General, Research, Technology

What causes worms to appear in the brain and how is it treated?

In 2012, the scientific journal DiscoverTheodore Nash (Theodore Nash) - an American doctor who accepts only a few dozen patients a year. Such a number of clients may seem insignificant, but given the complaints that people turn to the doctor, the situation becomes clearer. Patients of an American doctor cannot walk smoothly, have difficulty talking, are paralyzed on one side of the body, or have generally fallen into a coma. If you look at photos of their brain, you will notice that they have small tumors. A further study reveals that worms live inside these formations. It may seem that in this situation, people have absolutely no chance of survival, but the American doctor manages to cure them. This disease has an official name, but treatment takes a lot of time and effort.

Tapeworms look like this

What is neurocysticercosis?

A disease in which tumors with worms inside form in the human brain is called neurocysticercosis. Its causative agent is tapeworm Taeniasolium, which is also known as pork tapeworm. The length of an adult can reach 3 meters, and suckers are located on the head part, with the help of which it is attached to the intestines of animals. The carriers of these parasites, for the most part, are pigs.

Pig Chain Head with Suction Cups

Worms do not enter the brain immediately - so thathappened, special conditions are needed. First, pork tapeworm eggs enter animals through the earth, accumulate in meat and larvae hatch from them. When a person eats infected meat, the larvae enter their intestines and finally grow, causing a disease called teniosis - symptoms include weakness, nausea, andcramping abdominal pain. This disease is treated with phenasal medicine or male fern extract, which kill parasites and remove from the body.

Pork Chicken Contaminated Meat

Worms in the brain

But sometimes an unusual situation arises - inthe human body does not get larvae, but pork tapeworm eggs. For example, this can happen when eating dirty foods. Larvae hatch from the eggs and think that they are in the pig's body. Having made the wrong decision, they penetrate the circulatory system and enter the skin, muscles, eyes, and even the brain. They form tumors and can hide inside them for many years. The human immune system, which usually expels all uninvited guests from the body, is silent - inside the tumors, the worms go unnoticed.

It looks like a brain infected with a pork chain

Over time, worm tumors grow and beginput pressure on the areas of the brain in which they are located. Depending on which area of ​​the brain is affected, a person has serious malfunctions in the body. If the tumor presses on the brain responsible for the vision, the patient begins to see poorly. If the area responsible for coordinating movements is affected, a person may be confined to a wheelchair. In severe cases, people fall into a coma or even die.

Dmitry Auslender once wrote about worms that can settle in human brains.

In some cases, formed tumors in generaldon't make themselves felt. Ultimately, the larva dies and becomes visible to the immune system, which pretty quickly destroys it. Only here, in the active work of the immune system, there are also its dangerous aspects - in the process of attack, the brain, which has not experienced any special problems all this time, can be damaged not by worms, but by immune cells. In general, everything is very complicated and neurocysticercosis can proceed according to completely unpredictable scenarios.

See also: What happens with immunity during quarantine?

Worm Brain Treatment

К счастью, еще в 2012 году Теодор Нэш уверял, что neurocysticercosis is treated, and sometimes very effective. Once he had a patient who had a tumor in the brain stem - this is an oblong area located at the very bottom. When the tapeworm larvae died, the immune system provoked the development of inflammation of the brain, due to which the patient fell into a coma. According to Theodore Nash, 30-40 years ago, a person would have died, but thanks to modern methods of treatment, he was able to withdraw from coma and completely heal.

Coma - a phenomenon when a person loses consciousness and does not respond to external stimuli. From Greek, koma translates as "deep sleep."

A breakthrough in the treatment of neurocysticercosis wasmade in the mid 1980s. Then scientists developed the praziquantel medicine, which kills tapeworm larvae that got into the brain. Only he had one minus - after killing the larvae, he provoked the human immune system to another activity, which led to the onset of inflammation. It turned out that in an attempt to cure the brain, the doctors set the stage for new problems.

Praziquantel Packaging

This problem is solved by the fact that doctors givethe patient praziquantel and additionally prescribe medications to weaken the immune system. This is far from an ideal solution, because with weak immunity a person runs the risk of contracting other dangerous diseases. Therefore, patients need constant monitoring, which many times increases the duration of treatment.

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According to Theodore Nash, humanity shouldnot only look for a method of treating neurocysticercosis, but also think about how its development can be prevented. According to him, pigs can be massively vaccinated against infection. In theory, the same vaccine can be developed for humans. But breakthroughs in this area have not yet been observed, which has long worried the American doctor.

More information about tapeworms, to which andrefers to pork tapeworm, you can read in the material written by Lyubov Sokovikova. In her article, she listed animals that feed on human blood. It turned out very interesting, so I highly recommend you to familiarize yourself!