There Are Two Kinds Of Common Parasitic Infections:
Helminths:
These parasitic worms live inside the GI tract and although they do not typically result in acute health issues, they can contribute to long-term, sometimes severe, chronic health problems because of the way they deplete the bodys resources. The most common helminths are tapeworms, roundworms, flatworms, hookworms, and whipworms. Pinworms, whipworms, and hookworms are all types of roundworms that can cause digestive problems, mood swings, abdominal pain, brain fog, and weight loss. Hookworms, in particular, can work their way outside the gut lining to feed on your blood, leading to anemia.
Tapeworms are types of flatworms that live inside your intestine and can grow up to 35 feet long, laying close to one million eggs per day. They eat the food you eat and can cause feelings of constant hunger and are commonly contracted through eating undercooked contaminated meat.
Protozoan parasites:
Single-cell protozoan parasites, like giardia, can multiply in your body and can contribute to acute health issues, such as extreme diarrhea. If left untreated, this could lead to severe dehydration, and even death.
How Are Roundworms Diagnosed
Your healthcare provider will ask you about your medical history and symptoms. Then you will probably need a blood test. Your provider may also ask for a stool sample to test it for eggs. To get a stool sample, your provider gives you a sterile container. You place a poop sample in the container and bring it to your provider or a lab.
You Ingested Some Questionable Water
Whether you were traveling abroad and drank from the tap or went to the lake around the block and splashed around for a bit, ingesting contaminated water is one of the most common causes of parasites, according to Daliah Wachs, MD, a board-certified family physician in Las Vegas. In fact, before you drink that next glass of water, here are some things you need to know about whether or not your tap water is safe.
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Putting It All Together
If you think you have stomach parasite symptoms, carry out comprehensive stool testing with your naturopath to find out if you have some form of intestinal infection. Follow the diet guidelines given by your health professional to starve the particular parasite infection you have.
Selecting a few anti parasite herbs and cycling their use ensures the parasite does not become resistant o the herbs. Once the infection is under control and the parasite eliminated you should follow up with probiotics to make sure your gut is re-populated with good bacteria.
Please feel free to ask any questions or leave comments below.
How Do You Get Parasites
There are a number of ways to contract a parasite. Here are the most common causes:
- contaminated food and water
- unclean or contaminated fruits and vegetables
- the bottom of your foot
Once a person is infected with a parasite, its very easy to pass it along. If you have a parasite and dont wash your hands after using the restroom, you can easily pass microscopic parasite eggs onto anything you touch: the bathroom door handle, salt shaker, your phone or anyone you touch. Traveling overseas is another way that foreign parasites can be introduced to your system. Its also very easy to contract a parasite when handling animals.
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Types Of Intestinal Parasites In Humans
Parasites are living forms that feed on a host to gain nourishment and protection.
They can cause poor nutrient absorption, leading to weakness and weight loss or weight gain.
If youre infected with a gut parasite, you can also develop a whole range of symptoms such as skin irritations and unexplained rashes, hives and eczema, aches and pains in your muscles and joints, general fatigue, depression and feelings of apathy.
Symptom: Increased Gi Upset
Since parasites like to live in your digestive tract, sometimes digestive symptoms can increase during a parasite cleanse. You might experience bloating, constipation, diarrhea, cramps, or other issues with your digestion.
How to Fight It
- Fresh ginger or pure aloe can be calming to your digestive system. If youre struggling with diarrhea, carbon-based binders can help bind your stools.
- A digestive essential oil blend of ginger, fennel, peppermint, rosemary, and lemon can also be helpful to apply topically on your stomach.
- Traditionally, chamomile has been used to treat digestive ailments. Chamomile tea may protect you against diarrhea, nausea, and gas due to its anti-inflammatory properties.
You can also up your green juice or bone broth intake to give your digestive system a break.
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How You Catch Worms
Worms are mainly spread in small bits of poo from people with a worm infection. Some are caught from food.
You can get infected by:
- touching objects or surfaces with worm eggs on them if someone with worms does not wash their hands
- touching soil or swallowing water or food with worm eggs in it mainly a risk in parts of the world without modern toilets or sewage systems
- walking barefoot on soil containing worms only a risk in parts of the world without modern toilets or sewage systems
- eating raw or undercooked beef, pork or freshwater fish containing baby worms more common in parts of the world with poor food hygiene standards
You can catch some worms from pets, but this is rare.
Have You Seen Some Of Your Friends Who Eat More But Stay Thin
Have you ever thought about where the food in their tummy has gone?
Okay, their metabolism factor may be great, but they never put on weight. The main reason, they may suffer from intestinal worms.
Have you experienced stomach upsets very often?
Do you find yourself suffering from fatigue? Then please get ready for the bad news. There is a chance, you harbor the wily intestinal worms in your holy tummy. They are gobbling up the food at a fast pace and your body has gone shorn of nutrients. Did the thought give you the creeps? Well, it did to me. But I solved the problem with the help of home remedies.
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Are Stomach Parasites Causing Your Fatigue
Page Contents
You might wonder why Im including an article on stomach parasites symptoms in a website about chronic fatigue syndrome.
The reason is that after carrying out a lot of testing, including comprehensive stool testing, it was discovered that I had a stomach parasite. This parasite contributed greatly to my particular version of chronic fatigue syndrome.
I think it is very important that you carry out testing to discover if stomach parasites could be contributing to your chronic fatigue.
There are some stomach parasite symptoms to watch out for and Ill go into this further in the following information.
Normally, there are thousands of tiny organisms and bacteria living in your gut. Most of them are harmless and are responsible for contributing to the balance and general health of your digestive system.
Sometimes, however, you may experience a range of gut-specific symptoms such as:
- Unexplained constipation
All of these symptoms can be traced to a parasitic infection.
What Is A Digestive Parasite Cleanse
A parasite cleanse is a way to get rid of parasites from your body. A proper parasite cleanse is more than just buying some product that says “parasite cleanse”. And if you just take parasite killing supplements, the parasite infection can sometimes come back worse than ever. Depending on the type of parasite you have, you may need to make significant changes to prevent re-infection.
There are 7 steps to a proper parasites cleanse.
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What Is Ascaris Lumbricoides
Ascaris lumbricoides, which is also referred to as just Ascaris, is a parasitic wormone that can grow up to 14 inches long that lives in the intestine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explains. Ascaris eggs come out in the poop of an infected person and, if a person with an Ascaris infection poops outside or if their feces is used as fertilizer, the worm eggs can be deposited in the soil. From there, they can be accidentally ingested by someone who puts their hands or fingers that have contaminated dirt on them in their mouth, or by eating vegetables or fruits that have not been carefully peeled, washed, or cooked, the CDC says.
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Can Giardiasis Be Prevented
Some food safety and hygiene precautions can help prevent giardiasis. To help protect your family:
- Drink only from water supplies that have been approved by local health authorities.
- Bring your own water when you go camping or hiking. Never drink from sources like mountain streams. Or boil water for at least 10 minutes.
- Wash raw fruits and vegetables well before you eat them.
- Wash your hands well before you cook food for yourself or for your family.
- Teach kids to wash their hands after every trip to the bathroom and especially before eating.
- Wash your hands often if you’re caring for someone who has giardiasis.
- Have your kids wash their hands well after handling anything in “touch tanks” in aquariums, a potential source of giardiasis.
- Always wash hands well after changing a diaper.
- Have your water checked on a regular basis if it comes from a well.
Also, it’s questionable whether infants and toddlers still in diapers should be sharing public pools. But they definitely should not if they’re having diarrhea or loose stools .
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What Are The Causes And Symptoms Of Trichinellosis
Trichinellosis is different than other roundworm infections. Its not an intestinal infection. It affects your muscles. You get it through eating undercooked meat, especially sausage, pork, horse, walrus and bear meat.
Some people may experience mild symptoms or none at all. But you may feel tired or get stomach symptoms, including:
- Diarrhea.
When trichinosis enters the muscles, you may get:
- Eye infection and rashes.
Symptoms And Sources Of Infection
Andy Miller, MD, is board-certified in infectious disease and internal medicine. He is an associate professor at Weill Cornell Medicine, associate attending physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery and New York Presbyterian Hospital and a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of America.
It is estimated that three out of five Americans will be affected by parasites at some point in their lives. From protozoa to roundworms, tapeworms to flukes, there are four main classifications of parasites that infect humans. Symptoms may be mild or severe,
Learn about the various types of parasites, symptoms, and the sources of infection and spread.
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Consider Help From The Body Ecology Parasite Cleanse If You Eat A Nourishing Diet Practice Stress Management And Still Struggle With:
- Digestive disorders
- Mental distress
- Autoimmune disease
Many times, its a lack of a strong inner ecosystem a lack of good bacteria inside of us that has much to do with why a large amount of us are infected with parasites today. Some amount of parasites living in the body is considered normal. But most people have far too many. An untreated parasitic infection can have a huge impact on health, mood, and behavior.
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Types Of Parasites And What They Do
Specifically though, here are just a few types of parasites and what they do:
- Roundworms. This specific type of parasite can lay 200,000 eggs a day and grow up to 15 feet long. Estimates show that 1 billion people are infected with this one. Symptoms are upper abdominal discomfort, asthma, insomnia, appendicitis, peritonitis, fever, weight loss and rashes due to the secretions or waste products from the worms.
Large numbers of them can cause blockages in the intestinal tract, hemorrhages when penetrating the intestinal wall, abscesses in the liver, hemorrhagic pancreatitis, loss of appetite, and insufficient absorption of digested foods.
- Hookworm. This parasite afflicts over 700 million people. Hookworm infection induces a complex mixture of host-protective and pathological immune responses. The larvae of hookworm penetrate the skin. When hookworms reach adulthood, they can sap the victims strength, vitality and overall well-being.
Young worms use their teeth to burrow through the intestinal wall and feed on your blood. Symptoms from hookworm are iron deficiency, abdominal pain, loss of appetite, protein deficiency, dry skin and hair, skin irritations, edema, distended abdomen, mental dullness, and eventually cardiac failure.
- Tapeworms. These may grow to 35 feet long and live ten years inside a persons intestine. Some tapeworms can lay as many as one million eggs per day. Their bodies are in separate segments with hooks and suction cups on their skull.
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Why Should You Care About Stomach Parasites
Even in light of these statistics, many people may find it in themselves to shrug and say, “oh well out of sight, out of mind” when it comes to parasites.
But the problems with parasites go well beyond the “ick” factor of having a bunch of creepy-crawlies roaming around inside you. Stomach parasites can cause serious health problems. These include:
- Digestive issues
- Yeast infections
- Itchiness around the vagina and/or anus
Unfortunately, many people on the standard Western diet have become desensitized to the above health problems.
It’s often only once people do a parasite cleanse that they realize just how terrible parasites were making them feel.
Luckily, this article is going to give you the skinny on how to get rid of parasites naturally.
First, though, let’s look at the types of stomach parasites so we can understand where they come from.
Iodamoeba Btschlii And Entamoeba Histolytica
I. bütschlii and E. histolytica are both amoebas.14 The elderly and immunocompromised are especially vulnerable to infection by amoebas. Outbreaks usually happen in nursing homes and other community living facilities.
Infection of E. histolytica is called amoebiasis.14 Early symptoms of amoebiasis include abdominal cramping and diarrhea. If left untreated, these parasites can travel to the liver and form painful abscesses. They also travel to the brain, lungs, and spleen.15
Iodamoeba bütschlii is an amoeba common in pigs and humans. Much like Blastocystis, it was also previously thought to be non-pathogenic, but there have been challenges to that thought in recent years.16 One study published in Oxfords Molecular Biology and Evolution journal reported that high concentrations of Iodamoeba have been linked to episodes of diarrhea and abdominal pain.17 This same study found that Ioadamoeba is an incredibly diverse organism, meaning that different strains may pose a higher risk of causing illness than others.
Considering the unpredictability of Ioadamoeba, we believe the benefit of treating it outweighs the risk of leaving it unchecked.
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What Are The Signs & Symptoms Of Ascariasis
Most people with ascariasis don’t have any symptoms. Those who do can have symptoms that range from mild to severe depending on how many worms are in the intestines. Symptoms also depend on which part of the body is affected. They include:
- coughing up worms
- diarrhea
- belly pain or bloating
Kids are more likely than adults to complain of gastrointestinal symptoms. That’s because their intestines are smaller and more likely to get blocked by the worms. A large mass of worms in the intestines can lead to malnutrition and poor growth. It can also block the appendix and other organs, leading to appendicitis or problems with the liver, pancreas, or gallbladder.
How Are Parasitic Infections Diagnosed And Treated
The treatment for parasitic infections depends on the type of infection and how far the infection has progressed. Blood tests can show the presence of parasites such as those that cause Chagas disease and samples of stool can show the presence of parasites that infect the intestines.
Giardia infections: The infection usually clears up on its own within a few weeks. If the infection is severe or does not clear up, your doctor may prescribe a medication like metronidazole , tinidazole or nitazoxanide .
Chagas disease: Antiparasitic medications benznidazole and nifurtimox will kill the parasites, but other treatments to manage the complications like heart irregularities may be needed.
Tapeworm: The most commonly used medications to kill tapeworms are praziquantel , albendazole , and nitazoxanide . However, if the infection has progressed and become more invasive, you may need treatment with anti-inflammatory medications, anti-seizure medications, a shunt to drain fluid from your brain, or surgery to remove cysts caused by the tapeworm.
Roundworm: There are several types of roundworm so treatment varies according to the infection. The most commonly used medications for roundworm include medendazole , albdendazole and ivermectin . Surgery could be required to remove the worm if there is a bowel obstruction.
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