Human Tapeworms
Information About Human Tapeworms
Human tapeworms are a type of parasite that makes their home in a host's intestines. People that are most likely to end up with these are those with poor hygiene or individuals who are exposed to livestock, travel frequently to developing nations or consume undercooked or raw meat. The most common types found are dwarf tapeworms, beef tapeworms, fish tapeworms and pork tapeworms.
Ingesting Eggs
So, how do you actually become infected with human tapeworms? The most common way is by ingesting soil, food or water that is contaminated with either animal or human feces. This actually happens quite easily when an infected animal that has tapeworms contaminates the soil by passing eggs through their feces. Anyone who eats food that has been grown in that contaminated soil has a good chance of becoming infected.
After your body has been introduced to the eggs, they turn into larvae. The larvae then makes its journey through your intestines to other areas of your body such as the lungs or liver, where they form cysts. This type of infection happens most commonly with pork intestines.
Human tapeworms are also very common from consuming undercooked meat from either infected fish or animals. The tapeworms find some muscle tissue to attach themselves to where they develop into adults.
Signs And Symptoms
The majority of sufferers with human tapeworms experience absolutely no symptoms at all. Others will have headaches, stomach aches, seizures, loss of appetite, diarrhea, bacterial infections and fever. Symptoms are often dependent on what type of tapeworm the individual actually has as well as where the parasite is located in their body. Dog tapeworms can cause serious illnesses while fish tapeworms are known to cause anemia.
Treatment And Prevention
Human tapeworms can survive in some tough conditions but they do not get a long with a few things that can be used as prevention and treatment methods.
- Make sure that you only consume meat that is cooked properly. Tapeworm eggs are known to end up on raw meat while it is on the slaughter table. Cooking you meat to at least medium is a way to make sure that there are no lingering eggs left behind.
- Avoid purchasing any kind of meat from a butcher that doesn't have a well-known reputation. This means not purchasing meat that looks unsanitary in your local grocer's deli. Never under any circumstance buy meat from a butcher that is not certified.
- Be very cautious eating meat at open markets in third world countries. Some locations simply do not have the same quality checks and regulations that the United States does. As a result, a lot of unsanitary meat is sold and consumed.
- Eat approximately 30 cooked pumpkin seeds everyday, especially when you travel to foreign land. You can buy these prepackaged at a health food store if you don't have the ambition to clean pumpkins out yourself and bake the seeds.
- Eat a daily dose of garlic. This wonderful ingredient not only is delicious in nearly any dish, it contains certain properties that kill human tapeworms. If you know that you have one in your body, you will need to eat a whole clove everyday to rid this from your system.
- Consume a diet that is very high in fiber by adding plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables to your daily food intake. High fiber foods clean your intestines out naturally which helps pass the tapeworm out of your system.
- Watch for the dead tapeworm in your stool. It will usually pass within two weeks. They are white and look like a piece of spaghetti that has been flattened.