Infection with benefits: How playing host to hookworms could be good for you
Infection with benefits: How playing host to hookworms could be good for you
They burrow into your skin, crawl up your windpipe and end up living in your small intestine. But some people are happily hosting hookworms for research into whether they might improve a raft of medical conditions.
Ten minutes after gauze is applied to his arm, Christian Williams feels an unusual pinching sensation.
"I didn't feel them again for another month or so," Williams says.
The "them" he's referring to are hookworms trapped under the gauze, and the mild rash he is left with marks the beginning of an epic journey for the 30 larvae the Malaghan Institute has infected him with.
One school of thought is that there might be an infection sweet-spot, where just the right number of hookworms hanging out in your small intestine, cruising for sex and sucking your blood, might be an infection with benefits for both host and hookworms. Hit this balance and the relationship might be more symbiotic than parasitic.
It's not mentioned in the article, but I believe this study is being carried out in NZ because it's run by the Malaghan Institute, based in Wellington.
This article was written by a hookworm
Pretty sure I've seen an episode of Futurama with this premise
Haha I'd forgotten about that!
What is the benefit? This time I'm just too scared to read the article. Other than garden beneficial worms which I have come to tolerate, any squigglies freak the shit out of me.
The article mentions:
just one of the conditions from allergies to asthma, multiple sclerosis, celiac disease and diabetes that hookworms might help with
But it's a new study, they don't have results, so we don't currently know what the actual benefits (if any) are. If you're that squeamish I'd suggest waiting for the results to be published before seeking out some hook worms.
There have been theories for years about celiac disease. I found a trial and suggested Mum join in (she's in the extreme end of the disease) and she was horrified. Honestly, if I had tested positive for celiacs I'd been keen to give this a go. Having a passenger that would allow me to have a beer and a sausage roll with exploding at both ends? Sign me up.
That is really cool.
We play host to innumerable bacteria and viruses; most of them either either neutral or even good for us. It stands to reason that there are other organisms that would benefit us.
I wouldn't say that hookworms would be beneficial and moreso that we evolved around them. It's kind of like a husky dogs furcoat and how it evolved to withstand the cold (Hookworms) but without the cold they overheat (allergies).
I think that it is more a matter of perspective at that point.
If we evolve expecting hookworms to be present; your immune system is not "complete" without them. Thus hookworms live in some form of middle ground between parasite and symbiote.
This reminds me of a story I read a while back about someone who got very sick; because usually beneficial skin bacteria got into an internal organ. When on your skin the relationship is symbiotic but when it got into (the kidney IIRC) it was parasitic.
Do you have a reliable source showing they overheat? I thought it would act like insulation. Insulation that works for cold should work for heat, and I thought dogs mostly vent heat through panting anyway unlike us that vent heat through evaporating sweat
On the one hand - Sure that makes sense.
On the other - EWW