A Florida man’s agonizing migraines turned out to have a terrifying trigger: precise brainworms. In a latest case examine, his medical doctors describe how he developed a parasitic infestation of tapeworm eggs in his mind, probably caught from consuming undercooked bacon. Fortunately, the person was efficiently handled.The M3 MacBook Airs are as Good as Ever, and That’s the ProblemThe unusual medical story was detailed final week within the American Journal of Case Reviews. It was written by medical doctors from the College of South Florida and the Orlando Regional Healthcare System.In line with the report, the 52-year-old man had a previous historical past of power migraines. However by the point he visited the medical doctors at an outpatient clinic, he had been experiencing extra extreme and frequent complications for 4 months—complications that not responded to the same old remedies.Given this new sample of migraines, the medical doctors determined to run a CT scan of his head. And that’s once they found the clear presence of cyst-caused lesions on either side of the mind. Additional checks dominated out different causes and confirmed that the person had contracted a specific type of pork tapeworm (Taenia solium) an infection: neurocysticercosis.There are two varieties of pork tapeworm an infection. If we ingest larval tapeworm cysts present in pork or different undercooked meat, they’ll migrate to our intestines and develop into full-blown grownup tapeworms. These worms could cause gastrointestinal sickness and weight reduction, although individuals will usually by no means expertise signs. The worms may even produce eggs that get pooped out. And if the eggs finally infect pigs or different host animals, the life cycle begins throughout.But when one other particular person and even the identical contaminated particular person then ingests these eggs, the brand new era of worms reaches a useless finish and may solely mature into their cyst type of life. The cysts can then cram their manner into completely different components of the physique, together with the mind, and finally trigger a complete new spherical of hassle. Although mind tapeworm infections are uncommon within the U.S., they’re a number one reason for seizures in adults worldwide, and cysticercosis usually is taken into account a uncared for tropical illness.The contaminated man reported no latest journey historical past to areas of the world the place individuals are at larger danger of tapeworms, nor a historical past of consuming uncooked or avenue vendor meals. However he did admit to recurrently consuming evenly cooked, non-crispy bacon, which seems to be the most certainly perpetrator for his predicament. In some unspecified time in the future, the medical doctors suspect, the person caught tapeworms from consuming undercooked bacon, then gave himself a second bout of tapeworm cysts from not correctly washing his arms after going to the lavatory. Assuming that state of affairs is appropriate, it’s a really uncommon one, they word, since tapeworm-infected pork is now uncommon within the U.S. (most circumstances are caught whereas touring).Whereas seizures are typically probably the most recognizable symptom of neurocysticercosis, it may possibly set off a variety of subtler neurological issues. So medical doctors ought to at the least think about the potential of neurocysticercosis as a trigger for acute migraine adjustments of their sufferers, the report authors say, even when basic danger components like journey aren’t within the image.As for the unfortunate man, he was handled with steroids and antiparasitic remedy, which seem to have diminished his complications and the mind lesions brought on by the tapeworm cysts.