Man Swallows Worm Eggs to Treat Ulcerative Colitis

"The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms crawl all about."- Anon. At one point in our lives, unless we are cremated, we will become intimately acquainted with parasitic worms. There was recently a program on cable about a place on the east coast called "The Body Farm."

The Body Farm is a plot of land near Nashville that is strewn with a whole bunch of dead bodies that are in various stages of decay. The body farm is next to the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility . The purpose of the body farm is so researchers can study what happens to us when we die and are left in a natural state to decompose.

The results of their work is not only important medically, but can also be used in forensics as well. Subjects sign donor cards to donate their bodies for medical research when the die.

The worms play an important part in this research. Flies start laying their eggs within hours of the corpse being out in the sun. In a little under a week, the corpse is reduced to a skeleton and the worm's bellies are full.

Maggots are nasty creatures that turn into nasty flies. I once had an infestation in one of the restaurants that I was running. They started when flies laid their eggs on some greasy towels in the linen bag. One thing is for certain, you don't want maggots crawling out of your customer's food.

But maggots and other worms can have some benefit medically. They have been used since before the Middle Ages to disinfect wounds by consuming the dead skin and the discharge. They are still used to this day for that reason.

Now there may be another medical use for the worms. This time the ones that infect the intestines of pigs. And this use wasn't discovered by researchers, but rather by an everyday Joe like you and me. According to CNN:

"One day in 2004, a 29-year-old man with a terrible stomach problem stepped off a plane from the United States in Thailand. He wasn't there for the sights, or the food, or the beaches. He had traveled thousands of miles for worms -- parasitic worms whose eggs he intended to swallow by the thousands."

The man suffered from a disease called ulcerative colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease where ulcers form in the intestines. The disease is marked by extended periods of diarrhea.

The 28-year-old man was recently written up in a medical journal. Depending on which version you believe: the man is either a medical pioneer who used an ancient remedy and risked his life to bring a new treatment for this horrible disease to the U.S., or a reckless patient who endangered himself and could encourage others to try this extreme treatment.

The conventional course of treatment for ulcerative colitis is to take massive doses of steroids, which carry their own risks. If the steroids don't work, then complete removal of the intestine is recommended.

All the doctors in the U.S. refused to treat him, even one who was studying the use of worms in other countries like Thailand. The researcher was encouraged by what he saw. One theory as to why the worms might work is that they stimulate the immune system to encourage mucus production and reduce irritation and inflammation.

In countries where a large rural population that has a high rate of infestation with the worms, the residents have more UC when they are less exposed to them. The locals have known this for centuries and swallow the eggs for treatment. Whether this very gross practice will become common in the United States remains to be seen. But if you have ulcerative colitis, I definitely wouldn't try this at home.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/09/worms.health/index.html