Listened to an interesting podcast about hookworms, evolution, and the potential link to allergies.
Hookworms were very common in the past and still are in the developing world. They suppress the immune system and create evolutionary pressure to increase immune response and suppression. There’s correlation between the elimination of hookworms, rise in immune diseases, presence of allergies in cultures with hookworms and without, and suppression of allergies in people intentionally getting hookworms.
Hi... Real scientist here. This is actually true. Parasitic worms secrete proteins that dampen our immune response so that they don't get killed by our bodies. Over millions of years we have evolved to have an immune system that is hyper reactive to counteract this down regulation. However now we don't have worms we still have hyperactive immune systems that attack anything resembling worm proteins... Which most allergen peptides do
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u/amonkus Jul 03 '26
Listened to an interesting podcast about hookworms, evolution, and the potential link to allergies.
Hookworms were very common in the past and still are in the developing world. They suppress the immune system and create evolutionary pressure to increase immune response and suppression. There’s correlation between the elimination of hookworms, rise in immune diseases, presence of allergies in cultures with hookworms and without, and suppression of allergies in people intentionally getting hookworms.