Brain Worms and Brain Amoebas: They Do Exist

Tapeworm: From Pork Chops to the Brain

The pork tapeworm is one of the most common disease-causing brain parasites. This parasite infects over 50 million people worldwide, and is the leading cause of brain seizures. It is usually contracted from eating undercooked pork, and once in the gut, it attaches to the intestine, and then grows to be several feet long. Under certain circumstances, these worms can also invade the brain, where thankfully they don’t grow to be quite so large.

Why does the worm sometimes attach to the intestine but at other times travel to the brain? It all depends on what stage of its life cycle the worm is in when it is swallowed. In its larval stage, the worm will hook onto the intestine; however, if eggs are swallowed, they hatch in the stomach. From there the larvae can enter the bloodstream and eventually travel to the brain. But in order to reach the brain from the bloodstream, the larvae must traverse the blood-brain barrier. Unfortunately, researchers still don’t know exactly how this happens. Many scientists think that the larvae can release enzymes that are able to dissolve a small portion of the blood-brain barrier to allow the parasite to get through into the brain.

Once the larvae reach the brain, they cause a disease called neurocysticercosis, by attaching to either the brain tissue itself, or to cavities through which brain fluid flows. (Brain fluid carries nutrients and waste to and from the brain, and acts as a cushion to protect the brain against physical impact.) Once attached, the larvae develop into cyst-like structures. The location of the cysts determines the symptoms exhibited by the host. If the larvae attach to the brain tissue, then the host often experiences seizures. This occurs partly because the presence of the larvae causes the activity of the brain to become wild and uncontrolled, thereby causing a seizure. On the other hand, if the larvae attach to the brain-fluid cavities, the host experiences headaches, nausea, dizziness, and altered mental states in addition to seizures. These additional symptoms occur because the flow of the brain fluid is blocked by the larvae. Often, the presence of the larvae also causes the lining of the brain-fluid cavities to become inflamed, further constricting the flow of the brain fluid. Since the cavities are a closed system, blockage of the cavities exerts pressure on the brain. This increased cranial pressure forces the heart to pump harder in order to deliver blood to the brain area, increasing the pressure on the brain even more. If the condition is not treated, the heart eventually cannot pump enough blood to the brain, neurons begin to die off, and major brain damage occurs.

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Conscience may lash us, but it cannot replenish a languishing life. Conscience may be God's word and minister to you, telling you of your faults and your follies and your destitution. It may point out, but it will never supply you. Christ must give you new life. Hart has well expressed it: "He to the feeble and the faint, His mighty aid makes known; and when their languid life is spent, supplies it with His own." - J. K. Popham

Guess we could just eat kosher.

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The man who is disposed to think of his sin as a great calamity, rather than as a heinous crime, is not likely either to reverence God or to respect His law. - John Kennedy, 1873
Meg
Blog
Member, Intown Presbyterian Church,PCA, Portland, OR

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Zentel, at least once a year.

Also, this is less of a problem, now that pigs are no longer fed swill as a general rule, but I still make sure that my pork is not pink before I sink my teeth into it!

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Kevin, husband of a truly angelic woman, and father to ten.
Zion United Reformed Church of Sheffield
Ontario, Canada

Feed your hogs grain, food leftovers, and let them forage the mast; but, never slop (in the old technical sense of the word).

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We shall not adjust our Bible to the age; but before we have done with it, by God's grace, we shall adjust the age to the Bible. - Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Lawrence Underwood, Jr.
Pastor - Providence Family Fellowship / Mobile, Alabama
1644/46 LBC
My Blog - Imprimis

These icons all ate too much pork.


Yikes....gotta cut down on the pig feasts.

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Pergamum


"If a commission by an earthly king is considered a honor, how can a commission by a Heavenly King be considered a sacrifice?"
-- David Livingstone

Amen to all of the above. Just "not pink" isn't good enough. The temperature inside the meat has to be high enough for a long enough time. Another good rule is to NEVER eat pork near the Mexican border or anywhere out of the USA, Canada, and western Europe. Order meat that you can recognize as non-pork--such as shrimp or fish. We cut our pork into very small pieces in the States, even, and then use it in slow-cooker recipes.

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Mary Vanderkooi
Kale Heywott Church (KHC)
Soddo, Ethiopia

What about ham? It's always pink.

Ham is cured. That is what makes it pink. Real curing also kills the bugs.

How safe is pork?

If we eat the cooked worms that live in pork, is that safe?

I've read that MS and arthritis have been linked to eating pork...?

-----Added 2/28/2009 at 04:46:40 EST-----

What does it mean to cure pork? What is it being cured from?

Pigs are yummy. Barbequed (notice the proper non-Yankee spelling) piggies are particularly yummy. Even the buggies that squirm inside piggies are yummy. Cook them and eat them and say, "yummy"!

Theognome

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Bill Cunningham
Covenant Reformed Church, URC
Kansas City
There are three kinds of people- those who can count, and those who can't.

If you still can, you should read the linked article in the OP. I think the worms are doing a number on you and they're not the worms in the sandwich from Futurama.

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Chris Thomas | SBC-Founders | Fairbanks, AK

"Whatever the cause, the Calvinists were the only fighting Protestants. It was they whose faith gave them courage to stand up for the Reformation. In England, Scotland, France, Holland, they,... did the work, and but for them the Reformation would have been crushed... If it had not been for Calvinists,... and whatever you like to call them, the Pope and Philip would have won, and we should either be Papists or Socialists." ~ Sir John Skelton

Sorry, no time. I'm busy barbequing some yummy piggy. In a snowstorm. Yes, I'm drooling, too.

Theognome

I hope your wife has a rope around your waist attached to the house so you can find your way back.

AFAIK, pork is quite safe. It's the worms that live in it you have to worry about.

As long as you cook them until they're dead...

I don't know, but I'll bet cancer has been linked to pork, in CA if nowhere else.

Original sin.

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Jonathan
Audio Engineer
Reformed Anabaptist
Ohio

Moroni's magical glasses of proper interpretation:

The way I cook, she'll need a longer stretch of rope just to get around my waist.

Theognome

Local man found wandering around aimlessly in snowstorm. The drooling man when asked his name responded, Have you seen my piggy? Yummy, yummy! He was armed with barbeque cutlery and was taken to a local hospital and then police custody.

Al Gore was heard to comment that this is yet another example of global warming and pushed for carbon credits against pig farmers.

That was good! If I wasn't so anti-smiley, I'd put one of me rolling on the floor laughing!

Theognome

When I was in Germany we ate this delicious ground raw spiced pork. It was really good. I love to eat the piggies.

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Josh Taylor
Verde Valley Reformed Chapel, OPC
Cottonwood, AZ

In the U.S. all pork is frozen for three days before it is sold. That keeps the numbers down in this country. Freezing the meat for three days kills the eggs and larvae.

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Aaron Josh Wright
Deerbrook Baptist Church, Humble Tx
New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

Ewwwwwwwww! And this hits at a time when I've had a lot of headaches!

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JWithnell
Member Bethel OPC
Virginia
http://learningyesican.blogspot.com/

Just butcher your own and check for worms in the liver. It's fun for Dad and the kids! Joseph will actually get elbows-deep in guts without too much prodding.

Think about it: A creature that will grow to 200lbs in 5-6 months, eat leftovers, and will quiver and fall over from the simplest belly-rub. This is a God-given treat, my friends. When the sheet came down from heaven, there was a pig sitting right in the middle of it, fat, happy, and ready to barbeque.

Yum.

Like this?



My husband's former pastor (a dyed-in-the-wool Southerner) advised him on the matter of finding good authentic barbecue: look for a logo with an anthropomorphic pig. Such logos tend to correspond to the excellence of the establishment, for some reason or other.

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Laura
member of Geneva OPC, Woodstock, GA
"Christ has done great things for his people, and he has suffered great things for his people, and he has purchased great things for his people, and he has prepared great things for his people; yet many of his own dear people are so taken up with their own hearts, and with their own duties and graces, that Christ is little eyed by them or minded by them! This is the great reason why so many Christians, who will certainly go to heaven—do walk in darkness, and lie down in sorrow." - Thomas Brooks

When I first saw this thread I thought it was a tongue-in-cheek response to Bobbi Clark's thread to the "pork" added to the stimulus package. I should have known that it wasn't since it's posted under "The Iron Chef".

At least it's informative, though now I'm going to have second thoughts eating any pork.

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Ed Asano
Member, Center Grove Presbyterian (PCA)
Edwardsville, IL

Lord, I am willing to --
Receive what you give,
Lack what you withhold,
Relinquish what you take.

Um, Laura, he'd be on the 'team' only until dinnertime.

If you are in a position to have to buy barbecue, never trust a barbecue restaurant. Proper barbecue comes from a joint. If it is cooked outside that is even a better sign of proper barbecue. The backdoor to the kitchen should have a screen door. There should also be a wood pile around back. If you see a gas line . . . run. Barbecue is NEVER cooked over gas.

LOL. I remember a place back in Texas, in the Temple area I think it was, that fit this description perfectly. There was a tiny building that they just used for taking orders, I suppose, and then you went and sat at a "vintage" (or half-rotting, we could say) picnic table, trying not to suffocate in the smoke, and waited for them to cook it up in front of you on these huge grills. The men of the party were in heaven and my teenage friends and I were SO, like, NOT getting it.