How can parasitic worms like hookworms do to cure your allergies? The notion that parasites could be helpful in dealing with allergies might sound like a farfetched idea. But there are people who believe in this. Here is why.
Helminthic Therapy
Using hookworms to cure allergies is known as Helminthic therapy. This form of therapy involves using the larvae of maggots in order to cure an illness. By infecting a person with hookworms, it is thought that allergies can be cured.
Auto-immune Related Illnesses
Allergies are conditions that stem from the immune system of the body. This means that allergies are caused by an overactive immune response to an allergen.
How Do Parasites Help?
The idea behind Helminthic therapy is that the immune system response to the allergen needs to be made to disappear. The only way to effectively do this is to infect the body with something that will prevent the immune system from fighting back. In this case you are essentially fighting the illness with another illness.
What can Hookworms be used for?
– Hay fever
– Asthma
– Eczema
These, in addition to other diseases of the immune system such as Grohn’s disease, are said to be curable with hookworms.
How to use Hookworms?
Hookworms can be used in any way that the larvae of the worm can enter your body. One way of doing this is to use sticky patches of whipworm larvae or whipworm eggs suspended in saline. The dangers of this therapy are a weaker immune system or a full blown parasitic infection. But in small doses it should be possible to use hookworms to treat allergies. It should be noted, however, that this kind of therapy is experimental and no clear evidence or studies of the effects of hookworm treatment for allergies exist.
