mama I seem to have acquired a strange interest in therapies involving animals. Especially if they trigger ‘the yuck factor‘. Leeches and maggots have been used for centuries and are also used in biomedicine today. Whereas these tiny crawling creatures are used externally (fixed on or in the skin), parasitic worms are used internally — the patient drinks a cocktail of worm eggs.
Why? Well, most people have heard of MS (see here), but how many have heard of this particular experimental treatment:
Once the eggs are inside the body, they will hatch into worms that live in the gut. It is hoped they will then stimulate the release of a certain type of immune system cell that will allow the body to heal the damage done by MS
Interesting but also … yuck!
