Worm Soup

I don't know what made me think of this out of the blue as something that I should write about today, but something made me remember a story I saw at the beginning of the year that was discussing a study conducted in Argentina that followed 24 people with MS for over four years - half of whom had become infected with parasites after they were diagnosed with MS (but before they were recruited into the study).

Amazingly, in the 12 people with parasites there were only three relapses over the four years, compared to 56 relapses in the 12 people who were not infected.

The theory, often referred to as the "hygiene hypothesis," is that certain infections or other exposures may teach the immune system to not attack a person's own body, as happens in an autoimmune disease such as MS. Some experts point to the hygiene hypothesis as a possible explanation as to why MS is more prevalent in the US and Europe than it is in Latin America, where people are more likely to be infected with parasites (and thus "protected," according to the theory).

While the study was small and the researchers knew who was infected, which could lead to biased results, it is still a very interesting finding. The idea of treating people by having them drink or eat large doses of parasite eggs has been applied to other diseases, such as irritable bowel syndrome and Crohn's disease, but is still in the experimental stages.

I guess I don't have to remind anyone not to try this one at home...