Parasitic worms may have their uses after all. The bugs could alter the course of autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis (MS), a new study suggests.

“This is the first direct evidence that parasites might be relevant to protection from an autoimmune disease,” says Graham Rook, an immunologist at University College London, UK, who was not involved in the study.

The findings mirror observations of a decreased incidence of allergies in Vietnamese children who are infected with parasites compared with uninfected children. They also shed further light on the so-called “hygiene-hypothesis” of allergic disease, which proposes that allergies have become more common in recent decades because we are exposed to fewer infections as children.

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn10964

[Scientists' Diet Recommendation For Perfect Health Next Month: As usual, low-fat diet with lots of fiber and low-GI hydrocarbons, and a spoonful of your pet's feces.]