I’ve seen whipworm infestations in my clients’ stool testing on around a dozen occasions.
It is found worldwide and was once a serious health problem in the southern USA. Trichuris eggs have been recovered from mummified bodies, many thousands of years old!
Unlike hookworm and pinworm, whipworm is pretty big, measuring in at approximately 4cm long, and coils to look like a whip (hence its name).
Adult females produce 20 000 eggs per day (yes, per day) and adults can live as long as 3 years.
What symptoms can whipworm cause?
As in the case of other intestinal worm infections, the severity of symptoms is usually related to the intensity of infection – i.e. how many worms are actually in there.
Generally healthy people may be able to tolerate a small number of adult worms without any problems whatsoever.
But heavy infections are associated with the whipworm dysentery syndrome, which involves severe diarrhea, mucus and blood.
Anemia can develop as a result of whipworm infection, leading to such symptoms as fatigue, lethargy, weakness and palour.
Studies have clearly shown that patients with heavy whipworm infections have a protein-losing enteropathy, which is similar to that caused by gluten in celiac disease).
If the intestine becomes “leaky”, allowing particles of undigested food, toxins and other allergenic substances into the general circulation, pretty much any and every symptom may potentially develop, including fatigue, mood problems, skin rashes, sleep issues, aches and pains, menstrual irregularity and others.
Children with severe whipworm infections – usually in the developing world – have low serum albumin concentrations that return to normal after treatment.
Low albumin is a characteristic of protein and nutrient deficiency, implying that whipworms could prevent nutrient absorption, steal nutrients for themselves, or cause the loss of nutrients by breaking down the intestinal lining.
Whipworm infections can retard growth in children and may cause failure to thrive (lack of sexual development at puberty).
I am concerned that so many kids complain of “tummy ache” and other basic symptoms that could cause developmental problems. All too often, parents and doctors ignore such symptoms.
Confusion over symptoms
As you’ve seen, hookworm can cause a lot of common, every day symptoms.
But so can other things, like the food you eat (e.g. gluten, soy, cow’s milk), and other bad bugs such as different parasites, bacteria and Candida.
Thus, you can’t possibly know what’s causing your individual symptoms unless you take action to change your diet and get a comprehensive digestive health work-up.
Of course, I’m biased, but I wouldn’t be here teaching you this information had I not gone through the Digestive MOT process myself way back in 2007 with my functional medicine doctor.
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