Has anyone heard about/tried helminthic therapy? (page 2)

botchtowersociety

Are you absolutely sure about this? For sure, there are outside bacteria in the digestive tract - but 10 times more nonhuman cells in total?

That is a fact.

Let me look it up....

botchtowersociety

Are you absolutely sure about this? For sure, there are outside bacteria in the digestive tract - but 10 times more nonhuman cells in total?

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/jun/your-body-is-a-planet

90% of the cells within us are not ours but microbes'.

You have 100 trillion cells in your body. 90 percent of them aren't human. Again, this is by number, not mass. Microbial cells are generally far smaller than human cells.

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

It is estimated that 500 to 1000 species of bacteria live in the human gut [3] and a roughly similar number on the skin. [4] [5] Bacterial cells are much smaller than human cells, and there are at least ten times as many bacteria as human cells in the body (approximately 10 14 versus 10 13 ). [6] [7] Though members of the flora are found on all surfaces exposed to the environment (on the skin and eyes, in the mouth, nose, small intestine), the vast majority of bacteria live in the large intestine.

I expect microbiomics to become a strong growth field in medical research. You could say we are symbiotes.

slimboyfat

blondie I have found that a lot of this research is from credible sources and published in academic journals, so effective or not this idea is not the preserve of crackpots.

botchtowersociety

I don't think it is crackpottery either, although there may be some crackpots at the margins. We need research, and well designed studies. We may end up rethinking many things, including how and when we use bacteriostatic and bacteriocidal antibiotics.

blondie

I realize that slim, that's why I wanted to put up those sites and hope that the info from other places is weighed carefully by anyone involved in this.

botchtowersociety

Caution is definitely advisable.

slimboyfat

Would you consider using it yourself blondie?

botchtowersociety I hope they do more research, but as many have pointed out how can drug companies make money from helminths? So where is the money for research going to come from?

botchtowersociety

botchtowersociety I hope they do more research, but as many have pointed out how can drug companies make money from helminths? So where is the money for research going to come from?

If helminth therapy is actually beneficial, someone will make money on it, and it could be a small biotech we've never heard of. If it is beneficial, it might be possible to deliver the benefits without actually having to cause a parasitic infection through using some secondary means (along with the negative outcomes involved with that), perhaps by using a mimetic protein cocktail.

Besides, much early/basic research doesn't have a definite roadmap to profitability anyway. Some ambitious young researcher desiring to publish a ground shaking paper will likely lead the way.

TheClarinetist

Any double-blind studies? None of the studies I see referring to this said anything about a control group.

Either way... Interesting concept. Of course, I'd be very careful and look for results specific to my health problem before doing anything... Though you've probably already done that.

Nathan Natas

I figure the worms will get me soon enough, no need to speed the process.

Has anyone heard about/tried helminthic therapy?

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