Page 59 - Spring2013

All Thumbs Book Reviews

two, will strengthen the immune system; but if it lori correlated inversely with allergic disease. It
arrives late, it appears “to strengthen aggressive may also protect against autoimmune diseases
tendencies,” aggression that may turn against the “. . . insofar as the bug elicits damaging inflam-
self (page 204). Some optimistically envision an mation, it will worsen health. But to the degree
EBV vaccine to eradicate MS. Or, should we take that it strengthens immune regulation, it will
the other tack and try to work with nature rather prevent diseases of immune dysregulation. It
than against her? After all, manmade antibiotics can do both” (page 161). Here is more argument
before age one result in 50 percent more asthma, against using antibiotics recklessly—and away
according to a survey of twenty studies. with hand sanitizers!
Velasquez-Manoff definitely has a way Back to autoimmunity. If you have one of
with words. Consider this: we have “a genome these diseases, you might be willing to try a
dramatically sculpted by worms” (page 94). All dose of hookworm. The author did. He was ad-
those prehistoric wormy sculptors predisposed ditionally motivated by the prospect of having
mankind to our current immune responses, one a child and wondered about the genes he might
of which is immunoglobulin E, an antibody be handing on. I will leave it to you to read his
formerly kept occupied by the hookworm. story and those of others who have thus infected
However, the better equipped you are to cope themselves to varying degrees of satisfaction.
with hookworm, the worse your allergies will The microbes and parasites in question kept the
be when you don’t have it. As with allergies, so immune system busy, so it didn’t cause trouble
with asthma. Researchers have found a consis- or engage in “friendly fire” against the self. You
tent inverse relationship between asthma and will find in the hookworm underground chapter a
hookworm infection. “By subverting the host’s website to investigate online. Barring that, what
immune response, worms prompted tolerance else should you do? Avoid alkalizing the skin
to third party proteins. Hookworms incidentally with soap and keep proteins away from inflamed
taught people to tolerate dust mites” (page 87). skin: remember the peanut oil in the diaper rash
Blood flukes might help, too, but there’s a catch. cream. Avoid the antibacterial, antifungal chemi-
Too heavy a worm load and your defenses may cal triclosan. Visit a cowshed or a pigpen with
not be able to handle bacterial or other health your baby. Drink unpasteurized milk. Avoid
challenges and you will suffer as a result. central air conditioning.
Once again, Nature shows us the value of Here you will find an intelligent, detailed,
moderation and balance. Too much hookworm eye-opening, and indeed fascinating account of
or too little? Similarly, you can have too much recent research into the links between parasites
Helicobacter pylori, leading perhaps to ulcers and immune problems. However, I’m disap-
and stomach cancer, but, if you don’t have enough pointed that Lyme disease is not even mentioned.
you will be prone to asthma. This particular Could it be that this East Coast scourge will
bacterium—which resides in all of our stom- have its silver lining? If we carry some of those
achs—comes in varying degrees of virulence. spirochetes around will we be less prone to al-
There is one strain that, more than others, pre- lergy and auto-immune diseases? Apart from Once again,
disposes us to stomach cancer. What else does that, I recommend this book to anyone motivated
H. pylori do? It helps regulate stomach acidity enough to dig in. I haven’t even mentioned the Nature shows
to protect itself from competitor bacteria and, chapters on autism or inflammatory illnesses like us the value
coincidentally, reduces our chances of GERD, cancer and heart disease. There is a lot of meat of moderation
gastro-esophageal reflux disease. In a very big here for any reader to chew on.
epidemiological study called NHANES, H. py- Review by Rosalind Michahelles and balance.
Wise Traditions SPRING 2013 SPRING 2013 Wise Traditions 59