News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle. Parent comment

Re:Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle by DontchaKnowit on Tuesday August 27, 2024 @04:57PM (#41372947)
I had an allergist tell me about a study that supported this idea recently : Introduction of pig whipworm eggs into the digestive tract of IBS patients reduced symptoms for a some patients. Pretty fascinating actually.

I was seeing the allergist for my eczema and he asked me if I experienced symptom relief when traveling abroad, which I did in Honduras. He thought I may have been exposed to a parasite there that diverted my overactive immune response. go figure.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3149054/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1856386/

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Your Immune System Is Not a Muscle by bink on Tuesday August 27, 2024 @07:13PM (#41374279)
As I understood it the reason why some parasites can have beneficial impact on some autoimmune disorders is because they have evolved the ability to suppress the immune system, not because they overwork the immune system. But I've really only heard of this being a thing with IBS.
[ Parent | on HN ]