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Comment by Aurornis | Hacker News Reader

There is no single “deworming” medicine, and the treatments to cover actual infections of some of those come with significant side effects and risks. Even treating an (unlikely) real acute infection can cause a cascade of inflammatory responses that can kill a person if not monitored by medical professionals.

The idea of deworming in healthy individuals in developed countries is the domain of alternative medicine, where people tend to use questionable supplements or under dosed pharmaceuticals for peace of mind.

However, even antibiotics aren’t as safe as some of these people think. One of my acquaintances died following complications of antibiotics that he purchased over the internet and self-administered. It was a rare outcome of using the antibiotic, but statistically it was several orders of magnitude more likely to cause problems than the condition he thought he was self-treating.

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It’s the ingrained thought that one can preemptively control outside forces on one’s health. That because there’s more than 1, the statistic must mean, me too.

My recommendation is if you feel like you want piece of mind, to talk to your doctor about it. If your doctor recommends a treatment, follow it. Don’t just buy deworming medication because you fear you might have worms.

> My recommendation is if you feel like you want piece of mind, to talk to your doctor about it. If your doctor recommends a treatment, follow it.

I don't know anything about worms, but I'm very certain that I could choose a doctor that would recommend treatment or one that would not, depending on what I've already decided I want.

Most advice is given in the spirit of good faith, that you are not actually trying to hurt yourself.

Further, if you do pick your doctor based on the fact that they will give you the treatment you want, at least someone other than you knows that you are taking medications with potentially bad side effects.

> Further, if you do pick your doctor based on the fact that they will give you the treatment you want…

Isn’t this how the opioid epidemic started? Going to doctors that would prescribe you OxyContin because you hurt your finger? Or back? Or knee? Or ego?

It's the same effect.

If you want pain meds, I'm sure it's easy at any of those "pain management clinics" I see advertised.

If you call a few doctors and ask "Does your practice handle worms? I'm worried I might have worms," you'll have at least some of them say "absolutely, all the time, come right in".

If they want a happy customer and they know your expectations and they know the risk of dewormer is low, then they'll probably go along with it to make you a recurring ~~customer~~ patient.

You might not even know you've accidentally guided the doctor in that direction.

> The idea of deworming in healthy individuals in developed countries is the domain of alternative medicine

30% of Danes have pinworm. Developed countries aren’t immune from parasites. Especially such parasites.

It still hasn't been determined whether that is or isn't a healthy thing: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helminthic_therapy

This might be true, but I’ve determined personally that they’re absolutely disgusting. I honestly might take action against them if they were known to be good for my health

why don't they get treated for it if it's so common? I understand it's not that hard to get rid of the infestation.

This is 30% of Danish children not adults.

It’s pretty hard! Or at least killing them is easy, not getting infected again immediately isn’t so easy.

Drugs are effective against the worms, but not the eggs. So you have to deworm once, wait for the eggs to hatch, then deworm again 2 weeks later.

The eggs are small enough to blow around in the wind. And will be all over the bedding and kids clothes if they’re infected (and probably their school environment). So the chances of reinfection, and family wide infection are high.

> The idea of deworming in healthy individuals in developed countries is the domain of alternative medicine

It used to be the domain of every farm kid in flyover country. Deworming was a once-a-month thing because you're working with animals, animal poop, and generally around things that might have parasites in them.

That doesn't mean it was correct.

That's a dangerous game.

I'd imagine you don't want to use anything that would kill a parasitic worm in your brain for the same reason heartworm treatment is so dangerous. Dead parasites have to go somewhere.

Intestinal parasites aren't as big of a concern as far as the danger of treating yourself at home. You do want to know what you're dealing with and the appropriate handling of the parasite though.

What deworming procedure are you referring to?

My mom says she took ivermectin frequently as a child, and we’re in the disparagingly named named “flyover country.”

Looking at Wikipedia it seems she was taking it after it was approved for animals, but before it was for humans. I don’t know if she’s mistaken it for another medication or if that’s just what was done then. I know when a friend of mine thought he had worms she suggested he take the dog form of it, and this was well before all of the recent press, so I’m inclined to think it’s the latter.

I did not mean the term "flyover country" disparagingly. I used it because it accurately reflects how the coastal peoples think of the silent majority.

It's fine, no worries.

We really should come up with something in reverse. "The arrogant coasts," perhaps ;)

"coasties" was the word that popped into my head.

Yup, and in general, the more benign the parasite, the more benign the treatment.

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