Comment by todd8 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by todd8 | Hacker News Reader

The inverse correlation between parasitic infections and autoimmune disease is interesting and is explored in Parasitic worms and inflammatory diseases, P. Zaccone et. al. [1].

In parts of the world, for example USA, Canada, Australia, Europe, other locations, serious parasitic infection are now not common. The immune system, which co-evolved with parasites over millions of years appears to turn on our own bodies because of the lack of parasites to attack. This hypothesis (the hygiene hypothesis) is investigated in the cited paper.

I referred to serious parasitic infections above because virtually everyone host some benign parasites such as the Demodex mite, a microscopic mite that lives on our eye lashes. See [2].

Finally, let me recommend Parasite Rex... by Carl Zimmer. [3]

[1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1618732/

[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3884930/

[3] https://www.amazon.com/Parasite-Rex-Bizarre-Dangerous-Creatu...

Entirely anecdotal, I believe the immune system is already working at high capacity to stop you from becoming sick from the dozens of fungi, bacteria and viruses you come across on a daily basis.

The biggest metric I have for this is that when I am genuinely sick - with a cold or fever - it seems my body stops keeping things like HPV at bay and I start to see remnants of things like warts I haven’t seen for years start to pop up again - and of course disappear again along with the fever.

Huh, never heard of it, but it sounds interesting. So it's like the immune system has so little work these days that it turns on its own body.

By that hypothesis, willingly introducing some (preferably benign) parasite or infection would keep it busy so it doesn't attack itself?

Just thinking out in text here, I'm tired heh

It does sound absurd, but I’m fully expecting someone to try this out “in the name of health and productivity.”

Edit: Oh, it’s already happening: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25961202

I would definitely try it if I had an autoimmune disease...

Just imo, there's nothing wrong with experimenting on yourself, as long as you take the responsibility and accept the risk and possible consequences.

Hacking is not only for electromechanical things :)

Don't forget about waiving your right to access any social safety net (disability, unemployment, medicaid/medicare costs) that might become necessary as a result of your experiments.

Why would that be the case? As far as I know, we don’t disqualify people for other reasons within their control.

Sure, where do I sign?

I get what you're saying, and I agree. I would waive health/social benefits if I were allowed to experiment stuff on myself. Zero liability for the state.

Of course, that's a move only for the desperate whom the system failed over and over again. At that point, why not?

This guy infected himself with hookworms, because his allergies were so bad he was desperate. He subsequently started promoting the idea, and I think was even trying to distribute hookworms for awhile.

https://www.amazon.com/Epidemic-Absence-Understanding-Allerg...

Edit: I read a more recent article about the guy, and it said he subsequently backed off the idea after his allergies came back.

Yeah I don't know about pushing it as something that would work for everyone. That's not a good idea, as everyone is different. As a suggestion, especially for the desperate, sure, but I wouldn't go out of my way to promote it like that.

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