Intestinal parasites can be picked up on a trip or in your yard, but homeopath David Needleman shares remedies to ban them from your body
This is the time of year when our children or grandchildren are returning to school or university. And if they or their friends have been away on exotic holidays, it’s also the main season for becoming infested with worms.
Most people don’t want to hear about this very common possibility, often because the conventional treatment options are very limited. If a pregnant woman contracts worms, she is usually told to wait until the baby has arrived to undergo treatment, which can take six weeks or more. In the meantime, the only recourse is hygienic treatments.
The main parasites you may encounter are threadworms and pinworms. Although they’re less common, you or your family can also become infested with whipworms, roundworms, hookworms and tapeworms.
If left untreated, tapeworms can grow to 30 feet or more in the human gut, causing retching and vomiting. Their eggs hatch in the stomach, and the parasites burrow through the lining of the gut and can even make their way to the brain.
The most important symptom of tapeworm is substantial weight loss and a lack of energy. There may be excessive bloating, diarrhea, vomiting and an itchy nose.
Some people experience worm colic—abdominal cramping around the navel or when hungry along with symptoms like fullness, nausea, and constipation or diarrhea. There may also be blue or purple areas under the eyes.
A few hundred years ago, unscrupulous physicians took full advantage of tapeworms’ ability to induce weight loss in their wealthy patients, who were often overweight. Those who wanted a slimmer figure consulted their family physician, and the medicine often given, unbeknownst to the patient, was tapeworm eggs delivered in the form of a powder (a common practice in medicine as recently as 30 years ago).
One dose was sufficient, and over the course of the next six months or so, the patient would steadily lose weight. When this became problematic, the physician was called in. The treatment of the time was a dose of male fern extract (Dryopteris filix-mas), which killed and expelled the tapeworm.
This treatment is no longer available as it’s toxic and can prove quite dangerous. In homeopathic form, however, it’s effective and safe. When the patient grew obese again, six months or so later, the cycle was repeated.
Believe it or not, this practice persists in what’s been advertised as the tapeworm diet. You can still buy eggs online, though it’s illegal in the US.
Luckily we have remedies that can rid you of all types of worms in a much safer and less dramatic way.
Pinworms look like little white pinheads in the fecal matter and can be quite hard to see. Threadworms, also visible in fecal matter, look like wisps of cotton.
Tapeworms look as their name implies: like long, flat tapes with segments. Toward the end of a worm, the egg sacs appear in sections like parcels of pasta.
Hookworms look like a red, raised tattoo of a worm just under the skin, and roundworms look a little like earthworms without the unsegmented section.
Pinworms and threadworms, the most common invaders, are mainly acquired by ingesting the eggs in tiny pieces of fecal matter. This usually occurs when an infested person, suffering from an extremely itchy bottom, scratches and then doesn’t wash their hands sufficiently.
The eggs can be passed from child to child during play or by touching surfaces that have already been contaminated. There may be a reservoir of infestation, often in an older person, from whom repeated infestations can occur in family members. Parasites may also be picked up from toothbrushes, bedding and food.
Tapeworms are usually acquired by eating infected meats that are raw or undercooked, mainly in countries without modern toilets and sewers or good food hygiene.
Don’t allow children to play in areas contaminated with dog or cat feces. Avoid raw food unless it’s prepared in a quality restaurant in a country with high food and sanitary standards.
Make sure all family members wash their hands thoroughly and regularly before eating, before and after visiting the toilet, and after gardening. Keeping nails short is also often advised.
The typical treatment for such parasites, either over the counter or by prescription, is mebendazole, which is not advised for children under age two or pregnant women unless prescribed by a doctor. This drug is used to treat all the worms listed above, but it doesn’t eradicate the eggs, which can survive for some weeks outside the body.
I’ve treated worms safely and completely with homeopathic remedies for many years, with no issues in very young children or in pregnancy.
All the remedies below can be useful for treating worms, but individual symptoms might influence your choice of the most appropriate remedy. And remember that children especially can be successfully treated only to pick the parasites up again very soon, so be vigilant about maintaining hygiene and re-treating if necessary.
Cina (Worm seed) 30C. Don’t confuse this remedy with China or Senna. It’s appropriate for children who get very angry and often hungry. Another symptom is petulance and teeth grinding. There may also be vomiting and diarrhea immediately after eating or drinking.
Teucrium Marum (Cat thyme) 30C. A second-choice remedy for someone who exhibits extreme anal itching, is restless at night and has an unnaturally strong appetite.
Santonin (Santoninum) 30C. Made from the unexpanded flower heads of sea wormwood (Artemisia maritima), Santonin may be appropriate when strabismus, a misalignment of the eyes, follows a bout of worms. Dark rings under the eyes may also be present.
Helmintochortos (Worm moss) 30C. I’ve included this in the list, but I doubt anyone will have it as it’s a very rare remedy and its only indication is unspecified worms.
Filix Mas 30C. Male fern is the number one remedy for tapeworm and all its relatives. It’s the homeopathic form of the remedy used to treat worms deliberately ingested for weight loss in the past, as mentioned above.
For all the above remedies, my favored regime spans 11 days and is designed to disrupt the life cycle of the worm:
Narayani Mix 36 Worms
This is one of some 300 different Narayani combination remedies specifically designed for worm infestations of all kinds. It contains Cina, Filix Mas, Natrum Phosphoricum, Spigelia, Teucrium and Granatum, all in 30C potency.
Take two pills three times a day for one month followed by a break of 14 days and then repeat.
One final bit of folk medicine: eat lots of raw carrots. Biologist Ray Peat claims raw carrots contain indigestible fiber that scrapes the walls of the digestive system, sweeping away mucus and any parasites that live in it. But he offers no scientific backing for this idea.
Carrots also contain nutrients like vitamin A, which studies show helps rid the body of some parasites.1 Though there appears to be a close link between parasite infestation and vitamin A, scientists haven’t yet determined the details of that relationship.2
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