Have you ever had a headache so bad that not even aspirin could help? That’s exactly what happened to one man in Britain. He suffered from debilitating headaches and seizures for 4 long years before doctors found the cause. It wasn’t a case of cluster headaches, too much stress or a bad pair of glasses. It was much, much worse.
In 2012, they figured out that the cause of his headaches was a 4-inch tapeworm in his brain. Over the course of those four years, the worm managed to crawl from one side of his brain to the other.
After the tapeworm was discovered on a brain scan, it was quickly removed. It’s suspected that the worm hitched a ride on infected meat or through water.
share
The man with the tapeworm is of Chinese descent. Doctors say it’s likely that he picked up the worm while traveling in China.
share
You can see the worm here making its way around the man’s brain. Doctors speculate that the worm, rather than eating the man’s brain, absorbed nutrients from the brain directly through its body (since it has no mouth).
share
H/T: Death and Taxes
Luckily, tapeworm infections like this are rare. Since 1882, there were only 1,000 reported cases of this tapeworm in China, and 2 in Europe. Regardless, this seems like a complete headache to deal with, but I’m glad the worm was removed.
Good luck not being completely paranoid the next time you have a terrible headache.
