Guess Who's Coming To Dinner?

Odds are that some 10 to 20 percent of us are hosting a dinner party for parasites. And parasites are not polite guests. They may contribute to constipation, diarrhea, gas and bloating, joint and muscle aches, allergies, skin conditions, chronic fatigue, and more. And, they don't like to leave.

Although North Americans often consider parasites something you only worry about when traveling, this is not true. As long ago as 1976, a nationwide survey in the United States by the Centers for Disease Control revealed that one in every six people selected at random had one or more parasites. It is quite possible that we are hosting a dinner party for some 130 types of parasites.

An Internet Homepage, Parasites of Vertebrates, by the Department of Nematology, University of California-Davis, states that 900 million people worldwide are infected with hookworm, and some 4 to 15 percent of the population in the Southeastern United States. Some one billion people (a quarter of the world's population) are infected with roundworm, and 500 million people worldwide are infected with pinworm. In the United States, estimates of those infected with pinworm range from 10 to 35 percent of the population.

Parasites are larger than bacteria and viruses but usually so small that you cannot see them without a microscope. Four major groups of parasites include Protozoa (amoebas, giardia), Nematode (round, pin, and hookworms), Cestode (tapeworms), and Trematode (flukes). Bacteria can also be parasitic. They enter your body in one of four ways: through food and water intake; through a transmitting agent, such as a mosquito; through sexual conduct; and via the nose and skin. Any number of them can infect your gastrointestinal tract. Most parasites produce similar symptoms.