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dixonpete

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Blog Entries posted by dixonpete

  1. dixonpete

    My first incubation was a success!

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    The incubation worked.
    The biggest expense was the microscope I bought off Amazon, an AmScope SE306. I picked it because it would give plenty of room for pipette work above the sample. I paid ~$370 Can.
    The other supplies needed were variously sized pipettes, petri dishes, mineral water, adhesive gauze bandages, bleach for cleanup, paper towels, a garbage bag to cover my desk, and glasses for eye protection. And of course, most importantly, nitrile disposable...
  2. dixonpete

    Incubation starts tomorrow

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    I now have all my supplies and my microscope. I ended up buying a better one than I had planned because after doing extensive reading I decided I wanted a dissecting scope, and I justified the extra money by considering it a lifetime investment since I'll be using it for probably the next 20 or so years.
    Incubation will begin tomorrow and harvesting will occur 10 days after that. I'm not due for inoculation til April 5th, but there would be little harm in applying ...
  3. dixonpete

    No news is good news

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    It's been more than a month since my last inoculation of hookworm larvae. No issues to report. All told, I probably consume the gluten equivalent of 3 slices of bread+ in an average day. My stools are perfectly normal and there's no sign of any gastric distress. A few weeks ago though, I did find one cheap brand of yogurt that made me ill, something I chalked up to it having too much lactose. I know I'm lactose intolerant. My regular yogurt has no effect on me. All other foods...
  4. dixonpete
    Back in the summer of 2018 I was reaching a pivotal moment in my life. I had had celiac disease and ulcerative colitis since 2006, but the colitis had flared to an 11 and wasn't responding to drugs. Prednisone disrupted my sleep but didn't even begin to take the edge off my colitis pain. Daily I was going into the shower, closing the door, cranking the radio, and literally screaming because I couldn't take the pain anymore. I had talked to my doctor several times about the...
  5. dixonpete

    A new journey

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    In the last blog entry it was late July 2018 and my larvae had just arrived. Before going further there is a fair amount of history leading up to that moment that probably should be discussed.
    Back in 1999 at age 35 and single again I had my first inkling of what was to come. I was into body building at the time and consumed a fair amount of protein powder. I developed a painful reaction to it. I talked to the vendor. They had never heard of any problems. I shrugged...
  6. dixonpete

    Sorry for the delay in writing

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    So I ordered my first hookworms around July 7th, 2018. 
    The sales and transport of hookworm operates in somewhat of a gray area. Authorities recognize that seriously ill people are trying helminths like hookworms tin order to get better, but the laws in all jurisdictions haven't caught up with what some people see as a medical necessity. Accordingly, providers of hookworm larvae prefer to operate on the down low. Restricting communication by email and payment by Bitcoin ...
  7. dixonpete

    A new batch

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    A couple of weeks ago or so I started noticing GI issues. Occasional bouts of loose stool, stirrings of colitis, incontinence - all completely at odds with my usual experience. It had been more than 6 months since my last hookworm inoculation so I knew it was time to re-up.
    Things have changed since I started with Helminthic Therapy. I got hooked up with the Helminthic Therapy Support Group on Facebook and a contact there suggested I try another provider, one that used...
  8. dixonpete
    This time around I've been using a steroid cream to keep down the inflammation. The results still aren't pretty but I don't have the ugly blisters I usually get. Definitely worth using.
    The cream I used was a topical corticosteroid called Taro-Mometasone, aka Mometasone Furoate USP 0.1%, applied every 6–8 hours.
    After a week the mark should be almost gone. After multiple inoculations I've never been left with a scar. It has never hurt, just tingled initially a...
  9. dixonpete

    Day 10 post inoculation

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    Not much to report. My GI issues have all cleared up, but that's probably because I've gone gluten-free for the month of June. My entry wound has almost entirely healed. Aside from a touch of redness it should be 100% in a couple of days. That steroid cream made a huge difference, not in pain or discomfort really but certainly in aesthetics. Previously the entry wound was ugly enough to scare children.
    The way the life cycle of the hookworms works after about a week...
  10. dixonpete

    Blast from the past

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    Yesterday I got sick. Twice. Just like I remember being sick in my celiac pre-hookworm days when I was still eating gluten. A colonoscopy cleanse level sick.
    I had been eating gluten-free this month letting my critters grow and mature into their adult forms so I wasn't sure what happened. Then I remembered I had eaten a new oatmeal. I didn't say gluten-free on the front but I figured a little gluten probably wouldn't phase me. Well I figured wrong. I checked the ingredients...
  11. dixonpete

    Day 27 post inoculation

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    Being sick was a one-day thing. I did buy a gluten-free version of Quaker Oats oatmeal. I'll give it a go today and see if I do better. Celiacs can react to oats, so it's possible that was the source. For the record while fully hookwormed I've eaten hundreds of bowls of regular oatmeal without consequence. The clock is ticking, I hope, until my celiac days are over. From now on I'll aim for a 5-month cycle between inoculations.
  12. dixonpete

    I'm back in remission

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    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.
    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...
  13. dixonpete
    As I've written about before, the last time I ran out of hookworms (or perhaps effective hookworms) was with my first cycle spanning early August 2018 to the first week of March 2019. That end point was when I had to go back on a gluten-free diet. Putting those dates together that's 5 months for 2018 and 2 months of 2019. I was slow in testing gluten that time (because celiac!) but it's reasonable to think I could have gone on a regular diet after 40 days post inoculation. ...
  14. dixonpete

    Still a happy gluten camper

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    In case there was any doubt I'm pleased to report everything is fine. I've resumed a gluten containing diet and haven't experienced any issues. I mentioned my success to the people over at the Facebook Helminthic Therapy Support Group and they were all happy for me. One person said in the five years she's been hosting hookworms she's never considered consuming gluten. She's derived other benefits (remission from colitis) but she never took the step of trying gluten. Makes me...
  15. dixonpete

    Helminthic Therapy videos

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    The Helminthic Therapy Support Group on Facebook maintains a repository of all its gained knowledge in the form of the freely available Helminthic Therapy Wiki (Google it). In it there's a listing of videos that the group has found most useful: https://helminthictherapywiki.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy_in_the_media#Featured_videos
    I did a YouTube search for Helminthic Therapy and found a bunch more, many of them from people from the general public who did their own ...
  16. dixonpete

    Other Helminthic Therapy blogs

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    Hookworms and the three other helminths are used for a variety of immune conditions, not just celiac disease. John Scott just pointed me towards a collection of blogs like mine where people discuss their experiences at length like I do: https://helminthictherapywiki.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy_blogs?fbclid=IwAR0U6tvguzLaQ0Tl-0gwC-zMPkJrMKIn2tZk018iHiDGuN8L0so01_lbcXA#Blogs
    Which begs the question, what is the future for this blog?
    What I've done so far is talk ...
  17. dixonpete
    I have several feelings on the matter. First and foremost I feel gratitude. Beginning in my early 40s I was very sick. Because of my out of control immune system I was in great pain and suffered tremendous disability, social isolation, deprivation and vulnerability. With hookworms on board, all that is gone. Sure, with the best knowledge of exactly what foods were making me sick I could have become 80-90% better, but I was still damaged and always a crumb away from being devastatingly...
  18. dixonpete
    I suppose it's to be expected that a treatment that has the goal of manipulating the immune system could have side effects, and for some people that appears to be true.
    Back when I started in 2018 with Helminthic Therapy (HT) I simply asked for 25 larvae from my provider because, well, the price was the same whether I ordered one or 25, so I tried to maximize my bang for my buck. I'm on the large side so I probably contributed to me not having problems with this strategy...
  19. dixonpete

    Should celiacs try hookworms?

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    I believe the answer to that question is an unequivocal yes.
    Celiac disease is a debilitating condition that uncontrolled exacts a huge toll on people impacting both their health and their quality of life. 
    Controlled, by which I mean sufferers make serious effort to avoid gluten, celiac disease still lurks in the background waiting to act on diet missteps and likely contributes to the development of a variety of other health conditions.
    Hookworms help ...
  20. dixonpete

    Getting hookwormed - Step by Step

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    So you've made the decision to try Helminthic Therapy. What do you do now?
    1) First you join the Facebook Helminthic Therapy Group @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/htsupport and make an introductory post. Tell the members about what you hope to achieve and a bit about your medical history. The regulars there are veterans at HT, use helminths (usually hookworms) themselves, and can answer any questions you might have. John Scott is the leader of the group and has b...
  21. dixonpete
    https://doi.org/10.1093/ibd/izad110 
    Published June 15, 2023 in the journal of Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, this study is expressly for ulcerative colitis, but because the focus was on safety and tolerance of hookworms as a treatment, the results should apply for any of the myriad conditions people use hookworms to treat. It's a pilot study paving the way for future full-scale randomized controlled trials regarding efficacy.
    The study used 30 Necator americanus la...
  22. dixonpete

    Mid-September Health Update

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    A few weeks ago I had a bad day marked by considerable GI distress. It was bad enough I figured I must have lost my hookworm colony.
    Immediately I went gluten-free and was better, so I thought I'd have to pony up earlier than I expected for my next inoculation. After a further 4-5 gluten-free days I reintroduced meat and gluten expecting the worst, but there was nothing, everything was still all good. Since then I've been on a regular gluten diet and I've had days of...
  23. dixonpete
    This week I've been reading up on self supply of hookworms, not just to save money but to ensure access. Covid made getting larvae difficult, and here in Canada it's hit or miss once the cold weather sets in. Larvae don't like temps below 5C and they can die in transit because of the cold. Providers usually resend for free but that still means being symptomatic for the duration. I once spent an entire winter gluten-free because of a DOA shipment.
    I've been shopping...
  24. dixonpete
    My renewal date came up on the weekend based on my new inoculation schedule of 5 months and I reordered larvae. All much simpler than it used to be, but I guess that's what you get once you learn the angles. Just a quick email to confirm the price and a visit to PayPal to send the money, and then the Provider then gave me a tracking code. The larvae should arrive in 9-11 days.
    Next month I'll order pipettes and vials from AliExpress and in 2-3 months I'll order a microscope...
  25. dixonpete

    On my controversial celiac status

    By dixonpete,


    Hookworms
    It's been suggested that I clarify my claim of being celiac. Something of some importance as I am making the claim that at least for myself using hookworms has improved my life as a celiac, and making that claim on a celiac-oriented site no less.
    I have never had a positive biopsy test for celiac disease. There, I've said it.
    That said, I maintain that there is very little doubt that I am celiac, and the only reason I don't have that positive test is that I...
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