After a liftime of dealing with colon/rectal/pouch issues pretty much nothing grosses me out but your post got shivers running up and down my spine and a clench/cramp in my guts at the thought of swallowing live worms for any reason other than to enter a fraternity!
But I guess that when you are sick and suffering any port in a storm is a valid option...do you have to swallow them live or do they dessicate them and feed them to you dried? Just curious.
Sharon

Yes, this theory has been bouncing around for years. In the 90s when my UC was at its worse I talked to my GI about worms. One of the most famous worm proponents, for UC worm therapy, lives in England, but I think he's an American? Anyway, I know a guy who tried it for his UC, several times over a period of years, he never saw a benefit and recently had a proctocolectomy. As with all IBD treatments, I think some can have success with it, but not all.

Sue

You can swallow them live (they are very small, you just drink a glass of water with the worms in it, you don't know they are there) or they can actually get into your body through your skin, I think you have to put them on your arm under a bandage or something...

Never done it myself but a friend with Crohn's went into remission using them.

I have some in my closet as we speak. I've inoculated my husband with him (he has psoriasis and the provider we are using allows parents to be inoculated along with kids so they have an idea of what their kids may be feeling). I do want to try this with my daughter but haven't yet. Will likely soon. There are two types of worms, the ones for UC are different from the ones for CD/allergies and other AI issues, which in itself is interesting. ANd no they don't work for everyone but do work well for some. It's worth a shot as far as I'm concerned as they're something our bodies have evolved to co-exist with. Doesn't gross me out very much at all. You use a patch on your arm for hookworm (for cd/allergies etc) and you drink the whipworm in a vile/solution (I think).

I thought it was pretty interesting. The article I read stated that the whip worms were ingested in a glass of water as eggs. They are so small it looks like a normal glass of water. It stated that this had to be done every three months as this was the lifespan of the worms and since they can't reproduce in the human body then the "worm colony" could not repopulate itself. It stated that benefits were causes by the worms activating cells that regulate the immune system. The article also stated that before the world was so civilized and clean that parasites were natural in the human body just like they are in animals and the theory is that the reason intestinal problems have increased is because we are such clean freaks theses days. That kind of got me thinking and I relised that people I know who are constantly working in the dirt such as ranchers and farmers don't get sick real often. My dad was a rancher and still farms a little and I can't count the times he has been actually sick on one hand. Same goes for alot of my friends who get dirty during their profession. My mother read a book called " The Maker's Diet" and the author had either Chrohn's or UC (I don't remember) and he swore that being so clean has harmed our health because it washes away the beneficial bacteria and parasites that come from dirt and other things. I haven't read the book but I plan on it. The author was I'm such horrible condition that the doctors did not think he would live. He tells his story of how he pulled through and the struggles he faced with IBD. Just thought I would share this in case anyone else would like to find the book and read it.

They are till actively studying this and the hope is that it will be another viable treatment. I wonder if the human genome research will help determine which patients will respond well to this treatment? I love it when they think out of the box!

This article talks about all the research so far:

http://www.sciencedirect.com/s...ii/S0020751912002962

Jan