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 the most effective. The symptoms of helminthiasis are sometimes very difficult to recognize, because many of the signs are similar in nature to other diseases. In order to protect yourself, you should know how to accurately determine the presence of parasites. Therefore - thisthe article is just for a sane 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 is it better to consult a specialist. In order for you to understand which method better shows their presence, I wrote this material. The article will reveal such points: howidentify parasites in the human body - traditional and non-traditional methods.
We correctly diagnose parasites in the human body
You can find out that a person is tormented by parasites by his appearance and by the work of the whole organism - the presence of helminths is clearly noticeable. The signals that the body gives can not always be interpreted correctly for the simple reason that the symptomsvery similar to those typical for other common diseases.
Therefore, do not self-medicate - this will not affect the helminths. If you notice recurring anxiety symptoms, 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, having entered the human body with one touch to the animal, when eating unwashed fruits and vegetables.
It is important to know how to understand if a person has worms, because the consequences of prolonged activity of worms in the body can result in serious health problems for a person.
As soon as the worms begin their activity in the body, it is very difficult to “calculate” them, therefore, there are no symptoms at the initial stages of infection. Obvious symptoms of worms in the body begin to appear when the parasites begin to multiplyand lead an active life, literally feeding on the human body and depleting it.
Signs of parasites in adults will be 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 provokes intestinal upset, as well as the fact that parasites cause disturbances in the digestive tract);
- bloating, gas, discomfort in the abdomen;
- constipation and stagnation of bile - worms, which are large in size, can block the bile ducts, in turn, this causes constipation (the same happens if parasites multiply and stay in the body in colonies);
- allergy, which 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 cope with these poisons and attack;
- irritable bowel cider - occurs because the worms constantly irritate the walls of the intestines, which makes them inflamed;
- pain in muscles and joints - some types of worms can live in the joint fluid and injure muscles and joints, which causes the same discomfort as with arthrosis;
- presence of dermatitis, urticaria, eczema and other skin rashes;
- acne, pimples, hair loss, yellowness under the eyes - all this speaks of worms, as they take away nutrients from the body that are necessary to maintain a normal appearance;
- anemia - a symptom appears due to the fact that parasites stick to the walls of the intestine and suck blood from the vessels;
- a sharp weight loss on the background of gastrointestinal upset and increased appetite.
It is possible to understand that a person has worms if at least 5 of the above symptoms appear.
By itself, grinding teeth in a dream has nothing to do with worms! This is a symptom of a malfunction in the nervous system. Finding these symptoms in yourself is the first stage. Follow-up actions are aimed at confirming the diagnosis and determining whichit was 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 their 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 for them to know the symptoms of parasites in children, which, unlike adults, are much more pronounced.
In preschoolers and school-age children, the signs of parasites are as follows:
- Sharp or aching tummy pain;
- Bloating;
- diarrhea, constipation, or vomiting;
- Expressed apathy, lethargy.
There are a number of additional symptoms by which one can understand that pinworms, roundworms and lamblia have settled in the child's body:
- nighttime itching in the anal area;
- restless sleep;
- weakened immunity and frequent colds against this background.
In addition to alerting parents to these symptoms, they can also do home testing for parasites in children.
There are two ways to do this:
- In the morning, you should apply tape to the child's anus, then examine this piece of tape under a magnifying glass. If there are parasites, then 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 in this way when there are a lot of them in the stomach.
It is very difficult to identify the presence of worms in infants and in those patients who have the disease in a latent form, since in the first case, babies cannot declare and tell about the symptoms, therefore, the parents have no cause for concern, andin the second case, the symptoms are simply absent.
Despite the fact that there are some home methods to determine the presence of parasites in the body, only laboratory tests can establish this fact for sure.
That is why it is important to be able to recognize the signs of parasites in the body and to contact medical institutions in time for diagnosis. Only an attentive attitude to your body will help to avoid complications with mumps, as well as theirappearance 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, even more people are potential carriers of helminths.
The presence of "illegal immigrants" does not pass without leaving a trace for the body - they poison it with the products of their vital activity, rebuild the functioning of the immune system, cause inflammatory changes in the digestive system and damage to other organs.
Helminthiasis can be disguised as various diseases, which complicates the timely diagnosis of parasites in the patient's body and leads to a delay in the pathological process.
Routine analyzes are not always reliable, some types of helminths can only be detected by an expensive examination. Therefore, the question of how to identify parasites in the human body is very relevant for the majority of the world's population.
The suspicion of the presence of a parasitic creature (or creatures) inside the human body may not arise immediately. For a long time, "illegal immigrants" do not show themselves in any way, especially in adults with good immunity.
However, a suspicion of the presence of parasites in the body can arise if there is a combination of several of the following:
- Persistent and stubborn allergies - persistent skin rashes, itching, recurrent urticaria, dermatitis that does not respond to conventional therapy. Especially often allergic reactions on the skin are found in echinococcosis, toxocariasis and ascariasis.
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 retained appetite.
- Itching in the anus in the evening and at night - in combination with the detection of live writhing small worms in the feces, this is one hundred percent sign of pinworm infection and does not require additional examination.
- Asthenia - weakness, increased fatigue, decreased performance, headache, sleep disturbance. These symptoms are associated with the constant poisoning of the nervous system with parasite toxins.
- Dyspepsia - nausea in the morning, bloating, unstable stools from diarrhea to constipation, increased salivation.
These signs are not specific for determining the presence of parasites, they can be present in various diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Other symptoms - papillomas on the skin, cracked heels, "geographic tongue", anemia in blood tests, frequent difficult to treat cough, swelling of the legs, pain in muscles and joints, etc.
Traditional analyzes
Diagnosis of parasites living in the human intestine is most often carried out by an old proven, at the same time affordable and reliable method of detecting their eggs in feces under a microscope. To do this, you need to collect fresh feces in a glass dish after independentstool, 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 is required at least 3 times 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 detects or does not detect the worms that live inside the human body.
This method is effective for such types of helminths as:
- Strongyloids (hookworms), roundworms, whipworms;
- Pork and bull tapeworms, broad tapeworm;
- Hepatic (feline) fluke, schistosomes.
We often diagnose enterobiasis ourselves by nighttime itching and pinworms in the feces, especially in children. There are ways to take a scraping from the perianal zone - at home using adhesive tape or in a clinic where the fence is made by a medical professionalusing a special spatula.
The reliability of this analysis is high if it is done in the morning before stool and hygiene procedures. Sometimes a number of repeated studies are required at intervals of a couple of days.
Not everyone likes to donate feces several times, so the question arises of 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 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:
- Echinococcosis;
- Opisthorchiasis;
- Giardiasis;
- Cystecyrcosis;
- Fascioliasis;
- Amebic dysentery;
- Toxocariasis;
- Trichinosis.
In addition, the phase of the disease and the duration of the infection can be determined from the blood test.
Unconventional diagnostics
Unwanted tenants can live in the host's body for decades. The symptoms of the diseases they cause often appear when there are a lot of helminths. Unfortunately, the detection of parasites in the human body sometimes happens toolate.
Worms can not always be quickly found by conventional means, even repeated fecal tests can give no more than 20% positive results.
Serological methods for diagnosing parasites in the body of patients are more accurate and effective methods, especially when carried out in the later stages 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 a frequency characteristic offor their specific type.
Computer diagnostics is based on the use of special programs that allow comparative analysis of healthy and diseased organs in a patient.
Practical doctors do not always welcome this type of patient examination, preferring traditional tests. Nevertheless, everyone has the right to decide for himself how to identify parasites in the human body, the main thing is to do it on time and reliably.
Diagnostic difficulties: how to find out if a person has worms
About 1. 2 billion people are infected with helminths every year. Moreover, the majority does not even know about it. Poor health, weakness, headache, problems with the gastrointestinal tract, we would rather blame stress and poor nutrition.
But these and other symptoms can signal the "invasion of strangers. "How to find them and how to treat them? Helminthiasis is an insidious disease and can be masked by symptoms characteristic of a wide variety of diseases.
For example, if parasites have settled in the lungs, a person will be disturbed by attacks of dry cough, which occurs without a cause and does not go away even after prolonged treatment.
If the worms have settled in the intestines, symptoms may manifest as abdominal discomfort, tendency to constipation or diarrhea, intolerance to fatty foods, nausea, and edema. Such complaints are not uncommon. You can treat for years, for example, gastritis or dysbiosis, not realizing that the cause of the malaise is the helminths parasitizing in the human body.
What tests will help to identify parasites
If you suspect the presence of uninvited guests in yourself or your child, you must definitely contact a doctor and undergo an examination. Diagnosing helminthiasis is not an easy task, because 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 take a stool test 3-4 times, whilethere is no guarantee that the analysis will show the real picture.
The method of immunological blood testing is considered more accurate.
This analysis allows you to determine the presence of antibodies to helminths in the body, helps to determine the type of parasites, their number, to trace the dynamics of the development of the process. It is recommended to take a blood test for worms regularly, especially if the family hassmall children and pets.
In recent times, the presence of parasites was determined only by duodenal probing and analysis of feces using microscopic studies, the purpose of which is to detect isolated helminths or their fragments, eggs and larvae.
Eggs and larvae of helminths parasitizing in the liver, biliary tract, pancreas and duodenum were found in bile and duodenal contents. Fecal samples were examined for intestinal forms of helminthiasis. If you suspectsputum was examined for paragonimiasis, urine for urogenital schistosomiasis.
But the reliability of these studies depends on the professionalism of the staff - whether the laboratory assistant will notice parasites during microscopic examination.
In addition, if the parasite has not laid eggs at the very moment when the check is performed, its presence will go unnoticed even with a highly qualified laboratory assistant. Often, only from 8-10 attempts you can get a positive result.
Today, there are immunological studies that allow you to determine in the blood of an infected person the presence of antigens and antibodies to various parasites. The reliability of such analyzes depends on the life cycle of the parasites and theiramount in the body:
- The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is used to determine antibodies (immunoglobulins) and antigens (parasites themselves, their metabolic products). Immunoglobulins (substances of a protein nature) are produced in the body and are antibodies toantigens. This method has a 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 trace the dynamics of the development of the process, which is indicated by the level of antibodies.
- ELISA tests are evidence of the body's response to invasion. In this case, laboratory tests that identify parasites or their larvae, cysts, eggs (microscopic examination of biological material) are also necessary. However, the directidentification of the parasite is not always possible due to its tissue localization (trichinosis, echinococcosis, toxocariasis) or due to the small number of parasitic individuals and their concentration in the test material. In these cases, the sensitivity of ELISA testshas a clear and unconditional advantage.
- In the diagnosis of 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 widely used fordetection of antigens and antibodies: RNGA (indirect hemagglutination reaction), RAL (latex agglutination reaction), RSK (complement fixation reaction), RIF (immunofluorescence reaction); as well as ultrasound and X-ray examinationorgans, computed tomography, endoscopy and endobiopsy.
- PCR Diagnostics offers analysis of parasites based on DNA analysis. This method can detect invasions of protozoa, viruses, as well as intracellular parasites (for example, chlamydia parasitizing in Trichomonas).
But this method does not allow to reveal the severity of the invasion - the number of parasites in the body.
- Energy-informational medicine offers bioresonance diagnostics based on the fact that every object and living thing creates a certain frequency of vibration, by which they are identified. And even if there are no symptoms of the disease yet, this method can identify the pathogen.
What you need to know about egg worm tests
In order not to retake tests, it is important to take into account 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.
- 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 the material for analysis 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 feces.
Additionally, they 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 to identify the presence of pinworms in the body.
What symptoms indicate a parasite infestation
Most often, a person wonders how to determine whether there are parasites in the body, then when the state of health may already be seriously undermined. The problem of parasitism is underestimated in society and is not as highlighted in preventive medicine as desiredwould.
People tend to dismiss the signs of damage to the body by uninvited guests until the vital activity of the parasites affects the normal state of health. In order to recognize the parasitic enemy in time and successfully get rid of it, 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, feed on tissues, blood.
They rob the owner, consuming nutrients from food, while constantly poisoning 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 inside the host. These are helminths (worms), lamblia, toxoplasma, echinococcus, parasitizing 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, feeding on blood and human tissue cells. The most common are lice, bedbugs, ticks, fleas, kandiru catfish, as well as dipterans (mosquitoes, gadflies, flies).
It is quite simple 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.
Diagnostic analysis is carried out using visual identification or microscopy (magnification under a microscope).
It is much more difficult to find ectoparasites, since in the process of evolution the internal "parasites" have learned to feel great and carry out destructive work in the host's body, practically not showing themselves.
Protozoa and helminths (worms) - the most ancient companions of man, insidious and dangerous neighbors, can boast of this skill especially. There is evidence that, from the moment of infection to the onset of symptoms, indicating the presence of intruders, it can take from several months to ten years.
External manifestations
Most parasites have a long life cycle and reproduce quite actively in the host's body, causing diseases characterized by a recurrent and chronic course.
External manifestations of parasite infestation include:
- Various kinds of allergic reactions, expressed:
- rash;
- itching;
- hives;
- Quincke's edema;
- fever.
The degree of allergy manifestation depends on the location of the parasite in the body, its contact with tissues and organs, as well as the amount of toxins released.
- Disorders 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, excessive 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, craving for sweets.
- Chronic fatigue syndrome, manifested by general fatigue, sleepiness, insomnia, weakness, decreased concentration and impaired memory.
- Persistent headaches caused by intoxication of the body.
- Bruxism (teeth grinding in sleep).This symptom is most pronounced in children.
- Swelling of the limbs.
- Intermittent cough with no other symptoms.
- Pain in muscles and joints of unclear etiology.
- Nervous disorders. Often, parasites cause depression, agitation, anxiety, irritability.
It is equally important to know about the obvious signs of helminths in the body:
- Disorders in the intestines (constipation, diarrhea, bloating, flatulence, spasms, irritable bowel syndrome, oily feces, discoloration of feces). Worms in the human body can reach significant sizes, so they physically blockmovement 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.