Does hookworm really 'cure' allergies?

[Teo yuyuan]

I heard from a television series that hook worm can sort of 'cure' allergies, is it true? And if it is, how?

[Arete]

To put it in lay terms, allergies (and other autoimmune responses) are caused by an overactive immune system.

 

Human immune response evolved in a world where our bodies were constantly besieged by pathogens and parasites. In modern, western society we have eliminated most of these pathogens from our environments and comparatively, our immune systems have little to do. In some individuals, their immune systems are still on high alert, looking for the expected host of attacking foreign organisms trying to invade our bodies, and because they don't find any, end up overreacting to non-threatening things like pollens, or even attacking our own cells.

 

 

The idea behind treating allergies with parasites is that by introducing an actual parasite, this over-response of the immune system can be dampened, as the immune system "learns" to recognize what an actual pathogen "looks like", and stops attacking benign objects and the host's own cells. For an otherwise healthy person, research is starting to suggest that a small load of relatively harmless pathogens like hookworms is comparatively unnoticeable in comparison to the over-reaction of the immune system and can improve the person's quality of life. http://www.sciencemag.org/content/296/5567/490.short, http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2222.2009.03187.x/full

Edited March 29, 2013 by Arete

[pwagen]

This idea does seem promising, but it's a little too soon to tell for sure. Research is ongoing, so we'll see what they come up with.

 

http://www.besthealthmag.ca/get-healthy/health/can-hookworms-cure-allergies

http://io9.com/5933615/why-doctors-are-treating-allergies-with-parasitic-worms

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy