Re: Testing a Worm Egg Cocktail to Treat MS

March 24, 2008

Hi Sharon,I'm sitting here at my desk at school reading this and I think I'd have to take a pass. There's just so much I can do for this disease and I draw the line at swallowing worm eggs! Hope everything is well, sorry to here about Challis's daughter breaking her leg. I've got kids coming so I'll talk later.

Hugs,

Amy

to read the entire article AND see a photo of the worms go to:http://abcnews.go.com/Health/PainManagement/story?id=4454748 & page=1

Testing a Worm Egg Cocktail to Treat MS

Small Trial Planned for Unorthodox Therapy

By DAN CHILDSABC News Medical UnitMarch 17, 2008 It sounds like a remedy straight out of a witch's brew: a cocktail of worm eggs, destined to hatch inside the bodies of those who swallow them.

But make no mistake, there's science behind this remedy. And doctors who are embarking on a small initial trial of the worm egg cocktail in patients with the degenerative condition multiple sclerosis have high hopes that it will one day offer another fight against the debilitating disease.

There are already some hints that this potential remedy, which involves drinking the eggs of worms known as helminths, actually works. A recent study out of Argentina suggested that people already infected with this kind of worm experienced fewer symptoms of MS than those who were not infected.

These findings have led to approval by the U.S. Food and Drug administration of a small trial of the therapy next month on five patients. The trial, led by University of Wisconsin Hospital neurologist Dr. Fleming, will determine if a helminth egg cocktail will be tolerated by these patients, and perhaps relieve some of their symptoms.

The very fact that the trial is going forward has officials at Ovamed, the German company that produces the worm eggs used in the research, hopeful that the therapy will prove to be a useful treatment with few of the side effects associated with some other MS treatments.

"Because it is a very natural approach, it takes a few weeks until it can unfold its full mode of action to show considerable improvements," says Detlev Goj, CEO of Ovamed. "However, this is something we are happy to accept in exchange for lacking such severe side effects most conventional medications have."

Such a therapy has already proved useful in treating some sufferers of inflammatory bowel disease. And because the approach uses the eggs of worms that normally infect pigs instead of those that infect humans, scientists hope that the disease associated with natural infection with these parasites can be avoided.

But MS experts say that while the new technique is novel, it remains to be seen whether the unorthodox cocktail will yield the desired results.

"It's a great example of thinking outside the box and does seem to have some scientific rationale," says Dr. Hillel Panitch, professor of neurology at the University of Vermont College of Medicine and director of the MS Center for Fletcher Health Care in Burlington, Vt.

But, he adds, "I think it's far too early to say anything about helping treat MS. The first step is to see if the five test subjects tolerate the treatment, if they become infected, and if they have any changes in their immune response."

Dr. Corboy, professor of neurology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and a specialist in the study of multiple sclerosis, agrees.

"Overall, there is little if any published data on using worms as a therapy," he says. "This will be a very small study, a 'proof of principle' study, and hopefully they will gather not just clinical data but also immunological data to understand the nature, if any, of the response."...........

(entire article at the link at top of this email:)

Sharonhttp://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/MSersHEALTH/This email is a natural hand made product. The slight variations in spelling and grammar enhance its individual character and beauty and in no way are to be considered flaws or defects.

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March 24, 2008