How eating undercooked pork could leave your body and brain riddled with tapeworm larvae

Consuming undercooked meat is rarely a good suggestion—it can provide you a nasty case of meals poisoning inside 24 hours. And there are different, longer-term dangers to be cautious of too.

Spare a thought for the affected person who attended a Florida hospital to be X-rayed following a fall—solely to find he was riddled with parasitic eggs that had become 1000’s of cysts inside his physique.

Sam Ghali, an pressing care physician from the College of Florida, just lately shared a picture of the X-ray on social media, explaining that the affected person had developed the situation after consuming undercooked pork contaminated with tapeworm larvae.

Pork can carry taenia solium larvae, a parasitic tapeworm. After consuming contaminated pork, the larvae get into physique tissues the place they type cysts—a situation known as cysticercosis. The larvae can journey wherever within the physique together with muscle groups, liver, lungs and kidneys earlier than decaying, which might result in infections.

Whereas in lots of tissues the larvae could develop undetected, within the pores and skin or muscle groups noticeable bulges could seem.

Cysticercosis might be recognized via a wide range of checks, together with imaging, blood checks and doubtlessly a lumbar puncture to have a look at cerebrospinal fluid.

Parasites on the mind

In case you’re significantly unfortunate, larvae cysts may journey to the mind, resulting in neurocysticercosis—a important reason for acquired epilepsy worldwide.

On entry to the physique, the parasite is in “immunologic equilibrium” with its host—which means that it suppresses the physique’s varied immune responses and causes solely minimal, if any, tissue irritation. Ultimately, although, neurocysticercosis may cause worrying signs together with extreme complications, blindness, convulsions and epileptic seizures.

Within the last stage of the illness, the cysts degenerate and die, leaving a small calcified scar behind. This remnant typically invokes an immune response within the physique which might additional enhance calcification—the buildup of calcium deposits in physique tissues. Calcified mind scars can contribute to signs together with seizures lengthy after the cyst has degenerated.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s declare in his 2012 divorce deposition that earlier well being points have been “attributable to a worm that acquired into my mind and ate a portion of it after which died” is a now infamous instance of doable neurocysticercosis.

RFK Jr. additionally described the results of the parasite in his deposition: “I’ve cognitive issues, clearly. I’ve short-term reminiscence loss, and I’ve longer-term reminiscence loss that impacts me.”

Wash your arms

Intestinal an infection by an grownup tapeworm is named taeniasis. In people, though the tapeworm may cause an upset abdomen, it can be asymptomatic—aside from rice grain-sized eggs within the feces.

There are three tapeworms that may result in taeniasis: taenia saginata, taenia solium and taenia asiatica. Taenia saginata is transmitted by cattle whereas taenia solium and taenia asiatica are transmitted by pigs. As soon as within the intestines, these tapeworms proceed to develop. After roughly 4 months, they launch a whole bunch of proglottids (fertilized eggs) into the host’s gastrointestinal tract. These proglottids are expelled from the physique in feces however are immediately infectious.

In addition to consuming contaminated meat, people might be contaminated by ingesting contaminated water—or by contaminated folks not washing their arms after going to the bathroom after which getting ready meals.

Easy methods to kill a tapeworm

Anthelmintic medication, together with praziquantel and niclosamide, both kill or paralyze the tapeworm, making it simpler for the physique to expel it via feces.

However some research report that roughly 38% of cysts calcify after taking anthelmintic medication, worsening signs. Anti-inflammatory medication could also be used to deal with neurocysticercosis circumstances, to stop extra calcification occurring as a part of the inflammatory response.

In growing areas of the world, or the place a few of these medication are usually not licensed or much less accessible, extra conventional treatments could also be used to kill tapeworms or expel them from the physique, whereas stopping infectious proglottids from being launched. Research present that consuming a mix of pumpkin seeds and areca nuts allowed nearly 80% of individuals with intestinal tapeworms to move them entire.

To keep away from contracting a tapeworm or cysticercosis, observe fundamental hygiene measures akin to common hand washing. Additionally wash and peel your greens in clear water earlier than consuming them.

If seeing the results of cysticercosis hasn’t put you off pork for good, keep away from the chance of an infection by making certain your pork is correctly cooked to a minimum of 80°C for 10 minutes to kill all tapeworm eggs. Decrease temperatures work too, however require longer cooking occasions. In fact, cooking meat completely like this also needs to make it easier to keep away from any nasty circumstances of meals poisoning.

This text is republished from The Dialog below a Inventive Commons license. Learn the unique article.