Scott Adams

Except the topic of this site is celiac disease...how does the video relate to our topic here?

This company is a Celiac.com sponsor...read the studies here:
https://www.gliadinx.com/publications

and decide for yourself.

FWIW, I have a friend who has Crohn's Disease, and had surgery for it when he was younger, but doesn't want to take some of the prescription medications to help him deal with ongoing symptoms. I told him to look into hookworms treatment.

Too much there to address, but here are a few things to address:

• Chronic diseases are solely due to industrialization: Chronic diseases have multiple causes, including genetics, lifestyle choices, and environmental factors.
• Helminths are beneficial for everyone: Not all helminths are beneficial; some can cause serious health issues. The idea that reintroducing helminths can universally improve health is not supported by robust scientific evidence.
• Pharmaceutical treatments are ineffective and harmful: While pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, they are often effective and have saved countless lives. The effectiveness and safety of treatments vary depending on the condition and individual response.
• Helminthic therapy is a safe and effective alternative: The evidence for helminthic therapy is mixed, and more research is needed to establish its safety and efficacy.

Hard to tell, but this is an old recall notice from the USA, so even if it were the same brand, it's unlikely that you would be getting the same batch that had the contamination issues.

You must realize that going backwards in time, 100-150 plus years ago, when the human lifespan was roughly half as long on average than it is now, people were often infected with hookworms as well as many other chronic diseases and parasites, for example tuberculosis, trichinosis, tapeworms, etc., were also very common, but this does not mean that we need those things to be healthier. As I mentioned, eliminating such diseases and parasites from the general population is part of the reason that our lifespans have doubled in a but more than 100 years. I'm not sure I even buy the argument our immune systems are "incomplete and dysfunctional" without hookworms, but one could make an argument that some people's immune systems, without hookworms, might go into overdrive without them, although I still believe that we have developed pharmaceutical treatments in such cases that have been shown to be effective in dealing with most of these cases, and those treatments are far safer and more reliable than trying to maintain specific numbers of hookworms in millions of individuals with different issues and different immune systems.

There are many different anti-inflammatory drugs that are effective in treating ulcerative colitis, have you tried any?  

Dr. William Parker says you can't know ahead of time how many helminths to infect yourself with, and taking too much can make you "very, very sick," and it can cause a lot of the same symptoms that might be trying to treat, such as anemia, mental fog, severe gastrointestinal pains, muscle aches, etc., and being infected by too many can cause an inflammatory state--exactly the state that many people considering such a therapy might be trying to mediate.

I also don't buy the "bored teenager" immune system theory he proposes--hinting that back when most people might have been infected with helminths they had better immune systems and were somehow more healthy than people without helminths are today--this, in my opinion, is utter BS. Just look at the vast increase in longevity over the last 150 years--AFTER parasitic worms were eliminated in the vast majority of the population. Harking back to some supposedly more healthy time period in human history when many people were infected with such parasites is absurd. The reason why so many people were infected in past times is because they are contagious, and back when most people had them the average life expectancy was 30-50 years!

There is a good reason why mainstream doctors don't recommend this type of therapy for ANY purposes--it can be dangerous, it's contagious, and there is very little accepted scientific evidence that hookworm infection can treat people for anything in a better way than FDA approved medications.

Last, he admits that we haven't got any placebo controlled trials on whether they effectively treat seasonal allergies, yet he still makes the claim. What type of doctor is he, one who doesn't believe in science?

More info:

Before the development of effective treatments for hookworm infections, the average life expectancy was lower due to the cumulative effects of hookworm disease and other prevalent health conditions of the time. Hookworm infections, particularly in regions with poor sanitation and malnutrition, contributed to chronic anemia, malnutrition, developmental delays in children, and reduced work capacity in adults.

Key Factors:

Widespread Infection: Hookworm was endemic in many warm, humid regions, particularly in the southeastern United States, parts of Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Chronic Illness, Not Immediate Death: Hookworm infection alone rarely caused death, but it significantly weakened individuals, making them more susceptible to other diseases. The overall life expectancy in heavily affected regions could drop by several years due to the compounded effects of malnutrition and secondary infections.

Historical Life Expectancy:

In the 19th and early 20th centuries, life expectancy in heavily affected areas was often between 30–50 years, depending on the region and other health challenges.

These figures reflected not only hookworm but also high infant mortality rates, infectious diseases, and lack of medical care.

Effective treatments, starting with vermifuge compounds like thymol in the early 1900s and later advancements with modern anthelmintics like albendazole and mebendazole, greatly reduced the prevalence and impact of hookworm infections, contributing to improved health outcomes and life expectancy in endemic areas.

20 hours ago, dixonpete said:

I forgot to add a status update on my health. I've had no issues. Been staying away from the foods I know cause GI problems: alcohol, peanuts and mayo. Stools are well-formed and of normal frequency. Consumption of gluten continues to have no effect.

You say "Consumption of gluten continues to have no effect," but when was your last endoscopy/biopsy? Without doing a regular biopsy, there is no way for you to be sure that eating gluten has no effect on your health. 

Yes, there are several gluten-free certifications out there (one is the GFCO), and the usual standard they claim is 10ppm, however, recent findings indicate that even the GFCO's higher standards may not ensure that foods they certify are gluten-free:

@Lauraferleo Simple Mills may have issues and is included in this article:

Some of these companies have GFCO certification, and for this they must test below 10ppm. 

20 hours ago, dixonpete said:

Semantics. With hookworms on board I display no signs of being celiac. If you buy the argument that humans in their natural state would always be carrying hookworms then it's you the unhookwormed who are unnatural.

For me it's a mute argument. Either I use hookworms or I lose my colon, or I take those ungodly expensive colitis drugs. I ran into one guy whose drugs cost runs 100k a year of which he pays 5k out of pocket. Hookworms cost me ~$400 a year, and could cost as little as $50 a year probably if I harvested my own eggs from my stool.

It's too bad it's such a weird sounding idea, using parasites, that grosses people out. I read the forums. There's a lot of suffering out there a good percentage of which helminths could help with.

 

It's not semantics, if you don't get your antibody levels checked you won't know if your autoimmune reaction is ongoing. A treatment that might mask the symptoms (my doctor gave me many of these) does not mean you are disease-free and that you won't suffer future consequences of not treating the root cause of it--in this case by going on a gluten-free diet. Don't mistake symptom relief as the best medical treatment, as there a lots of drugs, for example steroids, that can also offer symptom relief, but such treatments are not the best treatment.

In general going by such a "gut test" is not recommended at all. Symptoms in celiacs can change over time, and many celiacs have no little or no symptoms. The only way to check out be using a celiac disease blood panel to see if the autoimmune reaction is ongoing:

So to clarify, you have now gone gluten-free because the hookworm treatment was not working 100% of the time for you? 

If this is the case perhaps you can go into your old threads on this topic and update everyone there about this change? I recommend this, as you've indicated in those threads that you've had zero issues with gluten since you started this unconventional treatment.

So this is a very old blog, but I'll try to help. Did your dentist mention what may be the cause--is it a cavity? Celiac disease isn't the cause of everything, and certainly celiacs still get cavities which may not be related to their disease. Do you have tooth enamel defects that are associated with celiac disease? If so, then your issue could be related:

I know dealing with health issues is always an ongoing process, but it sounds like you're on the mend, which is great. Your hookworm treatments are especially interesting, as we've done articles in the past on this, but you're the first person here who has actually tried the treatment. I hope it continues to go well for you!

I’ve always been skeptical of widespread PPI use and making the available without a prescription. they may relieve some symptoms in many cases, but in the long term for, for most people anyway, they will cause more problems than they might solve.

14 hours ago, Maddie6332 said:

Okay! What level are you?

And how would I be able to figure out my level in my medical chart, because I am an 11 year old.

This article explains the Marsh system for classifying the damage level to your villi in your intestines caused by celiac disease. This is done by the gastroenterologist who takes the tissue samples during an endoscopy, and is done by examining the samples in a microscope to see the damage level:

 I believe I was in the Marsh Type 3b-3c area and has severe damage when I was diagnosed over 25 years ago.

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And I know you know this Scott.....it is disingenuous at best to say the risk is practically zero.....if you don't have the two main types...

My comment stands as posted, and is not limited to only DQ2 or DQ8...it includes all known genetic markers to date, including DQ9 and several other markers. Without any of these marker celiac disease is highly unlikely, but there are likely some minor markers that are yet to be discovered.

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Welcome those who have other gene types and Celebrate they have found Celiac.com and don't discourage them by telling them NO you can only have NCGS instead.....is all I am saying....

We welcome all here, including self diagnosed people with either gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, unlike certain Facebook groups who exclude anyone not officially diagnosed with CD. It makes no difference to me whether someone has CD or NCGS, they are all welcome here and always have been, but do not promote a cure for those with CD based on connecting lots of dots among many decades of different, unrelated studies. There are many studies that show that IBS and celiac disease are not connected, but you exclude those and often pick ones that support your predetermined goal, which seems to be that CD is curable. This isn't correct, and experts with far more medical training and experience with celiac disease than you have unanimously agree--none claim that the condition can be cured, and all agree that a gluten-free diet for life is the only current treatment.

It sounds to me that you may have celiac disease OR NCGS, and there is a big difference. You have chosen to eat gluten and believe you've cured yourself--I suspect you have NCGS.

We know that other things can cause villi blunting, this has been known for a long time, but the type of blunting caused by celiac disease is not identical to that of NSAIDs or other meds or issues that may cause blunting. But either way, we do know that people with celiac disease, and thus have the genetic markers known to be linked to celiac disease, get very specific villi damage to very specific areas of their small bowels, and that this damage does, in a vast majority of cases, go away once the culprit is eliminated--gliadin found in gluten.

You're implying a cure here for celiac disease, which is incorrect, it is non-curable, and everyone with the disease needs to remain gluten-free for life.

It is well known that many celiacs may have additional food intolerance issues, some of which may be temporary until their gut heals, but in some they may be lifelong. These are considered separate issues, and not celiac disease.

As I recall, you were never formally diagnosed with celiac disease, which means that you may have been in the NCGS group, and this is very different, but the diet is the same. It may be possible for some in the NCGS group to eat some gluten, or perhaps even "recover" and eat gluten again, but not much research has been done on this so it remains unknown. If you are fine now eating gluten that is great for you, but you never had celiac disease.

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Also the fact that Genetics is not the (only) trigger for Celiac disease has been "Debunked" by the latest study/research on the topic...

https://www.genengnews.com/news/dna-has-relatively-little-say-in-disease-risk-usually/

You are totally incorrect about your interpretation of this article, and genetics play a crucial role in celiac disease, in fact the likelihood of getting celiac disease without the known genetic markers for it is close to zero, and here is a quote from the article you posted to support your idea that this idea has been "debunked":

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Notice that Wishart referred to most diseases. According to Wishart and colleagues, these include many cancers, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. In fact, for such diseases, the genetic contribution to disease risk is just 5–10%. There are diseases, however, for which the genetic contribution is about 40–50%. These diseases include Crohn’s disease, celiac disease, and macular degeneration.

Celiac disease is considered a genetic disease by experts, and this means that you need the genetic markers for it AND an environmental trigger that can happen at any point in the lives of those with such markers. No experts on celiac disease dispute this. Experts are still in the process of discovering all genetic markers for the disease. Poor nutrition and nutrient deficiencies may be an environmental factor that triggers celiac disease in those with the genetic markers for it, and some of the research you've posted may be an indicator of this, but more research needs to be done to verify this.

Treating all nutrient deficiencies and fully healing your gut will not allow those with celiac disease to eat gluten again.

I don't take PPI's, and only took them for a month or so way back at the time when I was diagnosed over 25 years ago. I'm a moderate drinker and stick mostly to red wine...I take magnesium citrate, thiamine, B-complex, etc., regularly, so none of this explains away celiac disease. Yes, I'm sure that when I've ingested gluten that it triggers issues, and it's not casein--I eat casein regularly without issues (but could not until ~1-2 years after my diagnosis and my gut healed).

Sorry to pour water on your theory, but I just don't believe that all of the leading celiac disease researchers in the world are mistaken about what celiac disease is, and I've spent 25+ years summarizing their research on it. They know quite a lot about the disease, and they would have figured out by now if it were simply Pellagra in disguise.

Your theory also does not explain the genetics linked to celiac disease, but celiac disease research has explained this.

Again, I view your theory more as vitamin & nutrient deficiencies may, along with other environmental things like viruses, be a trigger of celiac disease in those who are genetically susceptible to it.

PS: I do believe that Pellagra could be a stressor event that might trigger celiac disease, and Pellagra may be more common than doctors realize.

Remember that stress in medical terminology is not necessarily equated with mental stress, although it can be, it includes anything like a virus or other outside things that may create stress within the body’s immune system.

I disagree 100% that celiac disease isn’t a lifelong condition because I was formally diagnosed with celiac disease over 25 years ago, and I have taken large amounts of B vitamins including a standalone niacin supplement for many years now. If I get gluten contamination I still have severe reactions to it. According to your hypothesis this would not be happening because I have large quantities of B vitamins, including niacin, in my system, yet this is not stopping the autoimmune process that is caused by gliadin in those who are sensitive.