this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

No, but they won't do anything to you once they get into the muscle. They're accidental parasites at a young stage that got into the wrong host instead of prey animals.

These cysts lodge deeply into the tissue, waiting indefinitely for you to get eaten so they can break free from their capsule when stomach acid dissolves it to continue their life cycle, but since that probably won't happen, your body calcifies them. They stay in place without causing pain or harm other than activating your immune system.

I think the worst is probably when they manage to get past the blood-brain barrier into the brain, which can cause a wide range of symptoms from neuropathy to seizures, and even death. But besides being gross, they're usually nothing to worry about in other parts of the body.

Of course, the image is of a Chinese man with a severe case of infestation that made the rounds from daily consumption of raw sashimi for many years. The average person who's infected usually has a handful at most and doesn't show signs or symptoms.

These are also different from the adults that stay inside the digestive track, hook into the intestinal wall, and absorb nutrients passively from their surroundings.

[–] Asidonhopo@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

daily consumption of raw sashimi for many years

Ah, so not just from raw pork

[–] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 week ago

Ah so sometimes they turn themselves into pets.

🎶 Oh, Sashimi
They don't believe me
But you won't let those tapeworms eat me 🎶

(Geez, I can't believe that even the 20th anniversary edition of that album was 3 year ago)