Helminthic Therapy
FAQ

What exactly is "Helminthic Therapy", and how does it work?

Helminthic therapy is really probiotics but using an unsual class of organism, helminths. As with probiotics it involves deliberate infection with beneficial micro organisms, a lot like buying live or natural yoghurts for the micro organisms they contain. But in this case it is helminths, hookworm or whipworm, not bacteria that are the beneficial micro organisms. Hookworm and whipworm belong to a class of organisms called helminths. Hence the name for the therapy, Helminthic Therapy.

Who Can be Helped by this type of immunotherapy, Helminthic Therapy?

It is possible that anyone with a chronic inflammatory condition, or one involving immune dysregulation, could benefit. But, it is impossible to predict in advance if a person with an autoimmune disease and or allergy will respond. The only way to test it is to try helminthic therapy. Diseases that have been shown to respond are: Asthma, Autism, Crohn's Disease, Ulcerative Colitis, Eczema, Hay fever and allergies of all kinds, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Migraine, Multiple Sclerosis, Psoriasis, and Sjogren's Syndrome. Response of patients with Ulcerative Colitis to hookworm alone has not been satisfactory, but has responded very well to whipworm. It is important to note that while effective immunotherapy like ours offers a chance of remission, not a cure. Meaning, that if you get better staying better depends on continuing to host the worms.

Is it safe?

Yes, the only problems described in the medical literature associated with the organisms we use are all associated with very large numbers of worms, a lack of access to medical care, and malnutrition. Problems have only been described in the world's poorest citizens, those earning around one to two dollars per day, and only then when either enormous numbers of worms are present (many hundreds or thousands) or when the unfortunate individual is malnourished. Having a therapeutic dose of hookworm, while maintaining a healthy western diet poses no risk to you. The organisms we use are so benign that the Center for Disease Control in America recommends that people not be treated for light infections, which is all we sell.

Our methods ensure that helminthic therapy immunotherapy is very well tolerated. When we started providing immunotherapy we did not have the experience we do now and some people got stomach upset and experienced bad diarrhea. That is much less likely now, and if you follow our advice we can guarantee you will not experience any side effects.

Anyone with a chronic infection, HIV, Hepatitis, Herpes, Lyme's disease, have to consider the immunosuppressive effects of helminthic therapy and its possible impact on their body's ability to suppress an active infection. Some of our clients with Herpes have reported more frequent outbreaks, but not all. People who are HIV positive or have some other serious chronic and incurable infection will be refused treatment.

However, it is estimated that 9,000 people die annually in the USA from taking aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen, and not all of those deaths are either deliberate or accidental overdoses. For instance Reye's Syndrome in children or adolescents can occur after taking aspirin and can cause brain damage, or death. Ibuprofen is associated with an increased risk of heart attack, and acetaminophen has been linked to the development of asthma and eczema. Whenever you introduce a drug or foreign substance into your body you have to accept that death or other terrible consequences are possible. Having said that there is no evidence that we are aware of in the medical literature of harm from using the numbers of hookworm or whipworm we use in therapy.

Can the worms reproduce in my body?

No, absolutely not, it is one of the reasons we selected these particular helminths for immunotherapy. The life cycle of both worms means that the dose of worms you are given will not increase with time.

Can I infect my family and friends.

No, absolutely not. This was another primary concern of ours when selecting which organisms to use. In the United States, Western Europe and in all other industrialized countries use of the most basic sanitary precautions (toilets, shoes) means that you can not inadvertently infect other people or yourself.

Is this type of immunotherapy effective?

Very, in our experience. While the number we have treated is relatively large in that we have treated more people for more conditions than anyone else, our results are not statistically reliable because in statistical terms our client population is small. Because we have treated so many different conditions our results are spread across many diseases, making our statistics less reliable. However overall we have seen more than 75% of our patients state that they have had very significant improvement in their conditions. Most of those 75% are getting to remission, although some continue to rely on a reduced level of medication to achieve that.

This is not a miracle cure. Because our statistics are changing all the time as we treat more and more people please contact us for more details about how successful this therapy is for your particular disease. For all the diseases we have treated our clients report that from 83% - 100% see substantial improvement, that side effects are mild, harmless and short-lived. This therapy is also more cost-effective than any effective alternative therapies, when they exist.

What are the potential side-affects?

Side effects are rare and consist of diarrhea, fatigue, an itch at the inoculation site for hookworm, and gas. Side effects are temporary, and can occur for up to eight weeks. Only about ten percent of those we treat experience anything more than the itch, some minor episodes of fatigue and a day or two of mild diarrhea. As our skill and experience has increased we have been able to reduce the incidence of side effects in those we treat. If you are taking an anti inflammatory, antihistamine or immunosuppressive therapy you will experience few side effects, or none at all. For instance, 20 mg daily of prednisone is so effective at suppressing side effects entirely that those of our clients who are using this drug when therapy starts invariably worry that infection has not been successful. Humira, Remicade, 6MP, Imuran, Entecort, etc., all reduce or eliminate side effects.

It is theoretically possible to develop anemia as a result of this treatment. But in practice in the West this is impossible for all but those at risk due to other factors, for which we screen before assenting to offer therapy. Anemia is a very slow to develop and is easily treated, even were it a genuine risk.

How long does it take to work?

This is highly dependant on your specific disorder, genetic make-up, disease, history, medication, etc. But typically if you are going to get better or see an improvement in your disease you will observe marked improvement (assuming your disease is active at the time of course) between 9 and 24 weeks after starting treatment. In about 5% of those using helminthic therapy results can take up to 11 months.

What happens if I have to get rid of the worms?

Your doctor will provide you with the drug to eliminate the helminths. Treatment is safe and easy and results in elimination of the worms within 48 hours. You are in control. If you change your mind at any point during the three year guarantee and want to try therapy again, re infection is yours for the cost of shipping.

How well does it work? Will I be able to stop taking my medication??

Results vary, but typicaly our clients are able to substantially reduce or eliminate the use of traditional medicines.

In most cases, and in consultation with your current physician, you should plan on continuing your current therapies in conjunction with this treatment. This is entirely safe and assures you achieve remission as quickly and completely as possible. If you see a marked improvement you may wish to discuss reducing your use of conventional therapies, but only under the advice and supervision of your physician. Please do so gradually and conservatively, and after consulting with us as well as your doctor. It takes almost a year for immune therapy based upon helminthic therapy to have its full effect.

If I get better using helminthic therapy how long will I stay better?

It is impossible to predict. This approach is so new no long term studies have been conducted. But, we expect that you will stay well so long as you retain your helminth infection. Certainly everyone we first treated, in my case in January of 2006, who got better remain well. Consider too that diseases we deal with are almost unknown in the third world, so whatever is protecting the world's poorest has a lifelong effect.

This is a living thing, so is it easy to kill it accidentally and what happens if I do?

The worms are not easy to kill, but can be with specific chemicals such as certain volatile anesthetics or nitrous oxide. We unconditionally guarantee infection for three years from the date of your treatment in the case of hookworm and eighteen months in the case of whipworm. If you suffer the misfortune of losing your helminth just contact us and we can ship you a replacement dose. We offer a free annual test to confirm continued infection.

What other guarantees do you offer?

1. Because the benefits of helminthic therapy depend upon the helminths continuing to live within you, we guarantee that your organism will survive for the low end of its average life span at least. Replacement doses are provided for the cost of shipping only under most circumstances.
2. We guarantee that if your results are not satisfactory using the first choice organism you will be provided with an additional dose for just the cost of shipping to ensure you obtain whatever benefits are possible.
3. If your results are not satisfactory to you (complete remission) after eleven months using our primary choice organism you will be able to purchase any other organism we offer at 25% off our normal price plus the cost of shipping.
4. For relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis if you purchase Combination therapy we guarantee that if you are not satisfied with therapy after one year we will refund your fee after you eliminate our probiotic helminth and furnish proof of doing so. Please contact us for details.
5. We guarantee that we will continue to work to improve results by improving our methods and the number and variety of safe, therapeutic organisms we use and that as we become more knowledgeable and effective those improvements will be offered to you.
6. We guarantee that after you complete your first cycle of treatment and require reinfection to sustain any benefits you enjoy as a result of helminthic that you will be offered reinfection for a 25% discount over our standard prices.
7. We guarantee to support you so long as you continue to host "our" probiotic organisms.

Is it ok for anyone to use helminthic therapy?

No, not in the interest of caution. All patients are screened in advance of purchase using a questionnaire, submission of recent blood test results, and interview.

Helminths are very well-adapted to humans, the ones we use are very safe, witness that the CDC recommends doctors not treat light infections, and light infections are all we provide. However, some people are not eligible for treatment. Cancer, chronic infectious diseases like HIV, and pregnancy make helminthic therapy inadvisable.

Is this treatment approved by the American or European Medical Authorities?

No. This is an experiment therapy and should be regarded and evaluated as such. While this therapy and variations using other helminths than we use are undergoing clinical trials, we estimate that it will be at least 2020 before approved therapies based on methods like those we provide are available from doctors, if ever. Given that drug companies do not have an incentive to replace expensive drugs with the much cheaper helminthic therapy there is no champion of this approach with the deep pockets required for evaluation by the FDA or EMEA. So we do not anticipate such approval for decades, if ever.

Is my information private and secure? What is your privacy policy? What are your Terms & Conditions for using this site and for purchasing treatment?

We treat your personal information and we would like other people to treat ours. That is we do not sell it or share it with anyone, and we take measures to make sure people cannot steal it. We use Secure Socket Layer (SSL - indicated by the "https://" at the front of the URL of any secure page) whenever it is appropriate. Our SSL certificate is provided by GeoTrust, an Equifax company. All financial data is encrypted and your personal, private and financial data is never shared with any third party except to the extent required to process payment and to treat you. The information we collect only consists of your name and treatment date. Autoimmune Therapies stores your personal information in an encrypted format using the strongest (256-bit AES) method available to us. All our client files are encrypted.

Our privacy policy is that we will never share any information you give to us without your prior written permission from you or by court order. We hate spam and with respect to privacy are libertarian by nature.