Asked by marty78
Hi Marty!
My apologies for not answering sooner. Yes, I used to have a lot of dizziness after eating, and chronic joint pain especially in the hips and shoulders. I still do get that foggy-headed tired feeling every so often after eating, but the reactions are much reduced and very tolerable. I have no more joint pain at all.
I still avoid the foods I was most allergic to because having hookworms has definitely *not* been a silver bullet, but things are getting better all the time. Thursday will be my 1 year wormiversary and I’m pretty sure that I haven’t hit the peak of my improvement, yet.
Congratulations on getting your worms! Try to keep a positive attitude and have faith that they will work. It can take a *really long time* compared to modern medicine, but I think the results are worth it. Remember to take good care of yourself while you wait!
Asked by Anonymous
I KNOW, I can’t believe it’s been so long! I’m going to answer a few, now. :)
A while back someone let me know what a pain it was that my blog wouldn’t allow questions to be asked anonymously. I checked it out, and the poster was not joking - it was super annoying. I’ve changed the settings and anyone can now ask a question anonymously.
Thanks for reading, and I’m looking forward to your questions!
Asked by Anonymous
I did have skin prick testing done in 2007, but no foods registered at all on the skin. I did react to every type of dust mite and many types of mold and pollen. My allergist told me that negative skin-prick results for foods were only about 60% reliable, so I didn’t put too much stock in it and I don’t plan to have it redone.
I’m now able to tolerate all foods that I’ve been willing to try. Some still precipitate a reaction, but a much-diminished one. There are a few foods that previously required my keeping an Epi-Pen available, and I haven’t quite gotten up the courage to try those. Honestly, when something makes you that sick it’s hard to stomach, anyway, so I haven’t had the urge.
My allergic responses were largely GI-related, in addition to joint pain, mouth ulcers, fatigue and cardiovascular symptoms. The worst allergic response I ever had (the one that prompted the Epi-Pen prescription) started with allergic diarrhea ~20 minutes after consumption, followed by bradycardia, low blood pressure and loss of consciousness. After this incident I had the worst set of beau’s lines in my thumbnails that I’d ever experienced or seen in anyone (I commonly get beau’s lines when I’ve had a very bad reaction, but I don’t know if it’s common among others).
Allergy testing is nice, but for food allergies I don’t consider it very reliable. Elimination diet and food challenge/response testing is the way I figured out my allergies, however if you go this route I encourage you to work with an allergist and/or have an Epi-Pen on hand and help nearby. You never know when it could be the big one.
I’ve had a few requests recently to post an update about how I’m feeling. I know I’ve been deficient in posting my progress and I’m sorry for that! I heard many times before I got my worms that people tend to get better and then drop off, having gotten on with the business of living. That’s definitely (and thankfully) what’s been going on with me.
I’m going on 10 months post-inoculation, and am still seeing slow improvement. I have noticed recently that my moods aren’t all that stable and I’ve been wondering if that could be residual food reactions. I don’t seem to get much in the way of joint pains, heartburn or nausea anymore, but I occasionally get unexplainably melancholy (sometimes downright inconsolable) after some meals that would previously have made me sick as a dog. It’s probably just a coincidence, but something I’ve been thinking about recently.
Some random stats:
* I’ve been taking 10,000 IU Vitamin D per day for several months. I’m pretty sure now that it’s Vitamin D that made my skin and hair so soft back when the worms started working. I wonder if they improved my ability to absorb Vitamin D? In any case, in addition to soft skin, I tend to be less moody and sleep better when I remember to take the D.
* I’m taking a multi-vitamin that has 20,000 IU Vitamin A in particular. A friend mentioned a possible link between inappropriate autoimmune responses and Vitamin A deficiency which prompted me to start taking it. I haven’t been very consistent yet, so I don’t know whether or not it’s making a difference, but I’ll try to do better and report any changes that might be related.
* I stopped drinking caffeine about 2 months ago and have since stopped having anxiety in large crowds and when giving presentations at work. Even a single cup of green tea brings the anxiety back on like gangbusters, so I’ve switched to peppermint and don’t let myself look back. This is probably not related to my autoimmune issues, but I figured I’d mention it anyway!
A recent scholarly journal article was published detailing one man’s battle against Ulcerative Colitis, and how he found worms to help himself instead of going down the road of drugs and surgery and colostomy bags. Here are two news pieces that discuss the article:
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/09/worms.health/index.html
Thanksgiving with my new buddies was delicious. I tried a little bit of everything, including some stuffing that had a little beef in it. (By accident. For those who don’t know me, beef is the reason I carry an Epipen.) Oops. Luckily, that only resulted in mild nausea. I consider it a huge success!
I’ve also achieved another big worm milestone - my first major illness since inoculation. I caught a pretty rough cold that I think my body tried valiantly to fight off for about a month. I think I finally threw enough alcohol and sleep deprivation at it, and it got me. Now I’ve got symptoms of bronchitis, but things are slowly on the mend.
I think there are two things to note in my illness experience. First, I don’t think I knew I was getting sick because “feeling kinda bad” is a normal state for me (before the worms). So it wasn’t until I felt *really* bad (and was coughing up bloody stuff) that I knew I was sick. When it didn’t go away completely, I didn’t really notice - again, because I didn’t feel all that bad. Not any worse than a year ago’s “normal”.
Secondly, I do think I got over this second wave much more quickly once I took it seriously and actually rested. Of course, there’s no way for me to know if it has anything to do with the worms, but I wanted to share my thoughts on it, anyway!
I’ve gotten about 5 messages in the past week asking how I’m doing. Sorry I’ve been AWOL! I’ve been sick off and on over the past month (completely unrelated to my hookworm buddies) so I haven’t had the energy for much updating.
My 6 month wormiversary came and went on October 14th. Things are still improving on the food front! Lately I’ve been able to add back (in small quantities) several types of fruit, some nuts, and - hallelujah - cross-contamination from fryers doesn’t seem to bother me anymore. Bring on the sweet potato fries!
While I have been able to eat a lot more without getting sick, I haven’t noticed any improvement in my sneezing this fall. I still sneeze about 10-20 times a day and my nose is often very stuffy. I’m sure the seasons changing is making this worse than it normally is, so maybe I have improved overall but this allergy season is just particularly bad. Either way, I am considering adding some more worms on top of the original batch to see if that leads to further improvement. Also: waiting longer!
One last note about the last couple months - I’ve started supplementing my vitamin D after having a huge downturn in my improvement at the end of September. I had read many things about vitamin D deficiency so I figured I’d give it a whirl. I can’t believe how much it seemed to help, and really quickly, too. Within a few days of taking 10,000 IU/day of liquid vitamin D I was less moody, sleeping better, and my skin was freakishly soft. Was it all in the D? Who knows. It seems to be helping so I’m going to continue with it.
And if you’re one of my friends I’ve been pestering to try a D supplement… thanks for putting up with me. I’m just trying to help! :)
Ever since I started this blog, I’ve had many suggestions/requests that I “open source” my helminthic infection. I won’t be doing that. Up until this point I’ve ignored these requests, but it occurred to me that people might be interested to know why I feel the way I do.
First of all, I’m a software developer. I get the point of open source software, and I believe in it. I also do whole-heartedly believe that an open source of hookworms would be helpful to many people, particularly in the case where the main barrier to getting the treatment is cost. However, as for my own infection, I’ve licensed it in the same way that software is licensed, and this license doesn’t allow me to share. And I respect the license in the same way I hope anything *I* publish with a license will be respected.
I also won’t be “open sourcing” my copy of OS X or my recent iTunes purchases, so please don’t email me asking for copies of those, either.
Asked by helminthictherapy
I haven’t considered whipworm at this point, mostly because of the cost. I’m waiting to see if I achieve what I would consider to be full remission within a year. If I’m still having symptoms next summer I’ll definitely try adding whipworm to see if the combination brings more improvement.
