The Tapeworm Diet
The Arizona Republic has raised an interesting question. Is it possible to use tapeworms as a diet aid? Won't the tape worm just sit in your stomach and consume all the extra food you eat, and after a while you can pull out the thing? The basic answer is no. This would not be a good idea. They go into some more details:
While a tapeworm might take in some of the food you do, it would at the same time be taking in a lot of vitamins and other nutrients you need to stay healthy. Do you know what ascites are? A big pool of fluid in your tummy caused by an immune response to something in your guts. Something like a tapeworm. It gives you a big potbelly, which runs kind of counter to the look you might be wishing for. And a tapeworm might not necessarily just set up camp in your innards. It can also cause cysts in your muscles, liver and eyes. Your eyes! So don't you think it might be easier instead to just eat a bit less and exercise a bit more?Posted By: Alex | Date:
Thu Apr 21, 2005 |
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Total Comments: 206
Category:
Body Manipulation,
Food
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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Medically, tapeworms aren't used for dieting. Its like anorexia for the clever. Nikos T. Plakas. I imagine your diet would have to be very carefully monitored your diet to ensure you were getting the nurtients you need.
Posted by Ashb in Dallas on Thu Aug 30, 2007 at 07:05 AM
Shortly after my daughter celebrated her fourth month I “released” a tapeworm into the toilet. I was shocked and frightened because I didn’t know what was wrong. Make a long story short, the worm was 1.5 meter long and my doctor finally had his answer why I was losing so much weight during my pregnancy and as a result of the worm my child had a birth weight of 1298 grams. She was very tiny and fragile. Yes I lost about 15 kg during my pregnancy and never was that skinny neither before nor after wards. I didn’t had any problems physically since I was pregnant I can’t say if I had a big stomach but it was quit disgusting seeing the worm floating in the toilet. The only way I could have gotten this tape worm was either from my consumption of raw milk (2 liters a day because it was supposed to be healthy drinking lot of milk when expecting), or I caught the worm by eating Tatar, (raw beef with egg and onions). My third guess would be sushi which I ate at least twice a week. Do I want another one? NO, looking at my now 20 year old daughter I am very happy that she is alive and had no health problems because of the tapeworm.
Posted by Veronika in CA on Mon Sep 03, 2007 at 09:40 PM
hey does anyone know where to get tapeworm eggs? I hear they come from Mexico.call me crazy but i wanna try it. i mean if i lost all my weight then it would be worth it right? i mean so what if you get a bad case of the shits when you get it out. I mean come on i get that from drinking cranberry juice.As for the whole vitamin loss thing, why not just take a bunch more vitamin pills? the worm cant take that much in at one time right? plz get back to me!
Posted by Emily in Ohio on Wed Sep 19, 2007 at 02:01 PM
eating tatar (raw beef)may get you one. (raw beef)
Posted by veronika in CA on Wed Sep 19, 2007 at 09:09 PM
see the problem with the eating raw beef solution is that now a days people try really hard to make sure that doesnt happen, and i dont eat beef so theres another problem, so thanks veronika but i was thinking more along the line of pills
Posted by Emily in Ohio on Fri Sep 21, 2007 at 01:01 PM
Posted by I'm not gonna eat them in U.S.A. on Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 07:16 PM
I have never been to a church that taught people should use tapeworms to lose weight.
Posted by Danny Ray in USA on Sun Oct 07, 2007 at 06:53 PM
I don't know about the education background of people on this site and those who are submitting posts, but I would like to inform those who are thinking of trying tapeworm pills for the hell of it (whether a hoax or not) that the major concern about tapeworms are their species specific characteristics. Coincidently, in humans, tapeworms in the stomach are not the major concern. The major concern is migration of the worms from the intestine to the brain where they tend to prefer to "set up camp"--forming large fluid filled sacks filled with millions of tiny larvae. These cysts filled with the larvae are the major health concern because they damage brain function and must be removed by surgery. So those of you who want to diet, keep that in mind. It is not the large worms you should worry about because the smaller ones can more efficiently travel through the body.
http://www.healthleader.uthouston.edu/archive/Infectious_Disease/2006/brainworm-1025.html
or you can watch the lovely documentary on animal planet which touches on tapeworms called Eaten Alive.
Posted by Billy Chong in OH IO on Wed Oct 17, 2007 at 04:30 PM
Hey, Ty, when a person uses vulgarity and profanity to support an argument, it usually indicates that either the person or the argument is weak - and commonly it is both. This type of self expression is the "common crutch of the conversational cripple" to quote Keuck, and is viewed by the majority as the ineffective weapon of the hopelessly witless, the lazy, the uneducated, the base, and the unmotivated. It is a sharp tool for the individual who uses it to " flavor the dish ", but for someone who uses it as the dish itself, it is the easy evidence of ignorance. (If you are below the age of 13 then you are excused and I apologize)
Posted by Brother Breeze in Cambridge on Sun Jan 06, 2008 at 11:27 AM
this is fucked!!
Posted by amee in london on Mon Jan 07, 2008 at 02:13 PM
I had seen something on T.V about this diet and thought I would look into it. Was it real? If so why? Then I saw this site where someone was thinking about really doing this to ones self and was shocked. Here is a link to the truth about tapeworms. Not personal opinion but facts from the medical people who take them out of people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapeworm
If you’re in that much need then go to a doctor and get real help to lose the weight. And just so where clear diets don't work you have to retrain yourself to eat and live a different way. You also must work out or all the food changes wont make much of an impact and you will be discouraged by it.
Posted by ocean in California on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 02:35 PM
You people that want a tapeworm are stupid! How could you want such a thing that ate a woman's entire intestinal system in the Netherlands, and after hearing all these terrible things about it! Do you actually WANT to harm yourself? And by the way, we don't wish to hear your personal opinion about church and school, so leave it to yourself. The subject is about tapeworms, not discussing your views on other things.
Posted by sagwa on Tue Jan 08, 2008 at 09:55 PM
look I need help I have tape worm ate pork a FEW WEEKS AGO ago in Mexico and it gave tape worm I know it's way not good I'm trying to find niclosamide it kills all types of type worm were can I find it I have to go to the doctor in 5 days I freaking out and want to know how long does it take for it to get bad I want to kill this shit it sucks I mean it doesn't hurt yet I had it when I was younger but I can feel it's gross dude ANY ONE WHO WANTS TAPE WORM CAN HAVE IT BECAUSE THESE THINGS ARE SICK AND HERE IS THE FUN THING I'M GAINING WEIGHT BECAUSE THE TAPE WORM MAKES YOU MORE HUNGRY ASSES ALL OF YOU WHO WANT THIS NEED TO GET A REALITY CHECK JACK ASSESS
Posted by chi in San Diego, on Thu Jan 10, 2008 at 10:34 PM
I did the tape worm diet. Most of the stuff I have read above is true... but I will clear some stuff up...
First of all I went to Costa Rica to get it (well I was on vacation and heard about it before hand so got it there). It cost 1,000 to bribe the guys at the slaughterhouse to let me in. I then picked out a tapeworm and had to swallow it pronto so it wouldn't die.
I want to be clear that the pills are a hoax. You literally have to get an actually worm (about 4 inches long) and swallow it live. You can't chew and it is actually pretty hard to do. The pills claim that they have eggs in them which hatch but this is impossible because even the eggs need nutrients.
Ok so I swallow it... I then waited for side effects- but there weren't any. I had read up on it online so after 4 weeks I went to the doctor and fessed up for what I did. My doctor prescribed anti-biotics and other meds that killed the worm while it was still inside. I didn't even know when I passed it out. Actually, once you get past the mental part of swallowing it you can't even tell it is in you.
So the worm was there a total of 5 weeks before the meds. In five weeks I lost 40 pounds. I am female and weighed 225 pds (5 foot 7) when I ate it. I did, however, diet during those 5 weeks so the tape worm didnt have tons to eat directly from ingestion- it had to feed off of fat in the body.
I loved the diet. I've kept the weight off. Since I involved doctors in a timely matter everything was safe. Just be sure you research it and it helps if you know someone who lives in the country you are visiting so they can investigate slaughterhouses for you.
Posted by JB in Chicago on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 09:35 PM
hi you have sucky information
Posted by corey in africa on Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 08:34 AM
Hey guys talking about obesity and stuff. Exercise doesn't make you lose weight it helps you tone muscles and make them larger. Possibly one of the only ways to lose weight is to go on a low carb diet. Why? Carbs are energy your body uses. When you eat a lot, all that extra energy is stored into fat under your skin. Thus if you eat less carbs your body begins to use the energy in your fat as energy. Obesity is curable don't be stupid. It's just that either people are too lazy and/or they don't know which diet would help them lose weight. DIETING isnt about starving yourself and throwing up, if you've taken any university health or biology classes you'd know that it doesn't work like people want it to. Neither does not eating at all. Overeating isnt a disease or a disorder, its just liking to eat, and liking the food that you eat. Overeating is as much as a false disorder as ADD or ADHD. Same with bulemia and anorexia. Because only in a place where people pay too much attention to stupid magazine and have way too much food do these stupid excuses for disorders rise up. Anyone have a credible argument against that? With actual evidence? I'd be glad to hear it.
John Thompson I enjoyed what you wrote btw. Well written, Cheers!
Posted by Ero on Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 05:26 PM
The search for acceptance and beauty can lead people to do stupid things. I can understand the want for a quick way out but its not because we are lazy, its because we feel that this problem is beyond our control and in a way it is.
Posted by Lap-Band Surgery on Sun Feb 17, 2008 at 09:32 AM
First of all why eat a worm? Just go and get the diet pill Ali, it works just as fast as a worm and you dont have to go to the doctors to get anything taken out of you.. The only thing bad about Ali is you shit constintly but it works very well. If you want to eat a worm and chance dying then i think thats sad. Try working out and not eating unhealthy bullshit foods that usually works too! Maybe if people moved around more and didn't eat portions that would feed 3 people, then we'd have less fat asses in this world. In other words.. less worms more brains!
Posted by Amanda in Michigan on Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 02:02 PM
LOL huuuurrray for tapeworms.... yea im drivin down to mexico tonight and gonna buy an egg sandwich at the nearest gas station!! Hey why not im sure american medicine can cope with a simple parisite like tapeworm!! **im insured**
Posted by Halarious in Phx, Az on Mon Feb 25, 2008 at 04:53 PM
The overwhelming wealth of misinformation here is downright horrifying.
I was obese when I was younger (BMI 30+) - it is possible, very possible to work off the last ten or twenty pounds (my BMI is now 20). It will require more effort and dedication than earlier efforts (people who weigh less burn less calories for similar workouts and can't afford as large calorie deficits). The weight won't come off overnight, especially those last couple pounds. It can take months, even a year or two. Yes, that is a reality, but I haven't gained weight back. I'm a believer in proper diet and exercise to lose weight.
That being said, there are people who will opt for easier, quicker fixes. And there are those with health disease which makes it harder for them to commit to a healthy diet or exercise plan. Fine - consult with your doctor for options. Keep in mind that a lot of doctors are not nutritionists, so it may do you good to consult with several physicians to get a better idea of your options.
Tapeworms? Those of you who think it is a good idea, despite six pages worth of hair-raising details, deserve it. I mean it too. The thought of worms crawling out of my ass at ANY time of day, medical emergencies aside, scares the living daylights out of me.
Good luck to all of you.
Posted by Mia in US on Mon Mar 24, 2008 at 06:48 PM
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