You guys need a good laugh?

[conscious evolution]

Even I,a confirmed wooer, had to go what the fuck on this one.

http://www.tapewormdiet.net/

[Warpy]

1. Uh, I knew a parasitologist with a weight problem

who did that one. He lost weight. He also developed a few diseases of deficiency and ended up needing to kill the tapeworm before he reached his ideal.

He did say that while he was losing, it was great. He was gorging himself on all the crap he loved but which he'd denied himself while he was so overweight--probably why he developed nutritional deficiencies, come to think of it--and the tapeworm took care of the problem. He also got kudos from people who didn't know because of his superior morality and iron clad self control, something that amused him greatly.

I've often thought the idea intriguing, myself, since Prednisone insures no diet is going to work for me. However, one of my cats hacked up a tapeworm some years ago, and the idea just squicks me out too much. It was huge and it was gross.

As for the autoimmunity, I'm still betting on a shy little retrovirus for that one. Rheumatoid arthritis is a relatively new disease as exhumation of corpses has shown, and showed up during the time people were crawling with internal and external parasites. That part of the article is pure woo, in other words.

Were I ever to become grotesquely obese to the point that doctors started to recommend gastric surgery, I'd go the tapeworm route, instead, only because it's less invasive and so easily reversed. However, I really, really don't want to do it.

[beam me up scottie]

2. Dang, ce!

That's a hell of a find, I knew you had a little skeptic in you. :)

I thought it was a hoax at first, but, no, they're serious.

Beef Tapeworm

Teania saginata. Up to two cysts.

$1,299.00 USD

$1299.00 ???

I'll sell you a whole bunch of tapeworms for half that much, and I'll even throw in the two known sources for free:




My vets tell me that unlike other worms, tapeworms don't really steal much from cats, and since all of my guys are in the 10-20 lb. range, I'm inclined to believe them.

The main reason I de-tapeworm them is because of the ick factor.

[HamdenRice]

3. I've read that pediatricians are recommending pets and dirt now for kids

I don't know if the site is serious or not, but it makes the argument, which I understand the med authorities are indeed making, that kids are being raised "too clean" and that their immune systems are suffering for it. They recommend more pets and more playing in the dirt.

I recall reading a study about a correlation between having pets in early childhood and lower incidences of allergies.

[conscious evolution]

4. A tapeworn named Ralph?

Just Kidding.
It would not surprise me about such a relationship.I guess immune systems are like a lot of things in that the more practice it gets the stronger it gets.

[TZ]

5. absolutely correct.

Although the tapeworm thing gives me the willies and I don't think its a good idea..there are a surprising amount of medicinal use of parasites..leeches (clean incisions for people who need blood drawn on a regular basis..Polycythemia Vera patients for instance) and I know that doctors will sometimes use maggots as well.....

[conscious evolution]

6. I have heard about the maggots

A friend who had gangrene in the leg from diabetes was given maggots to eat away the necrotic tissue.I guess if it came to death from gangrene I would go with the maggots but they better put me into a coma first.

As for the leeches.Are they actually using actual leeches in treatments? I remember where they were studying their saliva for its anti-coagulent properties but I have not heard anything about leeches themselves as a treatment protocol.

[TZ]

7. Its not done commonly..but its acknowledged as useful in certain situations

Here's a case that was done on a cat..
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11721985

[Heddi]

8. There was a lady a few weeks ago who had leeches prescribed

She was in a rodeo, and the rope was wrapped around her hand but got jerked and kind of pulled half her hand off, or her fingers (not sure, she wasn't my patient). They re-attached the bits and used the leaches on her fingers like 10 times a day to encourage blood flow to the finger tips, so they wouldn't rot off. It was pretty cool. I took a picture of the bottle of leaches with my cellphone, maybe I'll upload it here if I can figure out how to get it off my phone ha ha

it was pretty cool. 5 leaches for an hour (or until they got engorged and fell off) every 2 or so hours. The patient didn't mind, she couldn't feel them and thought it was kind of neat. It really did get the blood flowing to her fingertips.

[conscious evolution]

9. You know,now that you mention it

I do seem to recall hearing of leeches being used for that.I vaguely remember seeing something on one of the science shows on tv.
So,an old woo cure actually has a use.