When we are excited as humans or willing to try something out, there are a lot of health risks that we take that we do not even take seriously because we are lost in what we are looking for or that quest. For instance, in the light of looking for remedy to become slimmer or have a non wrinkled face, ladies can go to the extreme. A friend of mine would order anything online just to make sure she keeps up with her stature.
What do you think would be the result of a person who goes a long way to try something new. Let's look at a scenario where a person goes to the extent of trying out tapeworm just to be able to lose weight and remain slim. While this is a scenario, a lot of people do this and some even go to another length of extreme. Compared to exercise and dieting where it requires stress that is continuous with no visible result and dieting is untold punishment which will not allow for the eating of whatever she feels like eating. These are the basis at which the supposed tapeworm therapy adverts say. The adverts emphasizes on symbiosis where both organisms are doing good for one another without causing harm to themselves.
This weight loss method would seem controversial for anyone but for people who are really trying to get off their weight and they can decide to get these therapy. So let's say our imaginary female decides to buy this capsule that has tapeworm eggs in it and want to consume them so they can start having a symbiotic relationship where she feeds them and they take away her fat. Taking 2 capsules our weight loss damsel begins to eat everything she can lay her hands upon and she was enjoying it, and whenever she checked her weight she would notice that her weight was dropping but along with the weight loss, there was a cramping effect that was going to put her on stand still for a few minutes but it was fine since she wasn't going to be laying down for a year.
Soon, she began to notice some movement in her stomach and as if she was feeling movement on her cheeks but that's not really a problem. She would also see thing in the toilet when she went to pass out feces but she thought it was the fat doing its thing. At some point, you would expect that she wouldn't be seeing any changes, and so she decided to take more so she can continue to loss of weight.
Soon, she began to see bumps on her face, and she decided to press one of the bumps and the next thing she remembered was pressing a bump when she woke up. When she woke up, she felt pressure on her face like her eyes was being pushed out of her face. She began to feel serious headache that landed her a the hospital. When she was examined physically, she was looking fine a closer look at the brain said something else.
Before discussing that, our brain is protected by the meninges, a liquid called the cerebrospinal fluid sits between two meninges and hey allow for blood to flow into the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid flows into the brain but it is contained in a closed space. The doctors suspect that it might be her cerebrospinal fluid being too low or too high, so they decided to check the cerebrospinal fluid pressure by taking it from her spine and upon examination, it was two times the level it should be so what could lead to this high pressure?
Actually, since the Cerebrospinal fluid is in an enclosed space, it would need for something to get to it for it to increase pressure so what could lead to it? Well, one of such things is Sugar. We know that anywhere sugar is, water follows which means that water could have gotten into the fluid causing the pressure of the fluid to increase but Sugar isn't the culprit here. White blood cells are another reasons and this happens when they want to fight bacteria or fungal infection that found their way to the cerebrospinal fluid but there were no fungal and bacteria in the fluid but then a virus could cause it at first if it finds its way to the cerebrospinal fluid.
The first caution to take is to help reduce the cerebrospinal fluid by removing some cerebrospinal fluid and letting them go into the body. They also added antiviral treatment into the treatment and since gain relief, they allowed her to go home but the headache didn't actually go. She began to feel worse at home and would begin to have blurred vision, and headache that looked like her brains were going to burst out of her skull.
She got to the hospital and this time doctors noticed the bumps and asked her to explain what was going on. She talked about the blurry vision, severe headache, and loss of consciousness for a long time. At this point, there was a MRI scan on her brain and it showed that there were multiple lesions around the brain, her neck, tongue and face. There were also spots on her spine and liver. They questioned her and she mentioned the medication she was taking. She gave it to the doctor and the doctor saw the name Saginata which refered to Taenia Saginata which meant beef tapeworm.
It was clear that the tapeworms in her were beyond Saginata rather there were Solium also there leading to Cysticercosis. A condition that can occur when cysticerci embeds in the brain and finds their way to the subarachnoid space where the cerebrospinal fluid is thereby increasing the pressure of the CSF. When it affects the brain, it can lead to Neurocysticercosis causing multiple seizures, weakness, numbness, double vision, diminish cognitive function and personality changes.
Giving the patient Praziquantel tablets will help force calcium into the muscles of the tapeworm, causing the worm to contract a lot and detach from gut. Another medicine Albendazole will help starve the worm of sugar thereby causing it not to have energy, and Steroids to help prevent inflammation. Losing weight is not enough for you to get to start trying unconventional things and risking ones health. It is important to visit the doctor for anything related to your health, they know who to direct you to if you need to be referred.
Post Reference
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2725874/
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352621115000030
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcpc2027080
https://www.cdc.gov/taeniasis/about/index.html
https://radiopaedia.org/cases/neurocysticercosis-34
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6947806/
Image Reference
Image 1 || NeedPix || Lose Weight Fat Slim
Image 2 || Wikimedia || Tapeworm Infection
Image 3 || Wikimedia ||MRI brain sagittal section
Image 4 || Picryl || Gravid proglottid from the cestode Taenia saginata 5259 lores
