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An intriguing observation led me on a search for the solution to my chronic illness, which started in the late 1960s. Initially considered simple fatigue, it took me several years to make a dietary link. Thereafter I relabelled my condition 'food allergy'.

I observed that whenever I had a fever, my symptoms entirely vanished. I still had the malaise that accompanies fever, but my 'food allergy' symptoms entirely disappeared, only to return when the fever left.

Over the next 20 years, I had three more fevers. On each occasion, without exception, my symptoms completely disappeared, but only for the duration of the fever. Surely, I thought, in fever lay the clue to the 'food allergy' phenomenon.

Visits to the library to read up on pyrexia produced no real answer. It was also clear that even the highly qualified authors did not know the true mechanism behind fever.

My own search for a solution involved over 50 fasts (water only, no food) – including two lasting a month each; four weeks on grapes only, and seven months on the Gerson therapy, as well as many other Nature Cure diets. I would abandon them all, however, because everything I ate made me ill.

I also considered that simply identifying and avoiding the problem foods was not enough. Why do some people react to ordinary foods in the first place, and not everyone? After all, if someone is 'allergic' to, say, a tomato, it is not the tomato that is at fault, it is the person. Otherwise everybody would react to tomato.

Fault 'at Site of Symptom'

The fault surely has to lie within the person, and specifically at the site of the symptom. After all, if you have two patients with 'food allergy', one might present with migraine, another with arthritis. The person with migraine will not get the arthritis and the person with arthritis will not suffer migraine. Each will have his own specific, repeating symptom in a particular part of the body. Therefore the problem has to be at the site of the symptom.

A Blood Flow Problem?

Space does not permit the full explanation, but I had suspected for some years that there might be an interference in blood flow at the site of the symptom in the food allergic.

With some difficulty, I arranged to have my theory tested at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary. I planned to get two blood flow tests, one before and one after consuming a food allergen.

Both the vascular surgeon whom I initially approached and the experienced radiologist that he recommended thought it highly unlikely that there would be a blood flow connection to my symptoms. However, they kindly allowed the testing to go ahead.

Much to the radiologist's chagrin, there was a considerable change in blood flow on the second reading, a mere half an hour after the first. His flustered response was, "But it's not scientific!" I agreed. But as it occurred after my predicting it in advance, surely the 'scientific' step would have been to carry out further investigation and not just simply ignore it because it was predicted by someone not in his 'field'.

If, as now seemed likely, there was a hypoperfusion at the site of the symptom in the food allergic, that would give an explanation for the vast number of disorders linked to food allergy. As blood reaches every part of the body, then a reduced flow anywhere would produce symptoms anywhere in the body.

The Possibilities

What could be causing this hypo-perfusion? There could only be, I reasoned, three possibilities. Either there was something there that shouldn't be there ('something added'), or there was something not there that should be there ('something missing'), or there was damage ('something damaged'), and I included inflammation in the damaged scenario.

'Something damaged' seemed likely. But when I recalled my own dietary experiments, I had to dismiss it. My month-long fasts, which are noted for their acceleration of healing would surely have repaired any such damage.

Besides, many food allergics can experience a severe reaction for an hour or so, then feel well after that. If there truly were damage, it wouldn't last simply an hour. Also, my seven months on a natural food diet, such diets having a long history of successful health restorations, would surely have achieved repair. But none of them did. No, I had to dismiss 'something damaged' for the moment.

Then I considered 'something missing'. But as I had persevered with the fruit and vegetable diet for seven months, any nutrient deficiencies would surely have been satisfied in that time. Besides, why should someone be 'missing' something during the allergic reaction, yet not be an hour or so later? So 'something missing' was shelved for the moment.

'Something added' looked the likeliest culprit. Space does not allow me a full explanation, but I initially favoured old drug or chemical residues in the system. However, my fasting and natural food attempts, both famous for the elimination of toxins, had failed to remove them.

And, if an old drug residue was responsible, why should the problem only occur for an hour or so then vanish? How could it change shape or form to create a blood flow blockage in that hour and then settle down? Also, as old drugs and chemicals become adipose-bound, how could they create an interference with the blood flow?

And why should my symptoms disappear only when I had a fever if old drugs or chemicals were the reason? But the best reason for dismissing old drugs and chemicals was when I recalled that arthritis, a classic food allergy disorder, has been around for centuries. Modern drugs have not.

So, 'something added' it must be. But what? After dispelling drugs and other toxins, I arrived at the astonishing conclusion that perhaps the something added might be LIVING! In other words, a parasite.

Parasites tend to settle in the lumen of blood vessels. That would explain how they could interfere with blood flow. Perhaps simple obstruction in the micro-circulation by hordes of these creatures is all it takes to produce symptoms.

In case you may think that 'simple blockage' by parasites may be too lowly an explanation for a chronic illness capable of baffling science for years, let me quote from the 1999 edition of Modern Parasitology:[77]

"Both lymphatic and ocular filariasis are accompanied by gross pathological changes, elephantiasis and blindness, but it is not clear if these have any immunological basis and current opinion favours simple obstruction."

So, despite all their investigations into the subject, these parasitologists only as recently as 1999 are recognizing that simple blockage by parasites may hold the key to an illness that had long baffled them.

I Fly to California

I found someone else homing in on the parasite connection to ill health. Dr Hulda Clark of California, a former government-funded scientist, claims that parasites are implicated in a huge number of chronic disorders, including cancers. I flew out to her clinic and was taught the rudiments of her electronic method of testing for parasites. I took the opportunity to have my sputum tested for their presence. It was positive for several parasite species! Since that time I have learned how to examine microscopically my own blood, sputum, urine and faeces for parasites.

Being told you have parasites is one thing, actually seeing them for yourself coming out of your body is quite another! I took photographs using a photomicrographic camera, at 100x magnification, Lugol stained, showing parasite eggs to which I had unwittingly been host.

Elimination of Parasites

Parasites are all around us. A newspaper of 29 November 19981 stated that one baby cereal tested contained over 20,000 mites per kilo!

In separate research, a sample of six types of vegetable in an American study,2 carried out between 1979 and 1981 showed that parasite eggs are virtually everywhere. It showed that over 50% of all vegetables tested had some parasites.

Nematodes are human parasites that are extremely abundant in nature. A single spadeful of garden soil may contain a million or more![3]

Dr Clark was attempting to eliminate parasites by using herbs and instructing her patients to avoid parasite eggs by scrupulously removing all dirt from fruits and vegetables. She also recommends boiling milk and washing vegetables in an iodine solution to kill Ascaris eggs; sterilizing your toothbrush with grain alcohol each time you use it; and not licking your fingers turning over pages in a book. Despite these and more measures, many patients would still harbour parasites.

But surely this approach was missing something. Watch any nature programme and you will see tigers tearing open their prey and inevitably consuming dirt. It seems to be perfectly natural. Yet wild tigers are strong and healthy beasts that do not get food allergies or cancers.

And what about those people who do not wash their fruits and vegetables or boil their milk? What about those people who do not sterilize their toothbrush? What about those people who do lick their fingers turning over pages? Not all become ill. It is clear that many people must be taking in these parasites, yet remain well.

No, simply trying to avoid every single parasite and every single egg for the rest of your life cannot be the entire answer; they are so prevalent it would be impossible to do so. There had to be another way.

Your 'Internal Environment'

It seemed logical to consider that the person's health, his/her 'internal environment' if you will, had to play a part in the equation. After all, it is well known in gardening that plant parasites do not attack healthy plants.

If that is the case, the only way to improve the health of a patient is to improve his/her diet dramatically.

The Discovery

I obtained 50 million insect parasitic nematodes, Steinernema feltiae, in an attempt to study their behaviour.

I noted that they would respond whenever the microscope's substage illuminator was switched on. But, other than that, I was floundering to capture any other significant aspect of their functioning.

One day, I read that when amoebas are studied on a slide, if one end is cooled and the other end of the slide is warmed, these parasites will migrate to the warm end.[8]

Amoebas are parasites capable of producing much illness in man.9 Amoebic dysentery is an illness caused by the organism Entamoeba histolytica and spread by contaminated food, water, or flies. If the organism enters the portal circulation, amoebic abscess can result. These abscesses can also invade the lung, brain or spleen.[80]

I read on for a while, then stopped. I had just read something that appeared insignificant at first but suddenly hit me like a sledgehammer. If the parasitic amoebas on the microscope slide responded to temperature change, here, therefore, was an absolutely vital clue to their behaviour:

Parasites are TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE!

Therefore, if my personal food allergy condition was linked to parasites, and if parasites are influenced by temperature, then that explains why my food allergy symptoms disappeared when I had a fever. The low body temperature that I knew I had, but paid little attention to, must have been ideal for the parasites and they were only overcome when my body temperature increased.

Low Body Temperature

It was also only a relatively recent discovery that I had a chronic low body temperature, generally in the low 97s (degrees Fahrenheit).

Perhaps if we could raise our core body temperature, that would keep us parasite free? Indeed, food allergy free? But how?

I then recalled that, in Cures that Work,[4] a founder member of Tyringham Health Clinic had recovered from hypothyroidism, which would have involved subnormal body temperature, by sustaining a natural food diet for over a year. By dietary means she must surely have managed to raise her body temperature.

I also recalled my seven-month diet on fruits and vegetables. My body temperature, which I recorded each morning, was erratically, but inexorably, climbing. However, I had never charted it.

I decided to check back on my diary and do just that. The overall climb in temperature was undeniable. However, I had not sustained it for the full 18 months to 2/3 years. The number of days of 97.8ºF or above was increasing as the diet progressed, and the number of days on the lower level of 97.5ºF and below had all but disappeared (see the chart below).

Updated temperature Chart (not shown here)

Researchers Emanuel Donchin and Noel Marshall, from the University of Chicago, found that slight low body temperature, just one or two degrees below normal, was enough to reduce certain brain responses in test subjects.[5]

Dr Stephen Langer,[6] estimates that 40% of Americans have subnormal temperatures. He found that a mere one degree below the desired 98.6ºF is sufficient to produce a host of mental and physical symptoms such as headaches, depression, nervousness, etc.

Hospital blood tests for thyroid function are unreliable. Extreme cases might be picked up, but many people will have a sub-clinical thyroid system malfunction, which will be missed by these tests, as they gauge glandular function by measuring levels of thyroid hormones in the bloodstream. But the thyroid hormones have their action in the cells of the body at the nuclear membrane receptors, and there is no method of accurately measuring such intracellular activity.

Cancer

The parasite link to body temperature would explain why so many recoveries from cancer and other chronic diseases occur on natural food diets like the Gerson therapy.

It is not only Dr Clark who has implicated parasites in cancer. Only as recently as 1999, Professor Jan Walbloomers of the Free University in Amsterdam found that the HPV, or human papilloma virus, exists in over 99.7% of cases of cervical cancer. This is the first real evidence that parasites do exist in cancer. That would now give a better explanation for the success of the Gerson therapy, as the diet would surely raise the body temperature of such patients, overwhelming the micro-organisms.

One Degree Enough?

The question is often asked, "How can a mere one degree affect parasites to the extent that it can incapacitate them?"

Nature already employs heat as a means of defending our bodies against micro-organisms. At such times of infection, she produces fever in the body to overcome them. And when you consider that fever is 100ºF, just over one degree above 98.6ºF, then clearly Nature herself considers one degree sufficient to defeat them.

Besides, it is our human measuring that dictates that one degree is one degree. If microscopic organisms were to use their own measuring standards, I am sure our 'mere' one degree would translate into a thousand of their degrees!

Scientific Confirmation

I then found medical confirmation that micro-organisms can be directly killed by fever in the host animal. From Pyretics and Antipyretics:10

"It has been recognised that syphilis (caused by the parasite Treponema pallidum) and gonorrhoea (caused by the parasite Neisseria gonorrhoea) are heat sensitive and are killed directly by increasing the temperature of the victim. Indeed, before the advent of antibiotics, treatment used to consist of using injections in order to bring about artificial fevers."

And, recognizing the existing lack of precise knowledge on parasites, Microbial and Parasitic Infection11 quotes (highlighting is mine):

"A pathogen must be able to multiply in or on the host's tissues. This means that the host's tissues must supply appropriate nutrients, atmospheric conditions and temperature for the pathogen's growth…"

Pyretics and Antipyretics[12] states:

"The question of the beneficial value of fever has been the subject of speculation for many years. Fevers could be beneficial to an animal in two ways:

(1) The high body temperatures of fever could exceed the temperature beyond which the infectious micro-organism could live and thereby directly kill it.
(2) Indirectly by affecting one or several biochemical, cellular or humoral components of the body which in turn destroy the micro-organism."

Parasite Symptoms

I wanted to know how many symptoms attributable to 'food allergy' could be caused by parasites. Trawling through the parasitology literature, I uncovered the following catalogue of symptoms regularly found listed in food allergy books:

Long-lived Organisms

Human parasites are extremely long-lived. Strongyloides can remain in the system for up to 30 years61 and Taenia saginata – beef tapeworms – can live in humans for up to 25 years.[62]

Ascaris lumbricoides is the commonest parasite on the planet and it is estimated that approximately one billion63 people have the worm.

Asthma has been linked to Ascaris after laboratory workers studying them developed the condition,64 – yet further evidence of the allergy link to micro-organisms.

Parasites vary in size, from worms several feet long down to the smallest of all, viruses.

Why Parasites Have Been Overlooked

Could micro-organisms be responsible for a host of common health disorders, yet simply be overlooked? Almost certainly.

If medical science can miss something as highly visible and obvious as a chunk of bread and cheese as being responsible for someone's symptoms – and it has – is it not reasonable that they could similarly miss something that is invisible to the naked eye, hidden inside the body, and undetectable by X-ray or MRI equipment?

But the main reason could be the confusion over what are harmless (commensal) and harmful (pathogenic) parasites.65

The Color Atlas and Textbook of Diagnostic Parasitology[66] states: "Few people realize that only a few decades ago Giardia lamblia, now recognized as the leading cause of intestinal parasitic infections in the United States, was not considered a pathogen."

Now, there is confusion over the status of Blastocystis hominis. Next to yeast, Blastocystis hominis is the most frequently observed organism in faecal samples.67

Also, many people can harbour Giardia lamblia or Entamoeba histolytica and not display symptoms. Whilst symptoms from what were considered harmless commensal parasites, Entamoeba coli or Endolimax nana, have been reported.68-71

I suggest that 'commensal' parasites are misclassified because of the complication that is inherent in food allergy.

With food allergics, if parasites truly are implicated, their activity would occur only for the duration of the reaction. At such time they could be declared pathogenic. But the same parasite, once the reaction wore off and was no longer causing symptoms, could be declared a harmless commensal: that cause for misclassification would occur if the test subjects had masked (hidden) food allergies.

And what if the subjects were not food allergics? The parasite this time would appear a harmless commensal. But it would only be harmless to that non-food-allergic person. To the food-allergic patient, that harmless parasite could well be a pathogen. Just as a slice of bread may be harmless to a non-food-allergic, to a food allergic, that same bread may be harmful.

It is clear that we should not be trying to establish the 'pathogenicity' of any particular organism but rather assess the health of the patient. After all, people can 'carry' a parasite yet be entirely asymptomatic, whilst others can be at death's door with the same organism. HIV and meningitis organisms are such examples.

Classifying micro-organisms into their pathogenicity or non-pathogenicity is a misleading exercise. The missing factor that separates the ill from the well might well be simple body temperature, now that we see its importance in the life of the human parasite.

From Microbial and Parasitic Infection:[74]

"Failure of the host's defences to eliminate a pathogen soon after its arrival may result in persistent active disease. Often, however, there is a balance between the pathogen and the defences, and the infection may remain asymptomatic for many years but turn into active disease again when the balance is shifted in favour of the pathogen."

The same book later states: "An increase in body temperature is a very common host response to infection. It may well be protective in some circumstances, e.g., by providing an environment too warm for optimal growth of the pathogen (microorganism)."

Hereditary Illness: The Answer?

The well-known tendency for allergies to 'run in the family' might now be explained.

We know that 'allergic' conditions can be inherited. But the real truth could well be that, as parasites are involved in allergic activity, it is the parasitic organisms that can be passed to the offspring from the parents.

Photograph of parasite eggs

Close-up of the previous eggs

References

1. News of the World. London. 29 November 1998.
2. Rude RA et al. Survey of Fresh Vegetables for Nematodes, Amoebae and Salmonella. J Assoc Anal Chem. 67: 613-615. 1984.
3. Keeton William Y and Gould James L. Biological Science. WW Norton & Company. New York. pp1121-1122. 1967.
4. Pleshette Janet. Cures that Work. Century Arrow. London. 1986.
5. Marshall Noel K. A Chilling Effect. Psychology Today. 92. February 1982.
6. Langer Stephen E. Solved: The Riddle of Illness. Keats Publishing. New Canaan. Connecticut. 1984.
7. Science Corner. Evening News. Edinburgh. 10 October 1998.
8. Kennedy David. How to Save Your Teeth: Toxic-free Preventive Dentistry. Health Action Press. Delaware. USA. p39. 1993.
9. Hawken CM. Parasites. Woodland Publishing. Utah. pp12-13. 1997.
10. Milton AS. Pyretics and Antipyretics. Springer-Verlag. New York. p9. 1982.
11. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. p38. 1993.
12. Milton AS. Pyretics and Antipyretics. Springer-Verlag. New York. 1982.
13. Gelpa AP and Mustafa A. Ascaris Pneumonia. Am J Med. 44: 377. 1968.
14. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. p145. 1993.
15. Ibid. p200.
16. Charters AD. Human Parasitology. Perth. W. Australia. p70. 1983.
17. Cox FEG. Modern Parasitology. Blackwell Science. 2nd ed. Oxford. p71. 1999.
18. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. pp310-311. 1993.
19. Hawken CM. Parasites. Woodland Publishing. Utah. p17. 1997.
20. BBC Television News. 6pm. 14 August 1998.
21. Charters AD. Human Parasitology. Perth. W. Australia. p34. 1983.
22. Hawken CM. Parasites. Woodland Publishing. Utah. p17. 1997.
23. Literature. Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory, Asheville, North Carolina, USA. 1998.
24. Charters AD. Human Parasitology. Perth. W. Australia. p34. 1983.
25. Literature. Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory, Asheville, North Carolina, USA. 1998.
26. Gittleman Ann Louise. Guess What Came to Dinner. Avery Publishing Group. Garden City Park. New York. p23. 1993.
27. Chaitow Leon. Candida Albicans. Thorsons. London. p10. 1985.
28. Hawken CM. Parasites. Woodland Publishing. Utah. p16. 1997.
29. Ibid.
30. Gittleman Ann Louise. Guess What Came to Dinner. Avery Publishing Group. Garden City Park. New York. p46. 1993.
31. Wilson Alan R. An Introduction to Parasitology. St Martin's Press. New York. 1967.
32. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. pp141-142. 1993.
33. Ibid.
34. Charters AD. Human Parasitology. Perth. W. Australia. p122. 1983.
35. Ibid.
36. Gittleman Ann Louise. Guess What Came to Dinner. Avery Publishing Group. Garden City Park. New York. p23. 1993.
37. Literature. Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory, Asheville, North Carolina, USA. 1998.
38. Ibid.
39. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. pp303-304. 1993.
40. Gittleman Ann Louise. Guess What Came to Dinner. Avery Publishing Group. Garden City Park. New York. p46. 1993.
41. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. p134. 1993.
42. Ibid. p307.
43. Ibid. p76.
44. Gittleman Ann Louise. Guess What Came to Dinner. Avery Publishing Group. Garden City Park. New York. p23. 1993.
45. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. p200. 1993.
46, 47, 48, 49. Ibid.
50. Charters AD. Human Parasitology. Perth. W. Australia. p29. 1983.
51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58. Ibid.
59. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. pp284-286. 1993.
60. Literature. Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory, Asheville, North Carolina, USA. 1998.
61. Galland IMD et al. Journal of Nutritional Med. 1: 27-31. 1990.
62. Hawken CM. Parasites. Woodland Publishing. Utah. 1997.
63. Gittleman Ann Louise. Guess What Came to Dinner. Avery Publishing Group. Garden City Park. New York. p45. 1993.
64. Gelpa AP and Mustafa A. Ascaris Pneumonia. Am J Med. 44: 377. 1968.
65. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. p26. 1993.
66. Sun Tsieho. Color Atlas and Textbook of Diagnostic Parasitology. Igaku-Shoin Medical Publishers. 1988.
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68. Wahlgren M. Lancet. 337: 675. 1991.
69. Corcoran GD et al. Lancet. 338: 254. 1991.
70. Veraldi S et al. Int J Derm. 30: 376 .1991.
71. Rolston KVI et al. N Engl J Med. p192. 17 July 1986.
72. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. p218. 1993.
73. Boda JL, Fernandez-Nogues F, Cerda E and Rufi G. Neurological Manifestations in a Patient with Filariasis. BMJ. 2: 978. 1976.
74. Duerden BI, Reid TMS and Jewsbury JM. Microbial and Parasitic Infection. Edward Arnold. London. p.61. 1993.
75. Ibid. p43.
76. Charters AD. Human Parasitology. Perth. W. Australia. p29. 1983.
77. Cox FEG. Modern Parasitology. Blackwell Science. 2nd ed. Oxford. p209. 1999.
78. Nwokolo C and Imohiosen EAE. Stronglyoidiasis of Respiratory Tract Presenting as 'Asthma'. BMJ. 2: 153. 1973.
79. Galatius-Jensen F and Uhm IK. Radiological Aspects of Cerebral Paragonimiasis. Brit J Radiol. 38: 494. 1965.
80. Ash Lawrence and Orihel Thomas. Atlas of Human Parasitology. 4th ed. American Society of Clinical Pathologists. Chicago. Illinois. 1997.
81. Ash Lawrence and Orihel Thomas. Parasites in Human Tissues. American Society of Clinical Pathologists. Chicago. Illinois. 1995.
82. Brown WJ and Voge M. Neuropathology of Parasitic Infections. Oxford University Press. Oxford. 1982.