The Worst Parasite
Fasciolopsis buskii is the fluke (flatworm) that I find in
every case of cancer, HIV infection, Alzheimer's, Crohn's disease,
Kaposi's, endometriosis, and in many people without these
diseases. Its life cycle involves six different stages:
Stage Normal Life Cycle
1 Egg Expelled with bowel movement onto
soil. Washed by rain into ponds.
2 Miracidia Hatches from egg in water. Has cilia,
can swim vigorously and must find
intermediate snail host in one to two
hours or may be too exhausted to invade.
3 Redia Develop inside miracidia as little balls
until expelled. Those are "mother"
redia, and each one bears "daughter"
redia for up to 8 months, all still inside
the snail, and living on the fluids in the
lymphatic spaces. Similarly, daughter
redia are continually developing cercaria.
4 Cercaria Have a tail, use it to exit from snail and
swim to a plant. If the snail is feeding
on a plant, cercaria can latch onto
plant with sucker mouth and start to
encyst (form a "cocoon") within
minutes. Tail breaks off and swims
away to dissolve.
5 Metacercaria Two-walled cyst. The outer wall is very
sticky. But as you eat the plant it is
stuck to, the least pressure will break
it, leaving the cyst in the mouth. The
"almost unbreakable" inner cyst wall
protects it from chewing, and the
keratin-like coat prevents digestion by
stomach juices. However when it
reaches the duodenum, contact with
intestinal juices dissolves away the
cyst-wall and frees it. It then fastens
itself to the intestinal lining and begins
to develop into an adult.
6 Adult Lives in your intestine and can produce
1000 eggs per bowel movement
and live many years.
Fasciolopsis' normal life cycle.
Note that the adult is the only stage that “normally” lives in
the human (and then only in the intestine). Fasciolopsis depends
on a snail, called a secondary host, for part of its life cycle. But
when your body has solvents in it, the other five stages can
develop in you!
If propyl alcohol is the solvent, the intestinal fluke is invited
to use another organ as a secondary host—this organ will
become cancerous. If benzene is the solvent, the intestinal fluke
uses the thymus for its secondary host, setting the stage for AIDS.
Wood alcohol invites pancreatic flukes to use the pancreas as a
secondary host. This leads to pancreatic dysfunction which we
call diabetes. If xylene (or toluene) are the solvents, I typically
see any of four flukes using the brain as a secondary host. If
methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) or methyl butyl ketone (MBK) are
the solvents, the uterus becomes a secondary host and
endometriosis a likely result.
This is a new kind of parasitism, based on pollution. I call
the diseases caused by fluke stages in inappropriate locations
Fluke Disease; it is discussed in more detail later (page 249).
Are tapeworms and roundworms affected by solvents this
way, too? This is a fascinating and very important question.
Search for the answer and help others search for the answer. I do
not know yet.
