Intestinal parasites may help the immune system......

[MSUK]

Intestinal parasites may help the immune system, researchers say

Almost two years ago, Julius Lukes sat down to a meal of raw fish riddled with tapeworm eggs. “I did not enjoy it,” he recalls. Happily, it took just a second or two: "You put it on your spoon and shovel it down".

Today, his intestines are home to three tapeworms with a total length of about 20 metres – all because Mr. Lukes, a senior fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) and a professor at the University of South Bohemia in the Czech Republic, belongs to a small but growing group of scientists who maintain that some parasites may actually be good for us. In other words, the dictionary isn't completely accurate when it says that a parasite 'obtains nourishment' from its host, 'which does not benefit from the association, and is often harmed by it'..... Read More - http://www.ms-uk.org/endoparasites