Therapeutic Value of Worms in Allergies and Asthma

Filed in archive Allergy: Research and Development on January 31, 2009

Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, Image# 7700089

This has also been mentioned in the article on hygiene hypothesis that I cited in my previous entry: the health benefits of worms. The BBC article discusses current research on the therapeutic value of worms in treating conditions such as asthma, ulcerative colitis and bowel inflammation, and even diabetes!

Professor Rook said: "It now looks more and more likely that the development of our regulatory immune system depends on molecules that are encoded not in the genome of the human but in the genome of some other organism we lived with throughout history."

And they're hoping to find those molecules in worms. Well, gross as it may sound, I wouldn't be surprised if they do find positive results. See my previous entry on the use of Trchuris sus ova (TSO) to treat food allergies. Unfortunately, I could no longer locate the original article I linked to in that entry I wrote back in 2007.