Hookworms used to treat Crohn's

SAN FRANCISCO -- Inflammatory bowel disease is on the rise in North America. Some experts believe improved sanitation and hygiene may play a role, that theory is leading some patients to get down and dirty with a parasite. More and more adults are trying worms--not as a dare--but as treatment for life threatening diseases.

Musician Scott Richards hit rock bottom with an inflammatory bowel disease called Crohn's; a disease that causes intestines to swell and empty frequently. "It's serious pain, excruciating pain," he said. Debora was also diagnosed with Crohn's. She said, "You'd go to the bathroom, and the toilet would be filled with blood, and the pain would be so severe that I'd just be sobbing."

Gastroenterologist Dr. Jonathan Terdiman of the University of California, San Francisco, has treated Scott and Debora for years.

He says Crohn's is a destructive immune disorder. He explained, "Your body's immune system is over-reactive or hyper-reactive to things in the environment--most importantly to bacteria that are in your bowel--and you have a reaction that ultimately damages the bowel."

There's no cure for Crohn's. Medications can keep things at bay, but can have serious side effects or even stop working.

Debora said, "You get to the point that there's nothing to do to help you. There's no medicine left that works, and all you have to do is suffer, every day and night for years straight."

Scott and Debora felt hopeless until hookworms came into their lives. The parasite is common in undeveloped countries' places where inflammatory bowel disease is rare. In the U.S., thanks to advances in sanitation, hookworms are rare but immune disorders on the rise. Is there a connection?

Terdiman said, "As we have made things more hygienic, we may in fact be precipitating an outbreak or an increase in the frequency of these immune disorders."

Studies suggest the presence of hookworms in the human gut may be beneficial, secreting a chemical that turns off an overactive immune response to fight their disease.

Scott and Debora signed up to get infected with the parasites. Scott went to Mexico, and met Garin Aglietti. He calls himself a gastrointestinal ecologist. He said. "You're going off the medical grid. Most doctors have no idea. They've never seen a hookworm."

He takes clients like Scott across the border, where he gives them a Band-Aid to put on their arm; on the Band-Aid, there are hookworm larvae.

Scott described what he felt when he put the Band-Aid on. He said, "You experience maybe some itching, which is basically the larvae making their way into your blood stream. It feels like somebody burrowing into your veins, but no pain."

Hookworms then travel from blood to your lungs. Debora said, you then "cough them up into your throat, and you swallow them, and they go back into your intestines and they start to mature. It's a human parasite. Once you get infected and they latch on, you don't have to do anything."

Debora found what she needed in Santa Cruz where helminthic therapist Jasper Lawrence helped her get infected. He said, "We guarantee that you'll be infected for three years if you use hookworms."

The cost is $3,900. He said, "The biggest risk is financial there is a slight chance it won't work for you." Hookworm farmers say the parasites can live inside a human for at least five years. Scott and Debora didn't have to wait long to feel relief. Scott said, "I started waking up, pain was gone. It was this sudden."

Debora said, "I had Thai food night. I was fine. I mean I'm eating things that I thought I wouldn't eat forever."

Some believe the hookworm therapy may help a whole host of immunological diseases including asthma, allergies, even multiple sclerosis, but the hard evidence is still lacking and it is not regulated by the FDA.

E-mail: drkim@ksl.com