World
October 14, 2024 16:20
united states - An American woman's dangerous weight loss attempt by consuming tapeworm eggs ordered from the dark web almost turned fatal.
An American woman who thought she could lose weight extremely quickly by eating tapeworm eggs narrowly escaped a tragic end. Experts warn of fatal consequences of this dangerous weight loss method.
The idea behind the weight loss method is that tapeworms that hatch from the eggs consume a portion of the food in your intestines, causing weight loss.
Dr. Bernard Shu, the chief resident at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, investigated the case on his YouTube channel Chubbyemu. He concluded that the pills are life-threatening. "The worms can enter the bloodstream, reach the brain, and potentially cause fatal seizures."
Earlier weight loss attempts by the woman had all failed. She resorted to seeking an alternative solution and ended up on the dark web. There, she found a site that sold tapeworm eggs.
The site was full of warnings such as 'controversial' and 'prohibited.' However, she was so impressed by the apparent success stories and before-and-after photos on the site that she placed the order. To achieve even better results, she swallowed not one but two tapeworm egg pills.
Initially, everything seemed fine. The woman quickly started losing weight and shed quite a few kilos.
The situation took a turn when she experienced stomach cramps on the toilet. She looked into the bowl and saw several brown rectangular shapes that seemed to be wriggling. The woman was not alarmed. In fact, she thought this was evidence of fat leaving her body and felt relieved.
But nothing could be further from the truth. Various unexplained bumps appeared on her body, and she experienced sudden blackouts. She sounded the alarm when she felt something moving in her cheeks.
At the hospital, they found that her blood values were off. A double pressure on her brain fluid was also measured. The woman, however, kept quiet about swallowing the eggs. Doctors were perplexed.
A year after ingesting the eggs, she returned to the hospital with severe complaints yet again. It was only then that the story of the tapeworm eggs came out.
Upon focused examination, abnormalities in her neck, face, tongue, and liver were revealed in further scans.
In hindsight, the hospital concluded that the woman had purchased two types of tapeworms. One of them was the Taenia saginata, also known as the beef tapeworm, named after the meat where it is most commonly found. The eggs of these worms look like rectangular, brown segments, similar to what she saw in the toilet earlier.
However, the problems in her brain were caused by the second type, Taenia solium. This type is mainly found in pork. The worms have small hooks and can travel through the intestines to the blood vessels.
When these worms enter the bloodstream and spread to tissues such as the muscles and the brain, it is called cysticercosis. The eggs of these worms form hard, lump-like cysts that feel like bumps under the skin.
Dr. Bernard Hsu told Daily Mail that these nodules are generally harmless, but they can cause serious issues if they develop in sensitive tissues like the brain. "There have been documented cases of changes in vision, personality changes, and reduced cognitive functions. If these cells enter the bloodstream and reach the brain, it can have a deadly outcome." The American woman was just in time.
Dr. Shu strongly advises against weight loss with tapeworms. According to him, weight loss should be achieved through a diet or more exercise. "That carries much fewer risks than intentionally allowing extra organisms into your body."
The tapeworm diet was incredibly popular in the 1920s. It eventually started being sold under that name. In the following years, rumors of people losing significant weight quickly often surfaced. When opera singer Maria Callas lost thirty kilos in the 1950s, the rumor spread that she had deliberately ingested a tapeworm, leading to a huge surge in the sale of the eggs.
The sale of these eggs has long been banned in Europe.