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Parasitic worms used to fight bowel disease

afflicts pigs. Early studies have shown that giving humans a concoction of whipworm eggs and Gatorade is very effective in treating inflammatory bowel disease.

Mansfield and colleagues are using some of the NIH funding to develop an animal model to test the effectiveness of the worms on inflammatory bowel disease and other maladies. Also, she is waiting for word on a new NIH grant that will support efforts to learn how the treatment works.

"The bottom line right now is that we know none of the mechanisms of how this works," she said.

Mansfield, as well as other researchers, also wants to apply this effort to a variety of autoimmune conditions, such as asthma, diabetes and multiple sclerosis. Some researchers suggest that all of these conditions can be explained as combinations of the hygiene hypothesis and genetics.


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Source:Michigan State University


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