Greetings Everyone!
(This therapy has been effective for some people with RA. I happen to have ulcerative colitis, but wanted to share this here, to be helpful.)
I first found this forum probably 2 years ago, and I did well controlling my UC with diet and organic foods for about
a year. Then starting in Jan 2011 I had three flairs back-to-back that resulted in septic infections. I had to resort to heavy prescript
ion medications (and yes, I am still on them).
But in Dec 2010, I became aware of a treatment I hadn't heard of before: Helminthic therapy. At first I rejected it for the ick factor, but with the flairs that started in Jan, I reconsidered.
There are hundreds of real scientific, peer reviewed journal articles supporting this therapy/theory going back 15 to 20 years. Some suggest as much as an 85% positive response rate using this therapy. You can find them here: http://
opensourcehelminththerapy.org/mediawiki2/index.php?title=Studies_and_Papers
Helminthic therapy works on the hygiene hypothesis. We have come to accept that we have a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria that live in our gut. Helminthic therapy suggests that we also had a symbiotic relationship with intestinal parasites. Think about
it. Up until about
80 or 90 years ago, all humans (all mammals, in fact) had intestinal parasites and lived with them for millions of years. Cross cultural studies also suggest the efficacy of this theory. UC and Crohons are almost unheard of in third world countries. And, IBDs first started appearing about
100 years ago, first in wealthy families and in Jewish city dwelling families, probably due to cleanliness. Later, in the 1930s (I think) when doctors tried to eradicate all parasites in people in first world countries, these diseases became more common place and the incidence of IBD continues to grow.
Helminthic therapy uses very small populations of specific, harmless, human parasites to re-modulate the human immune system to get it to stop attacking our own bodies. These same parasites (if we were over run with thousands of them) could be harmful. But the therapy works with very small numbers (like 15 to 50 for hookworm) and they don't reproduce inside the human host, so the patient can't get over populated.
I recently traveled to San Diego and received this therapy in Tijuana. This therapy is not currently FDA approved. We could have a long discussion about
the politics involved. I personally think (since the big pharma companies are currently doing studies) that the pharmaceutical companies are trying to figure out the chemical mechanism so they can patent it and sell it in a pill and make a fortune, then the FDA will approve that. The FDA has approved TSO (pig whipworm) and a German company charges over $900 a month for that. However, TSO does not stay alive in humans and must be re-dosed every month. There is also a Helminthic provider in England. So we have those two in the whole world (that I know of). I have gone to the Tijuana clinic and I was very impressed by the scientific and medical knowledge and the integrity of the people there. Feel free to message me privately for more info on the Tijuana clinic.
The clinic is owned and operated by an American and also employs a Mexican physician. I just received the treatment a couple days ago, so it is way too early to say what my response will be. I've been communicating with others who have achieved remission for months before deciding to pursue this treatment for myself. I hope this posting is helpful.
Cheers to Everyone and I hope one day IBD will no longer cause anyone, any suffering.
Sandy
Post Edited By Moderator (Ides) : 5/22/2011 9:11:18 PM (GMT-6)