thanks I hate it
this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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Is this the place to drop my recommendation for Parasite Rex by Carl Zimmer? It’s 25 years old, but a fascinating read.
https://bookshop.org/p/books/filth-irvine-welsh/8805998?ean=9780393318685&next=t
Lovely fiction about the vilest cop in the world, partially narrated by his tapeworm.
The audiobook is on Hoopla: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/12128143
I'd recommend the physical book.
The author does some nice tricks with the typography that you'd miss with the audio version.
...what's actually making the cysts radiopaque? I wouldn't have guessed tape worms or the damage they're doing to soft tissue to be anywhere near that visible on x-ray
With a lot of parasites, when they die the tissue around them calcifies (just your body’s response). That’s what we are seeing on the radiograph.
That makes a ton more sense - thank you!
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calcification, the immune system, combined with the parasite walling off the infection. the parasite itself secretes chemicals to suppress the local immune system, thats why you dont see massive immune response to so many. if the parasites suddenly die it can be a problem for the host. theres also studies going on that non-deadly parasites are result of modulating autoimmune diseases as well.
Is there a cure?
incineration
Cures a lot of things. Tapeworms, covid, facism
Ah, the classic "scientists dicover cure ^in vitro^"
No, but they won't do anything to you once they get into the muscle. They're accidental parasites at a young stage that got into the wrong host instead of prey animals.
These cysts lodge deeply into the tissue waiting indefinitely for you to get eaten so they can break free from their capsule when stomach acid dissolves it to continue their life cycle, but since that probably won't happen, your body calcifies them and they stay in place without pain or much harm other than activating your immune system.
I think the worst is probably when they manage to get past the blood-brain barrier into the brain, which can cause neuropathy and sometimes seizures. But besides being gross, they're usually nothing to worry about.
Of course, the image is of a Chinese man with a severe case of infestation that made the rounds from over-consuption of infected meat from a street vendor, iirc. The average person who's infected usually has a handful at most and doesn't show signs or symptoms.
daily consumption of raw sashimi for many years
Ah, so not just from raw pork
Ah so sometimes they turn themselves into pets.
🎶 Oh, Sashimi
They don't believe me
But you won't let those tapeworms eat me 🎶
(Geez, I can't believe that even the 20th anniversary edition of that album was 3 year ago)
RFK is that you?
What percentage of RFK is RFK?
Keep away from the pork sashimi y'all.
Huh. I didn't realize tapeworms could travel outside the digestive tract. Apparently it's much more common with "pork tapeworm" and this poor guy is thought to have gotten in this situation by eating undercooked pork.
The Daily Mail commenting on a social media post is about as legitimate a news source as "a guy that was shouting at the bins behind the pub said..."
True, but it’s the most respectable source I came across when reverse image searching this meme. I guess we could have just stuck with the meme? It doesn’t give a lot of context.
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I became a vegetarian because of all the scary stuffs like this.
You can get all kinds of parasites from unwashed or underwashed produce.
Beth Mole, a writer at Ars Technica, has a fun example with Rat Lungworm: Burning in woman’s legs turned out to be slug parasites migrating to her brain.
It started with a bizarre burning sensation in her feet. Over the next two days, the searing pain crept up her legs. Any light touch made it worse, and over-the-counter pain medicine offered no relief.
and so on until it's diagnosed, then some lifecycle/vector explanation:
For instance, if a slug or snail traverses a leaf of lettuce, leaving a slime trail in its wake, the leaf can be contaminated with the larvae.
I think I read somewhere people can live of sun rays or some shit like that. 😆
Damn parasites.
Yup, you're especially at risk from liver worms from things like watercress and other usual parasites when animals defecate over crops, or from farmers using egg-infested water. Always wash and disinfect.
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