Worms Are Still A Health Hazard
Let's Live - 12/19/2005
Adapted From An Original Article That Appeared in 1984 by Martin Zucker

Worms you put on hooks and catch fish with. You find them under rocks. They are the pests that besiege your dearly beloved cats and dogs.

Surely, you would think, in this super septic age they don’t pose a health threat to Americans. Maybe beyond our borders but not here at home. Surely, “they” have worms under control. But do “they?” At a recent California Medical Association meeting, one expert speaker told his professional audience that worms are the unsuspected and unrecognized causes of a remarkable number of illnesses.

What’s more, he said, most physicians are unaware of this fact and the public, well, they know even less. The diseases are often transmitted by animals. We hug and kiss and even sleep with our pets.

We handle the dirt in which their contaminated feces have been deposited. We breathe the air which may contain worm eggs. A physician would be likely to suspect animal contact while examining a sick employee of a zoo or experimental laboratory, but he wouldn’t be likely to relate a child’s illness to a household pet.

We eat meat and fish which has not been thoroughly cooked, and this is another source of infection. A physician might not be likely to connect an illness to a person’s predilection for sushi or even hotdogs! The Center for Disease Control in Atlanta has warned about the rise of fish tapeworm in America, apparently the result of the raw fish dishes served up in the popular sushi bars. And hotdogs?

Yes, they have pork constituents and it is possible that they are undercooked, especially the middle portion, and may be infected with the infamous trichinella worm. Ann Louise Gittleman, Ph.D., C.N.S., is a health professional very much concerned with these possibilities. In fact she looks for them. And often finds them. In more than ten years as a practicing nutritionist, she has found worm infestations in a large percentage of patients. “It surprised me at first but no longer,” she says.

Miss Gittleman, who practices in Santa Monica, California, was formerly director of the nutrition department at the Pritikin Longevity Center, and also staff nutritionist at the pediatric clinic at New York’s Bellevue Hospital and the Yale Hill Health Center in New Haven, Connecticut. “It has not been a situation where people come to me for their worm infestations” says Gittleman.

“Most have no idea they are carrying worms at all. Most come for nutritional therapy for a wide variety of problems—anything from diabetes to diverticulosis—and frequently what we find are parasites aggravating conditions or even causing them. “The toxicity produced by these worms can be significant enough to create symptoms anywhere in the body. By no means are symptoms limited to the intestines.

These toxins put a heavy burden on the liver which is already working overtime to neutralize the contaminants brought into the body via food and air. “Tapeworms can grow up to 50 feet long. That means you are not only feeding a monster within you but also absorbing the toxicity of its waste products.

The most famous tape worm of recent years belonged to the late opera singer Maria Callas. She had a serious weight and skin problem. When the tapeworm was detected and remove, her weight dropped. Her skin improved, and her temperament mellowed. “The eggs of tapeworms can also imbed themselves in body tissue and cause physiologic disturbances.” “Hookworms suck blood from the host and can cause severe anemia as well as skin sores.” “The round worm is the most common of worms and can trigger a variety of intestinal disturbances.”

Gittleman says that digestive disorders are frequently involved with worms. “Often there is constipation or diarrhea, bloating, inability to lose weight, gas, burping after meals and sensitivity to foods. I have traced a lot of food allergy problems to worms. “There can be sleep problems, nervousness, and often difficulties with skin such as acne, oily skin, pustules, eczema, seborrhea, and cystic conditions.“ “Often there is a craving for sugar and a ravenous appetite that no amount of eating seems to satisfy. Remember you have another living organism— or many living organisms—in your system and this infestation needs sustenance.

The food it preempts is food that your body would normally be utilizing. So your body demands more. “Once the intestines are cleansed and the worms and eggs eliminated, many of the symptoms disappear.” Patients Cases A sampling of Gittleman’s hundreds of worm cases indicates the surprising range of problems that can be involved: A woman previously diagnosed with myasthenia gravis, a condition marked by muscular weakness and progressive fatigue, improved dramatically after passing a large tapeworm. A man had suffered deafness in one ear since the age of ten.

Specialists had not been able to determine the cause. Within two months after cleansing of what turned out to be a general parasitic infestation, his hearing was restored. A woman with a recurring breast infection improved after being cleared of a roundworm infestation. A teenage girl suffered form wheezing, coughing, chronic crying and depression, and an allergy to many food, mold, and dust. She lived in close contact with two small dogs, both of whom were determined to have worms.

After two cleansings her problems diminished. A seven-year-old boy had picked up a worm infestation form his pets. He slept with his animals. He suffered from constant fatigue, was bloated, and had a problem focusing in the sunlight. One specialist suggested leukemia. The animals were kept out of his bed and intestinal cleansing conducted. In one week the boy was out playing and appeared normal.

Several Viet Nam veterans seen by Gittleman suffered an variety of symptoms as a result of apparently picking up worm infestations form contaminated water or food while overseas. A teenage girl had persistent acne despite a good diet and no undue stress in her life. Within several days after initiation of a cleansing program, her acne began to clear.

Not all Gittleman’s patients have accepted the rather startling news that worms may be the cause of their problems. She chuckles when she recalls one Boston Socialite who left her office in a huff after being told that her chronic nasal drip might be the work of a worm infestation. Gittleman says she sees many of what she would call “last resort cases.”

There are people who haven’t been helped by conventional medicine or even good nutritional approaches. “Often the problem is simply that worms and parasites have been overlooked,” she says. “People in close contact with animals, in either the past or present, are suspect. And, of course, people can get an infestation from eating improperly cooked beef, lamb, pork or fish.”

If worms are determined, Gittleman’s therapy approach includes a colonic irrigation to rid the body of toxic residue, and then an individual herbal cleansing program. For many mild infestations she will use a combination of Black Walnut (hulls), Slippery Elm and Male Fern. For more serious situations she employs Wormwood, Centaury, and Butternut (root bark), plus a combination of Alfalfa and Artichoke for liver detoxification.

This herbal attack is followed by two months on a Ficin based enzyme supplement to eliminate eggs or any other parasitical residue. Patients are also recommended to take a garlic supplement throughout the treatment. A fast is used in some cases as well. Gittleman also suggests these steps for preventing worm infestations:

Cook your meat well. Cats should not be fed raw meat, which is common source of infection. Animals are spreaders of disease. Don’t kiss them. Don’t sleep with them. Teach your children to wash their hands often. Don’t use pet dropping for compost. Worm contamination can remain long after the fecal matter has disappeared.

Keep your pets clear of worms by feeding them garlic tablets available in health food stores. (They come in garlic and parsley versions. Garlic is a well-known antivermicide. Parsley will take care of the odor). Also have your pets checked for worms periodically by a veterinarian.