helminthic therapy and LDN

Hello

I am currently on helminthic therapy and was wondering if it would be affecting my use of LDN?

Would it intefere with the LDN? The helminthic therapy hasn't given me any positive results so would it be bette ti kill them off while on LDN or use them together?

Thanks

In theory LDN boosts the immune system while worm therapy weakens it somewhat so they might act at cross purposes. I never mixed them.
I had a huge improvement after quitting helminthic therapy (also quit humira at same time) and starting LDN- sounds like you are having the same meagre to no results with worms that I had. While I still believe in the science of helminthic therapy, it appears that some of us can never shake off a chronic immune response that tries to eject them, defeating the whole purpose.

Post Edited (Probiotic) : 3/27/2012 12:34:52 PM (GMT-6)

Ubereem- it sounds like you are taking TSO, pig whipworm eggs? I had some limited success with those but the cost was insane and the results so-so. But when I decided to quit worm therapy, I was taking human whipworms- Trichuris Trichuria- which can live for years and certainly for a year or more- so I did need to kill them. TSO does not colonize, so whether you want to actually kill the TSO with a 2-3 day course of Mebendazole (sp.) which is what I did to kill my TT, or just wait 3-6 weeks for them to slowly get ejected from your system, is a tough call- the drug that kills them is not nearly as harsh as an antibiotic on the gut, but it can still cause some Gi side effects. If you think there is any chance that the TSo is giving you side effects, of course, you may want to kill them pronto. TSO never gave me any side effects, unlike TT, which gave me chronic D.

Hi ubereem

LDN is completely compatible with helminthic therapy, so no need to banish your worms!

You say that the helminthic therapy hasn't given you any positive results, but you've only been on it for 5 months, and some people take far longer than this to see any benefits. If I were you, I'd hang on to them for a good while longer yet, but, if you haven't had any beneefits by 6 months, you need to talk to whoever supplied them and discuss optimising your dose. I'd also consider adding hookworm, as this extra organism could give you additional benefits and can also nuke some adverse effects from whipworm.

Ubereem- Ok you said its a closed thread but I meant to get back to you. I improved immediately upon killing the worms but then continued to improve more and more after that- I would say within a month of being on LDN I was improving quite a bit more- allowing me to get off pred after being on the verge of making an appointment with the "butcher" to snip snip. It was confusing insofar as I was changing a bunch if things at once (killing the worms, adding LDN, and on top of that, also increasing l-glutamine (empty stomach), and reintroducing turmeric and Max EPA fish oil with every meal... So I cant vouch for sure that it was the LDN.. Still, I entered the first true, pred-free remission in years only after starting LDN.

Do the worms cause you side effects? For me, both hookworms and human whipworms gave me vicious side effects (D, cramps) that never abated. if you are not getting side effects, though, then I'd agree with the prior poster to let them have more time. for me, the worms never ever gave me light at the end if the tunnel- wish I had tried LDN first. One other thing that led me to get fed up with worm therapy was when I learned- or was told- that I needed to take a short course of high dose pred every time I add worms.... To me that makes it an unusable therapy, since I am not willing to prophylactically add high dose pred annually when I top off- but I digress. Best of luck with LDN.

Post Edited (Probiotic) : 3/28/2012 3:45:55 PM (GMT-6)

the human whipworms do give me side effects right after i take a dose, after that im back to the same flare state. it just goes bad to worse for a few days after the dose, overall nothing has seemed to improve.

It has been a year since I ended my worm experiments, but as far as human whipworm went, i think my final cohort was around 1250 eggs and a scope revealed "hundreds" of resident worms. I think that was after the third cohort. I tended to have no symptoms from the worms whatsoever and then at about exactly the two week mark would suddenly start getting liquid D and cramps, which would mostly- but not completely- abate within a week or two. But even with hi dose pred, that last cohort was just too much for me and on and off liquid D continued for months. interestingly, a slightly smaller cohort of eggs that I drank a few months before that one never caused any side effects at all.... Which made me worry that it was a dud batch, lol.. Leading me to want another cohort- the one that did me in.

BTW I tried hookworm earlier on, before I tried human whipworm. Hookworms were even more vicious on me than the whipworms- I abandoned them after a few months. I think I tried TT for about ten months- I have to dig up my notes. I did post my experiences as "helminth.host" on the helminthictherapy forum.

Post Edited (Probiotic) : 3/28/2012 7:39:08 PM (GMT-6)