Tapeworm diet

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
a) head of the pork tapeworm with suction pads and head wreath; b) Head of the beef tapeworm with suction pads

As tapeworm diet an inactive form which is slimming referred to, wherein a weight reduction by the conscious oral ingestion of eggs or larvae of the Real tapeworms to be achieved. There are no medical studies to show that this diet is effective. The biological and medical facts suggest that much of the reports about the tapeworm diet are modern-day sagas .

description

Real tapeworms are parasites . The infection , for example with cattle ( Taenia saginata ) or pork tapeworms ( Taenia solium ), can - in addition to other, much more serious health changes - in rare cases also lead to weight loss. In most cases, however, an infection is symptom-free for years and the diagnosis is usually an incidental finding when using imaging techniques or a stool examination . In contrast , alveolar echinococcosis caused by fox tapeworms is life-threatening. However, here too, the first symptoms only appear after several years. By observing that tapeworm infection can lead to weight loss, conscious tapeworm egg infection was devised to achieve weight loss in overweight individuals. The postulated weight loss is based on the idea that the tapeworm consumes part of the food it consumes, which is then lacking in the metabolism of the tapeworm carrier.

history

The tapeworm diet has its origins at the beginning of the 20th century . In the United States , around 1900, the first advertising posters for "disinfected tapeworms in a jar" appeared. The term “tapeworm diet” has been in the specialist literature since 1840 at the latest, but mostly refers to dietary recommendations for patients who unintentionally have a tapeworm infection. Despite medical information and a fundamental ineffectiveness, this form of weight reduction is currently still being advertised and obviously used. For example, 'tapeworm eggs for weight loss' are offered on the Internet. The American writer Laura Hillenbrand claims in her book Seabiscuit: With the Will to Success , that jockeys intentionally ingested tapeworms to lose weight in the 1930s. In many sources the myth is spread that the opera singer Maria Callas lost about 50 kg in weight by means of a tapeworm diet. In 1953 Maria Callas weighed over 100 kg. After that, she lost about 40 kg within a year. However, this was not due to a tapeworm diet, but to hormone therapy . According to Pia Meneghini, Maria Callas' sister-in-law, at the end of 1953 she took "very high doses of a dried thyroid extract as well as hormones that greatly accelerated the entire metabolism, whereby she burned large amounts of excess fat in a very short time". During this treatment, carried out by a Swiss doctor, Callas is said to have had iodine injected directly into the thyroid gland in order to induce weight-reducing - but health-critical - hyperthyroidism (overactive thyroid). It may be true, however, that Maria Callas had an intermittent tapeworm infection. Elena Pozzan, housekeeper and cook from Maria Callas, reported to the Italian author Bruno Tosi for his book Maria Callas - The Divine in the Kitchen :

"To gain strength, especially when she had to sing, she ate raw meat or raw liver, which she only mashed with a few drops of oil."

- Elena Pozzan after Josef Nyáry

She may have contracted a beef or pork tapeworm from eating raw meat. When asked about her spectacular weight loss, Maria Callas initially replied to reporters that she had a tapeworm. She later denied these statements.

Corresponding rumors about Claudia Schiffer are also being spread on the Internet. This is a hoax .

effectiveness

Neurocysticercosis caused by pork tapeworms:
there are a large number of fins in the patient's brain ( MRI image )
Depiction of fins between muscle fibers.

An infection with tapeworms is only possible through ingestion of a piece of meat or fish that has been infected with tapeworm larvae ( Finns ) and that has been incompletely cooked. The larvae attack various organs such as the brain and muscles. This can lead to inflammation with tissue calcification and seizures .

With the exception of the eggs of the dwarf tapeworm, no adult tapeworm can develop from the tapeworm eggs offered by quacks . The eggs hatch embryos with six hooks, so-called six-hook larvae (hexacanthal larvae ), which pierce the intestinal wall in order to get into the bloodstream. From there they can colonize a wide variety of organs and muscles. Only in the ultimate host can an adult, sexually mature tapeworm develop from the larvae. Only the dwarf tapeworm ( Hymenolepis nana ) and the pork tapeworm ( Taenia solium ) are medically relevant exceptions. With the pork tapeworm, humans can be both intermediate and final hosts. People who have taken pork tapeworm eggs orally cannot establish pork tapeworm in their intestines, but they can develop cysticercosis . Only eggs of dwarf tapeworm can develop directly into dwarf tapeworm after oral ingestion in humans. He does not need an intermediate host. However, the dwarf tapeworm - as its name suggests - with a diameter of around 1 mm only reaches a body length of around 40 mm. Infections with dwarf tapeworms are comparatively common, mostly without symptoms and in principle also not suitable for weight reduction. Even an infection with a fish tapeworm ( Diphyllobothrium latum ), which in humans can reach a length of up to 12 meters, essentially leads to a vitamin B12 deficiency , which in turn leads to pernicious anemia . Weight loss is rare and is obviously due to other, more common symptoms such as gastrointestinal complaints, nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Tapeworm diets reportedly cost around $ 1,500 to $ 1,800 in Mexico . Here are the beef tapeworm cysts are administered. Cysts are the permanent form of larvae in the intermediate host. Oral ingestion in the intestines of the final host can result in adult beef tapeworms.

  • Dwarf tapeworm ( Hymenolepis nana )

  • Pork tapeworm ( Taenia solium )

  • Beef tapeworm ( Taenia saginata )

  • Proglottis of a fish tapeworm ( Diphyllobothrium latum )

A modern legend?

Sanitized Tapeworm Eggs
unknown , around 1910

Link to the picture
(please note copyrights )

A pork tapeworm egg

In the reports on the tapeworm diet, there are no indications as to which species from the class of tapeworms or the subclass of true tapeworms were or are used. Even the subclass of the real tapeworms has a multitude of families and genera . In principle, pork and beef tapeworms appear to be the most suitable for this purpose. It is also unclear whether the tapeworm diet products sold at the beginning of the 20th century actually contained tapeworm eggs. In the time before the state regulation of pharmaceuticals - in the United States the first drug law was passed in 1938, in Germany only in 1961 - false declarations of ingredients and dubious promises of cure were very common. The products were advertised as sanitized tapeworm eggs (German for 'cleaned tapeworm eggs '). Regardless, the ingestion of tapeworm eggs cannot establish a tapeworm in the intestine that would be able to cause significant weight loss. Based on these facts, numerous authors assume that the reports on the tapeworm diet are obviously a modern saga .

A functioning and frequently used tapeworm diet would be epidemiologically irresponsible. A person infected with tapeworm excretes up to 200,000 tapeworm eggs per day, which due to their small size and resilience can easily be transmitted to other humans or other mammals as intermediate hosts. This would seriously endanger the health of a large number of bystanders. For the user of a tapeworm diet, this has considerable side effects that are irresponsible from a pharmacological point of view.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Weight loss strategy 3: swallow tapeworm eggs. At: focus.de on July 2, 2014.
  2. ↑ Julie-Ann Amos: The Tapeworm Diet. Status: May 28, 2009, accessed July 4, 2014.
  3. ↑ Parasitic Infections. In: Alexander Bob, Konstantin Bob (ed.): Internal medicine. Chapter 5, Georg Thieme Verlag, 2001, ISBN 3-13-112873-9 , p. 1289. Limited preview in the Google book search
  4. ↑ AV Jesudoss, M. Kaya u. a .: Wormy surprise! In: BMJ Case Reports. Volume 2012, 2012, S., ISSN  1757-790X . doi: 10.1136 / bcr.12.2011.5416 . PMID 22729345 . PMC 3387467 (free full text).
  5. ↑ Angela Stoll: Diet delusion: tapeworm or soap against body fat. In: Augsburger Allgemeine, March 5, 2014.
  6. ↑ The term is mentioned in the book Syge-diætetik by Oluf Lundt Bang from 1840. See: JCG Fricke, FW Oppenheim (ed.): Journal for the entire medicine. Volume 18; Perthes, Besser & Mauke; Hamburg 1841, p. 284. Restricted preview in the Google book search
  7. ↑ a b c d e Elizabeth Tucker: From Oral Tradition to Cyberspace - Tapeworm Diet Rumors and Legends. In: Trevor J. Blank: Folk Culture in the Digital Age. Chapter 9, O'Reilly Media, Inc., 2013, ISBN 978-1-4571-8467-3 , p. 106. Limited preview in Google Book Search
  8. ↑ a b Josef Nyáry : The secret passion of Maria Callas. In: Hamburger Abendblatt from August 18, 2007.
  9. ↑ Cornelia Geissler: A snack for the diva. In: Berliner Zeitung of November 2, 2007.
  10. ↑ George Jellinek: Callas: Portrait of a Prima Donna. Courier Dover Publications, 1986, ISBN 0-486-25047-4 , p. 118. Limited preview in Google Book Search
  11. ↑ Linda Hutcheon , Michael Hutcheon : Bodily Charm: Living Opera. University of Nebraska Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8032-2385-4 , p. 139. Limited preview in Google Book search
  12. ↑ Tubbies melt flab away with 'miracle' diet pill. In: Weekly World News p. 31 of December 17, 2002 limited preview in the Google book search
  13. ↑ C. Evans, HH Garcia et al. a .: Controversies in the management of cysticercosis. In: Emerging infectious diseases. Volume 3, Number 3, 1997, pp. 403-405, ISSN  1080-6040 . doi: 10.3201 / eid0303.970324 . PMID 9284392 . PMC 2627648 (free full text). (Review).
  14. ↑ Susanne Schäfer: Gaga diets part 1: Child bars allowed, Yogurette prohibited. In: Spiegel-Online from June 6, 2012.
  15. ^ A b Alan Gunn, Sarah Jane Pitt: Parasitology - An Integrated Approach. John Wiley & Sons, 2012, ISBN 978-0-470-68424-5 , p. 298. Limited preview in Google Book Search
  16. ↑ Echinococcis - description of the pathogen. Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology at the University of Würzburg, accessed on July 2, 2014.
  17. ↑ C. Stanciu, A. Trifan et al. a .: Diphyllobothrium latum identified by capsule endoscopy - an unusual cause of iron-deficiency anemia. In: Journal of gastrointestinal and liver diseases: JGLD. Volume 18, Number 2, June 2009, p. 142, ISSN  1841-8724 . PMID 19565041 .
  18. ^ S. Lal, AH Steinhart: Diphyllobothrium latum: a case of an incidental finding. In: World journal of gastroenterology: WJG. Volume 13, Number 12, March 2007, pp. 1875-1876, ISSN  1007-9327 . PMID 17465485 .
  19. ↑ MM Llaguno, J. Cortez-Escalante and a .: Diphyllobothrium latum infection in a non-endemic country: case report. In: Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Medicina Tropical. Volume 41, Number 3, 2008 May-Jun, pp. 301-303, ISSN  0037-8682 . PMID 18719813 .
  20. ↑ Y. Jackson, R. Pastore et al. a .: Diphyllobothrium latum outbreak from marinated raw perch, Lake Geneva, Switzerland. In: Emerging infectious diseases. Volume 13, Number 12, December 2007, pp. 1957-1958, ISSN  1080-6040 . doi: 10.3201 / eid1312.071034 . PMID 18258060 . PMC 2876774 (free full text).
  21. ^ A b Natalie de Souza: Ingestion / The Beast Within - The tale of the tapeworm. In: Cabinet number 34, 2009.
  22. ^ Tapeworm Diet: Using Beef Tapeworms in Humans. Retrieved July 4, 2014.
  23. ↑ Brigitte M. Gensthaler: What ethics commissions do. In: Pharmazeutische Zeitung 28/2009.
  24. ↑ a b Barbara Mikkelson: As the Worm Squirms. From: snopes.com on July 8, 2006, accessed July 4, 2014.
  25. ^ Intestinal Worms. WHO information sheet, p. 112.
  26. ↑ Lose weight with the tapeworm diet. Retrieved July 5, 2014.