If you consume tapeworm larvae, they can develop into adult tapeworms in the intestines. They attach to the wall of the intestine with suckers or hooks, and remain there to feed and grow. An adult tapeworm can be very long and live in the intestine for many years.
When you have an intestinal tapeworm infection, the tapeworm head adheres to the intestinal wall, and the proglottids grow and produce eggs. Adult tapeworms can live for up to 30 years in a host. Intestinal tapeworm infections are usually mild, with only one or two adult tapeworms.
Many times, people can be infected for long periods of time without even knowing they have a tapeworm infection. While viral or bacterial infections can disappear in a matter of days or weeks, a tapeworm could be with you for years.
If your doctor confirms you have a tapeworm infection, follow their instructions to lessen the risk of complications. If left untreated, there's the risk of developing an invasive infection which can affect your tissue and organs. This can lead to brain swelling, inflammation, and intestinal blockage.
Any worms in your gut will eventually pass out in your poo. You may not notice this. To avoid becoming infected again or infecting others, it's very important during the weeks after starting treatment to wash your hands: after going to the toilet.
"After treatment, the tapeworm dies and is usually digested within the intestine, so worm segments do not usually pass into the stool." The deworming medication called an anthelmintic may be given as a tablet or an injection.
You can easily kill tapeworms with anthelmintic drugs, including praziquantel (Biltricide®), albendazole (Albenza®) and nitazoxanide (Alinia®). Healthcare providers usually recommend praziquantel because it also paralyzes the worm, forcing it to dislodge from your intestinal wall.
Tapeworm infections are rare in the United States. When they do happen, they're easy to treat. Often, people may not know they have a tapeworm infection because they have no symptoms or their symptoms are mild.
Eat more raw garlic, pumpkin seeds, pomegranates, beets, and carrots, all of which have been used traditionally to kill parasites. In one study, researchers found that a mixture of honey and papaya seeds cleared stools of parasites in 23 out of 30 subjects. Drink a lot of water to help flush out your system.
Left untreated, adult tapeworms can live in a host body for up to 30 years.
If you have a tapeworm infection, you may not have any symptoms. But some people have nausea, stomach pain, weakness, or diarrhea. You might notice a change in appetite (eating more or less than usual). And since the tapeworm keeps your body from absorbing nutrients from food, you may lose weight.
The most common tapeworm infection in Australia is caused by dwarf tapeworm. There is also a risk in Australia of contracting a serious condition called hydatid disease from the eggs of a type of tapeworm called Echinococcus granulosus found in dog faeces (poo).
In the human intestine, the young form of the tapeworm from the infected meat (larva) develops into the adult tapeworm. A tapeworm can grow to longer than 12 feet (3.5 meters) and can live for years. Tapeworms have many segments.
But could a tapeworm really be lured out of a person with a lump of meat? Not really, according to Brian Louden, from Science Channel's MythBusters. “Luckily, this entire idea is from the imagination of a creative individual who took already scream-inducing diseases and created a terrifying chimera,” he told TheWrap.
Nutrition and Supplements
Eat more raw garlic, pumpkin seeds, pomegranates, beets, and carrots, all of which have been used traditionally to kill parasites. In one study, researchers found that a mixture of honey and papaya seeds cleared stools of parasites in 23 out of 30 subjects.
This infection occurs after a person swallows tapeworm eggs. The larvae get into tissues such as muscle and brain, and form cysts there (these are called cysticerci). When cysts are found in the brain, the condition is called neurocysticercosis.
Tapeworms can cause digestive problems including abdominal pain, loss of appetite, weight loss, and upset stomach. The most visible sign of taeniasis is the active passing of proglottids (tapeworm segments) through the anus and in the feces.
Symptoms of cysticercosis depend on the location and size of the cysts, and can range from no symptoms at all to tender lumps under the skin to headaches, seizures, stroke or death.
Diagnosis for tapeworm infection is usually done through detection of eggs and proglottids (worm segments) via a stool test, although many patients' tapeworms are detected when they find proglottids in their own stool or in the toilet. It's not possible to determine which species of tapeworm is present without testing.
If pork tapeworm larvae move out of the intestine, they can migrate to other parts of the body and cause damage to the liver, eyes, heart, and brain. These infections can be life-threatening. Seizures are the most common symptom of cysticercosis, the infection caused by the larvae of the pork tapeworm.
An adult dwarf tapeworm can live for 4-6 weeks. However, once you are infected, the dwarf tapeworm may reproduce inside the body (autoinfection) and continue the infection.
"It's very rare, particularly in Australia. There's only one documented case of a type of fish tapeworm in Australia," Dr Ho said. "But in other countries, particularly in the northern hemisphere, people do get them."
The worms mature in the intestine and then move through the digestive system to lay eggs, at night, in the anal area. The itchiness tends to be worse or more noticeable at night, and can sometimes wake a person with pinworms. A pinworm can lay thousands of microscopic eggs.