Upset Tummy? Try Some Pig Worms

With this diet, you don't have to watch your carbs, or eat just fruit, or engage in tedious exercise. All this diet involves is a swallowing 2,500 worm eggs every three weeks for six months. Sounds easy, right?

Actually, the new pig whipworm diet isn't designed with the chubby in mind. The worm, a parasite known as trichuris, has been shown, in high quantities, to be effective in treating inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is an ailment that can cause abdominal pain, bleeding and diarrhea, and that is on the rise in developed countries.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Iowa, had volunteers with mild cases of Crohn's disease, a severe form of IBD, drinking the thousands of worm eggs daily. They had been mixed with a soft drink to disguise the taste.

Of the 24 people who completed the study, 23 experienced major improvements in their health.

Calming influence

The theory behind the wormy treatment is that improved hygiene in developed countries has wiped out parasites that our bowels have naturally evolved to deal with. Without the pesky things, the bowel can become overactive and introducing the pig worms can in effect, calm it down.

Since the whipworms have short life spans, it's not believed they will adapt to the human body and colonize humans.

The research, coming out Tuesday in Gut, a publication by the British Medical Association, mightily impressed the German company BioCure, which evidently knows a business opportunity when it sees one. (Its sister company already sells leeches and maggots for medical purposes.) BioCure has devised a drinkable mix of worm eggs, waiting to soothe the upset bowel. If the patient can get the stuff down that is.

Maybe some creative flavoring is called for -- something along the lines of Slimy Strawberry, Wiggly Wild Cherry, or for those with a taste for the tropical, Mango Maggot?

Cheers!