Re: Finally, an explanation?

[Guest guest]

But when I saw "parasites"

as a proposed treatment for inflammatory issues -- in other words,

utter nonsense -- I had to say something.

What do you mean by "parasites"? Are you referring to fringe

treatments like HINT? See

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00645749

If so, I'm not so sure that treatments like this are bogus. In the

developing world where most people have routine exposure to

parasites, allergies and asthma are almost unknown within the

population.

OTOH, allergy and asthma sufferers seem to abound in the highly

sanitized industrialized world, prompting some brave souls to seek

relief with helminth innoculation.

Is it real or placebo? Who knows? Provided their little colony of

introduced parasite pals doesn't experience a radical population

explosion, acting as a human host to a small colony of these

critters may offer far more advantages than disadvantages. When you

think about it, the human body already hosts all sorts of

microscopic parasites with which we live in harmony -- at least

until we think about it too much and give ourselves a good case of

the squicks.

Best,

~CJ (who grew up in the dirt herself, and has an immune system to

die for)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let your wise mind be governing your words, not your emotions.

[Guest guest]

Sorry for the delay in replying -- my DSL modem died yesterday. Fortunately I was able to retrieve a spare today from storage.The original article mentioned parasites as part of a possible approach to treating inflammation. That is fine with me as long as they try it on somebody else. But there are more direct ways of dealing with the causes of inflammation that are known to many individuals, but not to many health care practitioners. The nonsense comes in when the recommendation is to go for treatment of symptoms first, rather than starting with known ways of removing the causes. Treatments can sometimes aid healing, but removing causes really needs to come first, and most doctors are not trained that way. There is ample research pointing in the right directions, but the results have not yet found their way into mainstream medical and nutritional practice. Part of the problem is that many (probably most) people obtain much of their information from mass media, and mass media are in part sponsored by corporations that make and sell unhealthy, inflammatory foods. And part of the problem is that unhealthy people spend lots of money with those who provide and sell "treatments," and the makers of those treatments are also major mass media sponsors. So you are not likely to hear what you need to hear via mass media, although there are occasional exceptions.The major inflammatory triggers affect most people, not just those on the autistic spectrum. They affect different people in different ways, however, and some people are much more sensitive. One pathway is from food intolerance or allergy causing gut inflammation that leads to brain inflammation. I don't mean to imply that changing your diet will make all the problems go away, but that actually has worked for some fortunate people on the autistic spectrum. It depends on a lot of things including what you are sensitive to, and how much damage has occurred.If you want to see if reducing inflammation will reduce your symptoms you have to, as I like to say, "do the experiment" and try the measures that have been found to work. It can be difficult because it is a huge change in routine. I don't know about the rest of you but I really don't care for huge changes in routine. But over a span of several years I have managed to do it anyway, and I am very glad I did.By the way, for NTs the change in routine may not be such an issue but there is something else even worse -- it can place you at a social disadvantage(!). Your friends will think you are weird if you don't eat what they eat. You will think you are weird for not doing what your friends do. That trips up a lot of people and helps perpetuate the status quo.> > > > But when I saw "parasites" as a proposed treatment for inflammatory > > issues -- in other words, utter nonsense -- I had to say something. > > > What do you mean by "parasites"? Are you referring to fringe treatments > like HINT? See http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00645749> > If so, I'm not so sure that treatments like this are bogus. In the > developing world where most people have routine exposure to parasites, > allergies and asthma are almost unknown within the population.> > OTOH, allergy and asthma sufferers seem to abound in the highly > sanitized industrialized world, prompting some brave souls to seek > relief with helminth innoculation.> > Is it real or placebo? Who knows? Provided their little colony of > introduced parasite pals doesn't experience a radical population > explosion, acting as a human host to a small colony of these critters > may offer far more advantages than disadvantages. When you think about > it, the human body already hosts all sorts of microscopic parasites with > which we live in harmony -- at least until we think about it too much > and give ourselves a good case of the squicks.> > > Best,> ~CJ (who grew up in the dirt herself, and has an immune system to die for)> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> Let your wise mind be governing your words, not your emotions.>