Hookworms and Allergies

[Olowkow]

Well I listened to the latest Radiolab podcast, Parasites.
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/
I almost could not bear to listen to the entire segment, but at some point, I was compelled to continue. Long story short, it has been noted that people with hookworm parasite infestations, don't have allergies. There is actually a medical theory that this may be a real effect.
So, a guy who is allergic to everything, horribly so, goes to England to visit his aunt, and she mentions hookworms. He reads up on it on the web, and calls all the researchers to try to buy hookworms to infect himself to relieve his allergies. They won't sell him any, so he goes to Africa and walks barefoot through every latrine he can find. Right, walking in feces! Hookworms can burrow in through your bare feet. He now has no more allergies! And, get this, he is selling hookworms on the web.

[Modified]

Sounds like a fair trade to me. But if the cure is due to some chemical the hookworms produce, I would rather just have that.

[portlandatheist]

I listened to the same radiolab. Very interesting. Tons of stuff comes up in google but I had a difficult time finding anything of substance. On the radio segment was also the mention of toxoplasma and its possible links to such things as car accidents, fondness for cats, and schizophrenia which is even more of an extreme statement than hookworms and allergies.

[Mr.D]

Wonder if it's this guy. http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2006/4/30/91945/8971

[NewtonTrino]

It has to be the same guy. I remember reading that article when he first wrote it.

I think his theory as at least possible. Basically he thinks that the hookworms stimulate his immune system by giving it something to concentrate on besides his own tissues. The theory being that the allergies are caused by an understimulated immune system, or something like that. Just trying to relay the idea as it sound odd when I write it out like that.

[Olowkow]

It has to be the same guy. I remember reading that article when he first wrote it.

I think his theory as at least possible. Basically he thinks that the hookworms stimulate his immune system by giving it something to concentrate on besides his own tissues. The theory being that the allergies are caused by an understimulated immune system, or something like that. Just trying to relay the idea as it sound odd when I write it out like that.

Yes, that is the theory, "the hygiene hypothesis", meaning that we evolved with hookworms to keep the immune system busy, sort of, trying to deal with them rather than the pollen etc. The invention of the outhouse meant that hookworms became rare (since they can only travel 4 feet through soil), and our immune system started to go after pollen. So it is not a question of some chemical that one can take.
I'm not sure whether I believe it or not. I need to read more on this, maybe today at work.

Yes, the toxoplasma story was even weirder.

[Professor Yaffle]

I'm not sure if I am remebering this, or my brainmade it up, but hasn't there been some trials in which hayfever sufferers were deliberately infected with a parasite (may be hookworm)? I'll see if I can find it. IIRC the volunteers were deparasited at he end of the study, but for a few it had worked so well that they decided to keep their new fiends.

[big-E]

Apparently there's something in it:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8268584.stm

[Soapy Sam]

I'm not sure if I am remebering this, or my brainmade it up, but hasn't there been some trials in which hayfever sufferers were deliberately infected with a parasite (may be hookworm)? I'll see if I can find it. IIRC the volunteers were deparasited at he end of the study, but for a few it had worked so well that they decided to keep their new fiends.

Was that deliberate?

[Professor Yaffle]

Was that deliberate?

Only if you think it was funny. If not, then it was just a typo.

[leon_heller]

Whipworms appear to be effective for treating Crohn's Disease, which I suffer from:

http://www.ibduk.com/whipworm-infestation-a-possible-crohns-disease-treatment.html

I jokingly suggested to my doctor that I might try them if my symptoms get worse (it's been under control for many years), but he didn't think much of the idea.

Leon

[Gate2501]

Warning: Slightly disturbing content.

I have mentioned this before here, but it seems perhaps worth repeating in this thread. When I was in my early twenties I had no health insurance, and had let Plantar Warts on the bottoms of my feet get completely out of control. I am not exaggerating when I say that I had clusters that covered literally 60-70% of the bottoms of my feet. It was a bit painful, but I had adjusted the way that I walked to apply minimal pressure to the areas that hurt the most.

I also have been diagnosed with OCD and a severe anxiety disorder. Things became quite bad at this time in my life and I started to self mutilate. Over the course of a year, I was losing gobs of blood on a biweekly basis. I should have had medical attention many many times. During this time I avoided doctors because I didn't want anyone to find out what I was doing in fear that I would be locked up, so I was not taking any other medication.

The Plantar Warts disappeared completely.

I don't know if there is a relation to massive blood loss, or some sort of deficiency I might have created in my body due to it, but it certainly is interesting to me things occurred the way they did. Correlation / Causation error perhaps? Or something more?

I haven't engaged in any sort of self mutilation for 7 or 8 years, and am quite "normal"(save for some brutal scars) now. So no worries.

[Olowkow]

Ok, my turn. Many years ago, I had a Plantar wart on each heel. It got to be extremely painful after a year or so of putting up with it, and hoping they would just go away.
I went to the doctor and had one removed, very nasty and painful. I was to come back the following week to have the other removed. After 3 or 4 days, the second one was gone with no treatment! I always wondered if perhaps they communicate with each other. :D Sounds crazy, but I think I have read that they may have some sort of common something or other. l find it hard to believe it was coincidence.

[Roboramma]

When I was a kid I had Plantar's warts. One day I got fed up and took a toenail cutter and cut them out. They went pretty deep, but I could only feel anything when I cut the flesh around them, they had no sensation at all. They never came back. But I wouldn't really suggest that as a good method of treatment.

[quadraginta]

Ok, my turn. Many years ago, I had a Plantar wart on each heel. It got to be extremely painful after a year or so of putting up with it, and hoping they would just go away.
I went to the doctor and had one removed, very nasty and painful. I was to come back the following week to have the other removed. After 3 or 4 days, the second one was gone with no treatment! I always wondered if perhaps they communicate with each other. :D Sounds crazy, but I think I have read that they may have some sort of common something or other. l find it hard to believe it was coincidence.

When I was a kid I had Plantar's warts. One day I got fed up and took a toenail cutter and cut them out. They went pretty deep, but I could only feel anything when I cut the flesh around them, they had no sensation at all. They never came back. But I wouldn't really suggest that as a good method of treatment.

Duct tape.

Yes. It works. First hand experience, and at least one successful repeat from one of my sons, who tried it after it worked for me.

The one I got rid of had been "removed" four times previously by doctors, twice with liquid nitrogen, once with heat, and once with a scalpel, plus innumerable failed attempts with salicylic acid, both RX and OTC.

The duct tape method requires perseverance, but it works. I fought that damn wart for over a quarter century, and since the tape approach it's been gone for six years.

[bokonon]

So, if you subsequently get rid of the hookworms, do the allergies come back?

[Olowkow]

When I was a kid I had Plantar's warts. One day I got fed up and took a toenail cutter and cut them out. They went pretty deep, but I could only feel anything when I cut the flesh around them, they had no sensation at all. They never came back. But I wouldn't really suggest that as a good method of treatment.

It has been many years, but now that I think about it, the painful part was the injection of novacaine into the heel.

"Duct tape". Well, it really makes one wonder what the heck is going on with warts. You wrap the wart in duct tape? Never heard that one. I have heard of hypnosis being used. It's always hard to know if there is a causal relationship.

[quadraginta]

It has been many years, but now that I think about it, the painful part was the injection of novacaine into the heel.

"Duct tape". Well, it really makes one wonder what the heck is going on with warts. You wrap the wart in duct tape? Never heard that one. I have heard of hypnosis being used. It's always hard to know if there is a causal relationship.


There have been studies. The one mentioned here (http://www.aafp.org/afp/20030201/tips/8.html), from 2002 found it more effective than cryotherapy.


In patients treated with duct tape, 85 percent of the warts completely resolved, compared with 60 percent in the cryotherapy group. These results were statistically significant. Resolution of warts treated with duct tape usually occurred within the first 28 days of therapy. If there was no response within the first two weeks, the warts were unlikely to respond to a longer course of therapy. The main adverse outcomes with duct-tape therapy were difficulty keeping the tape on the wart and minor skin irritation. The main adverse effect in the cryotherapy group was mild to severe pain at the freeze site during and after the treatment.
The authors conclude that duct tape occlusive therapy is more effective than cryotherapy in the treatment of common warts. They also state that duct tape therapy is less expensive and has fewer adverse effects than cryotherapy.


This one (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-03-19-duct-tape_N.htm), more recent, didn't duplicate those results, but it also turns out that they didn't use real duct tape.



This time, a study among older adults found duct tape helped only 21% of the time and was no better than moleskin, a cotton-tape bandage used to protect the skin.
But researchers used transparent duct tape. Only later did they learn that the transparent variety does not contain rubber, unlike the better-known, gray duct tape that appeared to be effective in the 2002 study.


I can only speak to my personal experience, which has been quite positive, and my son's, who tells me the same thing.

[Beerina]

It has to be the same guy. I remember reading that article when he first wrote it.

I think his theory as at least possible. Basically he thinks that the hookworms stimulate his immune system by giving it something to concentrate on besides his own tissues. The theory being that the allergies are caused by an understimulated immune system, or something like that. Just trying to relay the idea as it sound odd when I write it out like that.

Welts are one thing, but some effects of allergies are very placebo-oriented.

Would like to see hard, documented evidence, and, presumably, double-blind studies of this, assuming such an infestation is not overly harmful, and thus not unethical, however "gross" it may seem.