A study of the effects of worms on the body showed an unexpected: they prolong youth

British scientists urge citizens not to get rid of parasites

Doctors again consider the use of parasites as one of the promising methods of prolonging youth and combating the diseases of old age. This is stated in a new study published in the journal eLife.

Parasitic helminths have infected humans throughout history. As a result, the worms have learned to manipulate our immune system in order to evade its attack in some cases. Of course, coexistence with helminths is fraught with a lot of health problems. However, in recent years, scientists have made many discoveries on the topic that, having learned to get rid of worms, humanity pays a harsh price for their absence: immunity suffers, allergies and inflammatory diseases develop.

The theory that the normal development and functioning of the human immune system may depend on the presence of helminths is gaining great popularity. Evolutionary medicine claims that disease can arise because modern conditions do not match those in which we evolved. Therefore, deworming increases the sterile, aging-related inflammation that contributes to a number of age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, and cancer.

There have been studies showing that the reduced incidence of helminths in modern societies is associated with an increase in the incidence of allergic and autoimmune inflammatory diseases, while restorative helminth therapy may protect against these conditions. But does a reduced infection with helminths contribute to a decrease in the frequency of inflammatory processes in the body? And could helminth restorative therapy given in low, non-disease-causing doses reduce inflammation and alleviate the pathologies it contributes to? Scientists Bruce Zhang and David Gems tried to answer these questions.

Inflammation in the body is considered the main driver of aging in the body and the development of many age-related diseases, including cardiovascular disease, dementia, cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), osteoporosis, age-related retinal degeneration, etc. One of the causes of inflammation is intestinal dysbacteriosis, imbalance in the gut microbiome, the study authors report.

In the process of evolution and the mass use of antibiotics, a person has lost many beneficial microbial species and acquired many unhelpful ones. The so-called old friends hypothesis implies that the human immune system has developed an optimal function in a dirtier world, including in the presence of various microbes and parasitic helminthiasis, the removal of which leads to pathogenic immunological hyperactivity. Diseases such as asthma, atopic eczema, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes are thought to be linked to the loss of “old friends” the helminths.

There is evidence that helminth therapy may promote resistance to some forms of cancer. For example, the tapeworm Taenia crassiceps and its antigens have been found to attenuate and prevent the formation of colon tumors in mice through anti-inflammatory mechanisms.

There is also a hypothesis that live helminth therapy may provide protection against Parkinson’s disease and depression.

– Patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus and some autoimmune diseases faced a very strange situation: in the case of helminthic invasion, excellent glycemia indicators were observed, but as soon as they got rid of “unexpected” guests, the situation changed dramatically and prolonged decompensation was observed. The new work in the field of gerontology is the first attempt to unravel the body’s reaction, – therapist Yury Zakharov shares his impressions of the new discovery. – I will immediately note that most ordinary people have very primitive ideas about parasitic organisms in micro and macro versions. They are very difficult to identify and even more difficult to get rid of with the most modern means, which are often unsafe.

It is possible that helminth therapy can even reverse or slow down the symptoms of aging. Well, to achieve weight loss, and therefore prolongation of youth thanks to the parasites living in the body is not difficult at all.

“After the advances made in the past century in eliminating the evil of helminthiasis, it seems now is the right time to further explore their possible benefits, especially for our aging population,” the scientists conclude.