We were surprised to see this news on the front of CNN of all places, but it’s true, whether we like it or not.
There are numerous ways you can get worms invading your brain including eating pork (especially undercooked) as the video and article explain.
Also check out this well know MD’s video on the subject which really clarifies it for us:
Brain Worms from eating certain Dangerous Food
There are many forms of tapeworm, three of which can readily infect the brain. From a public health perspective, there’s one in particular to watch out for. “It’s mainly the pork tapeworm that’s the main brain one,” says Helena Helmby from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
The pork species, known as Taenia Solium, can infect humans in two forms. The first is by eating undercooked pork from infected pigs, resulting in taeniasis — an adult worm residing in the intestine. The second, in the larval form, through contact with the feces of an infected pig or human, which can go on to infect many tissues. If the larval worm enters the nervous system, including the brain, it can result in a condition known as neurocysticercosis.
If you’ve seen some of the recent videos of the awful factory pig farms (it even made many carnivores squeamish) then you might not be surprised.
We get many people writing every day asking for diet recommendations and one of the first things I learned getting my certification was that pork and shellfish take the longest to digest. Not a big fan of either.
Scary though to think you could eat the pork and it actually has worms in it that can invade your brain, but we appreciate CNN bringing this to the public’s attention. Surprising to see it as headline breaking news.
Instead of a bacon lettuce and tomato sandwich I prefer a good avocado wrap but that’s just good for me (and if you’ve seen a few of our posts lately you know how good avocados are for the brain!) Really. One a day might just keep the doctor away!
Some people I know who had this actually demanded an MRI of their brain, and as the MD in the video points out, that is one way of diagnosis.
XO Erin
Source: CNN.com (What? you think we made this s**t up? It’s very real)
