Elaine Meinel Supkis
Scientists think that tapeworms which evolved with us for millions of years, are actually good for our health in several very significant ways. This shouldn't surprise us. This certainly might change the way we treat allergies and other problems.
Other studies suggest that short-lived infections with a benign parasite might relieve allergies and possibly autoimmune illnesses such as Crohn's disease and Type I diabetes by restoring the immune system's natural balance. Major human trials in the USA and Europe are set to begin this year.
This is a very exciting discovery but it shouldn't surprise people who understand Nature and evolution! You see, any germ, disease or parasite that swiftly kills all or any hosts doesn't last long! Oh, no! It would be like building a house only to burn it down the first night.
Long lived organisms and their parasitic freeloaders have to have a mutual benefit pact going or neither will prosper. This is why, universally, sexual diseases are very slow moving, they take years to kill the host. AIDS, when it first appeared, killed rapidly, it being a mutation and most mutations tend to kill much faster than older diseases that have evolved until they spare their hosts, pretty much.
Parasites have perfected this. They absolutely need the host as long as possible. This is why mushrooms will grow on old trees that are rotting away but they don't poison them. There are many parasitical entities out there. When I was young, my parents took us out to third world places that had parasites and several times, I had intestinal parasites. They do look yukky.
But then, I was never fat when young nor were any of my siblings. Indeed, people would say, "You can eat and never gain weight!" Well, duh!
Perhaps the snake in the Garden of Eden was really a tapeworm begging Eve to eat that apple! Now consider this:
To the squeamish, it might not matter that intestinal worms are less risky than foods that promote allergy. But some doctors say worms might do something that allergy-causing substances won't do - broadly reset the immune system so that it no longer reacts to allergy-causing substances or attacks the body's tissues, as it does in Crohn's disease and Type I diabetes. "This is an exciting new area with potential for opening new therapeutic avenues for diseases that are hard to control and treat," says Weinstock of Tufts New England Medical Center.
Worms captured Weinstock's imagination and that of his collaborator, David Elliott of the University of Iowa, because worm infections appear to regulate the immune system so that it functions normally. The allergic response - itchy, watery eyes, a runny nose and constriction of smooth muscles - evolved to flush out intestinal worms. "The immune system didn't evolve for allergy," Weinstock says. "Why in a hundred billion years of evolution would we evolve a response for allergy?"
In fact, says Robert Coffman, vice president of the biotech firm Dynavax Technologies, the immune system developed two sets of responses: one for bacteria and viruses and one for worms. Called Th1 for germs and Th2 for worms, they work in opposition. When Th1 is active, Th2 takes a break. When Th2 is active, it's Th1's turn. All of the symptoms people link with allergy are part of the Th2 response.
So maybe, since we all don't have worms, this is why we are having allergy attacks? This makes perfect sense. At no time in the past have humans lived without intestinal parasites! Cows and horses can't digest grass, for example, unless their stomachs have various parasitical creatures. Clean them out and the animal starves to death!
There are even more pressing reasons to restore intestinal parasites. Associated Press:
"Obesity is the terror within,'' Richard Carmona said during a lecture at the University of South Carolina. "Unless we do something about it, the magnitude of the dilemma will dwarf 9-11 or any other terrorist attempt.''
Obesity rates have tripled over the past 40 years for children and teens, raising their risk of diabetes and other diseases. For the first time, Carmona said, children are being diagnosed with high blood pressure.
"Where will our soldiers and sailors and airmen come from?'' he said. "Where will our policemen and firemen come from if the youngsters today are on a trajectory that says they will be obese, laden with cardiovascular disease, increased cancers and a host of other diseases when they reach adulthood?''
Lowering the nation's obesity rate depends on changing behaviors, but too many Americans are health illiterate, meaning they cannot understand medical terms and directions from doctors, Carmona said.
The surgeon general offered few specific solutions but said public policy reforms would not be helpful in curbing obesity, explaining that common-sense health decisions cannot be legislated.
Isn't this a coincidence....NOT! Aside from eating too much sugar and too little labor, the vast majority of present obese people tend to be those who used to be peasants who lived deep within nature and all of whom had various parasitical creatures sharing the digestive system. The body, evolved to harboring these parasites, eats for them as well as the main frame.
So we have huge appetites. Perhaps the parasites also removed the more dangerous elements embedded in the food we digest? This is how they operate in other mammals! Why would we be exempt? They can run out of control and cause all sorts of health problems but removing them entirely may be the worst thing we could have done!
I know I had them in my own past, more than once. My doctor, when I was young, would flush out the parasites from all of us whenever we returned from journeys. I actually would examine them when this happened so I know what they look like.
Viewing it scientifically, it was interesting that they were totally unnoticed until removed. Now, to keep my weight even, I have to exercise and watch what I eat! Geeze.
Maybe we need our bloodsucking friends!
Umm hookworm is not good for you.
Posted by: big al | March 21, 2006 at 09:48 AM
I. Did. Not. Want. To. Know. That.
Yecccchhh!!
Posted by: JSmith | March 21, 2006 at 01:26 PM
Hehehe.
Sorry about that. There are nasty wormies and not so nasty. The point is, we evolved with them and they with us and we are all together now, sing along....lalalala.
Posted by: Elaine Meinel Supkis | March 21, 2006 at 05:35 PM