I have an unknown autoimmune condition which manifests in sinus issues and gastrointestinal issues (clinically diagnosed with lymphocytic colitis, which is rare to the tune of 0.06% prevalence). Immunological/autoimmune pathways are clearly involved as mast cell stabilizers, antihistamines, and immunomodulators had a strong effect. After exhausting the resources of conventional medicine, I made a list of like 25 things to try that included everything in the world that made sense, ordered from least crazy to most crazy. And eventually I got to the bottom of the list. At that point the only reasons to not do it were pretty silly (shame, fear, etc) so I did it. I've done a lot of "crazy" things in my life that make a lot of rational sense.
What people don't understand is that people who do crazy stuff like this are not crazy. They are mostly doing what any reasonable logical person would do. They've just gotten to the bottom of the list.
> What were the results?
It had a marked significant positive effect on my immune system. A year after taking them I expelled them as (1) it's possible they had a side effect I wasn't enjoying (GI-related) and more importantly, (2) I had since discovered the Autoimmune Paleo Diet which is remarkably effective for managing a wide variety of autoimmune diseases. So the issues I once suffered from are much more manageable since discovering that diet and learning more about that..
Regarding (1), expelling the worms didn't fix the side effect, so it could have been unrelated. To this day I can't say for certain one way or the other.
"What people don't understand is that people who do crazy stuff like this are not crazy. They are mostly doing what any reasonable logical person would do. They've just gotten to the bottom of the list."
This is a very important point. Anyone who reads an article like this and concludes that the self-inoculating patients are "crazy" has probably never suffered from a serious, quality-of-life-threatening autoimmune condition. I haven't myself, but an ex of mine suffers from Crohn's Disease; when it's at its worst, it seems to inflict severe misery.
With Crohn's in particular, where one looks forward to potentially losing one's _entire_ gut (not just the large intestine)... The bottom of the list is populated with surgeries and colostomy bags.
Not the end of the world, but the calculated risk of certain parasitic infections vs the risk of all the other insanely expensive and much more side-effect-laden drugs isn't so illogical.
Condolences about the condition - happily the diet works. I definitely agree. I don't see it as crazy at all, even though I admittedly haven't been in a similar position.
If you don't mind me asking, what else was at the bottom of your list?
Not OP you're replying to, but exponentially more expensive drugs with often scary side effects (one drug I was on intentionally weakens the immune system—and bad things can happen if you get sick), ultimately leading to the nuclear option of removing more and more of your gut to try to cut out affected areas.
However I recommend reading the book, because the diet is pretty restrictive. I also recommend getting in touch with an open-minded doctor who you can show the diet to and they won't hand-wave over it.
I bought them using bitcoin from wormswell dot com. This was about 28 months ago. Buying helminths for self-infection from an anonymous and uncertified vendor seems crazy, but you can easily verify what you've done (after doing it) because every worm will cause a small raised bump and itch like mad. You can literally count them. I figured that the risk was mostly in getting a tiny vial of water, not in getting something more dangerous.
Any effects, positive or negative (besides the possible GI side effect mentioned down thread) on any other aspect of your health besides helping your autoimmune condition?
I have an unknown autoimmune disease not sufficiently understood by the medical establishment (or anyone), and not well treated by more common treatments. The helminth thing (hookworm) didn't seem that risky seeing as how 50%+ of the developing world carries them asymptomatically, and they are trivial to expel.
Did it improve your condition? What was the strangest part? What precautions did you take and how did you record your data? How did you control for other things like mood, placebo effect etc.
> How did you control for other things like mood, placebo effect etc.
Sometimes I would have bizarre thoughts about infecting other people against their will, as though the worms had migrated from my colon up through my body and into my brain and were controlling my thoughts in order to further spread their infection. But for all I know that could have just been a placebo effect. /s
