Eating worms is good for you

When Jordan munched on creepy-crawlies on jungle reality show I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!, viewers squirmed in horror.

But they need not have worried. Although it may leave a bad taste in the mouth, scientists have discovered that eating worms is good for you.

They greatly reduce the symptoms of inflammatory and sometimes incurable bowel diseases, tests found.

Now a German company is planning to release a medicinal worm drink for sufferers of such conditions.

Healing powers

BioCure's medicine, called TSO, will contain thousands of eggs of the pig whipworm.

When drunk, they hatch and produce whipworms in the intestines. As soon as the immune system realises there are parasites in the stomach, it triggers an anti-inflammatory reaction which helps alleviate bowel disease.

And, if you cannot wait to try it, the drink may be available as a prescription drug throughout the European Union by the summer, New Scientist magazine reported yesterday.

Gerd Mayer, BioCure's marketing manager, said: "This product is about five times more effective than conventional medicine."

The latest trials, carried out in the US, treated 200 people with ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease.

Symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease - such as abdominal pain, bleeding and diarrhoea - quickly disappeared in half of those with ulcerative colitis and 70 per cent of those with Crohn's.

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