Man finds extreme healing eating parasitic worms

A 29-year old man in 2004 deliberately infested himself with parasitic worms. This man suffered from ulcerative  colitis, a condition that caused him to have, starting at the age of 28, 10 to 15 bloody bowel movements a day. Without any reliable treatments available to him, he turned to treating himself with parasitic worm. A previous study of ulcerative colitis patients found that some of the patients who ingested the tricheris suis worm experienced relief. Due to legal issues, parasitoligists in the United States could not give him this treatment, as it had not yet been approved by the FDA yet. The man instead went to Thailand, where he had a doctor extract roundworm eggs from an infected stool. The eggs were cleaned and consumed, and the man later experienced relief as a result of the roundworms living inside him. Doctors have come to the conclusion that a protein called interleukin-22, a protein important in the healing of mucosal linings of the intestines, is the cause of his relief. The presence of roundworms in the man's gut helped the man restore the mucosal lining of his intestines.

This article relates to Honors Biology because it is related to the digestive system. Ulcerative colitis is one of many conditions that can upset homeostatic balance in humans. In this case, the man in question had damage to his intestines mucus lining. His condition shows how vital the mucous lining is to maintaining a healthy digestive tract. Without the mucus  lining, the intestines were subject to damage by harmful bacteria, causing the man's debilitating symptoms.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/12/09/worms.health/index.html