MS is an Infectious Disease Part V: MS and Intestinal Flukes

Intestinal flukes are large, flat parasitic worms that live in the small intestine and can cause digestive issues, anemia, toxemia, edema, allergic reactions, neurological symptoms, and other signs of inflammation.

Flukes are oval or elongated trematode parasitic flatworms that infect humans and domestic animals. Different species of flukes infect various parts of the body:

• Blood flukes: infect the blood vessels of the digestive or urinary tract.
• Intestinal flukes: infect the lining of the intestines.
• Liver flukes: infect the liver and bile ducts.
• Lung flukes: infect the lungs.

Although there are thousands of species of flukes, about 70 are known to inhabit the human digestive tract. It is estimated that tens of millions of people worldwide are infected with intestinal flukes, and hundreds of millions are at risk, primarily through eating contaminated food or drinking contaminated water.

The most common human intestinal fluke, Fasciolopsis buski, is known as the giant intestinal fluke because it’s the largest fluke that infects humans. It can grow to approximately 2–10 cm in length and 0.8–3 cm in width.

Image Source: University of Miami Biology

Images of Intestinal Flukes

How We Become Infected with Intestinal Flukes

Humans become infected through:

• Contaminated water
• Eating raw or undercooked aquatic plants, fish (e.g., salmon, trout, steelhead, shrimp, oysters), freshwater fish, snails, or meat (pork, poultry, beef) infected with the larval form of the fluke.

After intestinal fluke larvae are ingested:

1. They move to the small intestine.
2. They develop into adult flukes and attach to the intestinal wall within about 3 months.
3. Female flukes produce eggs that are excreted in the stool.

Lifespan: Adult intestinal flukes typically live for approximately 2 years, but some species have been known to live up to 10 years.

Symptoms of Intestinal Flukes

1. Early Stages:
   • Minimal or no symptoms if the number of flukes is small.
   • Hunger pangs may be an early symptom.
   • After 1–2 months, abdominal pain and diarrhea or constipation can occur.
2. Severe Infections:
   • Significant inflammation, fatigue and weakness.
   • Ulcers and mucus secretion where the flukes attach to the intestinal wall.
   • Additional symptoms include:
     • Nausea, vomiting, weight loss, malaise, fever.
     • Intestinal obstruction or perforation.
     • Protein loss and hypoalbuminemia from intestinal damage.
3. Complications:
   • Malabsorption and malnutrition leading to:
     • Vitamin B-12 deficiency (causing anemia and nerve dysfunction).
     • Electrolyte imbalances (calcium, magnesium, potassium) that can result in muscle cramps, spasms and spasticity.
     • Vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency, impairing nerve function and causing muscle stiffness or spasms.
4. Toxic Effects:
   • Systemic inflammation due to metabolites from the flukes can cause:
     • Headaches, dizziness and vertigo.
     • Cognitive impairment, irritability, depression or anxiety.
     • Neurological symptoms such as seizures (more common with liver or lung flukes).
     • Peripheral neuropathy, tingling or burning sensations.

Coinfections and Immunosuppression

• Intestinal flukes suppress the immune system to establish infection, increasing susceptibility to bacterial and protozoan infections, such as:
  • Giardia lamblia (causing giardiasis).
  • Entamoeba histolytica (causing amoebiasis).
• Severe fluke infections can cause secondary bacterial infections like sepsis or toxic shock.

Diagnosis

• Diagnosis is typically made by identifying flukes or eggs in stool samples.
• Stool tests are often inaccurate, leading to false negatives.
• Additional methods:
  • PCR testing.
  • Merthiolate, iodine and formalin concentration methods.

Treatment

Common treatments include praziquantel, niclosamide, albendazole, thiabendazole and mebendazole.

Praziquantel is the drug of choice for most intestinal fluke infections, although niclosamide has also been shown to be helpful.

Artesunate has also been used to treat certain types of intestinal fluke infections, with promising results.

Combination parasite drug protocols may be more helpful to eradicate persistent infections.

Tetrachloroethylene is capable of reducing faecal egg counts by up to 99%. Other parasite drugs that may be helpful include thiabendazole, mebendazole, levamisole and pyrantel pamoate, oxyclozanide, hexachlorophene and nitroxynil.

It’s very important to prepare before treating parasites by following the prep phase of the Live Disease Free program and to work with a practitioner who will prescribe the most helpful treatments at safe and effective doses.

CLICK HERE to learn watch Pam Bartha’s masterclass training.

Fluke Survival and Lifecycle Insights

• Infected individuals can shed eggs for months or years.
• Current Understanding: Eggs do not hatch in humans, and reinfection occurs only through consumption of contaminated food or water.
• Research Gaps:
  • Limited long-term studies on fluke persistence in untreated hosts.
  • Less-studied species may behave differently, leaving questions about adaptability and longevity.

Thus, our current understanding of the intestinal fluke lifecycle may be incomplete and it may not always require freshwater snails to complete it’s lifecycle (as was originally theorized).

CLICK HERE to learn more about the best parasite tests.

What intestinal flukes feed on

Intestinal flukes feed on the cells and cell fragments of the host and digested food in the small intestine.

Suspected fluke images

1. A single dose of a parasite drug that treats flukes was taken before bed and the next morning this parasite was passed. No enema was done.

2. A single dose of a parasite drug was taken followed by two days of doing an oxidizing enema once a day, then this parasite was passed.

3 & 4. The following two parasite images were passed on different days while taking two parasite drugs that treat flukes plus oxidizing enemas were done once a day.

5. This parasite was passed after taking 2 parasite drugs that treat flukes and after an oxidizing enema. The parasite often splits open from being partially digested has it remains in the body for about 24 hours after the parasite is killed by the oxidizing agent. But the 2 characteristic veins or intestine structures are still visible.

Additional images of flukes passed by our students

Parasites are the main cause of all chronic disease. We have supported hundreds of students in many countries around the world and we didn’t realize how common flukes were until our students started to submit parasite pictures that are very characteristic of them. These students also tested well for parasite drugs that treat flukes. As these parasites are passed, inflammation decreases dramatically and quickly.

It is important to note that when an oxidizing enema is performed one morning and then a follow up oxidizing enema is done the next morning, the parasites that were killed by the the first enema will be passed with the second enema 24 hours later and thus will not be fully intact. As soon as the parasite dies, the body will start to break it down (digest it) so when it is released during the second enema, it will look partially digested. This is why the images of the parasites are not fully intact when students use oxidizing enemas.

It is our hope that this information helps you get to the root cause of the symptoms and disease that you may be dealing with and help you appreciate that intestinal fluke infections are much more common than we are told, even in developed countries.

There are real solutions to recover from parasites today!

To restore health, we must focus on treating the cause of inflammation, which are parasites. First, identify the enemy (parasites), then support the body and treat the parasites while following a holistic approach. When parasitic infections are treated effectively, we can overcome inflammation or disease.

If you’re frustrated with the fact that our standard of care STILL doesn’t offer a real solution for treating MS and other diseases, then click on the link below to watch Pam Bartha’s free masterclass training and discover REAL solutions that have allowed Pam and many others to live free from MS and other diseases.

CLICK Here to watch Pam’s masterclass training

Or take the Health Blocker Quiz to see if you could have parasite infections

 

References:

https://www.uptodate.com/contents/intestinal-flukes

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-94-024-1704-3

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/219662-overview#:~:text=Of%20the%20approximately%2070%20species,infected%20via%20the%20foodborne%20route.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/immunology-and-microbiology/fasciolopsis-buski

https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-387-71358-8_2

https://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/fasciolopsiasis/index.html

https://reference.medscape.com/slideshow/intestinal-parasites-6010996#9

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/219662-workup#c7

https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/219662-treatment

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fasciolopsiasis

https://www.merckmanuals.com/en-ca/home/infections/parasitic-infections-trematodes-flukes/fluke-infections-of-the-intestines

https://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/330/330F19_15.html