How Do You Know if You Have Worms in Your Head
- Definition
- What are tapeworms?
- Symptoms
- Symptoms of tapeworms
- Types
- Types of tapeworms
- Causes
- Causes of tapeworms
- When to See a Dr.
- When to see a doctor for tapeworms
- Diagnosis
- Diagnosis and tests for tapeworms
- Go Rid of Tapeworms
- How do you get rid of tapeworms?
- Treatments
- Treatments for a tapeworm infection
- Prevention
- Preventing a tapeworm infection
- Complications and Side Effects
- Complications and side furnishings of tapeworm treatments
- Center
- How Practise I Know If I Have Tapeworms? Heart
What are tapeworms?
If you accept tapeworms, you may not accept any symptoms. You may likewise notice symptoms such as: nausea or diarrhea, intestinal pain, hunger or loss of appetite, fatigue and weakness, weight loss, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and tapeworm segments visible in your bowel movements.
If y'all get tapeworms in your system, you can have a variety of symptoms. The severity depends on whether you lot consumed the tapeworms themselves or only the eggs of the worms.
There are medications to effectively treat tapeworms. Acquire more about the signs and symptoms of tapeworms.
Tapeworms are a type of intestinal parasite. The apartment, segmented worms live in humans and animals. They can alive for decades inside a host. The adult tapeworms alive mainly in their host'due south intestines but tapeworm larva can travel to other parts of the trunk.
The most common way people become tapeworms is by eating raw or undercooked meat from an affected animal. You tin can reduce your take a chance of tapeworm infections by cooking meat to an appropriate temperature and washing your hands well before eating.
Symptoms of tapeworms
Tapeworms go through three life stages. They outset as eggs, become larva, and then grow to adult tapeworms. People become tapeworms past ingesting the eggs or larva without realizing it.
If you lot swallow meat with tapeworm larvae in it, the larvae stay in your trunk, adhere to your intestinal wall, and continue to grow. They get adult tapeworms, which are long and segmented with a pointed caput. The caput stays attached to your intestine.
This type of tapeworm infection is called taeniasis, or intestinal infection.
As the tapeworm grows, the segments, called proglottids, fill with eggs then break off. They leave your trunk when yous pass bowel movements.
Tapeworms can live for up to thirty years and grow to equally large as eighty feet, though they are ordinarily much smaller.
If you accept taeniasis, you may non have any symptoms. You may also notice symptoms such as:
- Nausea or diarrhea
- Intestinal pain
- Hunger or loss of appetite
- Fatigue and weakness
- Weight loss
- Vitamin and mineral deficiencies
- Tapeworm segments visible in your bowel movements
If y'all ingest tapeworm eggs, they grow into larvae inside your body. The larvae tin leave the intestine and create larval cysts in other organs. This is chosen cysticercosis.
The cysts from cysticercosis can develop in your muscles, eyes, spinal cord, or encephalon. When this happens, yous could experience symptoms that include:
- Lumps under the skin
- Seizures and/or headaches
- Defoliation and remainder bug
- Encephalon swelling
- Stroke or death
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Types of tapeworms
There are iii main types of tapeworms that touch humans.
- Taenia saginata (beef tapeworm)
- Taenia solium (pork tapeworm)
- Taenia asiatica (Asian tapeworm)
The beef tapeworm tin can contaminate meat from cows. The pork and Asian varieties contaminate meat from pigs.
Tapeworms exist anywhere in that location is livestock. All the same, tapeworm infections are more than common in parts of the world such every bit Latin America, Red china, sub-Saharan Africa, or Southeast Asia. Whatever area with limited sanitation systems can also be a loftier-gamble spot for tapeworms.
Causes of tapeworms
Humans and other animals pass tapeworm eggs and larvae in their feces. If carrion gets into the vegetation or water an animal consumes, the animal volition become the parasites from that. Humans tin so get tapeworms from eating the meat of the animal.
People who piece of work around livestock are at hazard of getting tapeworm through their exposure to brute feces. If you handle infected feces and don't wash your hands thoroughly before eating, you tin accidentally ingest the tapeworms.
In rare cases, people can get tapeworms from human feces. This is more than common in places without adequate plumbing and sewage disposal.
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When to meet a doctor for tapeworms
If you think you have either type of tapeworm infection, you should call your doctor. Your doctor will help you decide if you lot need treatment right away or non.
Diagnosis and tests for tapeworms
Your doctor volition ask nigh your symptoms first. They may ask if you have recently traveled to areas where tapeworms are mutual or if you lot have been around pigs or cows. They will desire to know if y'all might have eaten contaminated meat recently.
To check if you have tapeworms in your intestine, your physician will ask for stool samples. They can put the samples under a microscope to look for tapeworm segments and their eggs.
If your doctor suspects y'all have an invasive tapeworm infection, they may social club blood tests to check for infection. They may also suggest you become an MRI or CT scan to see if there are larvae in your brain.
How do you get rid of tapeworms?
People around the world are quite often infected with parasites, including worms. At that place are unlike kinds of parasitic worms that volition invade your torso if given the chance. Ane of them is the tapeworm. The good news is that it is not that hard to rid yourself of tapeworms if you lot notice that yous have been infected.
Tapeworms are flatworms that tin live in your digestive organization. The tapeworm finds its mode into your intestines. It then attaches its head to the inner wall and feeds on the food that yous are digesting.
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Treatments for a tapeworm infection
Later your dr. confirms that yous have this parasite they may prescribe the following medications to get rid of your tapeworms:
- Praziquantel
- Albendazole
- Niclosamide: This medicine has not been approved for human use in the U.S.
In rare cases, tapeworms can pb to serious complications. These include blocking your intestines or the smaller ducts in your GI tract, such every bit the bile or pancreatic ducts.
Preventing a tapeworm infection
Here are some of the ways that yous tin protect yourself from or reduce the risk of a tapeworm infection:
- Wash your hands with soap and hot water earlier and after using the bathroom
- Avoid eating raw meat, including fish
- Always ensure that y'all thoroughly melt meat, including fish
- Freeze whatever raw meat that yous buy to kill any tapeworm eggs prior to cooking and consuming
- Avert eating raw vegetables
- Wash your hands with soap and hot water before preparing or eating
Complications and side effects of tapeworm treatments
Some of the medications used to get rid of tapeworms may crusade harmful side effects.
Praziquantel may cause vomiting, an allergic reaction, headache, dizziness, rash, stomach discomfort, or a fever.
Seek emergency medical assistance if you experience the post-obit symptoms of a serious allergic reaction:
- Hives
- Difficulty animate
- Swelling of your face, lips, tongue, or pharynx.
Albendazole may cause liver issues, stomach hurting, dizziness, headache, nausea, and vomiting. You should not use it if you are significant. It is not recommended for children under 6 months of age.
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Medically Reviewed on 3/2/2022
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Cysticercosis."
Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention: "Cysticercosis Diagnosis."
Centers for Affliction Control and Prevention: "Taeniasis."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Taeniasis Diagnosis."
Mayo Dispensary: "Tapeworm Infection."
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Parasites - Taeniasis."
Healthy Children: "Tapeworms."
HSE: "Diphyllobothrium latum."
Johns Hopkins Medicine: "Tapeworm."
Kids Wellness: "Tapeworm."
Mayo Clinic: "Praziquantel (Oral Road)."
NPS MEDICINEWISE: "Albendazole (Zentel) list extended to treat hookworm and strongyloidiasis."
World Wellness Organization: "What y'all demand to know virtually tapeworm infections."
Source: https://www.medicinenet.com/how_do_i_know_if_i_have_tapeworms/article.htm
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