Looking at illustrations that show parasites in the human body, most people are sure that they are not infected, and their risks of invasion are minimal. This is supported by arguments such as: “I carefully monitor hand hygiene” or “I do not have pets.”
However, the World Health Organization provides very dry but frightening figures: about 50 million people die every year in the world, more than 16 million of them are caused by parasitic and infectious diseases. Intestinal worm infections are in third place in terms of the number of patients.
Naturally, such figures make one think about the symptoms of parasitic invasion. It is important to understand here that most parasites exist in the human body absolutely asymptomatically. Dr. Thomas J. Brooke said this rather succinctly in his book Fundamentals of Medical Parasitology. He calls worms one of the oldest human parasites, which have perfectly adapted to the conditions of life in the intestines, so the patient himself does not even notice their presence.
Physician Ross Anderson points out that making its existence in the human body as invisible as possible is the primary goal of every parasite. They should not be considered stupid. They are very intelligent, naturally, in a certain sense, namely, in their ability to survive and increase the number of individuals of their species. Of course, the human body gives signals that it is infected, but most people simply do not pay attention to them. Indeed, who would think of a parasitic invasion with frequent colds, joint pain, constipation, skin problems or increased fatigue?
The statistics are relentless in terms of infections. So, every 8-9 encounter with the parasite ends with infection. Zoltan Ron (Canada), a well-known doctor and author of a large number of medical books, writes about this alarming fact. He points out that in North America, due to the annually growing flow of tourists and migrants, water, soil, and food are being polluted at an accelerated pace. In addition, people are increasingly using various chemicals and antibacterial agents. This has a direct impact on the spread of worms, amoebas, nematodes among the country’s population. Moreover, traditional medicine does not even suspect the scale of the disaster. Parasites are very common in meat products, especially in sausages, sausages, ham, bacon, chops, etc. Almost all cattle, poultry and fish are infected with parasites.
Dr. F. Nova, head of the Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, categorically states that in North America the number of people infected with parasites is much greater than in Africa. He also attributes this fact to chemical contamination of food and water, as well as to the general deterioration in the health of the nation.
It is understandable that the data provided are very threatening for people whose diet is based on fish and meat. Anna Louis Gittelman, in her edition of Guess What Came to Dinner, even compares parasitic diseases to an epidemic that has affected millions of Americans. Moreover, this epidemic is very indiscriminate, adults and children, men and women, poor and rich suffer from it. Its main danger, according to A. Gittelman, lies in the fact that the infection spreads secretly, and most doctors are unaware of it.
A parasite is an organism that provides its existence at the expense of the host. Parasites live in the human body, lead their lives, feed on human food and energy, and often on human cells and tissues. Recent studies indicate that 85% of North Americans have at least one parasite in their bodies. Some scientists add another 10% to this figure.
Dr. Ross Andersen has made the claim that parasitic infestation is the most underdiagnosed disease in the world. He admits that this is a very bold statement, but it is based on an analysis of data from the medical history of more than 20 patients and on many years of experience that exceeds 20 years.
Parasites in the human body can live almost anywhere. There are no barriers for them. They parasitize not only in the intestines, but also in the liver, in the joints and muscles, in the blood, in the brain, in the eyes. Science knows more than 100 species of parasites that live in the human body, ranging from amoebas invisible to the eye and ending with worms several meters long.
The head of the department of pathobiology at the Voltaire Reed Military Institute, Dr. Peter Veen, points out that the problem of parasitic diseases is very acute in America, but scientists and doctors have not yet realized the full scale of the threat.
It is possible to establish that parasites are really present in the human body by taking feces for analysis. This is the traditional and most common diagnostic method. However, it is extremely uninformative and unreliable, because a parasite can only be detected if a laboratory doctor sees its larvae through a microscope. But after all, worms do not always lay a large number of eggs, which means that during a standard study, the parasite may not be detected. Some experts recommend three tests, but this does not guarantee a reliable result. It is believed that at least 8 or even 10 fecal studies must be done to detect parasites.
At the same time, it was found that the most common parasites that live in the human intestine are helminths. All of them have a different shape, they can look like a tree leaf, a women’s bracelet, a pencil sharpened on both sides. However, one thing unites them – they pursue the goal of destroying their master, squeezing the maximum benefit out of his body. In addition, all parasites are very prolific and viable. It is a mistake to believe that helminthic invasion is exclusively a childhood disease. Very often, adults suffer from them, and most people are not even aware of such an unpleasant and dangerous neighborhood.