Drinking Pig Worms to Fight Crohn's Disease

Hey if it works

Eight years ago, New Yorker Herbert Smith did the unthinkable -- he swallowed thousands of pig whipworm eggs in a desperate bid to quell his advancing Crohn's disease.

The microscopic eggs, invisible to the naked eye, were suspended in a liquid solution.

"There was nothing to it," said the 33-year old financial analyst, who uses a pseudonym to talk about his worm-drinking ways. "It was drinking half a cup of salty water."

At that moment, he said, "I felt excitement and definitely hope."

For Smith, something incredible happened. After swallowing 2,500 worm eggs every two weeks for three months, most of his Crohn's symptoms vanished.

"I was definitely ecstatic," he said. "The symptom reduction was pretty drastic."

"I did have blood tests before and after," he said, and "the markers of inflammation went down significantly."

As for his physician's reaction, Smith said "