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A story was told about an American woman in her 20s who tried the ‘parasite diet’ to lose weight and suffered terrible side effects, including memory loss. The medical community even issued warnings that it could result in death.
Recently, according to foreign media such as the New York Post and Daily Mail, Dr. Bernard Xu, an American oncologist and host of the medical YouTube channel ‘Chubbyemu’, introduced the story of Mr. A (21) and said, ‘ Warned of the dangers of the ‘parasite pill’ diet.
While this woman was trying to lose weight through diet and exercise, she found an article about the ‘tapeworm’ diet on social networking services (SNS).
The warning words ‘controversial’ and ‘banned’ actually stimulated Mr. A’s curiosity, and after seeing success stories and before-and-after comparison photos, he used virtual currency to purchase capsules containing tapeworms on the dark web.
When I first took the capsules, I started losing weight as expected. But a few days later, a strange sight came into the woman’s eyes. After going to the bathroom to relieve myself, I tried to flush the water and saw yellow-brown square pieces floating around. Although concerned, the woman thought it was evidence that she was losing fat.
Symptoms suspected to be side effects became increasingly serious. A few weeks later, a large lump of unknown origin appeared under my chin. I even fainted while pressing on the lump. After waking up a few hours later, I felt a severe headache, as if something was pushing my eyes out of my skull.
Accordingly, Mr. A eventually visited the hospital, and the test results showed that his cerebrospinal fluid pressure was abnormally high. The medical staff conducted several tests to find the cause, but there was nothing remarkable. The medical staff assumed it was due to a viral infection and prescribed medication.
But the symptoms did not improve at all. Dr. Xu said, “There have been cases where people suddenly wake up during the day and cannot remember anything about the past few hours.”
As the woman’s condition worsened, the medical staff decided to observe her brain condition. An MRI scan revealed strange spots on his neck, face, and tongue. Similar lesions were observed throughout the body, including in the liver and spine.
The medical staff suspected a problem with diet and lifestyle and asked the woman what she had eaten. At first, the woman explained that she had eaten ‘potato chips’, but eventually confessed that she had eaten a tapeworm.
It was revealed that the eggs Mr. A ate were Taenia saginata and Taenia solium. Inorganic worms are mainly found in beef, and they matched the rectangular brown eggs that Mr. A found in the bathroom earlier.
Dr. Xu explained that the tan object the woman saw in the toilet was actually a pregnant piece. The segment of the adult tapeworm contains tens of thousands of eggs, which are expelled from the body during defecation.
A more serious problem was the parasite parasite that feeds on pork. This parasite releases eggs into the body and spreads through the bloodstream to the muscles and brain, causing cysticercosis. The larvae are generally harmless, but if they invade the brain they can cause serious symptoms including headaches and seizures.
“People with cysticercosis often experience personality changes and cognitive dysfunction for years before they discover the problem,” Dr. Xu explained.
Mr. A took medication to paralyze and remove parasites, and received steroid treatment to reduce inflammation in the brain. After being hospitalized for three weeks, no traces of eggs were found in the brain, so he was able to be discharged. Six months later, Mr. A reported that he was losing weight in a healthy way without any additional symptoms.
Dr. Xu pointed out, “It is possible for healthy people to lose weight through diet and exercise,” adding, “This is much less risky than intentionally growing microorganisms in the body.”
Parasites can absorb part of the food the host eats, causing weight loss and diarrhea. Because of this, cases of women intentionally taking parasite pills have been previously reported in the United States and China.
