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Gardening is a peaceful activity that helps dissipate the stress of daily life. If you love spending time digging, planting, and weeding, I hope you remember to wear gardening gloves because this relaxing pastime can cause silent stress – the stress of hosting unwanted guests in your gut.
Gardening is one way peopleend up with hookworm, one of the intestinal parasites that can exist in human intestines. You can also get infected with parasites by walking barefoot outside, where the soil may be contaminated.
Hookworm is one example of intestinal worms that can live in the human gut. Intestinal worms form part of intestinal parasites, which also include single-celled organisms that can live in the intestines. Parasites are organisms that use the body of a host to survive and spread to other hosts.
In developing countries with substandard sanitation conditions, parasites are a huge problem among small children, causing death and stunted development.
Let's learn more about these creepy crawlies so we know how to avoid being infested by them and how to get rid of them should they take up residence inside the gut.
See Also: Gut Health 101: Everything You Need to Know!
There are a host of parasitic worms that can take up residence in your body. They are divided into flatworms (Platyhelminthes) and roundworms (nematodes).
Flatworms are soft-bodied, flattened parasitic worms that live in the intestines of humans or animals. Common types include tapeworms and flukes. Infestation with these types of worms can lead to malnutrition because these organisms absorb nutrients directly from the host's digestive system.
Roundworms are barrel-shaped worms that infest the intestines of humans and animals. Common species include pinworms and hookworms. They feed on the blood of their host, which canlead to anemia. Roundworm infections are spread through contaminated food, water, or soil.
Worms don't always cause symptoms, but you might be able to see evidence in your stool. Some worms and eggs are too small to see, but evidence of pinworms, tapeworms, and roundworms are visible. If you have tapeworms, you may see what looks like small grains of rice in your stool.
Roundworms sometimes break off in the stool or you may even see live worms in the stool. Pinworms may appear like strings of white thread in the stool. They may also be visible in the area of the anus. The presence of pinworm eggs can be confirmed with a "Scotch tape" test. The doctor touches a piece of it to the anus a few times and then looks at the tape under a microscope.
The creepy thing is: that you can walk around with worms (or other parasites) for years without knowing it because there are no symptoms. If you have symptoms, they can be any of the following:
Abdominal pain, including all the abdominal organs, such as the stomach, liver, gallbladder, pancreas, small intestine, and large intestine.
Parasite infections are most common in tropical and subtropical regions and developing countries where sanitation is of a poor standard.
You can get infected with intestinal worms by:
Traveling to underdeveloped destinations and drinking the local water is a massive risk factor for contracting parasites.
It's a bit upsetting to realize that one's insides can be infested with worms. That is creepy enough, but to learn that they can happily live inside you for years somehow makes it worse. Parasites have a lifespan of several years. When a parasite dies, it will simply exit the host's body.
The average lifespan of the major intestinal worm species isone to two years.
Tapeworms can live in a human host for 30 years and they can grow really long – up to 22 feet!
Fortunately, no one needs to be stuck with unwelcome intestinal guests. There are many ways to help them leave your body once you are aware of their presence.
The main treatment for worms is medication. The type of anti-parasitic medication, the dosage, and the duration of treatment will depend on the type of worm that your doctor identifies.
Most people respond positively to treatment. Should you decide not to take medication, you can try the following remedies to treat gut parasites. Some of these treatments are not scientifically proven but have been used successfully in countries where medical services are not readily available.
You may try homeopathic remedies to get rid of worms. Homeopaths make use of highly diluted medications to treat medical conditions, including parasitic infections. A review of several studies found that homeopathic remedies lead toa reduction in the number of parasites and an improvement in the condition of treated animals. However, the researchers called for more robust studies in humans.
Homeopaths have a range of remedies at their disposal for the treatment of intestinal parasites.
In a sense, probiotics are the opposite of parasites as they benefit their host. Probiotics help to keep the intestinal biome in balance. In recent years, they have been used to control parasitic infections. Promising research shows that probiotics might providestrain-specific protection against parasites.
However, scientists don't yet fully understand the mechanisms behind these outcomes.
If you want to take probiotics, it's best to discuss it with your health provider first, as the supplement might not be appropriate in all cases.
Some traditional anecdotes suggest eating raw papaya seeds can help remove intestinal parasites. Papaya seeds contain papain - a type of enzyme that helps break down proteins and seems to break down the protective outer coating of intestinal parasites. Thereby, killing off these worms.
In one smallstudy back in 2007, Nigerian children were treated with raw papaya seeds which got rid of parasites in their stools.
Health experts suggest taking the enzyme 30 minutes before or after meals may help to clear up parasites. They warn that papain may interact with blood-thinning medicines.
As an antioxidant, vitamin C supports the immune function so the body can fight infections, including those caused by parasites. Vitamin C supports the production of white blood cells and the function of phagocytes - a type of white blood cell that can destroy harmful foreign invaders in the intestine, including parasites.
Vitamin C may help defend against parasitic infections by supporting the immune system, but there is no accepted dosage for the treatment of parasites.
See Also: Scurvy or Vitamin C Deficiency? Everything You Need to Know!
Zinc is present in all the cells of the body, and it plays an important role in helping the immune system to function properly. Research in mice has shown that a severe zinc deficiencyimpairs the immune response of the host to intestinal parasites, resulting in the parasite surviving longer in the host.
If you have been diagnosed with parasites, ask your doctor about taking a zinc supplement to support your immune system.
Fermented foods can alter the gut biome, and may protect against intestinal parasites. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis studied communities in Liberia and Indonesia and found that those who experience parasitic infections have different gut microbiomes than those who don't have trouble with infections.
The researchers concluded thataltering the gut microbiome may protect people from reinfection. One way to do this is to include fermented foods in your diet.
See Also: 10 Probiotic Foods That You Should be Eating for Your Gut!
Turmeric has antimicrobial properties, including anti-parasitic effects. In animal studies, turmeric has been shown toreduce the number of parasitic worms significantly. Studies must be done to confirm this effect of turmeric in humans.
Garlic is used to treat a wide range of medical conditions. It may also be effective against intestinal parasites, especially if eaten raw.
Cloves are well-known for treating various ailments. In tropical Asia, cloves have been used to combat parasitic infections such as malaria. In the US, cloves have been used to hold off parasitic worms, candida, and food-borne microbes like germs, viruses, fungi, and parasites.
Known for their antimicrobial powers, cloves have been used as a natural remedy for many parasitic and microbial conditions for a long time.
Carrots have a lot of fiber, which may assist in flushing out intestinal worms. Consider eating them raw on an empty stomach.
In addition, carrots are high in vitamin A which can protect against gut worms.
Research has shown that children with parasitic infections havelow levels of vitamin A.
Coconuts are enormously nutritious and have a slew of medicinal properties, including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and antiparasitic, among others. The coconut water and flesh contain these properties.
In Asian countries, people crush the flesh of a fresh coconut and eat it to treat parasites.
On the whole, human worm medications don't seem to disrupt the beneficial bacteria in the gut significantly.
The majority ofworm medications kill the worms themselves. For example, medicines like Mebendazole, Albendazole, and Tiabendazole kill the worms by preventing them from absorbing the sugars they need to live.
Other medications like Praziquantel and Ivermectin paralyze the worms in the gut so they can't resist when the stools move through the gut and they get expelled.
See Also: Dysbiosis or Imbalance of Gut Biome? Everything You Need to Know!
Scientists suspect intestinal worms may have an important impact on the composition of the gut microbiome. Research has found the effect of roundworms and hookworms on gut microbial composition is small, but the treatment of infection results insignificant changes.
Fiber increases the bulk in stools, boosting regular bowel movements, which may help with physically removing the worms and their eggs from the intestines.
Some alternative medicine practitioners promote a gut cleanse or detox, which involves following a high-fiber diet and taking supplements to clear the intestines. However, there is currently no scientific evidence that supports this.
One study in mice actually found that administering fiber (inulin)prevented worms from being removed and instead caused chronic infection.
See Also: The Crucial Need for Fiber in Our Diets and How Fiber Powders Can Help!
Intestinal worms are a serious problem in developing countries with poor sanitary conditions, but it's not restricted to those areas. An estimated 1.5 billion of the world population is infected with worms, including millions of Americans.
Fortunately, it's simple to avoid this unpleasant situation. Make it a habit to wash your hands frequently, and wash all fruit and vegetables thoroughly. Be especially careful when you work with meat. If you keep pets, be extra vigilant about deworming them regularly and keeping them clean.
Also, a robust immune system is your first line of defense against any intruder, including intestinal creepy crawlies. So, make sure you armor your body with a balanced diet that provides all the nutrients it needs to defend itself effectively.
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