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jasper

I found your editorial on the subject of the hygiene hypothesis a little late to contribute to the dialog it created.

However I thought I would chime in anyway.

There are practical applications of the hygiene hypothesis for those with various autoimmune disorders or immunological conditions that do not fall within the narrow criteria which define an autoimmune disease, like asthma. They are available right now. Probiotics, products like Dannon's line of proprietary probiotic containing yogurts, TSO from Ovamed, etc.

To me, who has spent years now following this area of science and medicine, the hygiene hypothesis and the extraordinary science it has spawned appears to be the most under reported story in medicine.

The work of Weinstock and Summers in the United States, and of Pritchard and Britton in the United Kingdom, to name just a few, may well lead to therapies or a class of drugs as revolutionary as antibiotics were in their day. I am fairly confident that one or more of those gentlemen will one day win or share a Nobel prize for the work they are doing in this field.

There are also anecdotal accounts, like the man who vastly improved the symptoms of his autistic son using TSO by Ovamed. Others that read like something out of Indiana Jones, of people who have traveled to the tropics to self infect with parasites. Check out my story at http://www.asthmahookworm.com for a ripping yarn. I am not being immodest.

I went to Cameroon to walk barefoot in the latrines of tropical west Africa and successfully infected myself with hookworm. Two and a quarter years later I am still asthma and allergy free.

If this were a drug it would be headline news and some company would be worth billions more than otherwise. But because it is a yucky organism that cannot be patented and that almost certainly is years or decades away from approval for therapeutic use it is just a neglected news story.

Thanks for the article,

Jasper Lawrence
President, Autoimmune Therapies