Could worms (helminths) protect against COVID?

Long term followers of FoodsMatter will remember John Scott and his spectacularly successful interaction with parasitic hookworms.

(From being virtually bedridden with ME, Crohn’s Disease, migraine, restless legs and crippling rhinitis – and forced to live on elemental infant formula as being the only food he could tolerate – he is fully recovered from all of the above, eats a normal healthy diet and has managed to work his way through several exercise bicycles in the last few years.)

For some years we hosted both his researches and the tale of his gradual rehabilitation on the FoodsMatter site but in 2017 he started his own Wiki site, Helminthictherapywiki.org, which is where you should now go for all of the latest research, articles and success stories on helminthic therapy.

However, just to keep us in the loop, he periodically sends me updates on recent successes achieved by his wriggling friends.  I will list some of them below but he ended his email by saying:

Something that may really surprise you is that a number of researchers are suggesting that worms could provide an answer to the current pandemic, as both treatment and prophylaxis, although worms obviously don’t have quite the same popular appeal as a sexy new vaccine!

See this page on his site for more information.

The global community of helminthic therapy self-treaters, he continues,  now numbers in excess of 60,000 individuals, yet the number of cases of COVID-19 reported by our members is minuscule, and these few have all experienced a very mild illness and a relatively quick recovery. 

I spoke last week to the CEO of one of our largest providers, the UK-based Biome Restoration who supply HDCs (rat tapeworm ova) to thousands of clients in many parts of the world, and she said that she has yet to hear of a single case of COVID amongst her customers! Bravo, worms!

Other cases that you might like to read about:

• Hookworms help a one-year-old overcome severe eczema and food allergies.
• Helminthic Therapy and CIRS (Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome): Could this be the Missing Link?
• Hookworms transform a food intolerant with multiple other allergic issues into a foodie.
• Treating SIBO (small intestinal bacterial overgrowth) and metal allergy with helminthic therapy.
• Hookworms treat anaphylaxis and salicylate intolerance in a 5-year-old.

• Helminthic therapy and fecal microbiota transplant (FMT)
• Helminthic therapy and allergen immunotherapy.
• Helminthic therapy and low-dose naltrexone (LDN)