One day in 2004, a 29-year-old man with a terrible stomach problem stepped off a plane from the United States in Thailand. He wasn't there for the sights, or the food, or the beaches. He had traveled thousands of miles for worms -- parasitic worms whose eggs he intended to swallow by the thousands.
{snip}
and ingested first a dose of 500 eggs and then another of 1,000. The worms could live in his intestinal tract for many years. Three months later he had fewer bloody bowel movements, and soon, none at all. His bowel movements were normal. He felt fine.
From time to time, when his ulcerative colitis would flare up again, he'd extract eggs from his own stool, and clean, embryonate and ingest them. Again, his symptoms would go away.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/09...x.html?npt=NP1
Fascinating!
The link didn't work. I found this one: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/09/worms.health/index.html
Thanks.
That took a hell of a lot of intestinal fortitude to do that.
A friend of mine from another website tried that at about the same time (2004ish) to treat his Chron's with positive results.
Though I haven't heard from him lately.
Well, digging through ones poop for something to eat is, well, ah hell, you get the idea.
I've heard of people doing this for various ailments, including, weirdly, allergies. It grosses me out but it also makes a certain amount of sense that some flagellates that we have essentially co-evolved with would be more symbiotic than parasitic.
Quote from: Nigel on December 11, 2010, 05:21:50 PM
I've heard of people doing this for various ailments, including, weirdly, allergies. It grosses me out but it also makes a certain amount of sense that some flagellates that we have essentially co-evolved with would be more symbiotic than parasitic.
And apparently they're great for weight loss too:
(http://www.superficialgallery.com/Columns/Acadia/img/MagAds/tape-worms-t.jpg)
This needs more research.
What species have what effect etc etc.
Cool idea though, i like the concept of symbiotic medicine.
The noble tapeworm always gets such a bad wrap.