Today we will talk about how to determine the presence of parasites in the human body, what symptoms can indicate their presence and what methods of instrumental diagnostics are most effective. The symptoms of helminthiasis are sometimes very difficult to spot because many of the signs are similar to other diseases. To protect yourself, it is important to know how to accurately determine the presence of parasites. Therefore - thatthe article is only for a healthy person who cares about the health of the whole family.
Many of my friends ask whether it is possible to identify helminths at home, or whether it is better to consult a specialist. In order for you to understand which method will better show its presence, I wrote this material. The article will reveal such points: how to identifyparasites in the human body - traditional and non-traditional methods.
We correctly diagnose parasites in the human body
You can find that a person is tormented by parasites by their appearance and the work of the whole organism - the presence of helminths is clearly evident. The signals the body gives may be very similar to those typical of other common diseases for the simple reason that symptoms are not always interpreted correctly.
So do not self-medicate - this will not affect the helminths. If you experience recurring symptoms of anxiety, it is best to see a doctor.
How to find out if an adult has parasites
Worms can stay in the body for a long time without showing any obvious signs, since they entered the human body with one touch of the animal while eating unwashed fruits and vegetables.
It is important to know how to understand whether a person has worms, as the consequences of prolonged activity of worms in the body can lead to serious health problems for a person.
Once the worms begin their activity in the body, it is very difficult to "calculate" them, so there are no symptoms in the early stages of infection. Obvious symptoms of worms in the body appear when the parasites begin to multiply and lead an active life, literally feeding on the human body and exhausting it.
Signs of parasites in adults are as follows:
- diarrhea of a prolonged or episodic nature (this symptom can be caused by the fact that some types of parasites secrete an enzyme that causes intestinal disorders, as well as the fact that parasites cause disorders in the digestive tract);
- Flatulence, gas, discomfort in the abdomen;
- Constipation and stagnation of gallworms, which are large, can block the biliary tract, which in turn leads to constipation (the same thing happens when parasites multiply and stay in colonies in the body);
- allergy that occurs due to the fact that worms weaken the immune system, as well as due to the fact that the activity of worms poisons the body, and allergy is the inability of the body to deal with these poisons and attacks;
- irritable bowel apple cider - occurs because the worms constantly irritate the intestinal walls, causing them to become inflamed;
- Pain in muscles and joints - some types of worms can live in the synovial fluid and injure muscles and joints, causing the same discomfort as osteoarthritis.
- Presence of dermatitis, urticaria, eczema and other rashes;
- Acne, pimples, hair loss, yellowing under the eyes - all of these speak of worms, as they deprive the body of nutrients that are necessary for a normal appearance.
- anemia - a symptom occurs because parasites stick to the walls of the intestines and suck blood from the vessels;
- a sharp weight loss against the background of a gastrointestinal disorder and an increased appetite.
It is possible to understand that a person has worms when they experience at least 5 of the above symptoms.
The grinding of teeth in a dream has nothing to do with worms! This is a symptom of a nervous system malfunction. Finding these symptoms in yourself is the first stage. Follow-up measures are aimed at confirming the diagnosis and determining whichit were the parasites that attacked the organism.
How to find out if a child has worms
Children are most susceptible to infection with worms, which can be caused by close contact with the outside world, as well as the use of common utensils and bathrooms in kindergartens and schools.
Since parents cannot keep track of what the child is touching, it is important that they know the symptoms of parasites in children, which are much more pronounced than adults.
In preschoolers and children of school age, the signs of parasites are as follows:
- Sharp or sore stomach pain;
- bloating;
- diarrhea, constipation, or vomiting;
- expressed apathy and lethargy.
There are a number of additional symptoms that can be used to understand that pinworms, roundworms and lambliae have settled in the child's body:
- nocturnal itching in the anal area;
- restless sleep;
- weakened immunity and frequent colds against this background.
In addition to notifying parents of these symptoms, they can also run home tests for parasites in children.
There are two ways to do this:
- In the morning you should put tape on the child's anus and then examine this piece of tape under a magnifying glass. If there are parasites, their eggs will be visible on the tape.
- The baby's feces can be seen as roundworms sometimes come out with feces.
- Sometimes children feel sick, then pinworms can be found in the vomit, which come out this way, if there are a lot of them in the stomach.
It is very difficult to identify the presence of worms in infants and in patients with latent disease, because in the first case babies are unable to declare and report on symptoms, which is why parents have no cause for concern, in the second case the symptoms are absenteasy.
Despite the fact that there are some in-house methods to determine the presence of parasites in the body, only laboratory tests can confirm this fact with certainty.
That is why it is important to identify the signs of parasites in the body and contact medical facilities in good time for diagnosis. Only a careful attitude towards your body will help avoid complications with mumps, as well as its consequencesappearance in general.
How to determine the presence of parasites in the human body - diagnostic methods
According to the World Health Organization, every fourth inhabitant of the planet shows signs of being infected with parasites, and even more people are potential carriers of helminths.
The presence of "illegal immigrants" does not leave the body with a trace - they poison it with the products of their vital activity, rebuild the function of the immune system, cause inflammatory changes in the digestive system and damage other organs.
Helminthiasis can be disguised as a various disease, which makes the timely diagnosis of parasites in the patient's body difficult and leads to a delay in the pathological process.
Routine analyzes are not always reliable, some types of helminths can only be detected through an expensive examination. Therefore, the question of how to identify parasites in the human body is of great concern to the majority of the world's population.
Suspicion of the presence of a parasitic creature (or parasitic creatures) in the human body may not arise immediately. "Illegal immigrants" do not show up in any way for a long time, especially in adults with good immunity.
However, suspicion of the presence of parasites in the body can arise when several of the following factors are combined:
- Persistent and persistent allergies - persistent rashes, itching, recurring urticaria, dermatitis that does not respond to conventional therapy. Allergic reactions on the skin are particularly common with echinococci, toxocariases and ascariases.
Patients are often diagnosed with bronchial asthma.
- Weakening of immunity - increasing susceptibility to viruses, pathogenic fungi and bacteria up to the development of such serious diseases as oncology, HIV.
- Weight loss with increased or maintained appetite.
- Itching in the anus in the evening and at night - in combination with the detection of living, writhing small worms in the stool, this is a 100% sign of pinworm infection and does not require any additional examination.
- Asthenia - weakness, increased tiredness, decreased performance, headache, sleep disorders. These symptoms are associated with constant poisoning of the nervous system with parasite toxins.
- Dyspepsia - morning sickness, gas, unstable stool from diarrhea to constipation, increased salivation.
These signs are not specific to determining the presence of parasites. They can occur in various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Other symptoms - papillomas on the skin, cracked heels, "geographic tongue", anemia on blood tests, often difficult to treat cough, swelling of the legs, pain in muscles and joints, etc.
Traditional analyzes
The diagnosis of parasites that live in the human intestine is mostly carried out with an old, proven, at the same time affordable and reliable method of detecting their eggs in the feces under a microscope. To do this, after the independent fresh feces you need to collect in a glass bowlstool, it is better to do it in the morning.
As a last resort, the collected material must not be kept in the refrigerator for more than 10 hours. It happens that at least three times it is necessary to donate feces for worms for 2 or 3 weeks, which is associated with the peculiarities of the life cycle of the parasites.
This test does not recognize or recognize the worms that live in the human body.
This method is effective for the following types of helminths:
- Strongyloids (hookworms), roundworms, whipworms;
- tapeworms and bull tapeworms, broad tapeworm;
- Hepatic (cat) accident, schistosomes.
We often diagnose enterobiasis ourselves through nocturnal itching and pinworms in the feces, especially in children. There are ways to scrape the perianal zone - at home with tape, or in a clinic where the fence is made by a doctor, using a special spatula.
The reliability of this analysis is high when performed in the morning before stool and hygiene procedures. Sometimes several repeated studies are required several days apart.
Not everyone likes to donate feces several times, so the question arises as to how parasites can be detected in the human body with the help of blood tests. Modern science offers three main methods:
- PCR (polymerase chain reaction) - detection of DNA worms in human blood;
- serological diagnostics (ELISA) - detection of antibodies against parasites;
- Genetic research - investigation of the pathogen genome.
Blood tests are carried out in specialized laboratories and are used to diagnose diseases such as:
uses- echinococcosis;
- opisthorchiasis;
- giardiasis;
- cystekyrcosis;
- fascioliasis;
- amoebic dysentery;
- toxocariasis;
- trichinosis.
In addition, the phase of the disease and the duration of the infection can be determined from the blood test.
Unconventional diagnosis
Unwanted tenants can live in the host's body for decades. The symptoms of the diseases they cause are common in many worms. Unfortunately, parasites are sometimes also detected in the human body late.
Worms cannot always be found quickly with conventional means, even repeated excrement examinations cannot give more than 20% positive results.
Serological methods of diagnosing parasites in the body of patients are more accurate and effective methods, especially if they are performed in later stages of the disease.
One of the most modern methods is the vegetative resonance test or bioresonance diagnosis, the core of which is the registration of electromagnetic waves emitted by parasites with a frequency characteristic of for their specific type.
The computer diagnosis is based on the use of special programs that enable a comparative analysis of healthy and diseased organs in a patient.
Practitioners do not always welcome this type of patient examination and prefer traditional tests. Nevertheless, everyone has the right to decide for themselves how parasites are to be identified in the human body. The main thing is to do this in a timely and reliable manner.
Difficulties diagnosing: how to find out if a person has worms?
Approximately 1. 2 billion people are infected with helminths every year. Furthermore, the majority don't even know about it. Bad health, weakness, headache, gastrointestinal problems, we'd rather blame stress and poor diet.
But these and other symptoms can signal the "invasion of strangers". How do I find them and how do I treat them? Helminthiasis is an insidious disease and it can be masked by symptoms characteristic of a wide variety of diseases.
For example, when parasites have settled in the lungs, a person will be plagued by bouts of dry cough, which occurs for no reason and does not go away even after prolonged treatment.
If the worms have settled in the intestine, symptoms such as abdominal discomfort, a tendency to constipation or diarrhea, intolerance to fatty foods, nausea and edema can manifest themselves. Such complaints are not uncommon. You can treat gastritis or dysbiosis for years, not realizing that the cause of the malaise is the helminths parasitizing in the human body.
Which tests help identify parasites?
If you suspect that there are uninvited guests in yourself or your child, you must absolutely consult a doctor and undergo an examination. Diagnosing helminthiasis is not an easy task as detecting parasites is quite problematic.
The most common method is to test the feces for worm eggs. Unfortunately, it is ineffective as worms have multiple stages of development and don't always lay eggs. To identify parasites, you need to do a stool test 3-4 times, there is no guarantee that the analysis will show the actual picture.
The method of immunological blood testing is considered more accurate.
This analysis allows you to determine the presence in the body of antibodies to helminths, as well as determine the type of parasites, as well as their number, in order to follow the dynamics of process development. Regular blood tests for worms are recommended, especially if the family has small children and pets.
Recently, the presence of parasites has been determined only through duodenal examination and analysis of feces using microscopic examination, the purpose of which is to detect isolated helminths or their fragments, eggs and larvae.
Eggs and larvae of helminths that parasitize the liver, biliary tract, pancreas, and duodenum have been found in the contents of the biliary and duodenum. Stool samples were examined for intestinal forms of helminthiasis. If you suspect the sputum has been examined for paragonimiasis, the urine for urogenital schistosomiasis.
However, the reliability of these studies depends on the professionalism of the employees - whether the laboratory assistant notices parasites during the microscopic examination.
If the parasite has not yet laid eggs at the time of the check, its presence will go unnoticed even by a highly qualified laboratory assistant. Often you can only get a positive result in 8-10 attempts.
Today there are immunological studies that allow you to determine the presence of antigens and antibodies to parasites of various types in the blood of an infected person. The reliability of such analyzes depends on the life cycle of the parasites and their parasitesAmount in the body:
- With the ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) antibodies (immunoglobulins) and antigens (parasites themselves, their metabolic products) are determined. Immunoglobulins (substances of a protein-containing nature) are produced in the body and are antibodies against antigens. This method has high sensitivity and specificity, which is 90%.
The main advantage of this method is the ability to determine the type of parasites, their number and the ability to follow the dynamics of process development, which is indicated by the amount of antibodies.
- ELISA tests are evidence of the body's response to invasion. In this case, laboratory tests are also required, during which parasites or their larvae, cysts and eggs are identified (microscopic examination of biological material). The direct identification of the parasite is not always possible due to its tissue localization (trichinosis, echinococcosis, toxocariase) or due to the small number of parasitic individuals and their concentration in the test material. In these cases the sensitivity of ELISA tests has a clear and unconditional advantage.
- When diagnosing the acute phase of helminthiasis and diseases caused by tissue helminths or larval stages (echinococcosis, cysticercosis, trichinosis, toxocariasis), other serological methods (blood test methods) are often used, detection of antigens and antibodies: RNGA (indirect hemaglination), RAL (latex agglutination reaction), RSK (complement fixation reaction), RIF (immunofluorescence reaction); as well as ultrasound and x-ray examinations of organs, computed tomography, endoscopy and endobiopsy.
- PCR Diagnostics offers an analysis of parasites based on a DNA analysis. This method can detect invasions of protozoa, viruses as well as intracellular parasites (e. g. chlamydia, which parasitize in Trichomonas).
However, this method does not allow to uncover the severity of the invasion - the number of parasites in the body.
- Energy information medicine offers bio-resonance diagnostics based on the fact that every object and living being generates a certain oscillation frequency by means of which it can be identified. And even if there are still no symptoms of the disease, this method can identify the causative agent.
What you need to know about egg worm testing
In order not to perform tests again, it is important to consider several nuances when donating feces on an egg worm:
- It is necessary to take material for analysis, that is, feces, approximately 2-3 hours after meals.
- The bowel movement should be done at least 24 hours before the test.
- The most accurate results can be obtained if the analysis is carried out 30 minutes after emptying.
- Store the material to be analyzed in a cold place in a closed plastic or glass container.
- The material should be taken from the sides, in the middle and from the beginning and end of the manure.
In addition, you can prescribe an analysis such as a smear for enterobiasis.
It is carried out as follows: the orderly holds a special stick in the area between the buttocks - where the anus is located. It is this analysis that helps identify the presence of pinworms in the body.
Which symptoms indicate a parasite infestation?
Most of the time, a person wonders how to determine if there are parasites in the body and when the state of health may already be seriously undermined. The problem of parasitism is underestimated in society and not as emphasized in preventive medicine as would be desired.
People tend to reject the signs of harm to the body from uninvited guests until the vital activity of the parasites interferes with normal health. In order to timely identify and successfully get rid of the parasitic enemy, you should know the main signs of its presence in the body.
Unwanted guests
Parasites are a variety of life forms that survive on the host's body. Human parasites can live on the surface of the skin, infect mucous membranes, internal organs and cells, and feed on tissues and blood.
They rob the owner, consume nutrients from food and constantly poison the human body with the products of their vital activity.
Types of parasites by habitat in the human body:
- Endoparasites are lower animals and plant organisms that live in the host. These are worms (worms), lamblia, toxoplasma, echinococcus, parasitic protozoa and other organisms. This category also includes viruses, fungi, and bacteria.
- Ectoparasites are parasites that live on the surface of the body and in the environment and feed on blood and human tissue cells. The most common are lice, bed bugs, ticks, fleas, Kandiru catfish and dipteras (mosquitoes, gadflies, flies).
It is quite easy to determine the defeat of the human body by ectoparasites, since their activity is often characterized by pronounced symptoms:
- itching;
- rash;
- burning;
- redness;
- pain at the bite site;
- The presence of a visible bite or penetration wound.
The diagnostic analysis is carried out by means of visual identification or microscopy (magnification under the microscope).
It is much more difficult to find ectoparasites because the internal "parasites" have learned in the course of evolution to feel great and do destructive work in the host's body without showing any practicality.
Protozoa and worms (worms) - the oldest companions of humans, insidious and dangerous neighbors, can especially boast of this ability. There is evidence that from the time of infection to the appearance of symptoms indicating the presence of intruders, it may take several months to ten years.
External manifestations
Most parasites have a long life cycle and reproduce fairly actively in the host's body, leading to diseases that are characterized by a recurrent and chronic course.
External manifestations of parasite infestation include:
- Different types of allergic reactions, expressed:
- rash;
- itching;
- beehives;
- Quincke's edema;
- fever.
The degree of allergy manifestation depends on the position of the parasite in the body, its contact with tissues and organs, and the amount of toxins released.
- Disturbances in the digestive tract (vomiting, nausea, belching, indigestion, salivation).
- skin lesions (eczema, ulcers, dermatitis, papillomas, acne, acne).
- Pale skin and mucous membranes.
- Cosmetological problems (brittle nails, cut hair ends, seborrhea, excessively dry skin, hair loss, early wrinkles).
- weight jumps. There is a decrease in body weight due to a lack of nutrients and a decrease in appetite, as well as obesity due to a general weakening of the body and metabolic disorders that crave sweets.
- Chronic fatigue syndrome, which manifests itself in general tiredness, sleepiness, insomnia, weakness, decreased concentration and memory disorders.
- Persistent headache from body poisoning.
- Bruxism (grinding of teeth while sleeping).This symptom is most pronounced in children.
- swelling of the limbs.
- Intermittent cough with no other symptoms.
- Pain in muscles and joints with an unclear etiology.
- nerve disorders. Often times, parasites cause depression, restlessness, anxiety, and irritability.
It is equally important to know the obvious signs of helminths in the body:
- Disturbances in the intestines (constipation, diarrhea, flatulence, flatulence, cramps, irritable bowel syndrome, oily feces, discoloration of the feces). Worms in the human body can grow to significant sizes, so they physically block the movement of feces, disrupt the work of other organs (bile ducts, etc. ).
- Itching in the perineum and anus.
- Visual detection of helminths in the folds of the anus.
- Presence of helminthic invasion in vomit.