It’s true, that parasites are revolting to contemplate. But they are real; very real. Did you know 90% of all of the world’s population has some form of parasite living in their body? So, while it might be unpleasant to confront, it is a real problem that needs to be faced.

Right now, it’s almost certain that you have at least one parasite, and there’s a very good chance that you have more than one. And I mean more than one species. There could be millions of parasites in your body. Apart from vague feelings of fatigue and being “under the weather”, you may not know that you are competing for everything you swallow and that something inside you is treating YOU as a free meal.

Worms and cysts can travel to the brain and flourish there for years. It wouldn’t stop you thinking, though you might feel fatigued and easily confused. Moreover the invader can be almost completely painless, apart from occasional headaches. Sometimes worms wriggling around inside the skull are only found by chance, at operations by neurosurgeons.

That’s the biggest problem: people mainly don’t know they are harbouring even major parasites, unless the parasites get too strong and numerous and start producing unpleasant symptoms.

Helminths or worms can be split up like this:

whipworms
pinworms
threadworms
larger roundworms
hookworms
tapeworms
pork
beef
fish
flukes

Prof Scot Mumby