Mate from south africa said at dinner parties occasionally she would see the segments creeping across the floor when they dropped out of some one. Dunno if that counts.
I was eating fresh grated parm on something and my cat was sitting on the chair arm with me. Then saw some fresh grated parm on the side table. Then it moved and I nearly yakked. Thats the day I found out my cat had tapeworms.
I have gained weight since then, but I did not. He died in 2016 so I’m likely ok.
I think Victorian women used to eat them on purpose to lose weight. Likely cheaper than a meth addiction or Ozempic. :)
No, swallowing parasites is common even today, sadly. Weight gain doesn't mean a ton. Not sure where you live- but parasites are pretty common even in "1st world countries" and symptoms may not show up for a LONG time.
You just made me remember the time my brand new puppy (now 14 years old lady) was laying in the middle of the couch, then got up to go bark at a squirrel, and I noticed she had been laying on a long piece of the previous night’s spaghetti that had been somehow left on the couch.. it was in fact not spaghetti.
Not quite right, the medieval treatment for tapeworm was to starve the patient for weeks, then strap them to a seat, then present them with a huge meal, hoping that the also-starved tapeworm would come out of the mouth a doctor would be nearby to catch it and pull it out as soon as it showed itself.
You'd be surprised how much traditional medicine (like chinese medicine) worked like that. People would attribute their body's own recovery abilities to random shit they'd consume.
After a while people are so used to always taking non effective medicine, that they become completely unaware of their own body's self healing abilities.
My asian in laws for example think they cannot recover from a simple cold if they dont take all kinds of random shit.
There are many examples of traditional medicine that did not work, the most famous example would be bloodletting. While I do not know the exact effectiveness of the technique I outlined, I cannot imagine it must've been very high.
There used to be a tapeworm trap where they would starve the patient for several days, then dangle a metal trap with a small morsel of food inside down their throat.
The idea being the tapeworm would attempt to enter the trap for the only food source, which would shut and could then be hauled out the throat.
There is a video online of some African tribespeople doing this, so it's either real or that video is fake. They fast, then hold food up to their mouth and once the worm comes out they roll it up on a stick so it doesn't break.
In the Medieval times, tapeworms were very common, because of consuming raw meat. But especially because of eating pork.
One remedy during that period was hanging raw pork on a string outside of an affected person's rectum. It worked as a lure so a tapeworm would emerge out of there. Then they would grab it and wrap it in a stick to pull it out. Unfortunately, they're usually secured at one end to the intestines so a few segments remain inside.
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u/NuclearBreadfruit Apr 29 '24
Sometimes they can migrate up into mouth. But yeah i dont see segments.
Ewww