So possibly, in a thousand years or so, we could have parasites that improve our lives in every conceivable way.
Just need to eat an egg salad sandwich from a truckstop restroom coin op machine.
Edit: I’m a little busy at work, so maybe I read the replies wrong - but this was a Futurama reference.
Jaffa kree!
At.that point wouldn’t they be symbiotes?
Why wait? You can do that today!
Wouldn’t it be a symbiote and not a parasite if it benefits us?
Let me know when we get translator microbes.
serious: i love truck stop egg salad sandwiches. don’t tempt me!
That’s a very interesting study result that absolutely horrifies me.
Goauld anyone?
Indeed
My eyes have been a little dim lately
“The JCU trial provides sufficient proof of concept that infection with live hookworms is safe and appears to have some sort of beneficial effects on people’s metabolic health, which will hopefully be confirmed by future clinical trials designed to confirm efficacy and explore how hookworms influence metabolism,” said Dr Paul Giacomin, AITHM Senior Research Fellow and immunologist.
Eat less vs feed a crop of worms in my guts…. Hmmmmm. I mean, it’s an efficient way of making sure you don’t absorb all the calories you consume. It would be a bummer if my worms’ eggs were infecting people who didn’t over-eat and would be harmed.
The anti-inflammatory aspect is intriguing, but there has to be better options for creating that response.
This “give you worms so you can continue to overeat without consequences” approach is far too reminiscent of the ancient Roman vomitoria. There has to be a less wasteful way to deal with obesity and its metabolic consequences.
this reminds me of the futurama episode parasites lost
Don’t they also significantly reduce allergies?
Yes, I met someone who was allergic to basically everything, and said she had good results with hookworms
who the fuck went “yeah, ima get some dangerous parasites into my guts” how much money did they get for that
Enough to pay for half their insulin for the month?
australias healthcare system cant be as abysmally bad as america…right?..right?
The difference between medicine and poison is the dose. The worms were not dangerous at the dose being studied, as indicated by the fact people got healthier over a 2 year period.
sure but idk living parasites seem like part of an equation id rather remove
wanna go back to leech treatments? maybe tapeworms too to loose some weight?
it just seems to volatile
Leeches are still used, and are very effective in some cases. It’s ok to be grossed out by medicine. That doesn’t mean it’s outdated or shouldn’t exist.
it has nothing to do with a gross factor parasites like these are called that for a reason and there was especially a reason it was used hundreds of years ago and only picked back up a couple of decades ago
you maybe comfortable attaching a living predatory parasite on your body but that is something i wont ever call medicine
Ok, then in certain circumstances your disgust response that directly contradicts the evidence may result in a lower chance of your survival. Your body, your call. I wholeheartedly support your right to refuse care. I, however, am rather fond of living and will use whatever medical intervention works best.
lets agree to disagree on the use of this specific type of invention than, if they figure out a way without the sue of uuuh, what we discussed id be happy to make use of it.
I sustained myself for 6 months on nothing but being a medical Guinea pig. Because of anonymity laws they couldn’t ask for documentation so it was one of the few gigs I could do without a work permit. I would have loved this experiment, sure as hell beat the “let’s inject pepper under your skin and give you the placebo painkiller” trial I did for three painful weeks (paid $2800 though).
satan! I read it looking to see how they modified the hookworms and I can’t find anything outside of saying they were farmed and lab grown. We do so much de-worming with animals and now im wondering if that is bad for them???
De-worming animals is probably still for the best. Even hookworms can be fatal to dogs, for example. And there are other worm parasites way worse than hookworms, like roundworms that can burrow through the intestines and up into the host’s heart and brain. I wouldn’t take the risk.
yeah I was just musing and reading the whole paper the participants had some initial gastro intestinal issues for a day or so from getting the worms. seems its basically a very small dose of them can be beneficial so you totally don’t want to get them naturally.
Hook me up!
As a Celiac, I’ve been hookworm treatment news loosely:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/09/140925100929.htm
It’s been noted to have an affect on a range of things, good podcast on it : https://radiolab.org/podcast/91689-parasites
Edit : Fix link!
Your link Is broken I think, even when passing the whole thing.
We’ve got coeliac in the family so I would love to read some encouraging news.
So it is, fixed. There is lot of celiac treatments in the pipeline, don’t know how close any are to market. Bloody hate it to be honest. Not because there is any gluten food I want, but because of constant having to worry about cross containmination.
Yup it’s the cross contamination that’s the killer.
It would be a nigh-on 99% “treatment” if coeliacs could tolerate tiny amounts of gluten, as it would allow you to just say “swap these ingredients”. Instead you enter a restaurant and you have to have a deep interrogation on how their kitchen functions; what goes where, bla bla. And if I have to explain, even one more time, that gluten doesn’t “burn off in an oven” I’ll scream.
It’s bloody gluten finger food that does my head in. They then touch everything. Nothing is safe.
It makes sense. Having worms has been a constant across human history, so if we need to bring dirt back to prevent allergies maybe we should all have these guys too.
