(in limited dosage) are safe, since he had ten crawl through his skin and set up home in his gut. He believes that the worms can suppress immune function in people with severe allergies or autoimmune disorders. So far, so good.
The National Health Services ethics committee let him conduct a study in 2006 with 30 participants, 15 of whom received 10 hookworms each. Tests showed that after six weeks, the T-cells of the 15 worm recipients began to produce lower levels of chemicals associated with inflammatory response, indicating that their immune systems were more suppressed than those of the 15 placebo recipients. Despite playing host to small numbers of parasites, worm recipients reported little discomfort. Trial participants raved about their allergy symptoms disappearing.
This is one of the good arguments for not mindlessly annihilating species, even parasites. But Dr. Pritchard's long term goals seem to miss why this kind of science is so cool. He hopes to "to figure out exactly how the worms turn down the immune-system radar, so he can borrow the tactics to develop alternatives to immune-suppressant and allergy-fighting drugs."
The problem that the hookworms are dealing with is caused by not being aware of our connection with nature. Not in some Kumbaya, Mother Spirit way, but a simple humility and willingness to recognize that removing ourselves from nature can be debilitating. Irritable Bowel Syndrom, whose rates have been skyrocketing in an age of casually prescribed antibiotics, may be caused or exacerbated by destruction of intestinal bacteria.
It may be that no distillation of hookworms can reproduce the effect actual hookworms have in a human body. We may be desperately trying to remove ourselves from the environment, but it's important to remember we aren't just a sack of chemicals, we are an ecosystem within an ecosystem. Ultimately, recognizing this reality may produce solutions that are more effective, as well as objectively awesome.
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