Tapeworms - The Menace Living in Your Intestines

By Dennis Paguio

What has been known to grow to a hundred feet long and yet lives inside you, most probably without your knowledge or consent? Welcome the tapeworm. Although the hundred foot specimen was found inside the intestine of a whale caught near Catalina Island, tapeworms can reach amazing lengths inside the bodies of humans.

An adult tapeworm has a scolex or 'head' that clings with hooks and suckers to a host's intestines. Below this head is a neck that expands and grows continually. They are filled with eggs and sperm as they mature. The younger segments are usually the male segments and fertilize eggs released by other, older segments upstream. All it takes is a single worm to produce a billion eggs in its lifetime.

Eggs usually find their way into the world through fecal matter. Many of the eggs don't survive but those that do usually become very active as adults. You can get tapeworms from eating undercooked meat, raw fish or sometimes by petting dogs. You can get the most dangerous tapeworm to man--the beef tapeworm-in this way. People from Scandinavia are particularly at risk because of their love for raw fish dishes. In some parts of Finland, it is said 80% of people are infected.

Some experts say that having tapeworms has a very minimal effects on their hosts. They are however very uncomfortable to have. People infected with tapeworms usually feel abdominal pain, flatulence, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, dizziness, vomiting, vertigo, headaches, tiredness, anorexia, muscle pain, vitamin deficiency, weight loss, rectal flutters, depression and psychosis. In very rare cases, tapeworm infestations have been fatal. Doesn't sound very minor, eh?

Tapeworms can become a serious problem, especially if you allow them to reproduce unchecked inside of you.

If you want to know more about the effects of tapeworms and more specifically how to get rid of them, visit: http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/pest-control/how-to-get-rid-of-tapeworm

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