3 ms·
My favorite parasite story is in Episode 404 of the "This American Life" podcast, act 3. It's about a guy who has terrible allergies (to pollen) and fixes it by
by chihuahua 4y ago
My favorite parasite story is in Episode 404 of the "This American Life" podcast, act 3. It's about a guy who has terrible allergies (to pollen) and fixes it by intentionally infecting himself with hookworms. It somehow calms down his immune system. For a while he sells hookworms to other people. Beautiful story.
It's obviously better if you listen to it, but you can also find it in the transcript: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/404/transcript https://www.thisamericanlife.org/404/transcript - search for "act three"
- SemanticStrengh 4y agothere are many possible applications to this and hypothetical hidden endosymbionts. A related major topic is phage therapy. I also have read some people eat common stomach worms parasite as a smart way to loose weight. I don't know if they are toxic per se but if not (and evolutionnarily probably not) it would increase the lifespan and healthspan of obese people. However, the most crazy Idea I think about right now and off topic tbh, would be for scientists to reactivate behaviorally the vomeronasal organ on a human via e.g. epigenetics, which would allow a human to have altered qualias, including enhanced perception to air-transmitted neurotransmitters, also called pheromones. Although pheronomes do already works non negligibly in humans even without the vomeronasal, despite common belief. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnana.2017.00070/full https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnana.2017.0007...
- encephalos 4y agoThis is why I try my best not to miss any front-page threads. I wonder if the vomeronasal organ played a role in the whole covid / olfactory bulb system and role in the ano/parosmia.