Reintroducing food after helminthic therapy to treat food allergy or food intolerance
These suggested guidelines for reintroducing foods following helminthic therapy refer in particular to cases in which the human hookworm, Necator americanus (NA), is being used. This organism has proved to be very effective in treating both food intolerance and IgE-mediated food allergy, while treatment with the ova of the pig whipworm, Trichuris suis (TSO), has also been shown to be effective in cases of food allergy.
Anyone with an IgE-mediated food allergy and a history of anaphylactic reactions should discuss with their doctor the reintroduction of any foods that are known to be, or possible, triggers of anaphylaxis. Depending on the severity of past reactions, it may be necessary to arrange for medical supervision at the time of reintroduction. At the very least, the anaphylactic individual should ensure that they have two in-date epinephrine auto-injectors to hand, and have someone else present who understands what steps to take in the event of a reaction occurring.
A few helminthic therapy self-treaters may be lucky enough to begin to see a positive change in tolerance to food within the first few weeks of helminthic therapy.
However, such early improvements can be inconsistent until the 12th week, so caution is advised in attempting to reintroduce any previously reactive foods before that point. And, since some helminth hosts may take much longer than 12 weeks to begin to regain tolerance, caution is required, even after 12 weeks.
Once the first 12 weeks have past, small quantities of foods that previously caused a reaction can be tested, but only one food at a time. If larger amounts are tried, and there is a reaction, this might be more severe. If several new foods are eaten together and one of them causes a reaction, it will not be clear which one was responsible.
It will help in planning the reintroduction of foods if a list is made of all those foods that previously caused a problem, highlighting those that caused the least severe reaction. These will be the ones to try first.
If food intolerance developed gradually over a period of time, those that began to cause a reaction most recently should also be marked on the list, since tolerance to these may be regained sooner than to foods that have been a longstanding problem.
For those with "total" food allergy/intolerance, it may be best to start with the foods that are known to be the least allergenic, such as lamb, rice and pears.
The return of tolerance is likely to be very gradual so, if you try a food and find that it still causes a reaction, just avoid it for a while longer and then try it again at a later date, when your tolerance will likely have increased further.
When a reaction does occur, this may be relieved to some extent by taking a mixture of alkali salts produced by combining 2 parts potassium bicarbonate, 3 parts sodium bicarbonate and 1 part calcium carbonate. One teaspoon of this mixture can be taken in half a glass of water and drunk while it is still fizzing.
If any food is found to still cause an adverse reaction after being tried more than once, it may be worth waiting before trying other foods belonging to the same food family. So, if you find that cabbage causes a reaction, it might be best to defer trial of rapeseed, canola or horseradish, all of which are botanically related to cabbage. And arguably of even greater importance than botanical family connections are protein similarities. For example, apple skin contains the protein, Mal d 3, which is very similar to the Pru p 3 protein in peaches, so, if one of these causes a reaction, it may be wise to also avoid the other one for a while.
There are several online lists of botanical food families, e.g., Edibles: Food Plant Families & Botanical Definitions, and the AllFam database of allergen families lists the most up-to-date cross-reactions that have been found for each type of protein. Selecting "plants" or "animals" as the allergen source, and "ingestion" as the route of exposure on this page, will return a list of all the proteins involved, and clicking on any one protein will reveal a list of the foods linked to that particular protein.
A more controversial method of charting one's course through the food reintroduction minefield is to use dowsing, a technique that, in competent hands, can indicate which foods are likely to be safe, or not safe, for any given individual. There are sceptics who won't hear mention of this technique, but it has worked consistently well for a number of people who have reintroduced foods following helminthic therapy.
Whilst, in theory, anyone can learn to dowse, many people find that the technique does not work well in practice when they use it to test foods for themselves, so many people who wish to use this approach will employ someone else to dowse for them.
Here is an article explaining the use of dowsing for food intolerance.
Registered dowsing practitioners can be found in the UK via the website of the British Society of Dowsers. The American Society of Dowsers has a list of members who are particularly interested in dowsing for "Personal well-being", but membership of this or any other organisation is no guarantee of expertise. It is possible for a dowser recommended by one of these official organisations to be utterly useless at identifying foods that are safe for an individual to eat, while the dowsing of someone with no group affiliation might be highly accurate. So caveat emptor!
One of the conveniences of dowsing is that it can be carried out at a distance by a dowser who has never physically met their client, so one is not limited to using dowsers from one's own locality.
One individual who used hookworms to treat severe IgE-mediated food allergy, and food intolerance, drew up a full list of foods and had this checked by a dowser approximately every three months after commencing helminthic therapy. Each time, the results came back with a much longer list of "safe" foods, and, on one occasion, the list was accompanied by an astonished comment from the dowser, who said she had helped a number of others with food intolerance, but never before seen the problem reversed in such a spectacular way!
The return of tolerance to foods is typically a very gradual process taking up to at least 18 months, and often continuing beyond this.
While some do eventually experience a full return of tolerance as a result of using helminthic therapy, others may still have limits that persist over time.
There is a possibility that someone who has developed food sensitivities before hosting helminths may do so again, even while maintaining constant helminth exposure, if they are eating or drinking the same foods every single day. It may therefore be a wise precaution for anyone with a previous tendency to become intolerant to foods to take periodic breaks of at least four days from things they might ideally prefer to eat every singe day, or to rotate these items regularly with alternatives from different food groups.