This Is MS Multiple Sclerosis Community: Knowledge & Support

ScienceDaily (Mar. 5, 2009) — Scientists from The University of Nottingham will study the potential health benefits of parasitic worms as part of a study investigating treatments for people with the autoimmune condition multiple sclerosis (MS).

more...

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/20 ... 091818.htm

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Helminthic Therapy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy

I'll be going on helminthic therapy as soon as I jump through all the hoops. The Nottingham study is basically expanding on a small study done in Argentina:

http://www.mstrust.org.uk/atoz/hookworms.jsp

And, of course, I'll be posting my personal experience here as an additional resource.

It works on the hygene hypothesys, namely, that are bodies are adapted to living with certain parasites. Living in the devolped world, with it's reletivey new hygene standards, has deprived us of these parasites and thrown us off-balance.

Another thought that came to my mind was the possible implications with the CCSVI theory. Those with CCSVI would basically be suffering from iron poisoning in the affected areas of their nervous system. Hookworms would cause a slow blood-letting, making on animic, or reducing the overall level of iron in the blood. Could this be why those infected with hookworms fair better? Just a theory of mine.

Good! That'll be appreciated.

Although there has to be a lot more to it....the human immune system shouldn't, but historically has allowed parasites as large as helminths to survive in us, which needs to be better understood, but you make a very interesting point. The most effective treatment for Hemochromatosis continues to be blood letting and helminth infection would serve that purpose.

I was anemic in childhood and grew out of it. It would be interesting to determine if someone whose system produced too much iron in childhood would correct to producing the right levels of iron by the age of 14/15 due to the ongoing childhood consumption by helminths.....exposure to "evolutionary normal conditions" before maturity?

Which also could have implications for the latitude discrepency. The doctors and scientists seem to focus almost exculively on vit D, though there there's a multitude of variables that can correspond with latitude, parasite infection rates being one.

Absolutely! Over the years I've softened my tone a lot because, even though I'm convinced that the loss of helminths led to the inflammatory diseases of modern society, it eventually will or won't prove itself and my input isn't going to make or break the deal either way.

That said, over the years it's become obvious that nothing else causes the MS pieces of the puzzle to slip smoothly together like the loss of evolutionary normal conditions indicative of modern "developed" populations.

I consider one interesting "proof" is that historically two completely separate groups independently came to a similar conclusion which almost surely requires "evolutionary normal conditions" for a satisfactory answer. Long ago MS researchers, through migratory data, noticed that someone living through the age of 14/15 in a low MS incidence area (which invariably also happen to be "undeveloped" areas of helminth infestation") retain the low MS incidence through life even though they move to a high MS incidence area, while their is little or no benefit to someone raised in a high MS incidence area who moves to a low MS incidence area after the age of 14/15.

Separate from what was going on in MS research, hygiene hypothesis researchers noticed that someone exposed to the "evolutionary normal" dirt/dander/microbes through the age of 14/15 have immune systems which been "educated" to respond appropriately through life.

How might that relate specifically to what is noticed in MS migratory data? With the knowledge that the Hygiene Hypothesis researchers had separately come to the conclusion that exposure to "evolutionary normal" conditions through the age of 14/15 gives you an immune system that is able to respond appropriately through life even without further exposure to evolutionary normal conditions, a person moving post puberty from a low MS incidence area to a high MS incidence area carries with them a protection from those immune dysfunctions through adult life.

Conversely, with that being the case it's only to be expected that someone moving from high MS incidence area to low MS incidence area after adulthood would find no or very little drop in risk because the time to "educate" the immune system is already passed. Additionally, a "trait" of developed populations is that, on a percentage basis, we might live among undeveloped populations but we won't live under those conditions. We will sterilize our water, wash our food and exercise sanitation, which also means that, even though living amongst undeveloped populations, we are much less likely to experience evolutionary normal exposure.

Sadly that very same circumstance is behind the reason I've always warned that what might be the "cause" of MS might not necessarily be the "cure" of MS.

If it is true that the human immune system requires "evolutionary normal" pre-pubescent exposure to ward off later immune dysfunction we might have been really lucky to find any positive effect from adult exposure to evolutionary normal conditions, which include helminth parasites (hookworms among them).
Bob

Thanks Alica,

Fascinating ideas and discussion here. I've long wondered at the role that parasitic infections might have in MS, and now, in CCSVI. Cool irony to use parasites to an advantage.

_________________
My name is not really Johnson. MSed up since 1993

Apuman,

Yes, please keep us posted on your experiences with the helminthic therapy. I don't see MS as an autoimmune disease, but I do also have severe allergies, and possibly celiac, so the therapy could be effective for more things than the MS--

But how where do you get the therapy? I am in NYC, and not aware of it here, but then again, never looked for it. Will do some searching now, and would appreciate any input from you on this.
Thanks!

I think I mentioned earlier that Dr John Fleming from the U of Wisconsin-Madison is going through the clinical trial process by utilizing swine whipworm ova against multiple sclerosis.

While the first small safety phase of 5 or 6 patients http://www.uwhealth.org/news/uw-to-test ... f-ms/12958 was too small to tell much of efficacy, he did mention before the start of the trials that he wouldn't waste the money on the phase II unless the phase I showed promising signs, and he has gone on to the phase II quite a while ago.

As a matter of fact he's currently in the process of trying to find a journal to publish his paper on the phase I

A whole series of interesting articles at MSRC (squiffy) http://www.msrc.co.uk/index.cfm?fuseact ... ageid=2474

Apuman

You truly surprised me. I really didn’t think that someone around here would give any consideration to this “natural” treatment. But if you’re desperate then there is no stopping you. At least this is how I feel. The thought of living with worms inside of my body kind of grosses me out and gives me goose bumps. When push comes to shove, I’m not ruling out anything. Please keep us posted. Thank you.

***

shye

My husband heard about this on The Thom Hartmann’s Show last week. Apparently there was a detailed report in the New York Times sometime this year. It got our attention mostly because it’s a natural treatment.

***

Johnson

In plain English. Apparently these hookworms are able to stop the damage to the DNA strings caused by MS. Hartmann compared DNA strings to shoe strings where the plastic ends become damaged. The shoe strings would continue to be damaged until they become unusable. Hookworms are able to stop the progression of the damage by repairing the end of the shoe strings (the DNA). It is not reversed, only stopped.

My name is really Alica.

Or could it also be that we are more likely to "culurally" adapt to our environment before the crucial age of around 14? This is also the time when aquiring new language fluency starts becoming much more difficult. Could it be the same with other more subtle aspects of culture? Just for an example, let's take a Japanese family who moves to the US while the children are young. I would say the parents would likely appear very culuraly Japanese, while their children, having grown up in the US, would have adopted many more American customs.

I'll always consider it very ironic that my first attack happened shortly after my arrival in Peru (a low occourance area.) But, naturally, during my four months there, I wasn't living like an aveage Peruvian. I was living like a wealthy Peruvian, maybe. I'd be interested to know among the low occourance countries, what segments of the populations are most affected. I'm willing to bet that there's some corralation with were someone falls on the soical ladder. However, there is also a very strong genetic corralation with wealth in these areas as well, so, back to asking more questions.



Do a search on Jasper Lawrence, he provides the thearapy for a whole range of diseases, celiac included, I believe. It's worth reading his story on how he obtained hookworms himself by taking a trip to Africa and walking barefoot through the mud! He's not easy to get ahold of at the moment, as he's recently been shut out of the US by the FDA, and is in the process of relocating his business. This also means it may not be available in the US anymore

I'd encourage you to gather information on Jasper and helminthic therapy, it seems to hold a lot of promise.



I wouldn't consider myself desperate, Alica. "Determined" is the word I would use. I've given it all a lot of research and thought, have and decided that it's the most logicaly sound choice, with an approach that I believe in. It's far safer and has shown much grater success than than any of the CRAB drugs, and even the Liberation Treatment, with a price tag far below either (for an uninsured American living in Canada, that is.) It has it's drawbacks, the biggest being that it doesn't have a mountain of research to back it up yet, but I'm also not willing to wait for the results of this Nottingham study to become available. With 3 attacks in this past year, I know that I need to take action.

And to all, it's great to hear your imput, keep the thoughts coming, this is how breakthroughs begin!

Sheldon

Thanks Apuman-
Just spent the last two hours since I posted above remark in Internet search, and sure enough, Jasper Lawrence and his tale was quite impressive. Left an email on his site, and then on the Yahoo site discussing this, found that he has indeed fled the FDA and the US, to points unknown at the moment.
I gather he was supplying a number of Autism patients, but I think thru one of their sites. Maybe they have another supplier--I'll keep looking.

If anyone finds any info on sources for helminths, please post.

Thanks