Swine Song
Some parasites and pathogens suppress inflammation and we may learn from them how to block the cycle of conflagration fundamental to many diseases. “My bowels are alive with the swine Trichuris !” This may not be a common refrain yet, but it may signal the success of new treatments for destructive inflammation of the intestines, e.g. inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease and perhaps even Celiac. In these diseases the intestines continue to rachet-up their immune defenses in response to common gut bacteria, food or self-antigens. These inflammatory diseases don’t occur in developing countries with compromised water and sewage systems, and with their related parasites and chronic infectious diseases. This correspondence of diminished exposure to parasites and pathogens, with increased occurrence of inflammatory diseases is the basis for the hygiene hypothesis that associates lack of childhood exposure to subsequent chronic diseases. Trichuris is a genus of whipworms that ...