Worms, your unlikely allies

Most people consider parasitic worms as disgusting little  beasts that feed off other people’s food and in a lot of that's true. But, they can also help you in return for being their host. When they attach to the inside of your large intestine they release a chemical which tones down our immune system, the section of our immune system that the worms really target is the part that is responsible for swelling. While this sounds like a bad thing it can actually help you. Sometimes when a part of you gets too inflamed it can swell up and hurt whenever you touch it or if it’s in your throat it can actually kill you but with these little fellows on our side they can stop you from over-swelling. Some examples of things that it can fight are Asthma, Multiple Sclerosis and some other allergies. The advances of modern day life mean that in most reasonably wealthy countries there is absolutely no sign of parasitic worms but there is a much higher rate of Asthma and many other autoimmune diseases than in poorer and less wealthy countries where people get affected by parasites by the hundreds. A group of scientists from Argentina gathered a group of 24 people all  with the Multiple Sclerosis (MS disease) where inflammation caused by the immune system affects the nerves that control the muscles making it hard for the person to control themselves. They gave half of the patients worm eggs in a glass of water and the other half nothing then they checked after four years. The patients with the worms only developed one attack of MS each over the four years whereas the patients without the worms developed a total of 56 attackes so this study suggests that parasitic worms help to fight off some diseases.