Eating weevils for medicinal purposes

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Argentines eating weevils for medicinal purposes (4/23/2002 9:50:00 AM) http://www.nursinghands.com/News/NewsStory.html?1002840

Buenos Aires, Apr 20 (EFE).- Hundreds of people in the northern Argentine province of Santiago del Estero are consuming German weevils to relieve the symptoms of terminal illnesses such as cancer and AIDS. The weevil treatment is also used for psoriasis, sinusitis, hemorrhoids, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, arthritis and asthma. The positive effects of the treatment are not scientifically supported, but many people said their pain disappeared after eating the black insects for 10 days. "When the weevils die, they secrete (fluids) into the intestinal tract," which reactivate the immune system and exercise a tranquilizing effect on the body, Mercedes Santillan, a specialist in alternative medicine, told the Argentine news agency Telam. Those using the treatment are generally people who have exhausted the remedies of traditional medicine and have put all their hope into the weevil, which they breed at home and distribute to other sick people. "People need to start by eating one per day until they reach 70 and then begin a regressive dose," Santillan said. The treatment was introduced to Argentina by a couple from Misiones province who traveled to neighboring Paraguay to pick up a colony of weevils brought there from Germany. Although the medical community does not currently support the treatment, many doctors acknowledge that it provides their patients some kind of relief, at least on a psychological and emotional level. Copyright 2002 Efe. .