Psychiatrist Dr. Eric Hollander says the hygiene hypothesis -  the idea that by eliminating some harmful organisms we are weakening our immune systems - may be a reason to study the use of ingesting the eggs of parasitic worms to treat autism.

He gets to jump on a few hot button cultural topics that way, autism and a medical idea that has caught on with the usual anti-science hippies and the more normal crowd who got sold the idea that anti-bacterial soaps were necessary if they care about kids.

The kicker is that the psychiatrist got the idea when he noticed one of his patients’ behavior improve while self-medicating with Trichuris suis ova (TSO), the eggs of a whipworm. That passes for a journal paper in the social sciences.

Hollander, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and director of Autism and Obsessive Compulsive Spectrum Program at Montefiore Medical Center, is leading a trial that will see if TSO can treat the symptoms of autism.

TSO therapy is not legal in the USA but other self-medicating people can purchase it online or get it by traveling to another country - or enroll in Hollander's trial.

Study looks at worm therapy to treat autism By Jessica Ryen Doyle, FOX News