It doesn’t sound like getting hookworms is something you should do on purpose, but if patients are able to internalize the idea, it could benefit their health greatly.
In the first clinical trial of its kind, a team led by scientists from James Cook University in Australia vaccinated volunteers with larvae of the human hookworm (Necator americanus) to see if these parasites could improve their metabolic health. The two-year study included 24 participants; All of them showed a rise in insulin resistance at the start of the experiment. By the end of it, the researchers found that those who had been infected with hookworms showed a significant decrease in insulin resistance scores compared to those who received a placebo.
This is not enough to recommend this practice yet. But the findings join those of another groundbreaking study published in 2021 that infected participants with hookworms and found that they benefited the microbiome in their gut.
In this context, the researchers say their trial provides “evidence of principle that hookworm treatment may stabilize or improve key determinants of metabolic health such as insulin resistance.” This is according to what was reported by the scientific “Science Alert” website, according to the well-known scientific journal “Nature Communications”.
Parasitic worms, such as hookworms, have lived inside humans for most of our species’ history. And while some infections can endanger our health, others barely reveal their presence and may even bring some good.
And in recent decades, scientists have noticed that in places where helminths are endemic, people report fewer metabolic and inflammatory diseases.
What’s more, recent studies have found that when people are “dewormed,” their insulin resistance suddenly increases; This is a factor that helps regulate blood sugar levels, and is a risk for the development of metabolic problems such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The new experiment is one of the first in the world to infect participants with hookworms for a limited period of time.
Notably, initially, the study included 40 adult volunteers, all of whom had relatively high scores on insulin resistance.
The 24 adults who completed the trial were inoculated with either a placebo or 20 or 40 infective human hookworm larvae. Neither the patients nor the researchers knew what treatment was given and to whom. Mild to moderate bowel problems such as bloating, nausea, vomiting, constipation or diarrhea were common among people with hookworm infection. But the symptoms were manageable. Only three people left the experiment out of annoyance.
After a year of regular physical and mental health checks, the group of participants who had hookworms ended up scoring significantly lower on the HOMA-IR insulin resistance assessment. Those who received 20 hookworm larvae saw their score drop from 3.0 units to just 1.8 units. Those infected with more larvae only saw their score drop from 2.4 to 2.0.
Meanwhile, the placebo group saw an average increase in their score of 0.8 units.
“These lower HOMA-IR values indicate that the subjects were experiencing significant improvements in insulin sensitivity, findings that are both clinically and statistically significant. But there are still many unknowns that need to be separated out; Like how do hookworms affect human metabolism? And why wouldn’t a higher dose of hookworm improve insulin resistance in a linear fashion? The sample size of this first trial is simply too small to answer these questions.”
The study team is currently preparing to organize a large-scale international study to further investigate this matter.
2023-08-23 14:24:01
#Hookworms #protect #type #diabetes
