My son was diagnosed at 17 years old with primary biliary cholangitis, a life-threatening autoimmune liver disease, one of the most severe. As a naturopathic doctor for 20 years, I had all the tools to address chronic illness, but this diagnosis drove me to explore deeper causes of autoimmune conditions.
Julie's Joint Pain Resolution Letter
I was diagnosed by my MD, whom I like a lot, with two chronic inflammation conditions in my thyroid and joints. He is great and tried his best, but I found I needed more than pills. They weren't working, and the side effects were too severe. I thought addressing the underlying problem would make the drugs more effective. Inflammation is a destructive immune reaction in the body, guts, nervous system, brain, joints, and more. What we see externally reflects internal processes. My MD is open-minded and supportive. He reviewed all the research I provided, and we worked together to find solutions.
Hookworm Characteristics:
Does not grow longer than half an inch.
Is only as wide as a human hair.
Lives only in the small intestine.
Does not cause anemia.
Can live as long as desired with proper management.
Balances body bacteria.
Controls inflammation.
Calms nervous system.
Is used by athletes for injuries.
Suitable for all ages to use and benefit.
Balances stress hormones.
Improves sleep.
Is easily killed by anti-worm drugs.
Can be used with any conventional medicines.
Controls reactions to shots.
The anti-inflammatory effect can help with chronic infections from bacteria, viruses, and harmful parasites.
Roseanne's Resolution of Tick Symptoms
My journey toward hookworms started when I discovered a rash under my right armpit in June 2014. I felt like I had the flu. A couple of months later, I was diagnosed with tick-borne bacteria.
The Empire State Building vs. The Pancake
When working with the immune system, we see two versions: at the extreme end we call these the pancake and the Empire State Building. The pancake never throws too out of balance and quickly recovers. The Empire State Building gets very out of balance, and recovery requires significant skill from the practitioner. Since all my family have chronic inflammation, they are all on hookworms now and feel great.
Hookworms Control Transplant Rejection
I read how hookworms were studied in animals and showed potential for preventing organ transplant rejection. They gave a mouse a skin graft, and if it had mouse hookworms, it wouldn't reject the graft. Chronic inflammation is like rejecting your own organ. If worms can stop transplanted organ rejection, they may help with inflammation from rejecting our own organs.
Healthy Vikings with Worms?
A Persian writer a thousand years ago wrote about the Vikings' disgusting behavior. They shared a big bowl of water to bathe, blow their noses, drink, and more. Vikings didn't fear illness due to their strong immune systems, which allowed them to invade and trade worldwide. The difference between yesterday's healthy Vikings and today's inflammatory conditions is the loss of worms that control inflammation.
A New Understanding of Chronic Inflammation
Some of us have a normal inflammation set point in the yellow zone, like being on the edge of a shelf. At one point, we're relatively normal. Then a bacteria, virus, or emotional or physical stress activates our immune system. This leaves it stuck in the "on" position, attacking everything, including our own body.
My Self-Experimentation
Before giving my son hookworms, I took them myself. My reaction was immediate and intense. Any feeling of stress vanished completely. Later, something strange happened. While washing dishes with the window open, I heard a sound like a helicopter. I looked out, and it was a shutter taking off and flying away. Hookworms somehow gave me a brief period of super hearing. I know it sounds strange. I'm unsure what to make of it, but it was my first day without inflammation in 30 years. Perhaps the body had a rebound phase. In any case, I felt the changes in my body were profound.
My Improvements with Hookworms
I sometimes struggled to sleep before midnight, working until one or two a.m. The night I took hookworms, I couldn't stay awake and fell fast asleep early. At sunrise, I awoke with a burst of energy, went for a run, and then to the gym. Previously, I'd stopped enjoying the gym because I'd get stiff and inflamed for a week after workouts. The day after my hookworm dose, I worked out hard twice. I haven't missed more than a few days in the years since my first dose.
Hookworms Have Multiple Effects
Hookworms release a chemical similar to prednisone, but only the exact amount needed to calm excess inflammation. You and the worms share a goal, keeping inflammation low. Every mammal and primate has a hookworm population, and until a few generations ago, every human did.
Why We Are Inflammatory Today
Our ancestors had immune systems calmed by hookworms, a regulation we've lost. Instead of the health and vigor ancients wrote about, today's Vikings (those of Nordic heritage) have chronic inflammation, weakness, and disease.
Humans Have Worms
Examinations of ancient human settlements always find worms in stool, a normal part of the intestinal ecosystem. In Africa, they find at least nine worms, in Asia twelve, in North America twelve, and in Europe eighteen. Over 10,000 years, human beings, even nobles and Egyptian mummies, had worms. Worms are found in Neanderthal sites and all mammals. Your hookworms are happy to find you, just as you are to have them. Without you, they'd die in the vial.
Why Hookworms as Your Body's Teacher
There is a lot of knowledge in the world about how to heal. Some of it is held by indigenous peoples, grandparents, and neighbors. Some is held by hookworms. They know what can go right or wrong and how to fix it. When you have hookworms and listen, they "instruct" you to do what's right for your body. Like love, the experience of worms teaches what they know.
Benefits of Re-Dosing
Even at an ideal dose, re-dosing benefits people. Each re-introduction creates a healing stem cell surge. If I overdo it at the gym, I take a dose of hookworms at night, sleep well, and wake forgetting the knee, elbow, or neck pain. A new dose may swap an existing hookworm for a new one if they work better together, benefiting you.
How Do I Know If My Hookworms Have Died?
These little guys don't die easily. We share a similar hookworm with gorillas, who eat bamboo that breaks down to cyanide, yet their worms survive. If an birth or toxin were to kill worms, they'd have died off long ago. Ancient humans ate toxic things too. You'll know if your worms die because symptoms and inflammation return. Then, we figure out the best way to restore a good dosage.
Autoimmune Diseases and Genetics
Autoimmune diseases are genetic, not just from lifestyle, stress, or pesticides. The autoimmune gene, such as HLA-B27, is highest in people of Nordic ancestry and decreases to lowest in Africa, reducing the prevalence of diseases like ankylosing spondylitis and other autoimmune diseases. Protective and aggressive immune system genes, perhaps acquired from our contacts with Neanderthals, are common in people of Nordic descent, allowing Vikings to thrive. Something has changed to make this immune system advantage into a self-destructive disadvantage. That change is the lack of a proper helminthic population.
The Australian Hookworm Study
Recently, a study in Australia gave 12 people with gluten reactions hookworms to resolve chronic inflammation. All participants had their gluten reactions resolved. At the end, none allowed their hookworms to be killed off, opting to keep them for the freedom to eat a food that previously caused severe reactions. Some, or perhaps all, people with the genetic background may need hookworms to digest gluten properly.
Hookworms Change and Control Immune and Hormonal System Regulators
Hookworms release a chemical like prednisone, but molecule by molecule, avoiding drug side effects. They organize intestinal bacteria, eliminating ones they dislike and encouraging beneficial ones. This reduces immune system stress, bringing stability and stopping overreactions. We now know bacteria are everywhere in the body, even in areas once thought sterile. When a woman has unexplained intestinal issues and frequent urination, it's often bacteria irritating the bladder.
Eosinophils and Abnormal Cell Growth
Eosinophils, white blood cells elevated by worms, reject abnormal cell growth by normalizing vessels and enhancing immune cell infiltration. Activated eosinophils are essential for tumor rejection. Tissue-activated eosinophils (TATE) are an independent factor for a good prognosis. There's an inverse association between eosinophil count and abnormal cell growth risk—more eosinophils mean less risk. Worms help raise eosinophils.
Brain Inflammation
When inflammatory scar tissue, called amyloid plaques, forms on the brain, it's an aggressive attack on normal brain bacteria, leading to complaints we call Alzheimer's, dementia, and other brain illnesses. Hookworms may moderate this chronic inflammation.
Developmental Delay
The causes of autism are controversial, but chronic inflammation should be moderated by hookworms. Years ago, a person with autism inspired my thinking about worms' counter-inflammatory effects. A boy's father came into practice to discuss his son. He had taken him on a walk through the woods, and both returned with chiggers, flea-like animals that burrow under the skin and itch. The next morning, the man was shocked—his son was very functional, and autism complaints greatly diminished. They gradually returned as the chiggers resolved. I didn't know the tools at my disposal at that time, but I knew the father had given me a valuable insight. Hookworms can be smart and skilled doctors, distracting and managing the immune system while making stem cells to heal our body, their home.
Increasing the Protective Gel of the Guts
Hookworms also resolve inflammation by increasing the protective mucus layer of the intestine. This layer prevents food protein from activating the immune system, reducing antibodies and food reactions. The immune system's default is to knock out doubtful proteins. Resolving food reactions alone takes tremendous stress off the immune system, but it's just one part of what worms do.
Downsides of Elimination Diets
I resolved many inflammation situations by eliminating food reactions, but there are downsides. Avoiding a food tells the body it's rare, triggering a craving to binge when available. It also creates separateness—eating at a special table or skipping holiday meals fosters isolation. Hookworms offer the option to keep all foods by changing the body's reactions, partly by raising intestinal mucus levels, like a high tide keeping boats from rocks.
Hookworms as Symbiotic Organisms
Hookworms are a symbiotic organism, working for mutual benefit, unlike parasites that deplete the body. Every mammal, primate, and human, until recently, had hookworms. In inflammatory states, they release anti-inflammatory chemicals molecule by molecule, avoiding drug side effects. They rely on your health to make eggs—if you're sick or gone, so are they.
Getting the Right Worms
All hookworms look the same under a microscope, but there are two major types: the harmful wolf worm, Ancylostoma duodenale, and the beneficial dog worm, Necator americanus. Their behavior differs as they grow, with Necator americanus becoming most compatible with your body and Ancylostoma duodenale becoming less. We use NaS67, a gentle worm, after genetic analysis, like choosing a domesticated pet breed where you know what to expect.
Individual Reactions to Hookworms
Each person's response to hookworms varies, like layers of a cake. Some feel an emotional change first, often the elimination of anxiety. Many report accelerated physical healing.
Worms Through Different Stages
As worms go through stages, they release different bioregulators:
Stage 1: Early worms promote emotional balance and calm.
Stage 2: Middle worms aid physical repair.
Stage 3: Later worms support total body balance.
The Elimination of Anxiety
A common reaction to hookworms is decreased anxiety—not just a sedative effect, but a complete sense of calm for some. I experienced this. My inflammation had increased anxiety—even simple things triggered days of stress. After worms, I felt profound calm, recognizing challenges without anxiety. This is due to reduced cytokines, inflammation signals that activate the immune system. Hookworms control this without drug side effects. Anxiety is a severe handicap because it turns off your brain, activating the amygdala, an ancient part that freezes us. There's no normal level of anxiety, just like there's no normal level of knee pain. Hookworms stop adrenaline and cortisol production, immune signals from the pituitary that create feelings of anxiety.
The Vikings and Inflammation
The Vikings had a mutation called alpha-1 antitrypsin, which contributed to their robust health, but today, without worms, it can drive inflammation.
Australian Studies
Type 2 Diabetes Trial (James Cook University, 2023)
Description: A phase 1b clinical trial at James Cook University, led by Dr. Paul Giacomin, infected 40 adults with controlled doses of Necator americanus larvae to assess safety and effects on insulin resistance.
Key Findings: Safe and tolerable, improved insulin sensitivity in some patients, linked to immune modulation via regulatory T-cells and anti-inflammatory cytokines.
Therapeutic Context: Used hookworm-induced immune modulation to improve metabolic health.
Celiac Disease Trial (Princess Alexandra Hospital, 2011)
Description: A phase 1a clinical trial in Brisbane, Australia, led by John Croese at Princess Alexandra Hospital. Patients with celiac disease were inoculated with low doses of N. americanus larvae to evaluate safety and effects on gluten sensitivity.
Key Findings: Well-tolerated, reduced inflammatory responses to gluten in some patients, linked to increased regulatory T-cells and anti-inflammatory cytokines.
Therapeutic Context: Aimed to dampen autoimmune responses in celiac disease.
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Trial (Queensland, 2016)
Description: A clinical study in Queensland, Australia, explored N. americanus infection in patients with Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis. Controlled larval doses were used to assess safety and anti-inflammatory effects.
Key Findings: Reduced disease activity in some patients, with hookworms promoting anti-inflammatory pathways. Larger trials needed.
Therapeutic Context: Targeted chronic inflammation via immune regulation.
Asthma Trial (James Cook University, 2017)
Description: A clinical trial at JCU, led by Dr. John Croese and colleagues, investigated N. americanus infection in asthma patients to assess whether hookworms could reduce airway inflammation.
Key Findings: Safe and tolerable, some patients showed reduced asthma symptoms and lower eosinophil counts, suggesting immune modulation of allergic responses, but results were not universally significant.
Therapeutic Context: Explored hookworms as a therapy for allergic asthma.
Standardized Larval Production for Therapeutic Trials (Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine, Recent)
Description: A study at the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (affiliated with JCU) developed protocols for producing N. americanus third-stage larvae (NaL3) for therapeutic trials supporting studies in diabetes, celiac disease, IBD, and asthma.
Key Findings: Reliable production of safe larvae, enabling consistent dosing in clinical trials.
Therapeutic Context: Facilitated multiple Australian therapeutic trials.
International Studies
Multiple Sclerosis Pilot Study (UK/USA, 2010s)
Description: A pilot study explored controlled N. americanus infection in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to assess reduction of autoimmune activity in the nervous system.
Key Findings: Reduced MS flare-ups in some patients, with increased regulatory T-cell activity, limited by small sample size.
Therapeutic Context: Tested hookworms as immunotherapy for MS.
Allergic Rhinitis Study (UK, Recent)
Description: A small-scale study used N. americanus larvae to infect volunteers with allergic rhinitis to evaluate effects on allergic symptoms.
Key Findings: Reduced allergic responses in some participants, but inconsistent, further studies needed.
Therapeutic Context: Explored hookworms for allergy treatment.
Genomic Study for Therapeutic Development (International, Recent)
Description: Genomic analysis of N. americanus explored anti-inflammatory and wound-healing properties to develop helminth-derived therapeutics for inflammatory diseases.
Key Findings: Identified proteins and pathways for potential drugs mimicking hookworm effects.
Therapeutic Context: Aimed to create new treatments based on hookworm mechanisms.
41.5s
i said to remove references and studies
The Hookworm Solution: Treating Helminth Deficiency Syndrome for Better Health
Dr. Alanna Marie Iannaccone Pisani, O.T.D.
Dr. Stephen Michael Nenninger, N.M.D.
Dedication
Dedicated to Alanna, who supported, encouraged, and inspired this book, and to my sons, Sterling and Quinn, my love for whom motivated a deeper search for the cause of autoimmune disease.
Why Hookworms
My son was diagnosed at 17 years old with primary biliary cholangitis, a life-threatening autoimmune liver disease, one of the most severe. As a naturopathic doctor for 20 years, I had all the tools to address chronic illness, but this diagnosis drove me to explore deeper causes of autoimmune conditions.
Julie's Joint Pain Resolution Letter
I was diagnosed by my MD, whom I like a lot, with two chronic inflammation conditions in my thyroid and joints. He is great and tried his best, but I found I needed more than pills. They weren't working, and the side effects were too severe. I thought addressing the underlying problem would make the drugs more effective. Inflammation is a destructive immune reaction in the body, guts, nervous system, brain, joints, and more. What we see externally reflects internal processes. My MD is open-minded and supportive. He reviewed all the research I provided, and we worked together to find solutions.
Hookworm Characteristics:
Does not grow longer than half an inch.
Is only as wide as a human hair.
Lives only in the small intestine.
Does not cause anemia.
Can live as long as desired with proper management.
Balances body bacteria.
Controls inflammation.
Calms nervous system.
Is used by athletes for injuries.
Suitable for all ages to use and benefit.
Balances stress hormones.
Improves sleep.
Is easily killed by anti-worm drugs.
Can be used with any conventional medicines.
Controls reactions to shots.
The anti-inflammatory effect can help with chronic infections from bacteria, viruses, and harmful parasites.
Roseanne's Resolution of Tick Symptoms
My journey toward hookworms started when I discovered a rash under my right armpit in June 2014. I felt like I had the flu. A couple of months later, I was diagnosed with tick-borne bacteria.
The Empire State Building vs. The Pancake
When working with the immune system, we see two versions: at the extreme end we call these the pancake and the Empire State Building. The pancake never throws too out of balance and quickly recovers. The Empire State Building gets very out of balance, and recovery requires significant skill from the practitioner. Since all my family have chronic inflammation, they are all on hookworms now and feel great.
Hookworms Control Transplant Rejection
I read how hookworms showed potential for preventing organ transplant rejection. Chronic inflammation is like rejecting your own organ. If worms can stop transplanted organ rejection, they may help with inflammation from rejecting our own organs.
Healthy Vikings with Worms?
A Persian writer a thousand years ago wrote about the Vikings' disgusting behavior. They shared a big bowl of water to bathe, blow their noses, drink, and more. Vikings didn't fear illness due to their strong immune systems, which allowed them to invade and trade worldwide. The difference between yesterday's healthy Vikings and today's inflammatory conditions is the loss of worms that control inflammation.
A New Understanding of Chronic Inflammation
Some of us have a normal inflammation set point in the yellow zone, like being on the edge of a shelf. At one point, we're relatively normal. Then a bacteria, virus, or emotional or physical stress activates our immune system. This leaves it stuck in the "on" position, attacking everything, including our own body.
My Self-Experimentation
Before giving my son hookworms, I took them myself. My reaction was immediate and intense. Any feeling of stress vanished completely. Later, something strange happened. While washing dishes with the window open, I heard a sound like a helicopter. I looked out, and it was a shutter taking off and flying away. Hookworms somehow gave me a brief period of super hearing. I know it sounds strange. I'm unsure what to make of it, but it was my first day without inflammation in 30 years. Perhaps the body had a rebound phase. In any case, I felt the changes in my body were profound.
My Improvements with Hookworms
I sometimes struggled to sleep before midnight, working until one or two a.m. The night I took hookworms, I couldn't stay awake and fell fast asleep early. At sunrise, I awoke with a burst of energy, went for a run, and then to the gym. Previously, I'd stopped enjoying the gym because I'd get stiff and inflamed for a week after workouts. The day after my hookworm dose, I worked out hard twice. I haven't missed more than a few days in the years since my first dose.
Hookworms Have Multiple Effects
Hookworms release a chemical similar to prednisone, but only the exact amount needed to calm excess inflammation. You and the worms share a goal, keeping inflammation low. Every mammal and primate has a hookworm population, and until a few generations ago, every human did.
Why We Are Inflammatory Today
Our ancestors had immune systems calmed by hookworms, a regulation we've lost. Instead of the health and vigor ancients wrote about, today's Vikings (those of Nordic heritage) have chronic inflammation, weakness, and disease.
Humans Have Worms
Examinations of ancient human settlements always find worms in stool, a normal part of the intestinal ecosystem. In Africa, they find at least nine worms, in Asia twelve, in North America twelve, and in Europe eighteen. Over 10,000 years, human beings, even nobles and Egyptian mummies, had worms. Worms are found in Neanderthal sites and all mammals. Your hookworms are happy to find you, just as you are to have them. Without you, they'd die in the vial.
Why Hookworms as Your Body's Teacher
There is a lot of knowledge in the world about how to heal. Some of it is held by indigenous peoples, grandparents, and neighbors. Some is held by hookworms. They know what can go right or wrong and how to fix it. When you have hookworms and listen, they "instruct" you to do what's right for your body. Like love, the experience of worms teaches what they know.
Benefits of Re-Dosing
Even at an ideal dose, re-dosing benefits people. Each re-introduction creates a healing stem cell surge. If I overdo it at the gym, I take a dose of hookworms at night, sleep well, and wake forgetting the knee, elbow, or neck pain. A new dose may swap an existing hookworm for a new one if they work better together, benefiting you.
How Do I Know If My Hookworms Have Died?
These little guys don't die easily. We share a similar hookworm with gorillas, who eat bamboo that breaks down to cyanide, yet their worms survive. If a birth or toxin were to kill worms, they'd have died off long ago. Ancient humans ate toxic things too. You'll know if your worms die because symptoms and inflammation return. Then, we figure out the best way to restore a good dosage.
Autoimmune Diseases and Genetics
Autoimmune diseases are genetic, not just from lifestyle, stress, or pesticides. The autoimmune gene, such as HLA-B27, is highest in people of Nordic ancestry and decreases to lowest in Africa, reducing the prevalence of diseases like ankylosing spondylitis and other autoimmune diseases. Protective and aggressive immune system genes, perhaps acquired from our contacts with Neanderthals, are common in people of Nordic descent, allowing Vikings to thrive. Something has changed to make this immune system advantage into a self-destructive disadvantage. That change is the lack of a proper helminthic population.
Hookworms Change and Control Immune and Hormonal System Regulators
Hookworms release a chemical like prednisone, but molecule by molecule, avoiding drug side effects. They organize intestinal bacteria, eliminating ones they dislike and encouraging beneficial ones. This reduces immune system stress, bringing stability and stopping overreactions. We now know bacteria are everywhere in the body, even in areas once thought sterile. When a woman has unexplained intestinal issues and frequent urination, it's often bacteria irritating the bladder.
Eosinophils and Abnormal Cell Growth
Eosinophils, white blood cells elevated by worms, reject abnormal cell growth by normalizing vessels and enhancing immune cell infiltration. Activated eosinophils are essential for tumor rejection. Tissue-activated eosinophils (TATE) are an independent factor for a good prognosis. There's an inverse association between eosinophil count and abnormal cell growth risk—more eosinophils mean less risk. Worms help raise eosinophils.
Brain Inflammation
When inflammatory scar tissue, called amyloid plaques, forms on the brain, it's an aggressive attack on normal brain bacteria, leading to complaints we call Alzheimer's, dementia, and other brain illnesses. Hookworms may moderate this chronic inflammation.
Developmental Delay
The causes of autism are controversial, but chronic inflammation should be moderated by hookworms. Years ago, a person with autism inspired my thinking about worms' counter-inflammatory effects. A boy's father came into practice to discuss his son. He had taken him on a walk through the woods, and both returned with chiggers, flea-like animals that burrow under the skin and itch. The next morning, the man was shocked—his son was very functional, and autism complaints greatly diminished. They gradually returned as the chiggers resolved. I didn't know the tools at my disposal at that time, but I knew the father had given me a valuable insight. Hookworms can be smart and skilled doctors, distracting and managing the immune system while making stem cells to heal our body, their home.
Increasing the Protective Gel of the Guts
Hookworms also resolve inflammation by increasing the protective mucus layer of the intestine. This layer prevents food protein from activating the immune system, reducing antibodies and food reactions. The immune system's default is to knock out doubtful proteins. Resolving food reactions alone takes tremendous stress off the immune system, but it's just one part of what worms do.
Downsides of Elimination Diets
I resolved many inflammation situations by eliminating food reactions, but there are downsides. Avoiding a food tells the body it's rare, triggering a craving to binge when available. It also creates separateness—eating at a special table or skipping holiday meals fosters isolation. Hookworms offer the option to keep all foods by changing the body's reactions, partly by raising intestinal mucus levels, like a high tide keeping boats from rocks.
Hookworms as Symbiotic Organisms
Hookworms are a symbiotic organism, working for mutual benefit, unlike parasites that deplete the body. Every mammal, primate, and human, until recently, had hookworms. In inflammatory states, they release anti-inflammatory chemicals molecule by molecule, avoiding drug side effects. They rely on your health to make eggs—if you're sick or gone, so are they.
Getting the Right Worms
All hookworms look the same under a microscope, but there are two major types: the harmful wolf worm, Ancylostoma duodenale, and the beneficial dog worm, Necator americanus. Their behavior differs as they grow, with Necator americanus becoming most compatible with your body and Ancylostoma duodenale becoming less. We use NaS67, a gentle worm, after genetic analysis, like choosing a domesticated pet breed where you know what to expect.
Individual Reactions to Hookworms
Each person's response to hookworms varies, like layers of a cake. Some feel an emotional change first, often the elimination of anxiety. Many report accelerated physical healing.
Worms Through Different Stages
As worms go through stages, they release different bioregulators:
Stage 1: Early worms promote emotional balance and calm.
Stage 2: Middle worms aid physical repair.
Stage 3: Later worms support total body balance.
The Elimination of Anxiety
A common reaction to hookworms is decreased anxiety—not just a sedative effect, but a complete sense of calm for some. I experienced this. My inflammation had increased anxiety—even simple things triggered days of stress. After worms, I felt profound calm, recognizing challenges without anxiety. This is due to reduced cytokines, inflammation signals that activate the immune system. Hookworms control this without drug side effects. Anxiety is a severe handicap because it turns off your brain, activating the amygdala, an ancient part that freezes us. There's no normal level of anxiety, just like there's no normal level of knee pain. Hookworms stop adrenaline and cortisol production, immune signals from the pituitary that create feelings of anxiety.
The Vikings and Inflammation
The Vikings had a mutation called alpha-1 antitrypsin, which contributed to their robust health, but today, without worms, it can drive inflammation.