Hookworms successfully prevent type 2 diabetes in human trial
Hookworms successfully prevent type 2 diabetes in human trial
For many, the idea of having a few dozen hookworms set up shop in your gut sounds more like a Survivor challenge than a beneficial health therapy, but scientists see a bright future in this human worm farm for treating many chronic conditions.
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“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.
FYI, as per the other commentor, vomitariums are a myth.
Vomitoria existed, but they were used for people to leave a stadium, not for food to leave the stomach.
Yes, I know. I was addressing it in the context of OP
Yup. No worries. Still don’t like the idea of having worms.
Fortunately, nobody is judging you for that sentiment quite as hard as you were judging people for studying nutritional health after not really reading the article.