UNDERSTANDING PARASITES: Dr. Omar M. Amin

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UNDERSTANDING PARASITES

Copyright: Dr. Omar M. Amin, Phoenix, Arizona

by

Dr. Omar M. Amin

Parasitology Center, Inc. (PCI)

Tempe, Arizona

 

 

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. How we contract parasites

3. Common parasites in North America

4. Periodicity and cyclic parasites

5. Management of parasitic infections

6. Testing for parasites: how, when, and where

 

 

 

1. Introduction.

 

Many of us have heard about illnesses such as giardiasis or

amoebiasis, but we tend to overlook the relationship between these

parasites and digestive and systemic diseases and disorders. The

common belief that people in the US are free of parasites is a great

illusion. Some estimate that about 50 million American children are

infected with worm parasites; only a small portion of which is

detected and reported. This is particularly worrisome when one

recognizes that microscopic (single-celled protozoans) make up about

90% of all parasitic infections in the US according to the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention. If existing parasitic infections are

evenly distributed, there would be more than enough parasites for

every living person to have one. The most recent statistics of the

worldwide prevalence of certain selected parasites follows:

Disease

 

Human infections

 

Annual deaths

Malaria 489 million 1-2 million

All worms 4.5 billion

Ascaris 1.0 billion 20 thousands

Hookworms 900 million 50-60 thousands

Whipworms 750 million

Filarial worms 657 million 20-50+ thousands

Schistosomes 200 million 0.5-1.0 million

 

This is only a sample of the many parasitic diseases compromising

human health worldwide. In temperate areas we are uneducated about the

seriousness of parasitic diseases that reach their greatest impact in

" tropical " countries from which many immigrate to the US. Contributing

factors to parasitic diseases in the US, other than our own endemic

parasites and immigration, include malnutrition, population density,

economic conditions, sanitary practices, and life styles. Compounding

factors in North America include the lack of public/media awareness,

educational materials/counseling and training of the public, as well

as in some cases, the professional community. It is in this spirit

that this educational pamphlet is offered to you.

 

2. How we contract parasites.

 

A parasite is a micro- or macro-organism that needs to satisfy its

vital nutritional requirements by feeding off certain host tissues or

body fluids that contain the specific biochemicals that it needs.

There are parasites for every single tissue of the human body, once

they gain access. An intestinal parasite has to gain access via the

oral cavity with contaminated food or drink if it is to cause

infection. Other portals of entry are irrelevant. Eight ways by which

humans can contract parasitic infections are briefly summarized below.

 

2.1. Drinking water.

 

Some of the most common microscopic human parasites (Protozoa) are

transmitted via drinking water contaminated with fecal material from

infected persons. This simple cycle occurs in water from running

streams as well as from tap water in homes in large US and Canadian

cities served by surface water treatment plants. Parasites transmitted

in this manner include Cryptosporidium and Giardia.

 

2.2. Skin contact with contaminated water.

 

This is the only method of infection available to certain

parasites such as the schistosomes, some of the deadliest fluke

(trematode) parasites of mankind. After emerging from the snail host,

the infective larvae (cercariae) penetrate the skin of a person

(swimmer, agricultural worker, children playing, etc.) and migrate in

the human body ending up as adults in blood vessels (hepatic portal

system). To get infected, one has to be exposed in an endemic area,

ex., Africa, China, Mexico, Puerto Rico. At PCI, we have identified

eggs in fecal samples from an isolated area near a stream in

California nearby where a population of Vietnamese immigrants have

settled.

 

2.3. Food.

 

Food intake is perhaps one of the most common ways of transmission

of parasitic infections caused by microscopic (Protozoa) and

macroscopic (worm, helminth) parasites alike. For example,

Blastocystis and the cysts of the amoebas (both are protozoans) are

infective when swallowed with contaminated food via the fecal-oral

route. This can occur in a household setting or a restaurant.

Similarly, the ingestion of the eggs of the human roundworm, Ascaris,

readily occurs when fresh vegetables, ex., lettuce, grown in farms

fertilized with infected human waste, are eaten without proper washing.

 

2.4. Insects.

 

Most blood sucking insects are capable of transmitting infectious

agents via their bite as they attempt to feed on human blood. In the

US, ticks transmit lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever,

relapsing fever, Colorado tick fever, babesiosis, and rabbit fever;

fleas transmit plague and endemic typhus, mosquitoes transmit malaria

and dog heartworm, Triatoma (kissing) bugs transmit Chagas disease,

and head lice can transmit epidemic typhus. If a person has had a

history of a recent insect bite in any temperate or tropical part of

the world, his/her blood should be tested for parasites. Insect-borne

pathogens normally cause no harm to their natural (reservoir) hosts,

ex., rodents, but become highly pathogenic in humans (their unnatural

hosts).

 

2.5. Air.

 

Air-borne viruses, bacteria, and fungi are usually eliminated with

the feces (occasionally orally) of a natural reservoir (usually

wildlife) host but infect humans upon accidental inhalation. Examples

in North America include histoplasmosis, Valley fever, and Hanta

virus. These diseases are associated with bat guano, dust, and rodent

feces, respectively.

 

2.6. Pets.

 

Despite what you may have been told, dogs, among other pets, are

not man's best friend, parasitologically speaking. Dogs carry an

intestinal tapeworm, Echinococcus, whose eggs spread all over their

fur from the anal orifice during grooming. Unhealthy human contact

with infected dogs, e.g., by kissing, brings the eggs into the human

intestine which they penetrate as larvae and encyst in the body

cavity, e.g., the liver or even the brain, as the life threatening

hydatid cysts. Other worm parasites (helminths) are also readily

transmitted from pets and other animals to man. Most notable are the

beef and swine tapeworms, Taenia, by the consumption of beef and ham

contaminated with larvae of these tapeworms.

 

2.7. People.

 

Close human-to-human contact is conducive to transmission of quite

an assortment of sexually transmitted diseases including AIDS and

herpes as well as other viruses causing cold and flu. Eating food in

a restaurant or at home that may have been contaminated with Taenia

eggs or Entamoeba cysts from the servers fecal through improper

sanitary practices will surely produce infections with cysticercosis

(appearing as lumps in the body or nerve organs) or amoebiasis

(causing severe gastrointestinal distress, etc.), respectively. A

recent inspection of an expensive restaurant in Los Angeles showed

that 100% of all employees (not just servers) had fecal matter under

their nails.

 

2.8. Soil.

 

Certain roundworm (nematode) parasites spend their transitional

stages between one host and another as immature larvae in warm moist

soil. Walking bare-footed or sitting on such fecally contarninated

" seeded " soil in a wooded area or by a lake side, etc. will invite the

larvae of hookworms or Strongyloides to penetrate the exposed skin and

migrate in the body to finally become adults in the intestinal tract

where the damage is done.

 

3. Common Parasites in North America and their Health Implications.

The most common parasites identified from North American patients

at the Parasitology Center, Inc. (PCI), Tempe, Arizona are listed

below in order of their prevalence from high to low:

 

Protozoa (rnicroscopic single-celled organisms)

Blastocystis hominis

Endolimax nana

Cryptosporidiuin parvum

Entamoeba histolytica

Entamoeba coli

Entamoeba hartmanni

Giardia lamblia

Chilomastix mesnili

Cyclospora cayetanensis

Helminths (macroscopic multicellular worms)

Ascaris lumbricoides (human roundworm)

Strongyloides stercoralis (threadworm)

Ancylostoma duodenale/Necator americanus (hookworms)

Enterobius vermicularis (pinworm)

Trichuris trichiura (whipworm)

 

In the USA, one-third of about 6,000 fecal specimens tested at PCI

were positive for 19 species of intestinal parasites (Amin, 0.

2002.Seasonal Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites in the United States

during 2000., American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

66(6):799-803).

 

Protozoa:

All the protozoan parasites listed above cause various degrees of

gastro-intestinal (enteric) and systemic (extra-intestinal)

symptomology and pathology, with Endolimax causing the mildest

infections, and all are transmitted via contaminated food/drink.

Enteric symptoms usually include bloating, diarrhea, flatulence,

constipation, cramps, and maldigestion/malabsorption. Less frequent

enteric symptoms include bleeding, irritable bowel, leaky gut, and

excess mucus secretion. Extra-intestinal symptoms include allergies,

fatigue, nausea, nervous-sensory disorders (ex., brain fog, memory

loss, poor coordination), skin rashes and disorders, pain, and muscle

problems. Less frequent extra-intestinal disorders include fever,

headache, immune deficiencies, insomnia, and weight changes. Some of

these symptoms are probably related to parasite toxic metabolic

byproducts particularly in immune compromised patients. Some of the

above protozoans are sufficiently invasive to become blood-borne,

e.g., Entamoeba histolytica, that it may cause serious liver or brain

damage.

 

Helminths:

Worm parasite damage depends largely on which tissues are invaded by

the migrating larvae or the type of intestinal damage caused by

adults. For example, after the ingestion and hatching of Ascaris eggs

in the intestine of a new host, the emerged larva will migrate through

the intestinal lining, lymphatic/blood vessels, the hepatic portal

system, liver, right heart, lungs, then get re-swallowed and establish

as one-foot long adult in the small intestine. Allergic responses to

the metabolic byproducts of adult worms are known to cause asthma,

insomnia, eye pain, and rashes. Aberrant larval migration can cause

inflammatory reaction in the spleen, liver, lymph nodes, and brain.

Pulmonary hemorrhagic sites may be accompanied by coughing, fever, and

breathing difficulties. Fatal pneumonitis is a possible complication.

Mechanical blockage may be caused by a large number of adults in the

intestinal tract leading to toxemia and death. Adult worms

occasionally penetrate the intestinal wall or appendix causing local

hemorrhage, peritonitis, and/or appendicitis.

 

See Section 2 above (food, pets, people, soil) for methods of

contracting worm parasites.

 

4. Periodicity and Cyclic Parasites.

 

In a recent detailed PCI study of about 700 PCI patients, it was

noted that:

 

4.a. A number of patients testing positive for parasites had

subclinical infections and showed no overt intestinal or

extra-intestinal symptoms. Those patients have been treated and their

overall health has improved.

 

4.b. Another group of patients was symptomatic but no

parasites were detected from fecal samples provided. These latter

cases are related to one or both of the following factors:

 

Factor # 1. Other pathogenic organisms, ex., pathogenic

bacteria, can cause symptoms comparable to those produced by typical

parasites. These include enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, Salmonella,

Shigella, or Campylobacter. Like the typical parasites, these

bacterial parasites are also amenable to successful treatment with

herbal products.

 

Factor # 2. Because of the heterogeneous distribution and the

cyclic nature of some of the most common human parasites, infections

may not be detected in fecal sample if collected when parasites are

not running in the main fecal flow. For instance, intervals of many

days may intervene between amebic " runs " which may make the

microscopic examination of multiple stool specimens necessary to

confirm a positive Entamoeba histolytica infection. The sarne kind of

periodicity and/or adherence to the intestinal lining are also known

to occur in Giardia lamblia and Cyclospora cayetanensis. This explains

the intermittent shedding and cyclic recovery of these parasites in

fecal samples collected for testing. It is important to test for

cyclic parasites when they are " running. " The PCI kit is designed to

collect 2 separate fecal samples on 2 different days to maximize

parasite recovery rate. On some occasions, however, testing may have

to be repeated.

 

5. Management of Parasitic Infections.

 

Parasites will compromise the host immune system as well as his

state of physical, mental, and emotional well-being to various

degrees. The tapeworm Diphyllobothrium latum will deplete the body of

half its vitamin B 12 resources, which are essential for proper

central nervous system function, propagation of nerve impulse, muscle

coordination, and recall. When this 30 foot long worm is expelled

after proper treatment, above functions will be restored to normality.

Host-parasite relationships causing physical or psychological trauma,

may be operative at the subclinical level or go undetected since early

childhood years. Progressive or sudden overt disease outcome may occur

later on in life. This reactivation of infection is usually related to

depressed

immune status, age, hormonal changes, and physical or psychological

pressures.

 

Considering the above, it is absolutely important to achieve well

being by the elevation of ones physical, mental, emotional, and

intuitive energies to a state of balanced and functional equilibrium.

Experience demonstrates that antibiotics depress host immunity, kill

off beneficial intestinal flora, and enhance fungal growth, e.g.,

Candida, which subsequently competes with/excludes good bacteria.

Herbal treatments, thus, appear to be the natural way to manage

parasitic and other pathogenic infections with no side effects to be

concerned about. At PCI, we have worked with many good herbal formulas

and have followed up on a number of herbal protocols. We found out

that the best are those that provide healing through the integration

of 3 functions: treatment, cleansing, and restoration. In other words,

the formulas need to get rid of the parasite(s), cleanse the body from

its toxic byproducts, and restore intestinal lining and other damaged

tissue(s) to their normal healthy state.

 

6. Testing for parasites; how, when, where.

 

If you have any one or more of the above symptoms (Section 3

above), or if you have reason to believe that you may be an

asymptomatic patient by reason of foreign travel, infected household

contact, bad meal, etc., you should consider being tested for

parasites. While there are many hospital labs, throughout the country

that will test for all kinds of pathogens, including parasites, PCI is

the only lab that specializes only in parasitology and has by far the

best track record and national and international reputation in

parasite testing and identification. PCI has a mailable kit for home

collection and mailing of fecal samples from anywhere in the world.

PCI will also identify separately worm parasites, worm parts, biopsy

material, and blood parasites; call for instructions.

 

For intestinal parasite testing, call Alpha-Tec Systems to order

an PCI kit; feel free to ask questions. The kit's cost is about $17.95

including shipping and the lab charges are $80.00 per test (Contact

Alpha-Tec Systems directly for special volume discounts). Each test

kit is based on 2 separate fecal samples collected on 2 separate days.

A list of Instructions, Requisition Form, addressed mailer, and

collecting containers and vials are included. Once received in the lab

(US postal, UPS, FED EX, etc.) the specimens are entered into the

system, processed using a concentration/sedimentation technique

utilizing Protofix and CONSED stain, then screened microscopically for

parasites. In addition to parasite test results, the Diagnostic Report

will also include a profile of other intestinal organisms, e.g., fungi

(including Candida and yeast), cells, particles, undigested foods,

occult blood, and crystal bio-tags, among others. Results will be

Faxed and mailed to the referring practitioner within 3 days of

receipt of sample. See Instructions provided with the kit for

additional information.

 

 

To order kits call

Alpha-Tec Systems, Inc.

(800) 221-6058

 

 

Address mail, samples, or ask questions:

 

Parasitology Center, Inc. (PCI)

903 South Rural Road, #101-318

Tempe, Arizona 85281

 

Phone (480) 767-2522

Fax (480)767-5855

E-mail omaramin

 

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