Key to preventing allergies and asthma: Lice?

[Warpy]

Research on mice shows that those carrying the most lice had calmer immune systems than uninfested rodents, and they said their finding may have implications for studying the causes of asthma and allergies in people.

The study, published in the BioMed Central journal BMC Biology, adds to evidence supporting the so-called hygiene hypothesis, which holds that the rise in asthma and allergies can be linked to hyper-clean living.
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Mice uninfested with the louse Polyplax serrata had much more excitable immune systems than the mice carrying a heavy load of the parasites, they found.

It might be suppressing the immune system in some way, they speculated, perhaps by transmitting some other parasite or microbe or perhaps in its saliva as it feeds on the blood of its host.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30345561/

I'd rather sneeze than itch so I'm not about to go out and get infested. However, it is an interesting line of research.

[MADem]

1. Pass the allergy pills. Screw that! nt

[HereSince1628]

2. I've read similar stuff on pinworm infections...

I think this idea has been researched using various immunogenic sources, some endoparasites, some ectoparasites, and some environmental sources for about 2 decades.

The counter-intuitive notion of immunogens being a good thing gets many of these reports public notice.

Someday I'll tell you about the U of I prof who kept a pet tapeworm named Horace...

[Warpy]

3. I knew an overweight doc

who infected himself with tapeworm so he could continue to overeat.

He ran into some real problems with malnourishment, although he did have a small weight loss.

[HereSince1628]

6. A stupid doctor because tapeworms don't have much energy demand

I think you could lose more wreight shivering in a cold bath 30 minutes a day.

They are poikilotherms and even in large numbers generally neither amount to a large biomass nor have high metabolic demands.
Tapeworms also act as an intestinal reservoir for many water soluble vitamins. For example their tissue absorbs vitamin K thus preventing its loss in excreta, and when human vitamin K levels drop it is exchanged back into the host.

Larval tapeworms, known as spargana, don't live in the intestine and at least one species releases growth factors that lead to obesity in rats used as hosts. There are some tapeworms, surprisingly small adults, with larval forms that are incredibly large, that could cause 100% body weight loss. Their cysts can kill you.

If a person is intent on losing weight by parasite forget the tapeworms and go for the blood-feeding nematodes could cause greater energy loss than adult tapeworms. They can cause weightloss, anemia and chronic diarrhea that will keep you downright "trim."

[kestrel91316]

7. Not pinworms - roundworms. Researchers found out several years ago that

they could put people with Crohn's disease into temporary remission by infecting them with porcine roundworms, which gave them self-limiting infection. With a real enemy to go after, the immune system laid off with the autoimmune crap.

[HereSince1628]

8. Pinworms are roundworms, and yes, there are a number of nematodes (roundworms)

which have been studied in regards to this phenomenon. I admit immunology is out of my expertise, but my doctorate is in Helminth Population Biology and Epidemiology (which is why I am under-employed :) ), and you can't get there without about 30 hours of various parasitology courses.

About 10-15% of humans have carried pinworms historically. With increased hygiene found in modern suburban homes that number has fallen, and the absence of human pinworms has been associated (statistically at least) with increased allergic responses. When first proposed in the 1980's it was suggested that hygiene led to a "frustrated" immune system that over-reacted to the few target immunogens available.

Personally I think my eosinophils have always seemed ready to pounce on the slightest non-self insult.

[kestrel91316]

10. Our household got pinworms when I was 6. I know, TMI.

I will defer to your greater expertise with helminths, lol. We studied them in veterinary parasitology, and the harm they do in veterinary pathology. If I never see another circle diagram of a worm's life cycle it will be too soon.

I occasionally see a cat with presumed Physaloptera or Ollulanis, with vomiting after eating. I just treat for roundworms and if they get better, there's your diagnosis, lol.

[HereSince1628]

11. In this age of molecular biology, no one gives a shit about worms

but the worms can still give you, or your pet, the shits.

I'll admit that I am frequently disappointed that consideration of helminths generally comes down to giving a dose of toxic salts.

But then I am also frequently disappointed that people think Biology/Zoology and Medicine are the same thing and that Ecology and Environmentalism are the same thing.

If only the weather channel had agreed to do that contract with me to forcast worm-transmission condition alerts. We could have sold billions in lavamisole advertising!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ilsa]

4. No lice here, but we are far from hyper-clean in our house.

I have pet allergies and some plant allergies. I'd rather not have lice.

[kestrel91316]

5. Lice, roundworms......both seem to work. Give the immune system a REAL

enemy to go after and it will leave its own body alone.

[hedgehog]

13. I think it's more a case of the parasite turning the immune system off.

I'll believe that better hygiene causes more allergies the day all the trace amounts of pesticides, herbicides, PCBs, dioxins, etc are removed from my environment and I still have asthma!

[pansypoo53219]

9. aha.

so there IS a reason not to clean! whoohoo!

[Dorian Gray]

12. Yeah...

I think I'd much rather have allergies than lice! They couldn't pay me enough to be a test subject in this human trial!