Male, 22 years old.

SYMPTOM BACKGROUND

1.) Perennial 'Non-allergic' Chronic Sinusitis / Nasal Congestion
(since age ~15)

Severity: Largely prevents sports and exercise. I have blown my nose once every 10-20 minutes while awake for the past 7+ years. Waking up is a process which involves going through hell. Sleep at times has been far from restful do to waking up unable to breathe (too congested).

No changes in diet have had any noticeable affect. Was gluten-free for a year and generally eat very non-allergenic, non-inflammatory diet.

No supplements were able to help without significantly altering mental state or being untenable due to gastrointestinal distress (see below). Fish oil and oral Quercetin and nasal steroids and nasal mast cell stabilizers and neti pots were effective but each presents their own side effects and issues and I was unable to ever use them in dosage significant enough to achieve relief of symptoms (at one point using them all, and neti pots with double salt three times daily).

2.) Irritable Bowel Syndrome
(since age ~17)

Characterized by near-total FODMAP intolerance, and general weak digestion. Alcohol sucks, Coffee sucks, etc.

Severity: Extremely severe. Totally fucked up my life when it hit me like a train. I dropped out of school and was depressed for a seven month period, at the beginning and end of which I was suicidal. Daily diarrhea for years. I'll spare you details.

Symptom relief can be largely achieved by adherence to a low-FODMAP diet but obviously a healthy person shouldn't have to resort to this. Still a massive issue with the diet. I've pretty much never been able to go on a date in a restaurant.

3.) Brain fog/chronic fatigue/chronic yawning/throat mucus/etc/ other weird things which fall into the category of autoimmune issues, inflammatory responses, generally terrible health, etc.
(gradual, fleeting, vague, impossible to measure or quantify)

All of these (3) symptom groups were generally positively impacted somewhat by anti-inflammatory drugs or diets, or even antihistamines, so the inflammatory/Ige/allergenic/autoimmune angle became pretty obvious after years of investigation and learning.

But in general and in summary, a significant laundry list of surgeries, dietary supplements, lifestyle changes, voodoo and bullshit was tried in order to achieve relief. I'm extremely methodological and thorough and dedicated and reasonably intelligent and nothing was very effective. Life was a struggle. Obviously nobody is resorting to self-infection of hookworm as a first response to symptoms; this has been a long road.


RISK FACTORS

- Birth by C-section
- Raised in the first world -- suburban Maryland, USA.
- Used every antibiotic offered daily for 2 years as a teenager struggling with bad acne
- Eventually completed a course of Accutane (This is the devil's drug and I'm sure it screwed me up in a million subtle ways but I'm actually not convinced that it is relevant to the issues discussed here today)


HOOKWORM INFECTION RESULTS

I believe I self-infected 25 hookworm on Jan 28th 2014. Around 2 weeks ago, on or around April 23rd, I began to experience symptom relief. So about 2.75-3.0 months elapsed.

Between infection and symptom relief I experienced various weird symptoms which I will not attempt to describe at length or attribute to the infection, but which included a 'bout of bronchitis' and lots of minor gastrointestinal distress (which I am obviously extremely predisposed to). I also experienced the much-described honeymoon period in the first 1-2 weeks of infection.

On or around April 23rd I began, all at once, really, to have a suddenly very dry throat. A lot of hacking coughing occurred and I drank a lot of water but it was, basically, just a surprisingly sudden lack of unhealthy mucus. I can literally trace symptom relief back to this exact moment, which is the only reason I bother to include this detail.

The next morning was the first morning I woke up with a more-or-less clear nose in about the last seven years. I have woken up with an increasingly clear nose every day since then and today is the first day in seven years that I woke up with absolutely nothing in my nose at all. It is only writing this now that I realize that I actually forgot to use my nasal steroids as well. I don't think I need them anymore.

All digestive upset which had previously been attributed to the hookworm stopped 2 weeks ago as well, and I believe I am healing to the point of total normalcy. I have lately not been following a FODMAP diet, nor have I been taking probiotics at all, and my issues are extremely minor.

Brain fog/etc has completely cleared up in a very non-druggy way. It's hard to describe but supplements which 'clear up brain fog' were obviously just getting me 'high'. In contrast, hookworms have cleared up brain fog just by removing the brain fog and making me normal again. I am waking up rested after just 7-8 hours of sleep. Etc. Etc. Etc. 99% of issues are 99% gone. My life is now normal again. I am a normal person. I have no excuses to not live a normal life. I am normal. I'm not on any pills or drugs or crap and I have no problems. I am normal.

It is still a bit early to claim with certainty that these results will last, but according to the described mechanism of action, they certainly should, and I am writing this as I no longer feel it is too early to attribute these results to the hookworm. It is by far the most likely scenario that my self-infection with hookworm has led to a nearly complete resolution of all of my symptoms, or at least a complete resolution of my allergies/nasal issues, and partial relief of my digestive problems, and that this relief should last 3-5 years, or forever. I am pleased to be confident that on a deep level beyond what we are able to understand, I am sure that my body is in a healthier, less inflamed, more at-peace state.

I purchased my hookworm for something like $205 from wormswell.com. I will post brief 1-paragraph updates monthly for at least the next year.