hookworm therapy for PMR?

I am completely serious.  Compared to the effects of PMR and the side effects of prednisone, a few hookworms seems pretty minor.  (The number of larvae you introduce is limited, so you do not have a huge number and anaemia.)  Also try googling "radiolab" (an NPR program) and "parasites!"  

Hi snapperblue; I havn't read any of the other replies yet, but please don'tt even think of going anywhere near a "hookworm".  If you read anything re hookworms, it only takes ONE larvae to infest your whole body, and in a VERY short time....and once there, it is VERY unlikely that you will EVER get rid of them. Just read some of the medical probs of Africa, and you'll  see the damage that hookworms have done to the African population.  There certainly wouldn't be any need to worry about GCA or any other medical probs, as the hookworm would kill your liver in no time at all....hopefully you have your answer to your question....Bron

True, a heavy load of hookworm causes anemia and general ill health.  This is a major health problem in Africa and was in the southern US in the early 20th century. Hookworm was essentially wiped out in the US by sanitation, including outhouses 6 feet deep (farther than the larvae could travel). Hookworm is dangerous in a situation where people are repeatedly exposed and have lots of worm.  I am not suggesting this!

Like many parasites, hookworms have very specific needs at each stage of the life cycle.  You cannot get intestinal hookworms by ingesting the eggs, for example- the larvae have to enter through the skin, molt to the next stage in the blood, emerge in the lungs, be coughed up and swallowed.  That stage can develop into the adult form in the gut.  The adults produce eggs that go out in the feces- if it is warm enough, they hatch into mobile larva that infect by burrowing into skin of another host. 

So hookworm does not multiply in your body. Every adult in the gut comes from a larva that entered your skin. You can control the level of infestation by the number of larvae you expose yourself to.

You can also rid the body of the worms with standard helminthicides. 

I am not totally nuts!  I have a PhD in biology and have taken a course in parasitology.  If you look up “autoimmune” and “hookworm,” you will find lots of articles on the topic.

 

 hookworm, one of the most widespread and insidious parasites afflicting developing nations, according to a collaborative study at UCSF and Yale University.

Among parasitic diseases, hookworm infection is second only to malaria as a cause of disability worldwide. While not usually fatal, the infection is debilitating, slowing children’s development and causing or exacerbating iron-deficiency anemia, which can be serious in young children and pregnant women, especially in those who already are undernourished.

All these things are quite true. However, the use in medicine would be carefully controlled. Snapperblue has already explained how it works. All the facts you have quoted are relevant to people paddling in water that is infected so the larvae get through the skin and set off on their life-cycle. The more larvae get into the skin, the greater the infestation. In the use she is talking about you introduce known amounts into the gut, they won't go anywhere else. 

It is perfectly reasonable and good biological science and is being examined in research projects under carefully controlled conditions. You cannot compare that with children paddling in filthy water in Africa.

you get it from the soil not the water... don't worry sooner or later we will have enough hookworm problems as we import more and more produce from countries who use raw sewage as fertiliser... there is a vaccine being developed agaisnt this parasite but not available for some time yet. wearing shoes is the best way to avoid these worms especially in warm countries with poor hygene. not having any bare skin contact with soil. washing forieng vegetables with soil contamination should be done with rubber gloves.

Oh thanks - should have checked that bit. But the same applies about the cycle.

Thankyou Christine Fay; I know that there are many things that I do not know (and I do not have a Ph in Biology...although have studied it); but from my Clinical Experience, I certainly would not like to see Hookworm, or any of the devastating worms of other countries, deliberately introduced into anybody, even if under a controlled experiment....thankyou fr your support, and thoughts.   Bron

The rationale behind treating autoimmune disorders with parasites  makes sense to me too.  In the eons in which the ancestors of hookworm lived in the ancestors of humans, host and parasite coevolved.  Humans developed an immune response and, the theory goes, the hookworms developed a way to dial down the human’s immune reaction.

I am not too worried about the side effects- they can be unpleasant, but, conveniently, they are treated with prednisone, which I will already be taking!

Hookworm therapy is so successful for remitting/relapsing MS that the company that sells the larvae in England will refund the fee if a client does not experience substantial improvement in a year.  When have you ever been offered a money-back guarantee on a medical treatment! 

So far, most of the evidence is anecdotal, just reports from people who tried it and experience dramatic improvement in their Crohn’s, Sjogren’s, psoriasis, allergies, or whatever.  The research Eileen mentioned in the UK (Nottingham) is one of the first (on human subjects) comparing those receiving hookworm versus a placebo.  A recent study in the US did this using pig whipworm on bowel diseases; the results are not published, but at least some of the subjects were really disappointed when the study ended and they could not longer get worms. (Pig whipworms can’t live more than a few weeks in humans, so they had to keep re-infecting themselves.)

A recent study found a peptide produced by the hookworm that inhibits the immune system, so it may be possible to get the effect without the actual worms. (Described in Science Daily August 2014.)

If PMR were the benign, easily-treated condition that many doctors believe it is, I would not do this.  But the more I learn, the less I believe that!  I think I am looking at long-term inflammation that has a lot more evil consequences than aches, stiffness, and even the killer fatigue.

 

I should have mentioned that the Nottingham study is on patients with remitting/relapsing MS.  I can't find any reports on use in PMR.