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Seven Ways to Prevent Tapeworm Infection

I think I’ve sufficiently convinced you that tapeworms are gross little things, and that no one would actually want to have a tapeworm infection.  Lucky for you, I can across these tips for preventing infection.  Follow them!

1. If your dog has tapeworms, treat him or her immediately.
2. Avoid ingesting undercooked or raw fish, pork and beef.
3. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water after using the potty and before eating or touching food.
4. To kill tapeworm eggs and larvae, freeze meat for a minimum of 12 hours and fish for a minimum of 24 hours.
5. When you are in areas where tapeworms are, wash and cook all veggies and fruits with safe water before eating them.
6. Cook meat at temperatures of at least 150 F to kill tapeworm eggs and larvae.
7. Avoid livestock exposure to tapeworm eggs by properly getting rid of animal and human poop.

Pretty easy to follow, eh?

Tapeworms Love to Cause Problems

Unfortunately, the simple fact that being infected with tapeworms is not enough.  Depending upon the species of tapeworm, there can actually be serious complications to your health.

Thankfully, beef tapeworms are usually not harmful.  This is because this parasite lives solely in your intestine and can be treated easily with meds.

However…pork, sheep and dog tapeworms are the ones to look out for.  These ugly buggers can cause the following complications:

• Neurocysticercosis – This disease is a result of pork tapeworm and affects the central nervous system and brain.  In severe cases, this disease can cause death.
  

• Cysticercosis – When you ingest pork tapeworm eggs, you can get infected by the larval form, which migrates to organs and tissues throughout the body, causing cysts or lesions.

• Echinococcosis – This infection can be caused by sheep or dog tapeworms.  The larvae that grow can travel to the organs and cause cysts.  Surgery or transplantation can be the case when severe infections are involved.

So keep an eye out for tapeworms, guys!

How Can I Find Out if I Have Tapeworms?

The topic of the day is:  the tapeworm.

One sure way of telling whether or not you’ve been infected is by regularly checking your stool for segments of an adult tapeworm.  If you find a segment—Bingo!  You’ve got tapeworms.

But what if you don’t find any segments?  This is where your doc comes in.  Your doctor will check your stool and may send a sample to get tested at a lab, where microscopic identification techniques are employed.

When giving or checking samples, keep in mind that samples need to be taken several times over a period of time.

When tissue-invasive infections are involved, your doctor can do a blood test, searching for antibodies that may have been produced to fight off the tapeworm.  If these antibodies show up, then you have tapeworms.

Lastly, image tests such as MRI or CT scans can lead your doctor to diagnosing tapeworms.

How did you find out that you have tapeworms?

Inch Worms, White Worms, and Pinworms: Oh My!

I promised you that I would deliver the last seven of the twelve most common parasites.  Here they are.  Get ready to be yucked out.

 

1. White Worms – These come in all different sizes.
2. Inch Worms – Black, bumpy little critters that are about two inches long.
3. Pinworms – These are tiny little parasites that are only about ¾” long.
4. “Little Fish” – These gross parasites have a head and a tail, just like fish, and they swim out of your colon in schools…just like fish.
5. “Spiders” – Okay.  I don’t like spiders at all.  Thinking about “spiders” being in my colon grosses me out.  I’ll just tell you that these nasty little buggers look like spiders.  Shudder!
6. Threadworms – These extremely thin parasites can come out of your body by the hundreds.
7. “Stickpin Worms” – These one-inch-long parasites have a head that is perfectly round and resembles a pea.

Can you imagine looking down into the toilet and seeing some of these creatures looking back up at you?  Eeww!  Time to do a colon cleanse!

 

Five Signs That You Need to See a Doctor About Tapeworms

Sometimes, you just can’t be sure about these types of things—do you have parasites, or are you a little bit of a hypochondriac?  Here are five signs that you need to see your doctor….not to freak you out, but you might have tapeworms.

1. You experience nausea, abdominal pain, fatigue, weight loss, and/or anorexia. 
2. You see tapeworm body segments in your poop, toilet paper, or underwear.  Even as I type this, I’m getting chills.  I certainly hope to never see a “tapeworm body segment,” and here’s to hoping that you never see one, either.
3. You find tapeworm eggs in the perianal area of your body.  You can check for eggs by using cellophane to swab the area.
4. You examine your poop and find tapeworm eggs.  To check for eggs in your stools, examine at least two to three samples.
5. You experience signs of invasive infestation.  (Check my post Tapeworms:  Gross, Slimy and in Your Body for details)

Now that you know what to look for, let’s all cross our fingers that we never have to go to the doctor about tapeworms!

How Did This Tapeworm Get Into Me?!

If you have tapeworms, I am so sorry.  The ick factor for tapeworms is very high.  However, it’s important for you to understand how you got tapeworms and exactly what those buggers are doing inside your body.

Tapeworms are flat parasites that live inside the intestines and feed off of the vitamins and nutrients that you ingest.  There are several tapeworm species that feature several rows of teeth that are used to clamp onto the wall of your intestines.  They can live up to two decades inside your intestines, unless you do something about them.

But how did they get there in the first place? 

Tapeworms are known to live in pork and beef.  Tapeworms can still survive in undercooked portions of these meats, and if you ingest them, these parasites could make their way through your digestive system until they make a home in your intestinal walls.

The lesson to be learned from this?  Don’t eat undercooked beef or pork!

Five of the Most Popular Parasites

And I don’t mean “popular” as in “everyone loves them.”  These are five of the top twelve most common parasites that you could, in fact, be carrying in your little body right now.  Good thing that colon cleansing helps to get rid of parasites!

1. Tapeworms – Remember these little buggers?  I’ve written loads of posts on them.
2. Red Worms – These have a cunning resemblance to earthworms…except they come out of your colon curled up into little balls.
3. Black Worms – These worms nest deep in the colon wall and come out of the colon wrapped in yellow acid water.  Gross.
4. Hookworms – Nasty, curved, gray worms that hook onto the intestinal wall and suck your blood.  Vampires are sexy.  Hookworms are not.
5. “Fuzz Balls” – These are round parasites that have a growth on them resembling fur.

These are just five of the all-stars when it comes to parasites.  Keep an eye out for another post showing the other seven of the top twelve most common parasites.

Four Major Rick Factors for Getting Tapeworms

Eeewwww.  No one wants to get tapeworms.  That is a statement that I can comfortably make, because I simply cannot imagine anyone wanting to feel poorly or wanting to see a tapeworm segment (slimy, white, and scary) in their poop.

But tapeworms happen.  So what’s the deal?  What are the primary risk factors when it comes to getting tapeworms?

1. Being exposed to livestock – We’re not talking about petting a horse, for the most part.  What we are talking about is exposure to livestock in areas where animal feces aren’t properly disposed of.
2. Bad hygiene – This is another reason to wash your hands.  Those who don’t wash their hands or bathe often enough have an increased chance of becoming contaminated by tapeworms.
3. Traveling to third world countries – These places don’t have the type of sanitation that you’re used to.  Infection such as tapeworms is more typical in these areas.
4. Ingesting undercooked/raw meat – If the pork or beef you eat hasn’t been cooked properly, then there may be tapeworm larvae or eggs that haven’t been sterilized from the meat.

Want to know what I’m up to?  Visit me at www.twitter.com/colonista

Tapeworms: Gross, Slimy, and in Your Body

Even the word sounds disgusting:  tapeworm.  When you “have tapeworms,” it means that you have eaten or drunk something that had been contaminated with tapeworm eggs/larvae.  I know, I know—it’s nasty, guys.  But it does happen, and it’s important to understand about it.

If someone eats or drinks something contaminated with eggs, the eggs may end up developing into larvae that then travel out of the digestive tract and develop cysts in other areas of the body.  If someone eats or drinks something contaminated with larvae, the larvae typically grow into adults in the intestines.  These adult tapeworms can cause zero symptoms or several symptoms.

Here are the common symptoms of intestinal infection:

• Weakness
• Nausea
• Loss of appetite
• Diarrhea
• Abdominal pain
• Weight loss
• Sighting segments of an adult tapeworm in the stool

 Here are the common symptoms of invasive infection:

• Cystic lumps or masses
• Fever
• Bacterial infections
• Allergic reactions
• Neurological seizures or symptoms

Have you ever had an experience with tapeworms?

Killing Blood Parasites: the Diet

If you have blood parasites, there are two things that you can do to eliminate them from your body:  an herbal regimen and change your diet.

Here, I’ll tell you how to change your diet to rid these nasty parasites from your body.

• Greatly limit your intake of red meat, fish, pasta and poultry to two servings per day.  One serving equals the size of your palm.
• No sugar or sugar products.
• No fried or junk food.
• Eat raw veggies during the day and steamed veggies at night.
• Ingest vegetarian proteins such as soy, sprouts, nuts and seeds, tofu, and beans.
• For grains, eat wild rice and oatmeal.
• No white flour.
• Very limited dairy products.
• Drink fresh fruit or veggie juice and tons of water.

Doesn’t sound very fun, does it?  Well, neither are blood parasites.