THANKS, BUT WE'LL JUST STICK WITH THE ASTHMA AND HAY FEVER

(Thanks to Claire Martin)

Comments

[BillyJoeJimBob]

Yes, the violent vomiting is much better than having the sniffles.

[CoastRaven]

Dont have asthma - dont have hay fever - dont need to read any farther than "barefoot walks in open air latrines in West Africa"

[MOTW]

With a name like luckbeaweirdo, why wouldn't you trust his scientific research? Oh ... yeah.

[clark kent]

Don't blame him... He's just doing what the mystic dwarves told him to do.

[Sarah J]

I'm pretty sure allergy shots are helpfull in "curing" allergies, I mean, they're founded on sound science (but not the kind that makes noise) and worked for me. Also not as gross or unsanitary as his whacked out method.

[queensbee]

stop picking on mystics. and dwarves. these should probably be a protected class. uh-hunh.

[queensbee]

my previous comment belonged in the other posting about the judge. as to the alllergieeees......awwww, kerchew, and ewwwwwwwwwwww.

[Chianca at Large]

It would be perfect if it wasn't for all the pesky side effects.

[Betsy]

Fifty years ago, China's "barefoot doctors" wiped out schistosomiasis by draining swamps and slogging around removing snails from riverbeds. Now we have the "barefoot patient" who fights his asthma by slogging through the cesspools of Cameroon and wooing hookworms?
Note to luckbeaweirdo: They said "cultural REVOLUTION", not "revulsion".

[Tamara Rhymes With Camera]

I read the whole thing, just so I could post here. Unlike SOME bloglits I know! *points at EVERYONE*

[Sommelier]

Hey, I read the whole thing too.

*thumbs nose @ Tamara*

Then I had to go throw up.

[djtonyb]

*removes Sommelier's outfit*

[OriginalEnigma]

i cannot IMAGINE why his doctor didn't want to help him.

gag.

[mudstuffin]

"Mommy mommy, I can't stop running in circles!"

"Shut up or I'll nail your other foot down."

[Eren]

I actually saw a Discovery Channel show that show a lady that was doing this for IBD.
* and I read the whole article too *

[sparrow]

So he conquered his asthma and hay fever...

but might have Filharzia, which is incurable and might produce elephantiasis. He won't know if he has it until 2007...

Why am I not grasping this?

[Mad "soon to be Weasel" Scientist]

I read the whole article. Yes Infections with worms (of many types) will force a specific shift in the immune system. This shift is away from the type of immunity associated with autoimmune disease. So in some cases a worm infection may alleviate an autoimmune disorder. I do not think the risks of the worm infection offset the benefits. However, if an individual wants to do this on their own then hey more power to them. No medical institute will ever get behind this treatment method. As far as I know the bit about drug companies making a chemical from hookworms is completely untrue though. The lifecycle of worms and other parasites is incredibly complex and I doubt that the effects of worm infections will ever be replicated in a test tube.

Ummmm that wasn't funny.

Ok how about if I tell you that boogers will cure your liver spots. Can I convince anyone to pay me money to put boogers all over your body? No. Oh well.

[Annie Where-but-here]

Doesn't his apartment have a 'no-pets' policy?

[AFKAT]

Clair Martin...why did it have to be Clair Martin...again.

[Lisa Bisa Fo Fisa]

Well he realized too late that it was a bad idea, but by that time he was already hooked.

*sorry, someone had to say it*

[Nateislate]

Inflammatory Bowel Disease -- is that boys' compulsion to light farts?

[ACE]

I DINNT READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE! (Im Speaking for ALL OF HUMANITY here) Thanks for the KNOWLEDGE Anyway. I SAY, PUBLISH IT. Book Companyies pay Big Shyt for these Stories.

[Ellasmom]

OK, so I read the whole thing because I kept waiting for the part where he said "just kidding" YUCK!!
Obviously the asthma caused a shortage of O2 in the brain and some vital cells died.

[Annie Where-but-here]

What if these hookworms escape? I mean, I'm hoping this guy doesn't work at the local supermarket. Odds are he's not smart (or funny) enough to be a proctologist, so we're safe there.

[Dr. Doug]

Hard story to read, but he has a knack for the narrative.

[Avon]

As a professional who researches what medical care works, I read the story with real fascination, since the author is so lucid. (He's also admirably big-hearted toward a very foreign culture, and clean about achieving his regular reinfections.)

The idea may repel me and anyone healthy. But for someone with an auto-immune disease it makes more sense than just about anything the medical profession can offer. The author is serious about asthma being a terror; the fact is that it is also a rampant killer. And Crohn's and some others are even worse to have. I'd be surprised if hookworm did *not* work better than medication for almost anyone. We know that health can seem counter-intuitive. For example, almost all Western kids who have group day care as toddlers (yuck!) get sick a whole lot less than other kids do - after they complete a few months of catching everthing.

Funny to realize that far more people have contact with such hookworms than have access to modern medical care! Yet of course they're far from luckier, since they get proper benefits of neither.

Yes, some parasites and microbes are way dangerous. But why not work with those that aren't? It's about time Homo sapiens stopped trying to secede from the planet for our imagined comfort and safety, and instead work with it wisely. People ought to be able to get some of that "bi-layered material" (growing medium, as per the last 4 paragraphs of the article) a lot more safely than we could retrace the author's icky, icky steps!

[Ian Woollard]

The research for this uses pig whip worms. They can't survive in humans for more than a couple of weeks though, so you'd have to take it regularly. But no coughy/vomitting/elephantiasis involved.

His idea is kinda elegant. And if he doesn't have elephantiasis by 2007 anyone with colitis or asthma know who to go to get their treatment.

Mmm. Human poo smeared on your skin. Gotta love it.

Or something.

[O. the U(manity)]

Revealing quote: ... require far more documentation than the Americans ever did of me when I was an alien ...

... um ... that explains it ... he's still an ALIEN!

[O. the U(manity)]

... and ...

the whole "article", which I, personally, found difficult to read -- with it's misspellings, usage errors and fractured syntax -- sorta gives new meaning to the colloquialism:

I will be dipped in Sh!t!!! ...

Don't it?

[Boris the Spider]

Damn.

[Amanda in Hawaii]

Yuck!

[ldyadiva]

Speaking as one who unfortunately suffered from a hookworm infestation on my foot, the incredible itching/burning of which sent me to the doctor for a cure, I cannot imagine what this guy went through by deliberately putting hookworms on his skin. I had to wear leather boots in order to keep me from scratching the flesh from my foot down to the bone. (by the way I got it from wading through puddles after a hurricane flooded the neighborhood, not by tip toeing through the sewer)

[jesse rorabaugh]

"No medical institute will ever get behind this treatment method."
Actually there is currently a clinical trial being ran for this. Considering the huge weight of evidence behind the idea, it will get its fair day in the scientific journals, if not the hospitals

http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT00469989