Why Aren’t Humans Dewormed Like Pets?
#Health #Deworming #HumanHealth
Have you ever wondered why we don’t regularly deworm humans like we do our pets? Wouldn’t it be a good idea to do this as a preventive measure? Let’s explore the reasons behind this and whether it’s something we should consider for human health.
Why Pets are Dewormed
– Prevents parasitic infections
– Maintains pet health and wellbeing
Reasons Humans aren’t Dewormed the Same Way
– Different biology between humans and pets
– Human immune system is more robust
– Potential side effects and risks in humans
Should Humans Consider Deworming?
– Discuss with healthcare provider
– Factors to consider for individual health
– Importance of prevention and regular health check-ups
By understanding the differences and potential risks, we can make informed decisions about deworming for human health. What do you think? #Wellness #Prevention #HealthcareAdvice
On one hand, deworming has a pretty bad effect on internal organs, at least temporarily. It’s not something that is taken lightly. On the other hand, people generally have much better hygiene than animals, particularly with regards to our food. It does not make sense to do this for no good reason.
Most people don’t eat other animal’s poop or dirt or dead rodents and stuff. Most people don’t walk around in the forest or wherever and then spend the rest of the afternoon licking their feet.
To get many parasites, you need to ingest their eggs, basically. Parasite eggs are present in the excrement of other animals that have parasites. If you avoid eating that, like by washing your food carefully, you don’t need to worry about it
Some parasites also might be present in some animal’s meat, but if you thoroughly cook it it will kill them, so again, no need to worry about it for most people. If you’re regularly consuming undercooked pork or ground beef there might be a risk
Why? Animals are at a much higher risk of parasites than humans. Humans, outside of specific environments, aren’t usually at risk. In the developed world, pin worms are the most common, but it is usually self-limiting and even then not as widespread as to warrant prophylactic treatment. Pets are usually given prevention for heartworms, which is not a concern for humans.
I don’t regularly deworm my cat because there’s no need. He’s an indoor cat and so is unlikely to eat something with parasites. Most humans are the same.
Worms generally make it into pets by them consuming prey that are not domesticated, such as mice, rabbits, or birds (living or dead). Generally whatever we feed them is processed and safe, but what they consume this way doesn’t have that same safety net. *Add to that*, humans tend to prefer their meat cooked.
Can’t speak for anyone else, but I’m not regularly de-wormed because I don’t regularly have worms.
did you see that bear tape worm (parachute) video and get a bit panicky? because I get it… it was horrifying.
Medication costs money and has side effects, modern society’s hygiene makes infection rare, and humans are more able to notice and communicate the symptoms than animals.
So it doesn’t make sense to regularly deworm and instead just get treatment when symptoms are noticed.
I actually do this regularly but I live in sub-Saharan Africa and love eating meat so it comes with the territory.
Humans are unable to lick their own ass, I think that’s like 80% of the reason right there. If you’ve ever owned a pet you know about all the random stuff they put in their mouths.
Humans doont eat everything we find on the ground… Dogs eat anything, including other dog’s poop…
Are you eating poop or raw meat?
What are you doing to give you parasites?
Animals have owners who are willing to pay for it.
No one is really willing to pay to deworm the areas of the world with parasites.
Oh aren’t we doing it once a year ? Or is it only me??
Im in SE Asia and take a tablet every 6 months or so, not that I have had worms I know of. i meet quite a few people that obviously have worms, Usually uneducated street people that refuse to take medicine. I know a girl in her 20s who died from worms. I believe people migrating from poorer countries to the west are given worm tablets.
We do give dewormer to humans who live in high-risk areas with diets/water sources that are likely to expose them to parasites.
But in most developed areas with clean water and strict regulation of meat, parasites are actually quite rare. The medicine is harsh in our bodies so it’s not good to take it unless you actually know there’s a parasite or you are at high risk.
Pets aren’t all regularly dewormed either. Indoor cats don’t need it because parasites come from eating infected meat or feces which is usually only an issue for outdoor animals.
Because we usually don’t eat wild mice and stuff. That’s where the parasites come from. Our human food is treated for parasites!
I used to work at petbarn and our manager would semi regularly worm us just to be safe with all the dogs that came in and got their good boy pats from us 😂
i usually take a tablet every 2 years just to get some peace of mind.
i live in brazil and taking a tablet every year used to be the norm before the 00s but as far as i know the government stopped recommending it
Wait, are you saying you DON’T get regular deworming?
Who raised you?
Humans regularly cook their food.
Even raw food like sushi-grade fish needs to be flash frozen before being served.
These kills a lot of parasites.
Actually people do that in other countries. I remember as a kid in China I used to eat this de-worm candy once a year. Not sure if it was actually needed or effective. But it sure made me rush to the toilet.
Most people wear shoes today. When I was a kid, we went barefoot all the time. You get worms from walking barefoot where other animals have taken a poop.
We were wormed once or twice a year by mom. Depending on if she saw you scratching your butt. Worm medication came in a brown bottle and you took about a tablespoon full.
In other countries, they sometimes are, especially kids.
Parasite burden in places like the US is incredibly low, but in other regions can approach 100%.
I wormed my children twice a year because we always had pets and chickens and I’m in Australia. I was wormed as a kid too, I didn’t realise it wasn’t a normal thing. Children are at risk of picking up parasites from pets because theyre hand to mouth hygiene is poor. I learned if your kids were irritable then it might be because of worms.
They do. Depends on where you live. Where I come from, we got dewormed regularly as children.
Sanitation systems that we don’t even think of in developed countries. Primarily, toilets and sewage treatment.
You get an intestinal worm when you ingest its eggs. The worm deposits eggs in feces. So, you’d have to come into contact with human feces from someone else to encounter an egg and you’d have to ingest it. There are few instances where people in developed countries encounter other people’s feces because 99.9% of it is deposited in a toilet and flushed to a treatment plant miles away.
In places where there are few to no toilets, but lots of people, there’s no escaping human feces. People still have to poop, so they do it pretty much everywhere. It gets on your shoes (or bare feet). It makes it’s way into the your garden soil. There are going to be traces of human feces everywhere and every trace is a chance of an egg getting ingested.
Toilets and sewage treatment plants are a huge improvement to human life because there are so many parasites and germs that follow the fecal-aural path. Coronavirus is normally a fecal-oral transmitted virus.
Tangent here: I used to work with a bunch of die-hard republican dudes. During the rise of the pandemic in mid 2020, when Ivermectin was being hailed as the “be-all end-all cure for Covid” or whatever, one of the guys said to us “You know, I’ve been feeling pretty crumby lately, but I took some Ivermectin, and I feel way better. It really works.”
And I’m over here thinking man, my dude, I think you just had worms lol.
My dog drank from a puddle in the street after a hard rain before I realized what he was doing. I don’t think you’ll do that.
When was the last time you had worms?
And how much street poop do you eat?
Because, just like with antibiotics, treatment resistant parasites are a real risk of overtreatment.
Here’s just one example:
https://todaysveterinarypractice.com/parasitology/drug-resistant-hookworms-in-north-america/
Depends on where you live. I know folks in Malawi that take a dewormer every six months just to combat the possibility of Bilharzia.
They are. In India. The Indian government recommends taking deworming medication once every year, and even supplies it to all children in government schools once a year. Pinworm is common here, hence the deworming medication for kids, who are especially prone with all their rolling around in the dirt.
Good question. People walk around barefoot, eat sushi, have kids and pets. I’ve always wondered why other countries (and the US a long time ago) treated it. People who think they have something are mocked by physicians in the US. I really don’t get it either. It doesn’t make sense to me. And I’m even more confused after reading all the replies.
It’s quite widely known in the veterinary world that we overmedicate pets.
They don’t need monthly deworming and defleaing or even yearly vaccinations unless they live in a high risk area. But it’s a huge money maker, and they know most pet owners care about their pets enough to pay it.