REVOLTING REMEDIES

DiSguSTing medical treatments. This week: Worm eggs

COULD swallowing live worm eggs treat the symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), such as Crohn’s?

In a study at the University of Iowa, in the U.S., 29 patients with IBD swallowed a solution containing whipworm eggs. Three- quarters found that their symptoms went into remission, according to the journal Gut in 2005.

The lead researcher, Dr Robert Summers, said the therapy may give a ‘substantial and sustained improvement’.

But a study last year in the Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis, with 250 patients at Goethe University Frankfurt, found that while 47 per cent of volunteers given the eggs had improved symptoms, so did 43 per cent of those given a placebo.