While medical allergists stress about reaction thresholds for allergens – indeed, whether it will ever really be possible to set the ‘population levels’ that allergic consumer and the food industry are asking for – the helminthic therapy community continues to grow and prosper. ‘Reliable’ medical research on helminthic therapy is still in short supply. A recent trial with pig whipworms and Crohn’s disease was stopped early (after 12 weeks) as the worms were, apparently having no effect, although it seems odd that the trial should have been stopped so early as the worms normally take 24 weeks or more to do their work. However, there are number of other trials on going around the world but, as yet, few results.
(One of the many wonderful ‘worm’ cartoons that our good friend Chris White drew for John when he was undergoing his initial worm therapy’.)
But that is not stopping those with a multiplicity of allergy and autoimmune related conditions giving the worms a whirl. John Scott, who as you probably all know was an early worm pioneer and has had his life turned around by his colony of hookworms, regularly updates his pdf of ‘helminthic success stories’ which now runs into hundreds – and those are, of course, just the ones that he hears about. However, he tends to pick out some of the more eye catching ones and email them to me and, since they are often are seriously eye catching, I thought I would pass two of them on. This one from a lady, who, like John, suffered for multiple food allergies and intolerances:
‘I had to share my excitement – last night we went to a business dinner for my husband’s work and for the first time in many years I could provide a simple list of what I could not eat, rather than a very short list of what I could. I had a relatively normal 3 course meal and no one asked me why I was eating so little. I didn’t feel different or embarrassed. I was able to drink wine, eat almost normally and enjoy myself rather than feeling stressed. All of this is thanks to hookworm. I’ve just had my fourth dose and whilst I’m suffering skin rashes and inflammation it’s worth it for the end result. I have now drawn up a list of the big problem foods and am working my way through to see what happens – it’s not all good, and I am having to be prepared for three days of migraine and other symptoms with the ones I cannot tolerate, but the list is shortening and life is good.’
As John comments:
‘This lady’s diagnosis was, like my own, both food intolerance and food allergy, but she says that she’s only tested the intolerances so far, and still has to start on the allergies, but has been holding off because some of them can cause several days of migraine. She can only be at around 9 months into her treatment, and, as you know, it took 18 months for all my food issues to clear, so she’s doing very well to be having the success that she is at this stage.’
The second one is even more impressive as it comes from a psoriasis sufferer, a condition that continues to defy the best efforts of both conventional and complementary medicine:
‘Over the last 20 years I have tried everything the NHS has offered me – methotrexate, cyclosporin, fumaric acid esters, UV treatments, dithranol – among other things – but I’ve *never* seen results anything like this. (See the images at the bottom of this pdf.)
The only treatment I have had in the last year is 90 hookworms. Four doses, three months apart: 5 in March 2014, 25 in June, 25 in September, and 35 in December. Nothing much happened for six months or more, although my psoriasis didn’t get much worse (which was an improvement in itself!). Then I had some gradual improvement, but most of the improvement has only been in the last 2-3 months.
At about 9 months in, most of my torso cleared up in the space of a couple of weeks. Then about a month ago my legs cleared up almost overnight. So I seem to have had little spurts of healing, rather than a constant improvement. I did wonder if this was to do with each new dose of worms settling in. Only my scalp has not really started to clear yet… although it’s quite hard for me to tell if that’s improving or not! It has almost entirely gone from the rest of my body… and still getting better!
I have continued to use dovobet ointment most days throughout the hookworm treatment, just because I find it prevents my plaques from building up and becoming cracked and painful. But I’ve been doing that for about fifteen years anyway, so I’m confident that the worms are the reason for this big change!
Looking back at the old photos I realise I’d forgotten how painful the plaques on my torso were – the constant stretching and cracking on the small of my back, the painful patches where my bra rubbed. You can’t even see in these pics the big plaque I had in my cleavage which was constantly sore. And my fingernails never grew properly because I had psoriasis all round my nails. But not any more!
To get these results without side-effects, without daily trips to hospital or monthly blood-tests and blood-pressure monitoring, without risking melanoma or chemical burns, without killing my immune system and suffering repeated infections… it just seems too good to be true. I really couldn’t be happier with the results!’
If you want to learn more about helminthic therapy, check in to the FoodsMatter site here.