Today we will discuss how to determine the presence of parasites in the human body, what symptoms can indicate its presence, and what instrumental diagnostic methods are most effective. The symptoms of helminthiasis are sometimes very difficult to recognize, as many symptoms are similar to other diseases. To protect yourself, you need to know how to accurately determine the presence of parasites. Therefore - this article is only for sane people who care about the health of the whole family.
Many of my friends ask if it is possible to identify worms at home or it is better to see a specialist. In order for you to understand which methods better indicate their presence, I am writing this material. The article will reveal things like: how to identify parasites in the human body - traditional and non-traditional methods.
We correctly diagnose parasites in the human body
You can tell that a person is tormented by parasites by their appearance and by the work of the whole organism - the presence of helminths can be clearly seen. The signals given by the body cannot always be interpreted correctly for the simple reason that the symptoms are very similar to the common ailment for other common ailments.
So do not treat yourself - this will not affect the worms. If you notice symptoms of recurrent anxiety, it is best to see a doctor.
How to find out if an adult has a parasite
Worms can stay in the body for a long time without showing obvious signs, after entering the human body with one touch to the animal, while eating unwashed fruits and vegetables.
It is important to know how to understand if a person has worms, as the result of prolonged worm activity 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 "count" them, therefore, there are no symptoms in the early stages of the infection. The obvious symptoms of worms in the body begin to appear when parasites begin to reproduce and lead an active life, literally eating the human body and consuming it.The signs of parasites in adults are as follows:
- prolonged or episodic diarrhea (these symptoms may be due to the fact that some types of parasites release enzymes that provoke intestinal disorders, as well as the fact that parasites cause disorders in the gastrointestinal tract);
- bloating, gas, abdominal discomfort;
- constipation and bile stagnation - worms, which are large in size, can block the bile ducts, in turn, this causes constipation (the same thing happens if parasites multiply and live in the body in the colony);
- allergies, which occur due to the fact that worms weaken the immune system, and also due to the fact that worm activity poisons the body, and allergies are the body's inability to cope with these toxins and attacks;
- irritable intestinal cider - occurs because worms often interfere with the intestinal wall, which makes it inflamed;
- pain in muscles and joints - some types of worms can live in joint fluid and injure muscles and joints, causing the same discomfort as arthrosis;
- presence of dermatitis, urticaria, eczema and other skin rashes;
- acne, pimples, hair loss, yellowing under the eyes - all this speaks of worms, as they remove nutrients from the body that are needed to maintain a normal appearance;
- anemia - symptoms appear due to the fact that the parasite attaches to the intestinal wall and sucks blood from the ducts;
- sharp weight loss on the background of gastrointestinal disorders and increased appetite.
It is possible to understand that a person has worms if at least 5 of the above symptoms appear.
By itself, brushing teeth in a dream has nothing to do with worms! These are symptoms of impaired nervous system function. Finding these symptoms in yourself is the first step. Follow-up aims to confirm the diagnosis and determine which parasites attack the organism.
How to find out if a child has worms
Children are most susceptible to worms, caused by close contact with the outside world, as well as the use of common appliances and bathrooms in kindergartens and schools.
Since parents cannot monitor what the child is touching, it is important for them to be aware of parasitic symptoms in children, which, unlike adults, are much more obvious.
In preschool and school-age children, the signs of parasites are as follows:
- Sharp or painful abdominal pain;
- Inflammation;
- diarrhea, constipation, or vomiting;
- Expresses discomfort, lethargy.
There are a number of additional symptoms that one can understand that cream worms, ringworm and lamblia have settled on the child's body:
- itchy nights in the anal area;
- restless sleep;
- weakens common immunity and colds.
In addition to warning parents about these symptoms, they can also do home tests for parasites in children.
There are two ways to do this:
- In the morning, you should tape the tape to the child's anus, then check this tape under the magnifying glass. If there are parasites, the eggs will appear on the tape.
- Baby stools can be seen, as ringworms sometimes come out with feces.
- Sometimes children feel sick, so cream worms can be found in the vomit, which comes out this way when there is a lot of it in the stomach.
It is very difficult to identify the presence of worms in infants and in patients with the disease in latent form, because in the first case, the baby can not express and tell about the symptoms, therefore, parents have no reason to worry, in the second case, the symptoms do not exist.
Although there are several home methods for determining the presence of parasites in the body, only laboratory tests can prove this fact.
That is why it is important to be able to recognize the signs of parasites in the body and contact a medical institution in a timely manner for diagnosis. Only a caring attitude towards your body will help prevent complications of mumps, as well as this disease 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 has signs of infection with parasites, and even more people are potentially worm carriers.
The presence of "unauthorized immigrants" does not escape without leaving a trace for the body - they poison it with the product of their vital activity, rebuild the function of the immune system, cause inflammatory changes in the digestive system and damage to other organs.
Helminthiasis can be disguised as a variety of diseases, which complicates the timely diagnosis of parasites in the patient's body and causes delays in pathological processes.
Routine analysis is not always reliable, some types of helminths can only be detected with expensive inspections. Therefore, the question of how to identify parasites in the human body is very relevant for the majority of the world's population.
Suspicion of the presence of parasitic beings (or creatures) in the human body may not arise immediately. For a long time, "illegal immigrants" did not show themselves in any way, especially in adults with good immunity.
However, suspicion of the presence of parasites in the body can arise if there is a combination of the following:
- Persistent and stubborn allergies - persistent skin rash, itching, recurrent urticaria, dermatitis that do not respond to conventional therapy. Especially allergic reactions to the skin are found in echinococcosis, toxocariasis and ascariasis.
Patients are often diagnosed with bronchial asthma.
- Weakened immunity - increases susceptibility to viruses, pathogenic fungi and bacteria to the development of serious diseases such as oncology, HIV.
- Weight loss with increasing or maintaining appetite.
- Itching in the anus in the evening and at night - in combination with the detection of small worms living in the stool, this is a one hundred percent sign of a creamy worm infection and does not require additional examination.
- Asthenia - weakness, increased fatigue, decreased performance, headache, sleep disturbances. These symptoms are associated with persistent poisoning of the nervous system with parasitic toxins.
- Dyspepsia - nausea in the morning, bloating, unstable stools from diarrhea to constipation, increased saliva.
These signs are not specific to determine the presence of parasites, they can be found in various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Other symptoms - papilloma on the skin, cracked heels, "geographic tongue", anemia in blood tests, cough that is often difficult to treat, swelling of the feet, pain in muscles and joints, etc.
Traditional analysis
Diagnosis of parasites living in the human intestine is most often made by proven old methods, as well as being able and reliable to detect their eggs in the feces under a microscope. To do this, you need to collect fresh feces in a glass plate after defecation, it is better to do this in the morning.
As a last resort, it is allowed to store the collected material for no more than 10 hours in the refrigerator. It happens that it takes at least 3 times to donate stool for worms for 2 or 3 weeks, which is related to the peculiarity of the parasitic life cycle.
This test detects or does not detect worms living in the human body.
This method is effective for helminths such as:
- Strongyloids (wormwood), ringworm, whipworm;
- Pig and cow tapeworms, broad tapeworms;
- Hipatic (feline) fluke, schistosomes.
We often diagnose enterobiasis on our own by night itching and creamy worms in the stool, especially in children. There are ways to scrape from the perianal zone - at home using adhesive tape or at the clinic where the fence is made by a medical professional using a special spatula.
The reliability of this analysis is high if performed in the morning before the stool and hygiene procedure. Sometimes several repeated studies are required at intervals of several days.
Not everyone likes to donate feces a few times, so the question arises how to detect parasites in the human body using 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 to parasites;
- genetic research - pathogen genome research.
Blood tests are performed in specialized laboratories and are used to diagnose diseases such as:
- Echinococcosis;
- Opisthorchiasis;
- Giardiasis;
- Cystecyrcosis;
- Fascioliasis;
- Amebik dysentery;
- Toxocariasis;
- Trichinosis.
In addition, the phase of the disease and the duration of the infection can be determined from blood tests.
Unconventional diagnostics
Unwanted tenants can live in the host's home for decades. The symptoms of the disease caused by it often appear when there are many helminths. Unfortunately, the detection of parasites in the human body sometimes occurs too late.
Worms cannot always be found quickly by conventional means, and even repeated stool tests can give a positive result of no more than 20%.
Serological methods for diagnosing parasites in the patient's body are more accurate and effective methods, especially when carried out at a later stage of the disease.
One of the most modern methods is vegetative resonance testing or bioresonance diagnostics, the essence of which is the registration of electromagnetic waves emitted by parasites with frequency characteristics for their specific types.
Computer diagnostics based on the use of special programs that allow comparative analysis of healthy and diseased organs in patients.
Practical doctors do not always welcome the examination of this type of patient, preferring traditional tests. Even so, everyone has the right to decide for themselves how to identify parasites in the human body, the main thing is to do it in a timely and reliable manner.
Diagnostic difficulty: how to find out if someone has a worm
About 1. 2 billion people are infected with worms each year. Moreover, the majority do not know about it. Poor health, weakness, headaches, problems with the gastrointestinal tract, we prefer to blame stress and poor nutrition.
But these and other symptoms can indicate "alien invasion. " How to find them and how to treat them? Helminthiasis is a dangerous disease and can be hidden by the symptoms that characterize various diseases.
For example, if a parasite has settled in the lungs, a person will be disturbed by an attack of tuberculosis, which occurs for no reason and does not disappear even after prolonged treatment.
If the worm has settled in the intestine, symptoms may appear as stomach discomfort, a tendency to constipation or diarrhea, intolerance to fatty foods, nausea, and edema. Such complaints are not uncommon. You can treat for many years, such as gastritis or dysbiosis, not realizing that the cause of malaise is parasitic helminths in the human body.
What tests will help identify parasites
If you suspect the presence of an uninvited guest in yourself or your child, you must contact a doctor and undergo an examination. Diagnosing helminthiasis is not an easy task, as it is quite problematic to detect parasites.
The most common method is to test feces for worm eggs. But, unfortunately, it is ineffective, because worms have several phases of development and do not always lay eggs. To identify parasites, you need to do a stool test 3-4 times, while there is no guarantee that the analysis will show a true picture.
Immunological blood test methods are considered more accurate.
This analysis allows you to determine the presence of antibodies to helminths in the body, helping to determine the type of parasite, its number, to detect the dynamics of process development. It is recommended to do blood tests for worms on a regular basis, especially if the family is small children and pets.
In recent times, the presence of parasites has been determined only by duodenal examination and fecal analysis using microscopic studies, whose purpose is to detect isolated helminths or their fragments, eggs and larvae.
Eggs and larvae of parasitic helminths in the liver, bile ducts, pancreas and duodenum are found in the contents of the bile and duodenum. Stool samples were examined for intestinal helminthiasis. If you suspect to be checked for paragonimiasis, urine for urogenital schistosomiasis.
But the reliability of this study depends on the professionalism of the staff - whether the laboratory assistant will look for parasites during microscopic examination.
In addition, if the parasite has not yet laid eggs at the time of examination, its presence will not be noticed even with a highly qualified laboratory assistant. Often, it is only from 8-10 attempts that you can get positive results.
Today, there are immunological studies that make it possible to determine in the blood of infected people the presence of antigens and antibodies to various types of parasites. The reliability of such an analysis depends on the life cycle of the parasite and its stability in the body:
- An enzyme-related immunosorbent test (ELISA) is used to determine antibodies (immunoglobulins) and antigens (parasites themselves, their metabolic products). Immunoglobulin (protein) is produced in the body and is an antibody for antigen. This method has a high sensitivity and specificity, which is 90%.
The main advantages of this method are the ability to determine the type of parasite, its number and the ability to trace the dynamics of process development, indicated by antibody levels.
- The ELISA test is evidence of the body's response to aggression. In this case, laboratory tests identifying parasites or larvae, cysts, their eggs (microscopic examination of biological material) are also required. However, direct identification of parasites is not always possible due to tissue localization (trichinosis, echinococcosis, toxocariasis) or due to the small number of parasitic individuals and their concentration in the test material. In this case, the sensitivity of the ELISA test has clear and unconditional advantages.
- In the diagnosis of the acute phase of helminthiasis and diseases caused by tissue helminths or larval levels (echinococcosis, cysticercosis, trichinosis, toxocariasis), other serological methods (blood test methods) are widely used for the detection of antigens and antibodies: RNGA (indirect hemagglutination reaction), RAL (latex agglutination reaction), RSK (complementary mounting reaction), RIF (immunofluorescence reaction); as well as ultrasound and Xorgan-ray examinations, computed tomography, endoscopy and endobiopsy.
- PCR diagnostics offers parasitic analysis based on DNA analysis. This method can detect attacks of protozoa, viruses, and even intracellular parasites (for example, chlamydial parasites in Trichomonas).
But this method does not make it possible to reveal the severity of the invasion - the number of parasites in the body.
- Energy information medicine offers bioresonance diagnostics based on the fact that each object and living thing produces a certain frequency of vibration, at which it is identified. And although there are no symptoms of this disease, this method can identify pathogens.
What you need to know about egg worm testing
In order not to retake the test, it is important to consider a few nuances when donating feces on an worm:
- You need to take the material for analysis, which is stool, about 2-3 hours after eating.
- Bowel emptying should occur no later than 24 hours before the test.
- The most accurate results can be obtained if the analysis is done 30 minutes after emptying.
- Store materials for analysis in a cool place in a closed plastic or glass container.
- Material should be taken from the side, in the middle and from the beginning and end of the stool.
Additionally, they can prescribe analyzes such as smears for enterobiasis.
This is done as follows: orderly holding a special stick in the area between the buttocks - where the anus is. It is this analysis that helps identify the presence of cream worms in the body.
What symptoms indicate a parasitic infection
Often, a person wonders how to determine if there are parasites in the body, then when his health condition may have been seriously disturbed. The problem of parasitism is underestimated in society and is not highlighted in preventive medicine as desired.
People tend to reject signs of damage to the body by uninvited guests so that the essential activity of the parasite affects the normal state of health. To recognize the parasite enemy in a timely manner and successfully get rid of it, you need to know the main signs of its presence in the body.
Unwanted guests
Parasites are various forms of life that survive in the host body. Human parasites can live on the surface of the skin, infecting the mucous membranes, internal organs and cells, eating tissues, blood.
They rob their owners, eat nutrients from food, and continue to poison the human body with their essential activity products.
Types of parasites according to habitat in the human body:
- Endoparasites are the lower animals and plant organisms that live in the host. These are helminths (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, in the environment, eating blood and human tissue cells. The most common are fleas, rotten fleas, fleas, fleas, kandiru catfish, and even dipteran (mosquitoes, donkeys, flies).
It is easy enough to determine the defeat of the human body by ectoparasites, as their activity is often characterized by obvious symptoms:
- Itching;
- Rash;
- Burn;
- Redness;
- Pain in the bite site;
- Presence of visible bite or penetration wound.
Diagnostic analysis is performed using visual or microscopic identification (magnification under a microscope).
It is much more difficult to find ectoparasites, because in the process of evolution the internal "parasites" have learned to feel great and do destructive work in the host body, practically do not show themselves.
Protozoa and helminths (worms) - the most ancient human companion, a dangerous and dangerous neighbor, can boast of this skill especially. There is evidence that, from the moment of infection to the onset of symptoms, which indicates the presence of an invader, it can take from a few months to ten years.
External manifestations
A large number of parasites have a long life cycle and reproduce quite actively in the host body, causing diseases characterized by recurrent and chronic travel.
External manifestations of parasitic attacks include:
- Various types of allergic reactions, stated:
- rash;
- itching;
- itching;
- Edema Quincke;
- fever.
The degree of manifestation of allergies depends on the location of the parasite in the body, its relationship to tissues and organs, as well as the amount of toxins released.
- Disorders of the gastrointestinal tract (vomiting, nausea, belching, digestive disorders, saliva).
- Skin lesions (eczema, boils, dermatitis, papilloma, acne, pimples).
- Pale skin and mucous membranes.
- Cosmetological problems (brittle nails, cut ends of hair, seborrhea, excessive dry skin, hair loss, early wrinkles).
- Weight gain. There is weight loss due to malnutrition and decreased appetite, as well as obesity due to weakness of the body and metabolic disorders in general, the desire for sweets.
- Chronic fatigue syndrome, manifested by general fatigue, drowsiness, insomnia, weakness, decreased concentration and memory impairment.
- Persistent headache caused by body intoxication.
- Bruxism (grinding teeth during sleep).This symptom is most noticeable in children.
- Swelling of the limbs.
- Cough intermittently without other symptoms.
- Pain in muscles and joints of unclear etiology.
- Nervous disorders. Often, parasites cause depression, restlessness, restlessness, irritability.
It is just as important to know about the obvious signs of worms in the body:
- Disorders of the intestine (constipation, diarrhea, bloating, bloating, cramps, intestinal irritation syndrome, oily stools, discoloration of the stool). Worms in the human body can reach large sizes, so that they physically restrict the movement of feces, interfering with the work of other organs (bile ducts, etc. ).
- Itching in the perineum and anus.
- Visual detection of helminths in anal folds.
- Presence of helminthic invasion in vomiting.