Deborah Harrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
Among the higher "Eeeuwwww!"-factor medical treatments
are the use of maggots to clean gangrenous wounds, ...
which is a wonderful idea,
and leeches for therapeutic blood reduction;
I remember leeches sticking on me when I sat in shallow water at the
edge of a lake we visited on vacation when I was 4 years old. I
thought the leeches were neat. No one else was bothered, so I think
well of leeches, although, truth to tell, I have not seen any in the
50 or so years since.
... now comes the lowly pig whipworm for imflammatory bowel
disease(IBD).
This is fascinating. And makes sense. I wonder whether I should pass
on this study to my younger sister's husband, who was, I think,
brought up without appropriate challenges to his immune system?
Benford wrote a novel (about a research group on a comet) in which the
doctor on the expedition releases various microbes into the
environment to challenge the characters' immune systems. As a
consequence, our hero has a sniffle all the time.
Perhaps continually releasing new microbes will have the effect; but I
think the novel employs some literary exaggeration. Is it not true
that in practice, in a closed community, you don't get colds, not
after the beginning? When he was in the navy, Fred spent months under
water in a nuclear submarine. He said that after a short time, no one
caught any more colds.
--
Robert J. Chassell Rattlesnake Enterprises
http://www.rattlesnake.com GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.teak.cc [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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