I keep getting advertisements in the mail for herbal cures for paracites in humans. Medical people, is any of this true?

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), January 11, 2002

Answers

Parasites in humans are only common in folks who eat sushi and other raw meats frequently, if your meats are cooked throughly, there is little chance of parasitism occuring. Unless you are chronically "unthrifty looking" and a poor doer and on the scrawny side!!!

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 11, 2002.

Parasites are almost always good for your health. They eat decaying tissue. In general, parasites flourish in people who are unhealthy: they are doing their job of cleaning out the bad tissues.

-- Rick#7 (rick7@postmark.net), January 11, 2002.

Oy vey Rick! I just had my lunch!

-- Ardie /WI (ardie54965@hotmail.com), January 11, 2002.

Contrary to Rick's view, parasites are detrimental. He may be thinking of the beneficial single cell microbes and macrophages that inhabit us. Those are beneficial. Yes, some herbal remedies are quite good, but be sure you get the advice of someone trained and who knows what they're recommending.

-- Sandra Nelson (Magin@starband.net), January 11, 2002.

A serving of my salsa will kill anything growing inside you. :-)

-- Chuck (woah@mission4me.com), January 11, 2002.

A raw onion sandwich on a really hearty multigrain bread with HOT mustard will cure you of a great many parasites, between the caustic chemicals in the onion and mustard and the roughness of the grain hulls and seeds. My mother used to feed this to us kids (I actually loved it - go figure) when we suffered from pinworms. Our suffering was cut quite short due to these sandwiches, and they are really very cheap.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), January 11, 2002.

Parasites are gettiing more common in clean healthy people too, many people I know who where 'raised country' got wormed every spring while growing up.

-- Thumper (slrldr@yahoo.com), January 11, 2002.

Parasites are indeed a serious problem in todays world. My 3 year old daughter developed severe seizures (she already suffers from epilepsy, but they got much worse), the medical Dr. didn't have much help. We went to an alternative practioner and he diagnosed parasites. We cleared up the parasite problem and the seizures returned to every great once in awhile instead of every day. If you are really concerned there are lots of great books at the library. A book called Parasite Rex I thought was a very informational book.

-- michelle (mlbeebe2000@yahoo.com), January 11, 2002.

I beg to differ with Annie Miller's post. I have never eaten sushi nor any other form of raw meat and I am not an un-clean person either. I just had to go through "cleaning" myself of pinworms which I have no idea how I contracted.

I suffered for a few weeks with problems before I suddenly realized what exactly was wrong and took care of the problem. I had never had any dealings with any type of "human parasitic worm" before and again, have no clue where I managed to pick these little buggers up from.

But they are gone now . . . to my great joy and relief. . . . so Annie. . . . I am living proof that your "theory" doesn't hold water!!

-- no-one (no-one@nowhere.com), January 11, 2002.

If you are around animals, children and/or work with soil, then you have a good possibility of contacting pin worms or other parasites. Pin worm eggs are very small and float so are easily inhaled. Children who are infected and don't wash their hands well (or at all) touch other surfaces, leaving the eggs behind. Dogs, cats and other critters can leave the eggs where they have sat, laid, etc.

-- Melody, AL (realworld3d@hotmail.com), January 11, 2002.

Pinworms are not the kind of parasite we are talking about, pinworms live in the anal area only, they do not infect the entire intestinal tract, not would they ever cause any trouble other than anal discomfort and itching. I was refering to the traditional intestinal worms such as tapeworm, roundworm and hookworms that do draw their norishment directly from your intestinal walls and can cause serious health troubles.

Children and others who don't wash their hands before touchung their mouths get pinworms easily from the ground contact or contact with pets in contact with the ground.

-- Annie Miller in SE OH (annie@1st.net), January 11, 2002.

MITCH....THESE AREN`T PARISITES BUT THERE ARE DUST MITES LIVING OFF THE FLESH OF EVERYONE ON THE PLANET.THEY RESIDE ON EVERYONES BED. MY WIFE AND I SAW A PROGRAM ONE NIGHT ON TV AND WE WERE AFRAID TO GO TO BED.THEY EAT THE DEAD SKIN FLAKES.[AN OZONE MACHINE WILL KILL THEM OFF BUT THE OZONE ISN`T THAT GREAT FOR YOU.] THERE IS A PARASITE THAT LIVES IN EYEBROWS AS WELL.

CORDWOODGUY

-- cordwoodguy (cordwoodguy@n2teaching.com), January 13, 2002.

I had pinworm 18 years ago. Dr. prescribed Vermox, a tiny pill that everyone in family took, then we all took another 7 days later. I guess that did it. But he never mentioned side effects. Several months later I suddenly developed milk-allergy; I'd get horrible headaches if I drank it. This went away over time, but I eventually started exhibiting weird nutrition-defeciency problems. Fatigue, always hungry (but no weight loss!), muscle and joint aches that would come and go (no pattern), digestive problems,etc..etc. These symptoms weren't bad enough send me packing to the doctor, and they would often disappear and reappear w/o pattern. Later that year I had the most frightening case of flu I'd ever had, taking months to get over; very unusual for me. Clearly something had happened to my immune system. I was doing aerobics and eating healthy. Since then, I've suspected the Vermox may have destroyed too many of the scilia in my gut (the tiny hairs that "pick up" the nutrients from your food). It's like I was getting all the calories but not the nutrients! So do your homework before taking drugs for anything, and ASK lots of questions. AND, try to find a natural alternative first.

-- cindy penuel grove (mgrove@satx.rr.com), January 17, 2002.