Tapeworm

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I think I may have Tapeworm. I have seen many pictures on the Internet about what Tapeworm bacteria looks like and I have had a dodgy stomache for ages. It annoys me that I could have this condition. What's the diagnosis? Will I have to go to hospital?

Tapeworm isn't a bacterium, it's a very long worm. If you have it you will generally find moving worm segments come out with your faeces (or at other times). It's not the most common type of worm infection.
Worms can be easily treated with a dose of medication from a pharmacist. However, a dodgy stomach could have many, many other causes, and indeed tapeworms don't usually give you a dodgy stomach (they live in the intestines). You shouldn't diagnose yourself - use a doctor's training and experience.

Why specifically do you think you have tapeworms? It has to be more than a dodgy stomach.

Starve yourself for a couple of days and then put a glass of warm milk by your asshole. When the fucker peeks his head out cap his ass with a Glock to the scolex.

Is that a joke>?

Yes. You don't want to fire a gun near your rear end.

Why do you think you have a tapeworm, other than that your digestive system sometimes seems upset?

Just the part with the Glock, but I think an old folk treatment is to starve the infected person so the tapeworm gets hungry, then attract it with the scent of milk and when it exits their rectum an assisting family member or whatever will grab it and pull it out.

This trumps the other stupidest thing I heard today and becomes the new stupidest thing. It's a weird variation on a false urban legend. Whoever made it up has now idea how tapeworms work.The main symptom of a tapeworm infection is finding their rice-grain-like eggs (proglottids, or segments) stuck around the anus, and itching in that area.

lmao

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> The main symptom of a tapeworm infection is finding their rice-grain-like eggs (proglottids, or segments) stuck around the anus, and itching in that area.
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mmm...rice

That's one reason not to lick your dog's rear end or swallow his fleas (although there are a large variety of tapeworms).

Actually, that's not just an old wives tale. That was actually the way they rid people of tapeworms... except the glass of milk is supposed to be by the person's mouth not anus. It makes its way up through the stomach and throat, and the doctor or whoever was prescribing this treatment would coil the tapeworm up as it came out. This was a very slow and sickening process because the patient couldn't swallow or close their mouth because of the risk of breaking the tapeworm. Thankfully we now have medications for killing parasitic worms like that.

I'm pretty sure that's a folk legend, unless you have evidence to the contrary. I'd be surprised if a tapeworm could detect a glass of milk from inside someone's gut. I think you'd have as much success by turning on the cable Food Channel, and waiting for the tapeworm to crawl out when s/he sees something his/her hermaphroditic self finds appealing.Tapeworms in your gut grab most of your B-12, which can lead to anemia. If you're infested with tapeworms in their cyst stage, you have a serious problem. They can lodge in the liver, brain, and other important organs.

I think it might be a concatenation of treatments for two different pests. A saucer of milk was a traditional lure to attract a snake out of its hiding place under the floorboards so you could kill it. It probably didn't work.Coiling a worm up on a stick is what is done with the Guinea worm, which however makes its own way out, usually at either an ankle or the genitals. It's a slow painful process, and it makes the person afflicted feel he's burning. The only relief is a pool of water, which is what the worm wants to lay its eggs in and start the process again. The Guinea worm is not normally seen outside Africa.

Parasites are so interesting. I was reading something about an ant parasite which turns ants into zombies who latch their jaws onto the top of a blade of grass and stay there until a sheep eats them so the parasites life cycle can continue.

Daniel C. Dennett mentioned that worm when he was interviewed last week about his book, Breaking the Spell : Religion as a Natural Phenomenon. The parasite is the lancet fluke (Dicrocoelium dendriticum).Here's a book on the subject from a few years ago: Carl Zimmer, Parasite Rex.

It makes its way up through the stomach and throatI think that's all BS. I doubt the worm could survive the stomach acids or detect the milk that's outside the body.

I think that's why they starve it, to make it really sensitive to the smell of nutrients.

Gimme a freakin' break. I hope you're pulling our leg.

I heard it from my Biology teacher and I trust him on it. He's the AP (advanced placement) head of the school and this was in an AP Bio class.If a shark can smell blood from many miles away, why can't the odors from milk attract the worm from a few feet away. Despite the fact that it is not open air, there is a pathway there that leads directly through your body and out your ass.To deal with the stomach acid and digestive enzymes, I believe the tapeworm has skin that's moderately resistant and they produce mucous to coat themselves (as does our stomach and the lining of our throat). Also, did you know that the majority of our digestion occurs in the first part of the small intestine as opposed to the stomach? So if it can obviously exist there then I don't see why passing through the stomach would be incredibly difficult.