Everyone's Health

In a pigs eye

Inflammatory bowel disease is as nasty as it sounds, consisting of two dire disorders: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Symptoms include chronic pain, diarrhea, weight loss and, in long-term cases, an increased risk of colon cancer.

IBD isn't well-understood, but researchers suspect it's caused by an overactive immune response in the body. Immune cells called Th1, whose job is to kill foreign invaders, over-release toxins that wind up killing innocent cellular bystanders. Th1 cells are kept under control by another kind of cell called Th2.

Clearly, thought Dr. Joel Weinstock of the University of Iowa, there are too many Th1 cells at work. Weinstock theorized that boosting the presence of Th2 cells might be an effective countermeasure. He knew that intestinal parasitic worms prompt a proliferation of Th2 cells, but that seemed to be asking for even more problems.

So Weinstock and colleagues turned to an intestinal parasite that plagues another species: the pig whipworm, which doesn't survive very long in humans.

Weinstock persuaded seven patients with Crohn's or ulcerative colitis to drink a concoction containing pig whipworm eggs. Six patients experienced complete remission of their diseases. The seventh's condition was improved. These results exceeded any produced by established medical treatments.

However, two big drawbacks remain: 1. Patients must drink the eggs of pig whipworm. 2. They must drink them regularly.

In Weinstock's 28-week-long experiment, patients' ailments returned without a repeat dose every three weeks.

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