Can eating worms actually make you healthy? Most people do not think of parasitic worms and disease treatments as going together. Recently, researchers have found that a certain kind of parasitic worms, called helminths, may have health benefits, specifically in autoimmune diseases. Autoimmune diseases are diseases in which the body attacks healthy cells or recognizes positive "self" cells as dangerous. The idea of using helminths for autoimmune disease treatment goes back to 1989, when a scientist named David Strachan proposed something called the hygiene hypothesis, which is the idea that the immune system is somewhat dependent on the environment. Helminth treatment is also connected to the hypothesis that exposure to bacteria and other microbes can help to build up the immune system. It is possible that helminths help to regulate the functions of the body, particularly in people who are more likely to have an autoimmune disease. So far, researchers have found that helminths—and molecules from helminths—decrease inflammation and symptoms of autoimmune diseases in animal experiments and in some humans.

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