Pete Dixon

I've had plenty of gluten goodness sitting in my freezer for a month now and the siren call from them was too much for me to bear. A donut and a Crustini sacrificed themselves for science last night. Aside from a little gas I've had no reaction - just feeling fine. So that it's it, 30 days and I'm back in remission.

Celiac.com Sponsor (A13):
I apologize for the dramatics but as all celiacs know, risking a gluten exposure is not for the faint of heart. Back in the day I've had some hella violent reactions where I became quite violently ill for hours or days at a time. And even though I've been working with hookworms since 2018 I'm still learning the rules.

This is what I know now, for me:

I'm a guy who demonstrates all the symptoms of celiac disease and has close celiac confirmed relatives (my father's sister and her son). I also have medically diagnosed and treated ulcerative colitis. Back in 2005-2008 my life was absolute hell when I was still consuming gluten and the meat and nuts that would trigger the colitis attacks. It was so bad I contemplated suicide as I had no quality of life.

With a perfect diet I was much better but still always vulnerable to gluten exposure and the colitis persisted, albeit at a much lower level. Fish and eggs were ok, but all other meat products were off the menu. By 2018 the number of safe foods that I believed wouldn't cause a reaction was about 12. I survived on rice, potatoes, sardines, eggs and fruit.

Using hookworms appears to remove all food restrictions barring a milk intolerance which I expect is not immune-related. From date of application of the hookworm larvae on my arm it takes 30 days for my immune system to be returned to a normal, healthy status. That number might be as early as 25 days but it's not worth risking getting sick to find out the true lower bound. 30 days works.

Protection from symptoms appears to last 5 and a half to 6 months before the hookworms either are killed off or age out, making reinoculation a regular requirement. My last inoculation was May 31st from an order date of May 22nd. Allowing for delivery of ~10 days that would make my next reorder date in 5 months to be Oct 22nd, 2023.

Inoculating more frequently would be sensible but there is also the issue of cost. Each batch of larvae ordered with tracking costs more than $200 a pop, which for me is not insignificant. There's also the matter of cold potentially killing the larvae in transit. Plenty of people who pursue Helminthic Therapy incubate hookworms sourced from the eggs that appear in the stool. Increasingly I'm thinking that might be the path I'll be taking. That would require a microscope, some supplies and trial and error. The user group does offer video instruction and other support on how to do it. Something to keep me occupied next winter.

Again, for those interested in getting started with hookworms to treat celiac disease and other immune related conditions, The Helminthic Therapy Wiki (Google it) and the Helminthic Therapy Support Group on Facebook are your primary sources.

Thanks for reading.