HDC, hymenolepis diminuta cysticercoids, is a larvae stage of a nice and friendly rat tapeworm, an adult of this species can be 20-60cm long. You might have a thought now “what am I reading and why?”, but hold on. Humans are not the usual host of hymenolepis diminuta, rats are, and in humans this helminth does not develop into an adult. There have been very few cases documented of humans being infected with adult HD. For this reason the HD larvae, HDC, is one of the species chosen for helminthic therapy as it does not reproduce inside humans, stays in the gut, does not reach adult size, and yet modulates the immune system as it tries to survive.
HDC survive in humans only for about two weeks, therefore for continuous therapy, HDC would need to be ingested at these intervals. HDC will live in the small intestine and attach to the intestine wall. There are no reports in the scientific literature of H. diminuta mis-migrating to other organs in humans. In a scientific review of helminthic therapy from 2016, HDC was listed as one of the more popular helminths:
“Five physicians monitoring more than 700 self-treating patients were interviewed. The results strongly support previous indications that helminth therapy can effectively treat a wide range of allergies, autoimmune conditions and neuropsychiatric disorders, such as major depression and anxiety disorders. Approximately 57% of the self-treating patients observed by physicians in the study had autism. Physicians reported that the majority of patients with autism and inflammation-associated co-morbidities responded favourably to therapy with either of the two most popular organisms currently used by self-treaters, Hymenolepis diminuta and Trichuris suis. However, approximately 1% of paediatric patients experienced severe gastrointestinal pains with the use of H. diminuta, although the symptoms were resolved with an anti-helminthic drug. Further, exposure to helminths apparently did not affect the impaired comprehension of social situations that is the hallmark of autism. These observations point toward potential starting points for clinical trials, and provide further support for the importance of such trials and for concerted efforts aimed at probing the potential of helminths, and perhaps other biologicals, for therapeutic use.“
Practices and outcomes of self-treatment with helminths based on physicians’ observations
Here is another paper from 2017 reviewing HDC use by self-treating individuals. Unfortunately there are not many clinical trials with treatment and control groups, therefore we have to rely on information on experiences from people like me who are obtaining helminths and treating themselves. ” In this study, we describe the production and use of HDCs in a manner that is based on reports from individuals self-treating with helminths, individuals producing helminths for self-treatment, and physicians monitoring patients that are self-treating.” The authors from Duke University are quite optimistic about helminthic therapy: “Helminthic therapy, the use of helminths to treat disease, offers the best hope of decreasing inflammation via immunomodulation rather than immunosuppression, and probably also improves mucosal barrier function.”
Production and Use of Hymenolepis diminuta Cysticercoids as Anti-Inflammatory Therapeutics
I was glad to read that I already have access to the most hopeful treatment for inflammation. I have to say that I tried a lot of supposedly anti-inflammatory treatments and was quite disappointed with most. Turmeric lattes, green tea extract, probiotic capsules, licorice root tincture… Personally, I don’t really want to buy any more supplements, except basic ones such as vitamin D, since I live in cold and dark Canada, and occasionally I take fish oil on days that I don’t eat seafood.
The idea behind helminthic therapy, on the other hand, is quite logical to me. It’s not a promotion of another one magical super inflammatory ingredient. The logic is that humans and certain helminths have evolved to co-exist in a symbiotic relationship and therefore our immune system has also evolved to be modulated by molecules that helminths produce. Recent eradication of helminths in humans in developed countries could be resulting in a destruction of a beneficial symbiotic relationship and increase in rate of autoimmune diseases.
“Graph the data points, and the trend is unmistakable. Since the 1950s, rates of multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, type 1 diabetes, and asthma have soared by 300% or more (1). Similar graphs depict concurrent spikes in hay fever and food allergies (2).”
“Prevalence of food allergy in preschool children is now as high as 10% in Western countries, but remains just 2% in areas like mainland China (4). The number of new cases of type 1 diabetes (T1D) in Finland per year is 62.3 per every 100,000 children, compared with just 6.2 in Mexico and 0.5 in Pakistan (5). Ulcerative colitis, a form of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), is twofold higher in Western Europe than in Eastern Europe—6.5 per 100,000 people versus 3.1 per 100,000 (6).”
In each of these disorders, either the immune system is overreacting to a trigger, such as pollen, peanuts, or pollution, or it’s attacking tissues it shouldn’t, such as beta cells in the pancreas in the case of T1D and in the intestines in IBD.”
News Feature: Cleaning up the hygiene hypothesis
Notes of a Neuropsychiatry Amateur 