Found this interesting article about a new clinical study that will infect inflammatory bowel disease patients with Pig whip-worms in the hopes that it keeps the patients’ disease at bay.  The original article about the worm study can be found here.  From the article:

In the case of Crohn’s and other inflammatory bowel diseases, an overzealous immune system goes too far in attacking the bacteria in the digestive track, most of which is healthy, and also attacks healthy tissue. Parasites interfere with that chain of events, and appear to confer protection and regulate the immune response, or put the brakes on it…

Doctors theorize that because of the standards of cleanliness in developed countries, beneficial parasites have disappeared along with the harmful ones which has had an adverse effect on our immune systems.  In the 1950s about 1 in 10,000 individuals suffered from inflammatory bowel disease compared with about 1 in 250 now.

Pig whip-worms cause disease in swine but are harmless to humans.  The ingested eggs will travel through the intestinal tract and hatch into larvae then they will pass out of their human host after about two months before turning into worms.  The whip-worm larvae leave positive lasting changes in the human host’s guts before departing.

How about you?  Would you be up for this treatment?  I know that I would, it sounds disgustingly awesome.