rather that humans and the microbiomes associated with us have co-evolved as a “super-organism”, and that our evolution as a species and the evolution of our associated microbiomes have always been intertwined. This co-evolution has biological consequences that are readily apparent. For example, decades of work with gnotobiotic (microbe-free) animals consistently demonstrate that the painstaking separation of a mammal from its associated microbiome results in an underdeveloped immune system that is a mere shadow of its naturally occurring counterpart.

The vital role of the microbiome in shaping the development of the immune system is, thankfully, becoming widely appreciated and the subject of more intensive inquiry. On the other hand, it is less well appreciated that, like the microbiome, a wide range of our fellow eukaryotes have co-evolved with us and have become intertwined with the development of our immune system. All mammalian species with the exception of humans in post-industrial societies and their domesticated animals co-exist with a wide range of intestinal worms, called helminths. Unfortunately, we are only now beginning to appreciate the consequences of our deceptively painless separation from these animals. Read the rest of this entry »

BTeR Conference on Helmintherapy: Need help!

October 12, 2010 in helminth immunology, helminth therapy, hygiene hypothesis, studies, trials by admin | No comments

International Conference on Biotherapy - 2010

November 11-14 in Los Angeles, the BTeR Foundation (BioTherapeutics, Education & Research Foundation) is hosting an international conference on biotherapy, including helmintherapy:

http://www.bterfoundation.org/icb/icb2010.htm

Dr. Pritchard from University of Nottingham will be giving a talk:  “A Critical Appraisal of Worm Therapy” on the 11th, and on the 14th will be having a workshop on “Practical Helmintherapy”.

http://www.bterfoundation.org/icb/program.htm

I’ve been invited to speak as a patient trying this therapy.

I’d like to present an honest account of my and other people’s experience with helmintherapy.  Mostly, I’d like to establish a liaison between patients and researchers.  What would you, as a potential or current patient of helmintherapy like to tell or ask the researchers?  What has your experience been with your disease and helminths?  What would you like to see in the future with this therapy?  Are you interested in becoming a case study or linking your physicians with other researchers?  How can we best unite the community of researchers and the “underground worm therapy” movement to help legitimize and share our data?

You can comment here, or privately at: http://waitingforthecure.com/I/contact/

Thank you!

BTeR Foundation’s International Conference on Biotherapy

September 1, 2010 in helminth immunology, helminth therapy by admin | 1 comment

http://www.bterfoundation.org/icb/icb2010.htm

November 11-14 at the Hollywood Hilton in Los Angeles, there will be a conference on biotherapy, which is the use of living organisms to treat or diagnose medical illnesses.  On Thursday at 4:00 Dr. Pritchard from the University of Nottingham will be giving a talk on helminth therapy.  On Sunday, there will be a breakout session and workshop at 9:00 AM on the Clinical Use & Administration of Medicinal Helminths.  Those of you interested in learning more about these topics should attend.  Price for the day is $175 or $105 for students,  a workshop only is $235 or $105 students.  All 4 days costs $425 / $190 students.  Members of the BTeR foundation pay less.

I’m planning on attending this.  Hopefully some of our burning questions will be answered.  Maybe those interested in helminth therapy in the Los Angeles area could meet somewhere to talk about it?  A worm date.

I’m so Bored with the USA

May 21, 2010 in helminth therapy, symptoms, worms and the law by I | 2 comments

Very trying times in helminthic therapy-land.  Symptoms have rapidly been going downhill.  I’ve now felt nauseous for about 2 weeks, lost 5 pounds, and have had diarrhea mixed with soft stools for many days. Because of this, all progress on the magnesium front has reversed, and I am twitching away, bad as ever.

I need more worms, I assume, though my egg count hadn’t dropped by much last time I checked.  But these same symptoms happened after about 6 months from a dose last year.  This time, it’s been 8 months, last year I infected at month 7 before things got this bad.  Maybe next time I’ll be proactive and infect at month 5 or 6…I always have some bad reason for waiting.

And now, because of the FDA ruling on hookworms as a drug, I can’t talk about incubation.  I don’t have a level 2 lab, which means I’m not allowed to work with infectious organisms.  So I can’t discuss how tap water probably killed most of the first sample.  The excitement of seeing live organisms.  The frustration of trying to pick them up and losing them again.  All the dessicated and sad looking larvae.  The 3 I managed to pick up, and what I did with them. Decontamination techniques. What the hell those round, swimmy things are and should I be worried?  How nice it would be to share data with other worm farmers and not risk hefty fines or jail time!  As it is, the last paragraph was all a dream…

We scuttle together in the privacy of cell phone conversations.  We compare reactions, and try to make sense of it all.  We meet in private and learn from one another, scared that we will get caught.  Persecuted for daring to try to make ourselves well.  The Lowly worm, such long reaching consequences.  At least TSO will be in multi-center trials soon, and some few hundred people can try worms for free.  That data will be logged, published, and hopefully one day we will get pig whipworms under a prescription, know what dose to take, how often, and for how long.  Meanwhile, the hookworm trials crawl along, and the rest of us are left struggling with how to put the worm in our hands, and keep ourselves well.

I hastily try to reinfect before I have nothing to infect myself with.  But sshhh…

I’ve been asked to play bass guitar in a band who’s playing 5 Clash songs in two weeks.  I said yes, though I’m kind of rusty, and I feel like absolute shit.  Hoping that I can reinfect before then, so I won’t feel like throwing up or having urgent diarrhea during the set.  It feels pretty awesome playing “London Calling” until you have to rush to the bathroom with mucus in your underwear.  I’m tempted to tell the band,

“Hopefully I’ll get some hookworms in me before June 5th otherwise I’m not sure I can make it.”

As a female bassist, it would sound pretty bad-ass.   A hookworm rash would just add to the mystique.  It sucks having Crohn’s disease, you never feel like you can promise anything in the future because you have no idea how you’ll feel.  But I’m bold.  I said yes because I’ll be damned if this disease or this therapy gets in the way of my life.  I’ve had enough of that already.

There will be a few hundred people, and I HAVE TO feel better before then, and hookworms are all I’ve got.

I just wish I could talk about it all.  My blogging days are numbered.  We will have to wait for a cure in secret.  I’ve gotten in too much trouble already.  The last thing I need in my life is another rude email or a knock on my door.

“FDA.!  I hear you have an illegal lab.”

“I’m not selling anything.”

“You have the right to remain sick.  You have the right to an attorney to help explain to the judge and jury that you need to illegally breed an infectious nematode to keep your Crohn’s in remission.  Your doctor doesn’t sanction this.  Your provider’s already been run out of the country.  Prison food will make your Crohn’s worse.”

I’m getting too dramatic.  Got to go stir my potion.  And practice “Straight to Hell”, which some would imply is where I’m already headed.

Bay Area Support Group

May 14, 2010 in egg count, helminth therapy by I | 1 comment

Would you like to get together in the Bay Area (California) to discuss helminthic therapy?  I’d like to invite those who either have been infected, or are interested in trying worms for their various ailments.  We could discuss the following topics:  (Please feel free to enter your topic suggestions in the comments below)

* your experience with TSO, hookworms, whipworms, and other alternative remedies

* incubation techniques, egg counting  (I can teach you how to do a McMaster egg count, show how to recognize hookworm eggs, the equipment needed, etc.)

* the legalities of this therapy.  With the recent FDA classification for hookworms as a drug, what legal rights to we have as patients?  Are we allowed to share? Are we allowed to host worms even if they are illegal to obtain?  What about children?  Do we have the right to prevent disease, or only use worms to treat disease after it’s occurred?

*alternative ways of getting the worms safely other than the commercial companies

* how to bring more positive attention to this therapy

* how to encourage our doctors to research, further the research, use us as case studies, etc.

* how to affect the FDA ruling and help the paradigm shift along

* creating an open-source, public database on our side effects, blood tests, reactions, proof of efficacy or lack thereof, etc. to keep track of our data and have a place that interested parties can see what other people are going through, their lab data, how long progress lasts, egg counts, etc.

* and just to meet with other people trying this or who would like to try it, to help normalize the whole concept of hosting worms

Please contact me by clicking on the contact link, where you can email me a personal message stating your interest.  Let me know when you are available, whether weekend or weekday is best, evening, etc.

We are all in this together, and giving each other support for our various trials and ailments would be wonderful! I think it’s also time for a robust DIY community to form. I realize most of you will not be able to come to California, just hoping there are enough people in the Bay Area interested in something like this.  Perhaps we could put up notes or do a virtual stream during the meeting, if other people would be interested in joining,  but unable to in person.

Thanks!

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