Fw: [CO-CURE] MED: Chronic Parasite Syndrome?

[Guest guest]

>Chronic Parasite Syndrome?

>Tiny Worms May Explain Mysterious Disease

>

>Commentary

>By Regush

>

> What next? Medical research is full of intriguing surprises - if you

>keep an

>open mind and can somehow prevent your vested interests from spoiling all

>the

>fun. It's been my experience that much of what we think we know about

>disease is

>a microscopic fragment of what we really need to know before we decide to

>get

>all huffy and puffy and full of ourselves.

>

> Take chronic fatigue syndrome, a collection of symptoms including

>fatigue,

>malaise, memory problems, painful muscles and joints and so on. To this

>day,

>there are a bunch of scientific know-it-alls at the National Institutes

>of

>Health who continue to insist CFS is an all-in-the-mind disease. Good

>grief!

>Have they no imagination? Do they need special counseling? Does the

>American

>Psychiatric Association have an intimidating dossier on them?

>

> Well, here's one of those fun scientific surprises for the

>imagination-deprived. It's an account from California (I know what you're

>thinking, so stop) that suggests a novel contributor to CFS. It's a

>parasite.

>What? Surely I jest. The all-in-the-mind camp reading this is hysterical,

>no

>doubt. No, this one's for real, or at the very least we should give it a

>fair

>hearing.

>

> It turns out that what looks like a new type of roundworm (named

>cryptostrongylus pulmoni) has been identified in the sputum of CFS

>patients and

>not in control subjects. This comes from a very small study conducted by

>parasite expert Lawrence Kaplow, who knows full well that he needs more

>research

>data before anyone really takes this seriously.

>

> This all started when Kaplow followed up on a case of a CFS patient

>who had

>strange body rashes. With some difficulty (because the parasite is not

>King

>Kong; it's less than a millimeter long), he managed to flesh it out in

>sputum -

>mainly bits and pieces of it, such as mouth parts and genitals. (Ugh! Is

>this

>why the psychogenically-challenged NIH crowd avoids discussion of the

>body parts

>of CFS patients and focuses on the so-called mind?)

>

>Casualties of War?

>Kaplow used an imaging system which allowed him to twirl the worm

>specimens

>around for detailed examination. That's when he was able to determine

>that the

>parasite had anatomical features that were related to roundworms found in

>the

>jungles of Southeast Asia. Did soldiers returning from the Vietnam War

>bring

>these roundworms to the U.S.? Maybe, because there is some history about

>how

>soldiers bring back parasitic infections from far-off war zones.

>

> So does this mean that these roundworms are passed on from person to

>person? Kaplow thinks not because he has not identified a stage of the

>parasite

>in sputum that would suggest casual transmission. The samples he has

>fished out

>have emerged in various states of decay.

>

> So how do people become infected? Kaplow suggests the parasite may

>be found

>in food because that's typically how roundworms are contracted. And

>because the

>parasite appears to take its time reproducing, Kaplow sees a possible

>relationship between outbreaks of CFS that continue over several months

>and even

>years. Imagine, a food-borne infection possibly involved in CFS.

>

> I find it fascinating that this tiny bit of research also points to

>the

>possibility that this type of roundworm infection affects a person's

>immune

>system. Roundworm infections are known to be associated with immune

>abnormalities, such as low serum cortisol (a steroid hormone produced by

>the

>body), altered anti-viral responses, and changes in certain white blood

>cells.

>

> Once there is any assault on the immune system, chronic microbes

>hanging

>out in the body - such as herpes viruses - may awaken and get involved in

>the

>attack. CFS research certainly suggests a strong viral input.

>

> So, what do we make of this? Well, we obviously need more research

>in this

>area. Disease is complex and science has to be on its toes. Otherwise, it

>will

>dig itself a big ditch - much like the all-in-the-mind crowd has done in

>its

>piffle of effort to understand CFS.

>

> Regush produces medical features for ABCNEWS. In his weekly

>column,

>published Wednesdays, he looks at medical trouble spots, heralds

>innovative

>achievements and analyzes health trends that may greatly influence our

>lives.

>His latest book is The Breaking Point: Understanding Your Potential for

>Violence; go here to preview his new book, The Virus Within: A Coming

>Epidemic.

>

>

>[From:

>http://abcnews.go.com/sections/living/secondopinion/secondopinion.html ]

>

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