I heard that hook worms could be good for you! I don;t know of the validity. I can't find it but it was interesting. Something about immunity's that you wouldn't normally get and it doesn't harm you? I don't remember.
I don't know, this sounds like a myth. Basically there are two types of harmful hookworms, the human hookworm and the canine hookworm.
The human hookworm was eradicated in the U.S. You catch it by stepping on soil contaminated with human feces (but you have to stand on it for a while for the worms to enter your body, not just walking). So the larvae penetrate your skin and enter your bloodstream. Then these friendly little fellow enter a journey toward your intestines: they reach your heart and then end up in your lungs, you cough them and they migrate to your trachea and are swallowed. Then the adults mature in the small intestine, they hook there and feed, and their eggs pass out in feces and the cycle goes on. And you suffer from iron deficit.
In the case of canine hookworms, more common these days and they can withstand colder temperatures, they penetrate your skin but don't reach bloodstream. Instead they get lost because they are not in their natural host and they give you the "creeping eruptions", pretty nasty but less harmful then the human hookworm.
Frankie
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