4 ms·

A story on This American Life about a guy who got hookworms intentionally to deal with his immune disorder: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episo

by ahi 14y ago

A story on This American Life about a guy who got hookworms intentionally to deal with his immune disorder: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/404/enemy-camp-2010?act=3 http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/404/e...

btilly 14y ago
I have a friend who did the same. It worked. He has now gone a year and a half without medication, and is in massively better shape than he was on the (expensive and only marginally effective) medications.
- pacaro 14y ago
  Here's my anecdote. I suffer from psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. For the most part the psoriasis is not a big deal, it's disfiguring, but only on my legs, and it itches to the point that I'm perfectly capable of scratching long past the point that I'm bleeding. The psoriatic arthritis is another matter, untreated I live somewhere between 5-7 on the pain scale, shaking hands is nerve-wracking (please, no bone crusher handshakes - I do suffer from hand squeezy death) and I can barely walk. On meds I'm basically fine. I use Humira which if I understand correctly is a human monoclonal antibody glued to a receptor that interferes with something to do with T-cells. I.e. it causes a specific immune suppression that massively reduces the process that causes the psoriasis and arthritis symptoms - oh and I'm 100x more likely to get skin cancer. I've been off meds for over 6 months now with very limited impact on my life. All I did was cut out refined sugars and grain from my diet. I discovered this by accident (too lazy to refill my prescription, then realized that I hadn't refilled in ages and yet wasn't in pain) I think that there's a huge load we don't understand in the relationship between inflammation and autoimmune conditions; there are many things that are involved Just my 2¢, I love science so please disregard my anecdotal ramblings
rz2k 14y ago
It is worth taking a look at how Radiolab covered hookworms, the fallout, and this followup: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blogland/2010/apr/02/an-update-on-hookworms/ http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blogland/2010/apr/02/... The comments do not inspire much confidence either. To be honest I'm disappointed in Radiolab for being clearer, and addressing some of the crazy there.

by ahi 14y ago

btilly 14y ago

I have a friend who did the same. It worked. He has now gone a year and a half without medication, and is in massively better shape than he was on the (expensive and only marginally effective) medications.

pacaro 14y ago
Here's my anecdote. I suffer from psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. For the most part the psoriasis is not a big deal, it's disfiguring, but only on my legs, and it itches to the point that I'm perfectly capable of scratching long past the point that I'm bleeding. The psoriatic arthritis is another matter, untreated I live somewhere between 5-7 on the pain scale, shaking hands is nerve-wracking (please, no bone crusher handshakes - I do suffer from hand squeezy death) and I can barely walk. On meds I'm basically fine. I use Humira which if I understand correctly is a human monoclonal antibody glued to a receptor that interferes with something to do with T-cells. I.e. it causes a specific immune suppression that massively reduces the process that causes the psoriasis and arthritis symptoms - oh and I'm 100x more likely to get skin cancer. I've been off meds for over 6 months now with very limited impact on my life. All I did was cut out refined sugars and grain from my diet. I discovered this by accident (too lazy to refill my prescription, then realized that I hadn't refilled in ages and yet wasn't in pain) I think that there's a huge load we don't understand in the relationship between inflammation and autoimmune conditions; there are many things that are involved Just my 2¢, I love science so please disregard my anecdotal ramblings

rz2k 14y ago

It is worth taking a look at how Radiolab covered hookworms, the fallout, and this followup: http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blogland/2010/apr/02/an-update-on-hookworms/ http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blogland/2010/apr/02/... The comments do not inspire much confidence either. To be honest I'm disappointed in Radiolab for being clearer, and addressing some of the crazy there.