If you had a debilitating disease in which mainstream medicine had failed you, would you be willing to infect yourself with your own tapeworm? Autoimmune diseases such as colitis and Crohn’s have increased profoundly in the U.S, but are less common in developing countries.
Weinstock, a gastroenterologist now at Tufts University has found that it may not be the parasites that are causing the problem but their absence! His thought is that the disappearance of parasites through things like improved sanitation may have left our immune systems unbalanced, increasing our vulnerability to different types of inflammatory disease.
Read about a network of patients trying to treat their autoimmune disease by infecting themselves with helminths (parasitic worms) with varying results. Can a whipworm help restore the mucus barrier in an infected gut? The underground is pushing its way above ground!
You can also listen here as I interview Dr. Sid Baker about his own helminth!
Author: Kara Fitzgerald, ND
https://www.drkarafitzgerald.com/ Kara Fitzgerald, ND, received her doctor of naturopathic medicine degree from the National University of Natural Medicine in Portland, Oregon. She completed the first Counsel on Naturopathic Medicine-accredited post-doctorate position in nutritional biochemistry and laboratory science at Metametrix Clinical Laboratory under the direction of Richard Lord, PhD. Her residency was completed at Progressive Medical Center, a large, integrative medical practice in Atlanta, Georgia.
Dr. Fitzgerald is the lead author and editor of Case Studies in Integrative and Functional Medicine and is a contributing author to Laboratory Evaluations for Integrative and Functional Medicine and the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM)’s Textbook for Functional Medicine. With the Helfgott Research Institute, Dr. Fitzgerald is actively engaged in clinical research on the DNA methylome using a diet and lifestyle intervention developed in her practice. The first publication from the study focuses on reversal of biological aging and was published 04-12-2021 in the journal Aging. She has published a consumer book titled Younger You as well as a companion cookbook, Better Broths and Healing Tonics and has an application-based Younger You Program, based on the study.
Dr. Fitzgerald is on the faculty at IFM, is an IFM Certified Practitioner and lectures globally on functional medicine. She runs a Functional Nutrition Residency program, and maintains a podcast series, New Frontiers in Functional Medicine and an active blog on her website, www.drkarafitzgerald.com. Her clinical practice is in Sandy Hook, Connecticut.
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