Normadex Official site
Share this

How to determine the presence of parasites in the human body - check yourself and loved ones

abdominal pain from worms

Today we will talk about how to determine the presence of parasites in the human body, symptoms that may indicate their presence, and the most effective instrumental diagnostic methods. The symptoms of helminthiasis are sometimes very difficult to recognize, as many signs are similar in nature to other diseases. In order to protect yourself, you need to know how to accurately determine the presence of pests. Therefore - this article is just for a sane person who cares about the health of the whole family.

Many of my friends ask me if it is possible to identify helminths at home or if it is better to consult a specialist. In order for you to understand which method best shows their presence, I wrote this material. The article will reveal such points: how to identify 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 the work of the whole organism - the presence of helminths is clearly noticeable. Signals from the body cannot always be interpreted correctly for the simple reason that the symptoms are very similar to those typical of other common illnesses.

Therefore, do not self-medicate - it will not affect helminths. If you notice recurring anxiety symptoms, it is best to see a doctor.

How to tell 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 a simple pressure on the animal, when eating unwashed fruits and vegetables.

It is important to know how to understand if a person has worms, since the consequences of prolonged activity of worms in the body can lead to serious health problems for a person.

As soon as the worms start their activity in the body, it is very difficult to "calculate" them, therefore, there are no symptoms in the early stages of the infection. Obvious symptoms of worms in the body begin to appear when the parasites begin to multiply and lead an active life, literally feeding on the human body and exhausting it.

Signs of parasites in adults will be as follows:

  • diarrhea of ​​a prolonged or episodic nature (this symptom may be caused by the fact that some types of parasites secrete an enzyme that causes intestinal disturbances, as well as the fact that the parasites cause disturbances in the digestive tract);
  • bloating, gas, discomfort in the abdomen;
  • constipation and bile stagnation - the worms, which are large in size, can block the bile ducts, in turn this causes constipation (the same happens if the parasites multiply and stay in the body incolonies);
  • allergy, which occurs due to the fact that worms weaken the immune system, as well as the activity of worms poisoning the body, and allergy is the inability of the body to cope with these poisonsand to attack;
  • irritable bowel cider - occurs because the worms constantly irritate the walls of the intestines, making them 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 osteoarthritis;
  • presence of dermatitis, hives, eczema and other rashes;
  • acne, pimples, hair loss, yellowing under the eyes - all of these are talking about worms, as they rob the body of the nutrients it needs to maintain a normal appearance;
  • anemia - a symptom appears due to the fact that the parasites stick to the intestinal walls and suck blood from the vessels;
  • sudden weight loss against the backdrop of gastrointestinal disturbances 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 your teeth in a dream has nothing to do with worms! This is a symptom of a dysfunction of the nervous system. Finding these symptoms on your own is the first step. Follow-up actions are aimed at confirming the diagnosis and determining which parasites have attacked the body.

How to tell if a child has worms

Children are most likely to be infected 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 garden gardens. children and schools.

Since parents cannot follow 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 preschool and school-aged children, signs of parasites are as follows:

  1. Sharp or aching abdominal pain;
  2. Bloating;
  3. diarrhea, constipation or vomiting;
  4. Expressed apathy, lethargy.

There are a number of additional symptoms by which it can be understood that pinworms, roundworms and lamblia have settled in the child's body:

  • nocturnal itching in the anal area;
  • restless sleep;
  • weakened immunity and frequent colds in this context.

In addition to alerting parents to these symptoms, they can also do home tests for parasites in children.

There are two ways to do this:

  1. In the morning, apply duct tape to the child's anus, then examine this piece of duct tape under a magnifying glass. If there are parasites, their eggs will be visible on the strip.
  2. Baby's feces can be seen, as roundworms sometimes come out with the feces.
  3. Sometimes children feel bad, then pinworms 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 a latent form, because in the first case babies cannot report and talk about the symptoms, therefore, parents have no reason to worry, and in the second case, the symptoms are simply absent.

Despite the fact that there are homemade methods to determine the presence of parasites in the body, only laboratory tests can establish this fact with certainty.

This 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 the diagnosis. Only a careful attitude to your body will help to avoid complications of mumps, as well as their appearance in general.

How to determine the presence of parasites in the human body - diagnostic methods

According to the World Health Organization, one in four people on the planet shows signs of infection with parasites, and even more people are potential carriers of helminths.

The presence of "illegal immigrants" does not go without leaving traces 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 anddamage 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 tests are not always reliable, some types of helminths can only be detected by expensive examination. Therefore, the question of how to identify parasites in the human body is very relevant to the majority of the world's population.

The suspicion of the presence of one or more parasitic creatures inside the human body may not immediately arise. For a long time, “illegal immigrants” did not manifest 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 more than one of the following:

  • Persistent and stubborn allergies - persistent rash, itching, recurrent hives, dermatitis that does not respond to conventional treatment. Allergic skin reactions are particularly common in echinococcosis, toxocariasis and ascariasis.

    Patients are often diagnosed with bronchial asthma.

  • Weakened immunity - increased susceptibility to viruses, pathogenic fungi and bacteria until the development of such serious diseases as oncology, HIV.
  • Weight loss with increased or maintained appetite.
  • Itching in the anus in the evening and at night - in combination with the detection of small living worms that twist in the stool, this is a one hundred percent sign of pinworm infection and notdoes not require additional examination.
  • Asthenia - weakness, increased fatigue, decreased performance, headache, trouble sleeping. These symptoms are associated with constant poisoning of the nervous system with parasitic toxins.
  • Dyspepsia - nausea in the morning, bloating, unstable stools ranging from diarrhea to constipation, increased salivation.

    These signs are not specific to determine 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 cough that is difficult to treat, swelling in the legs, muscle and joint pain, etc.

Traditional analyzes

The diagnosis of parasites living in the human intestine is most often made by an old, proven, affordable and reliable method of detecting their eggs in the stool under a microscope. To do this, you need to collect the fresh excrement in a glass dish after a chair, it is better to do this in the morning.

As a last resort, it is allowed to keep the collected material for a maximum of 10 hours in the refrigerator. It happens that it is necessary at least 3 times to give feces for worms for 2 or 3 weeks, which is associated with the peculiarities of the life cycle of parasites.

This test detects or does not detect worms that live inside the human body.

This method is effective for types of helminths such as:

  1. Strongyloids (hookworms), roundworms, whipworms;
  2. Pork and bull tapeworms, large tapeworm;
  3. Liver fluke (feline), schistosomes.

We often self-diagnose enterobiosis by nighttime itching and pinworms in the stool, especially in children. There are ways to remove a scraping from the perianal area - at home using duct tape or in a clinic where the fence is made by a medical professional using a special spatula.

The reliability of this test is high if done in the morning before bowel movements and hygiene procedures. Sometimes a number of repeated studies are needed at intervals of a few days.

Not everyone likes to donate feces multiple times, so the question arises as to how to detect parasites in the human body with the help of blood tests. Modern science offers three main methods:

  • PCR (polymerase chain reaction) - detection of DNA worms in human blood;
  • serological diagnosis (ELISA) - detection of antibodies against parasites;
  • genetic research - investigation of the genome of the pathogen.

Blood tests are carried out in specialized laboratories and are used to diagnose diseases such as:

  1. Echinococcosis;
  2. Opisthorchiasis;
  3. Giardiasis;
  4. Cystecyrcosis;
  5. Fascioliasis;
  6. amoebic dysentery;
  7. Toxocariasis;
  8. 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. Symptoms of the diseases they cause often appear when there is a lot of helminths. Unfortunately, the detection of parasites in the human body sometimes occurs too late.

Worms cannot always be found quickly by conventional means, even repeated fecal tests cannot give more than 20% positive results.

Serological methods of diagnosing parasites in the body of patients are more accurate and effective methods, especially when applied in the advanced stages of the disease.

One of the most modern methods is the vegetative resonance test or bioresonance diagnosis, the essence of which is the recording of electromagnetic waves emitted by parasites with a frequency characteristic of their specific type.

Computer diagnostics is based on the use of special programs that allow a comparative analysis of healthy and diseased organs in a patient.

Medical practitioners do not always accept this type of examination of patients, preferring traditional tests. Nevertheless, everyone has the right to decide for themselves how to identify parasites in the human body, the main thing is to do it on time and reliably.

Difficulties in diagnosis: how to tell if a person has worms

About 1. 2 billion people are infected with helminths each year. Moreover, the majority do not even know it. Poor health, weakness, headaches, problems with the gastrointestinal tract, we would rather blame stress and poor diet.

But these and other symptoms can signal "alien invasion". 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 embarrassed by episodes of dry cough, which occur for no reason and do not go away even after prolonged treatment.

If the worms have settled in the intestines, symptoms may be abdominal discomfort, a 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 discomfort is the parasitism of helminths in the human body.

What tests will help identify parasites

If you suspect that there are unwanted guests in yourself or your child, you should definitely contact a doctor and have an examination. Diagnosing helminthiasis is not an easy task, as it is quite problematic to detect parasites.

The most common method is to test the stool for worm eggs. But, unfortunately, it is ineffective, since worms have several stages of development and do not always lay eggs. To identify the parasites, you need to do a stool test 3-4 times, while there is no guarantee that the scan will show the real picture.

The immunological blood test method 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. Regular blood test for worms is recommended, especially if the family has small children and pets.

In recent times, the presence of parasites has been 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.

Helminth eggs and larvae parasitizing the liver, bile ducts, pancreas, and duodenum have been found in the bile and duodenal contents. Fecal samples were examined for intestinal forms of helminthiasis. If you suspect the sputum has been tested for paragonimiasis, the 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 time of testing, its presence will go unnoticed even by a highly trained laboratory technician. Often, only from 8 to 10 attempts you can get a positive result.

Today there are immunological studies that can determine in the blood of an infected person the presence of antigens and antibodies against parasites of all kinds. The reliability of these analyzes depends on the life cycle of the parasites and their amount in the body:

  • The enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is used to determine antibodies (immunoglobulins) and antigens (the parasites themselves, their metabolic products). Immunoglobulins (substances of a protein nature) are produced in the body and are antigens. This method has 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 proof of the body's response to the invasion. In this case, laboratory tests to identify the parasites or their larvae, cysts, eggs (microscopic examination of biological material) are also necessary. However, direct identification of the parasite is not always possible due to its tissue location (trichinosis, echinococcosis, toxocariasis) or due to the small number of parasite individuals and their concentration in the test material. In these cases, the sensitivity of ELISA has 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 for detectionantigens and antibodies: RNGA (indirect hemagglutination reaction), RAL (latex agglutination reaction), RSK (complement binding reaction), RIF (immunofluorescence reaction); as well as ultrasound and radiographic examinations of organs, computed tomography, endoscopy and endobiopsy.
  • PCR Diagnostics offers parasite analysis based on DNA analysis. This method can detect invasions of protozoa, viruses, as well as intracellular parasites (eg, parasitic chlamydia in Trichomonas).

    But this method does not reveal the severity of the invasion - the number of parasites in the body.

  • Information energy medicine offers bioresonance diagnostics based on the fact that every object and every 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 testing for egg worms

In order not to retake the tests, it is important to take into account several nuances when donating feces on an egg worm:

  1. It is necessary to take analytical material, that is, feces, about 2-3 hours after meals.
  2. Emptying of the intestine should take place no later than 24 hours before the test.
  3. The most accurate results can be obtained if the analysis is performed 30 minutes after draining.
  4. Store the material to be analyzed in a cold place in a closed plastic or glass container.
  5. Material should be collected from the sides, middle and at the beginning and end of the faeces.

In addition, they may order an analysis such as a smear for enterobiosis.

It goes as follows: the caregiver holds a special stick in the area between the buttocks - where the anus is located. It is this analysis that identifies 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 can already be seriously compromised. The problem of parasitism is underestimated in society and is not as highlighted in preventive medicine as one would like.

People tend to ignore signs of bodily harm from 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 need to 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, and feed on tissues, blood.

They steal from 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, toxoplasmas, echinococci, 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, feeding on blood and human tissue cells. The most common are lice, bedbugs, ticks, fleas, kandiru catfish, as well as Diptera (mosquitoes, horseflies, flies).

Determining the defeat of the human body by ectoparasites is quite simple, since their activity is often characterized by pronounced symptoms:

  1. Itching;
  2. rash;
  3. Engraving;
  4. Redness;
  5. Pain at the bite site;
  6. The presence of a visible bite or penetrating wound.

The diagnostic analysis is performed by visual identification or microscopy (magnification under a microscope).

It is much more difficult to find ectoparasites, because during evolution the internal "parasites" have learned to feel good and to do destructive work in the host's body, practically without showing themselves.

Protozoa and Helminths (Worms) - Man's oldest companions, insidious and dangerous neighbors, can boast of this particular skill. There is evidence that from the time of infection to the onset of symptoms, indicating the presence of intruders, it can take from several months to ten years.

External events

Most parasites have a long life cycle and reproduce quite actively in the host body, causing diseases characterized by a recurrent and chronic course.

External manifestations of parasite infestation include:

  1. Different types of allergic reactions, expressed:
      skin rash
    • ;
    • itching;
    • beehives;
    • angioedema;
    • fever.

    The degree of manifestation of the allergy depends on the location of the parasite in the body, its contact with tissues and organs, and the amount of toxins released.

  2. Disorders of the digestive tract (vomiting, nausea, belching, indigestion, salivation).
  3. Skin lesions (eczema, ulcers, dermatitis, papillomas, acne, acne).
  4. Pale skin and mucous membranes.
  5. Cosmetological problems (brittle nails, cut ends, seborrhea, excessive dry skin, hair loss, early wrinkles).
  6. The 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, a craving for sweets.
  7. Chronic fatigue syndrome, manifested by general fatigue, drowsiness, sleeplessness, weakness, reduced concentration and impaired memory.
  8. Persistent headache caused by intoxication of the body.
  9. Bruxism (teeth grinding during sleep).This symptom is most pronounced in children.
  10. Swelling of the limbs.
  11. Intermittent cough with no other symptoms.
  12. Pain in muscles and joints of uncertain etiology.
  13. Nervous disorders. Often the parasites cause depression, restlessness, anxiety, irritability.

It is also important to know the obvious signs of helminths in the body:

  • Bowel disorders (constipation, diarrhea, bloating, gas, spasms, irritable bowel syndrome, oily stools, stool discoloration). Worms in the human body can reach large sizes, therefore they physically block movement 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.