Before we get into the unpleasant aspects details of parasites in food, I have covered a selection of parasites that either may be of general interest, or as a result of client enquiries. You may not be travelling to the exotic parts of the world mentioned here but international transport has a way of bringing these parasites to you, as does shaking hands, touching a contaminated door handle or being served in a restaurant by a carrier who may have recently arrived in your country.
I will cover the basic information on these parasites from the perspective of what they are, how you catch them and a few of the symptoms you may display if infected.
Blastocystis Hominis
Blastocystis Hominis is a microscopic parasite found throughout the world in the stools of people who have abdominal pain, diarrhoea and other gastric disorders. The infection is called Blastocystosis.
Many people can carry Blastocystis in their intestines for years. Many carriers have Blastocystis, some without ever displaying symptoms.
Whether Blastocystis Hominis causes the symptoms is still controversial. It often appears with alongside other organisms that may be the actual cause of the symptoms commonly associated with Blastocystis infection. So Blastocystis Hominis may only be an indicator that other disease-causing agents are present.
Once thought to be a harmless yeast, Blastocystis Hominis is a microscopic single-celled parasite. It behaves like a tiny animal - hunting and gathering other microbes for food.
Blastocystis Hominis gets into the intestinal tract through oral-fecal contact, such as when a person preparing food doesn't wash hands thoroughly after using the toilet. Travellers often pick up Blastocystis Hominis in countries with lower standards of sanitation and personal hygiene.
If you have Blastocystis Hominis in your stool but no signs or symptoms, you probably don't need treatment. Even if you have symptoms, the Blastocystis infection may clear up on its own. If you have signs and symptoms that don't improve, read the information on Natural Cleanse and contact us.
The symptoms associated with Blastocystosis include unexplained weight loss, diarrhoea and abdominal pain or cramps, bloating and flatulence, nausea, anal itching and fatigue.
A highly-regarded (now retired) Homeotoxicologist I used to work with writes:
I have had a few cases but not nearly as many as I would expect considering the amount I read about it. It seems to be diagnosed all the time! I have never found Blastocystis Hominis on its own. Neither have I had any problems getting rid of it, at least no more than any other parasite. I suspect that many people do carry it but not at a level that is pathogenic to them. This would explain why I do not find it very often.
According to my findings there is nearly always another parasite/pathogen in addition to Blastocystis Hominis. If I found Blastocystis Hominis first I would be very suspicious and look further.
If there is Blastocystis Hominis on its own, then I would give a nosode with drainages and the normal dose of Natural Cleanse and retest in 4 weeks. After then I would increase the dose or add something else to the treatment, according to results, if necessary.
As they say, there are many ways to get the desired results and 5 capsules of Natural Cleanse a day as you suggest should do it. Of course, if there is some other parasite there too there then 5 x Natural Cleanse will get it anyway.
Entamoeba Histolytica
This is the most dangerous of the amoeba species. Like most single-celled protozoans, Entamoeba Histolytica has two forms: Trophozoite and Cyst.
As a Trophozoite it resides in the digestive tract where it feeds on bacterial and gut tissue. When diarrhoea occurs trophozoites are passed in liquid stools. If diarrhoea is not present, cysts form. These cysts are resistant to changes in temperature and environment and spread through direct contact from person to person or through food and water.
Amoebic dysentery is passed on as a result of careless hygiene where contaminated food and drink is consumed without adequate heat treatment, so it's not just a case of guessing what came to dinner, but also who prepared it, where, and under what conditions? If you happen to swallow contaminated food that contains trophozoites, hardly anything is likely to happen as they usually die in the acidity of the stomach. Some cysts however are particularly resistant to the acidic contents of the stomach and food contaminated with cysts can present a genuine risk of infection.
'Histolysis' means the breakdown and disintegration of organic tissue. Entamoeba Histolytica can bore right through the walls of the abdomen into the blood stream. From there, it is carried to vital organs. Although rare, if migrating organisms enter the portal vein enroute to the liver, the resultant liver abscess can induce hemorrhaging and cause localized oedema within the intestines.
Infections can last for years and may be accompanied by either no symptoms, some gastrointestinal distress, of full-blown dysentery with blood and mucus. Complications include ulcerative and abscess pain and, in few cases, intestinal blockage. The absence of symptoms or their intensity varies with such factors as the strain of amoeba, the host's immune health and any additional viruses present. The amoeba's enzymes help it to penetrate and digest human tissues, in return secreting toxic substances. One viable cyst can cause an infection.
Although fatalities are rare, Entamoeba Histolytica are found predominantly in tropical areas, especially in refugee communities where personal hygiene has been allowed to deteriorate. It is also frequently diagnosed among homosexual men.
A word on the Nepalese Amoeba which is very aggressive. In recent decades it has become common for climbers and hill walkers to visit Nepal where this parasite is found in streams and other water sources. Trekking through streams may allow the amoeba to be picked up on the soles of your boots. As travellers don't always clean their boots after each walk, Nepalese Amoeba are inadvertently carried back on the homeward journeys and are now being found in such places as the Alps, the Pennines and the Rockies.
Guinea worm
Guinea Worm Disease or Dracunculiasis is a parasitic worm infection that occurs predominantly in Africa, particularly the Sudan. It is a threadlike parasitic worm that grows and matures inside humans.
Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby writes on his allergy doctor website: "a fearsome parasite, the guinea worm, uses a human host. It migrates under the skin where it is quite visible, wriggling, and can grow to many feet in length, causing great pain and damage. The traditional way to get rid of these worms is to grab one end through a cut in the skin and wrap it round a stick; by winding the stick over a period of days, the worm is gradually drawn out."
"The reader may know that the traditional symbol for a doctor is the serpent wound round a stick. This has always been supposed to be a snake but a more serious suggestion is that the creature is the guinea worm and the sign of a healer is a man who can get rid of this burdensome pest! I go along with this suggestion. It would also make good sense of a quote from the Bible, concerning the Israelites on their migration back from Egypt: "And the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people; and much people of Israel died. And the Lord said unto Moses, 'Make thee a fiery serpent and set it upon a pole; and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live'." NUMBERS 21:6
Infection occurs when people drink standing water containing a tiny water flea that is infected with the larvae of the Guinea worm. Over the course of a year in the human body, the immature worms pierce the intestinal wall, grow to adulthood, and mate. The males die, and the females make their way through the body, maturing to a length of as much as 3 feet, and ending up near the surface of the skin, usually in the lower limbs.
A few days before the worm emerges, the person might develop a fever and have swelling and pain in the area where the worm is. A blister develops and then opens into a wound. When the wound is immersed in water, the worm begins to emerge. Most worms appear on the legs and feet, but they can occur anywhere on the body. After the worm emerges, the wound often becomes painfully swollen and infected.
The worms cause swelling and painful, burning blisters. To soothe the burning, sufferers tend to go into the water, where the blisters burst, allowing the worm to emerge and release a new generation of millions of larvae. In the water, the larvae are swallowed by small water fleas, and the cycle begins again.
Anyone who drinks standing pond or well water contaminated by persons with Guinea worm infection is at risk - in particular people who live in villages who depend on well water.
The most effective treatment is to remove the worm over many weeks by winding it around a small stick and pulling it out a tiny bit at a time. Sometimes the worm can be pulled out completely within a few days, but the process can take several weeks.
During the time that the worm is emerging and being removed, the affected person suffers intense pain and often cannot work or resume daily activities. Farmers cannot tend their crops, parents cannot care for children, and children miss school. Even after the worms are gone, people are often left with scarring and permanent crippling. Infection does not produce immunity, and many people in affected villages suffer the disease year after year.
Leishmaniasis
Leishmaniasis is spread by the bite of tiny sand flies that have become infected after biting an infected human or animal (a rodent or dog). Since sand flies make no audible noise when they fly, people aren't aware of their presence. Leishmaniasis can be spread by blood transfusions or contaminated needles - the main reason military personnel returning from the Gulf to the UK or USA are prohibited from giving blood. New cases of leishmaniasis each year are thought to be about 2 million.
About 350 million people live in the tropical and sub-tropical areas affected by sand flies, including Mexico, Central America, from northern Argentina to southern Texas, Southern Europe, Asia (not Southeast Asia), the Middle East and mostly East and North Africa.
Cutaneous Leishmania causes the Oriental sore, skin sores and an annoying blister that heals itself like a canker. The sores can change in size and appearance over time. They look like a volcano with a raised edge and can be painless or very painful. Some people have swollen glands near the sores (for example, under the arm if the sores are on the arm or hand)
Visceral Leishmaniasis harms the function of the internal organs (spleen, liver, bone marrow). People contracting Visceral Leishmaniasis usually have fever, weight loss, and an enlarged spleen and liver (usually the spleen is bigger than the liver). Many patients have swollen glands. Certain blood tests are abnormal: for example, patients usually have low blood counts, including a low red blood cell count (anemia), low white blood cell count, and low platelet count.
Leishmaniasis Donovani is the red alert of the species because it attacks the macrophages inside the body and can kill its host within a year.
Macrophages are a type of white blood that ingests foreign material. They are key players in the immune response to foreign invaders such as infectious micro-organisms and help destroy bacteria, protozoa, and tumor cells. Macrophages also release substances that stimulate other cells of the immune system.
Leishmaniasis Donovani is overcomes the immune system and brushes aside any response from either the helper or inflammatory T-Cells. As Leishmaniasis Donovani can only survive in certain types of cells they are fussy about where they live. Safely lodged inside the body's own macrophages, antibodies can't detect or reach them and the spread of leishmaniasis goes unchecked.
Anasakid
Dr. Clifford Dacso, a professor at Baylor College of Medicine, recalls a case he was involved in while working in the San Diego area about a decade ago.
"A friend of mine, a professor of biology at (the University of California-San Diego) had a dinner party for 40 people. He served sushi and had put a few pieces in his refrigerator to have the following day. It was a Sunday, and he called me at home, in a panic because things were crawling out of the sushi. I went over there, and sure enough, he was right. I took it to the lab and identified the worms as a nematode, Anisakis simplex. Fully half of the guests had to be treated for the parasite."
Anasakid is a parasite of marine animals such as sea lions and elephant seals. The early part of its life cycle is spent in marine fish. Along the US Pacific coast, commercially important species such as salmon and Pacific rockfish (Pacific red snapper) may have an infestation rate above 80 percent. An FDA study published in The Lancet in 1990 stated that the average number of anisakis larvae per an average-sized dressed salmon is 46. The study estimated that an average salmon yields about 1,000 sushi-sized slices of flesh, putting the odds of swallowing an anisakis larva at one in 22. However, since the front part of the fish is where sushi chefs prefer to obtain their slices -- and the front carries a disproportionate number of larvae in an infected salmon -- the odds improved to one in 13.
Ingested live larva attaches itself to the stomach wall causing a strong allergic reaction that at first may appear to be an allergic reaction to a food. If the worm perforates the stomach wall and enters the peritoneal cavity, symptoms may suggest acute appendicitis or a gastric ulcer. Since humans are not the definitive host species for this worm, the luckiest carriers cough up the inch-and-a-half-long parasite. For most others, fiber-optic endoscopy will spot the worm and remove it with the endoscope's grappling tool.
To a diagnosing doctor, the anisakid worm can present the symptoms of Crohn's Disease thereby preventing the real culprit from being discovered and recovery treatment taking the wrong direction.
For all parasitic infestations we strongly recommend Natural Cleanse in conjunction with Natural Balance. Natural Cleanse is carefully balanced and is very broad-spectrum on the different types of parasite groups.
Parasites in food
Over the course of this 'Rogues Gallery' series I have given instances of parasites in our food chain - up to 1,000 parasite larvae in a cubic inch of beef, tapeworms in beef or pork, toxoplasmosis in undercooked pork, lamb, or wild game, giardia on vegetables, salads and fruits. Our patterns of international travel, our consumption of more exotic and raw foods and the globalisation of our food supply has merely increased the risk of acquiring food-borne parasites.
Although the beginnings of food parasitology coincided with the development of the microscope, few successful testing methods have evolved. Amongst the many reasons for this is the belief that pathogenic parasites in humans are considered to be only in the context of tropical medicine, despite mounting evidence of their prevalence in temperate and even arctic climates.
The Institute of Food Technologists Expert Panel on Food and Safety Nutrition states: "There are about 107 known species of parasitic animals that can be foodborne. While not all species are reported to infest domestic food sources or infect consumers in the U.S. and its territories, the likelihood of this possibility has significantly increased in recent years with the emergence of a truly global market place. Planetary statistics on foodborne illnesses due to parasitic infections have been difficult to estimate. Norman R. Stoll's classic "This Wormy World" (Stoll, 1947) estimated that in the global population of 2.2 billion people, there were 664 million Ascaris lumbricoides infections (30% prevalence) and 355 million infections with Trichuris trichiura (16%) compared to the update by Michael et al. (1997) which estimated 1273 million (24%) and 902 million (17%) infections 50 years later when the human population was 5.6 billion."
Parasites are clearly evident in our food and water and can cause a wide variety of diseases. The words 'Para' and 'Sitos' are from Greek meaning 'beside' and 'food'. Parasites derive their nourishment and shelter from other living organisms, usually with injury.
Your best approach is one of common sense: WASH YOUR HANDS THOROUGHLY AND REGULARLY, especially before preparing or eating food. Drinking water is increasingly becoming an act of faith but look for pure water systems; have your water filters checked; wash your vegetables thoroughly; if you eat meat, make sure it is cooked properly; wipe down toilet seats before you use them; when you wash your hands, remember there's enough room for a million Giardia cysts to fit under a single fingernail.
Do what you can to keep your immune system strong. Vitamin A increases resistance to tissue penetration so include lots of carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, yams and greens in your diet. Your body can and will rid itself of parasites if it has the right natural nutrients.
Breastfeed your babies as long as you can. Mother's milk has properties that fight protozoa (amoeba and giardia) - deworm your puppies and kittens regularly - wash hands after contact with pets; cut out sugary drinks and anything with aspartame, especially 'Diet' or 'Lite' drinks and definitely abandon artificial sweeteners. Colas have a pH of 2.8 and will stun the leucocytes in your immune system for up to 6 hours.
The truth is there isn't a restaurant anywhere in this word today that you can fully trust. You are going to ingest a certain amount of parasitic cysts every day. Just hope that your stomach acids can break them down. If they don't, you'll have a little zoo inside you. The reason for increased longevity today is due more to improvements in hygiene than medical advances, yet there is plenty of evidence to support what decides whether we live long and healthy lives or die early is how we deal with parasites.
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