CAN PARASITES CURE ASTHMA?
Interestingly, Turton (17) infected himself with hookworms and noticed a quick reduction in his asthmatic symptoms In support of this inverse relationship, it is also clearly documented that treatment of a parasitic infection results in the emergence of positive skin tests and clinical allergic states. Both phenomena may be explained by a saturation concept. The very high levels of IgE generated by parasitic infection are in large part non-specific, and may saturate mast cells with impotent antibodies. The decrease in symptoms may reflect the stoichiometric difficulty of specific antibodies to find room on their target cells. Conversely, treatment of a parasitic infection with an accompanying drop in non-specific IgE may contribute to the competitive ability of specific antibodies to bind and produce symptoms. Paradoxically, low intensity acute helminthes may cause the allergic symptoms described previously while high intensity and chronic infections may decrease allergic symptoms by s
