Ive been watching this company http://www.coronadobiosciences.com/ after reading about their theory on auto immune issues. Simply put were to clean, to free of parasites, to free of germs, all the things that our immune systems for thousands of years have been busy with. As the human race has become more civilized and more sterilized, our immune systems have turned on our bodys from not staying busy. They call this the hygiene hypothesis.
My own experience is that a few years ago I had giardia for a month and a half. During that time I had no PSA symptoms and took no meds.
I also saw a show on tv about a guy that had severe allergies and infected himself with a parasite which completely illuminated his allergies.
So the company has developed pig whipworm parasite eggs as a treatment (TSO). You drink the eggs every couple weeks. They dont fully mature in humans. They die off in a couple weeks. They have ongoing trials for crones and ms. PSA trial are planed for this year.
I take enbrel. It works wonders. But Ill try this therapy without hesitation just for the lack of potential side effects.
I was wondering how everyone else thought? To gross?
You may want to check out the helminthic therapy group on Yahoo. I've thought about this, but have yet to bite the bullet. It's expensive, and there are some specific things that need to be avoided in order to avoid losing your worms. I was looking into hookworms as the probable helminth, which will live up to 5 years in your system.
The problem with the pig whipworms is that you are constantly needing to be reinfected. My guess is that the therapy using pig whipworm, while more "controlled", may wind up being a lot more expensive and I wonder if it would be as effective as the human helminths that are being used in some places.
Well, I understand that experimentally it seems to work, though no-one really knows why - only a the theory that our environments are so much cleaner now.
The theory seems to suggest that it is a lifetime of overly clean conditions that causes the immune response (not just whether you happen to have worms that day or not).
This is where I have a personal disconnect - I’ve had hookworm, tapeworm, probably a few others I didn’t know about, dengue, the list goes on.
Didn’t stop me getting either arthritis or IBD. And Stoney, I’ve got to say, do some serious research on the hookworm before you go down that path, I personally wouldn’t be inviting those buggers back into my body!
The thing is that all these germ treatments do not fix the real cause. we have a auto-immune disorder because our immune systems cannot recognize the difference between the good and the bad. by adding more viruses for them to deal with does not change the fact that our immune system is still confused. until we can fix this mix up all we are doing by adding these germs is stressing out our already taxed immune system. BTW the thought of swallowing a worm is just gross to me. I don't think I could do it. I just think of the poltergeist movie were the father swallowed the worm yuck. Also people have been having these auto-immune disorders for a long time. the reason that they are on the rise is the advancements in the medical field in diagnosing these diseases. They were always there we just did not know a whole lot about them until recently.
I agree with you crookedtoes84. In researching just my own family history I found lots of descriptions of illnesses that were not diagnosed with auto immune as we would do these days but the most promising link to my diagnosis was a great uncle who died young of heart disease after being a cripple as a young man with a disfiguring skin disease. Sounds like PsA to me I could never knowingly swallow a worm. Just too much for me! I also have some difficulty understanding this theory. My immune system is over active. It is attacking my joints and soft tissue because it is confused. Why would I want to stimulate it more? I have also noticed a large number of nurses who have auto immune disorders. Prior to the AIDs epidemic we were rather cavilier with needle sticks and other germ exposure. We learned a lot from the AIDs epidemic and are more careful with our patients and ourselves with hand washing, hand sanitizers and wipe surfaces with disenfectents. I was always proud of my good immune system. Not so much now!
Thank you. I know that when you are in so much pain day in and day out, as PsA can cause; you want a solution. So we try and look for anything that looks promising. But the fact of the matter is we still just don't know enough about the source of auto immune issues to be at a point were we can completely cure auto-immune disorders. So we will just have to deal with conventional medicine for now.
michael in vermont said:
I agree with you crookedtoes84. In researching just my own family history I found lots of descriptions of illnesses that were not diagnosed with auto immune as we would do these days but the most promising link to my diagnosis was a great uncle who died young of heart disease after being a cripple as a young man with a disfiguring skin disease. Sounds like PsA to me I could never knowingly swallow a worm. Just too much for me! I also have some difficulty understanding this theory. My immune system is over active. It is attacking my joints and soft tissue because it is confused. Why would I want to stimulate it more? I have also noticed a large number of nurses who have auto immune disorders. Prior to the AIDs epidemic we were rather cavilier with needle sticks and other germ exposure. We learned a lot from the AIDs epidemic and are more careful with our patients and ourselves with hand washing, hand sanitizers and wipe surfaces with disenfectents. I was always proud of my good immune system. Not so much now!
Yes we have an autoimmune disease that attacks our bodies and as of right now there is no cure for the disease in which we all have. But there is nothing wrong with keeping up with the medical research that is being conducted for one never knows if it will work. Currently the medical industry is investing billions of dollars into nanomedicine. Who knows there may be something there in 10 years that will help us.
You guys KNOW what I think of alternative treatments. This ain't one of them.
I think this process holds some hope although the clean environment theory has some problems....... Its really JUST an extension of the biologicals we are now using. I mean after all, all they are is protein grown and cloned in the uterus of a Chinese hamster collected by a D & C. At the end of the day its really not much different than the cells/protein sluffed of during menstruation. Now they are synthesising it and we inject it. Whats wrong with swallowing worm poop if it works? They are essentially synthesising the active part of it. Unlike most of the Quack treatment we come across this one is undergoing FDA trials and is being medically supervised so when it does come, we will be getting the same poop everytime. If they can come up with a way to make worms poop the same way every time think of the possibilities if they extend the technology, there may never be an other prune grown........
You make a good point Lamb, as always. I think I need to mull this over for awhile. I probably would feel the same squimishment if I had read the medical reports of biologics while they were being developed. By the time I got around to reading about them my joints were screaming for relief. Amazing how motivating a little pain and stiffness can be........
Hi Lamb, I agree - trials seem to indicate it works, and if its been demonstrated and is approved by the time the biologics run out for me, I’ll be lining up for it.
Personally, after having had hookworm, the fact that the treatment they are testing naturally dies after a few weeks is a real bonus - you really don’t want something that might be difficult to eradicate, or will live on for a long time with a life cycle that might include lung and eye infestation…
The theory doesn’t make much sense to me, but to be honest, that’s beside the point. They still don’t know why Humira works for IBD but Enbrel doesn’t - just because they don’t know why didn’t stop me from switching to Humira!
It’s just great to be living in a time when we have so many options and opportunities.
Michael, I know what you mean. The tapeworm was a bit feral, but the hookworm - shudder. Coughing up the damn things to have them swallowed into my intestines and start causing major intestinal bleeding…
But, at the end of the day , I’m with Frances, if it gets rid of PsA, there’s not too many lengths I wouldn’t go to!