TikTokers Try Eating Papaya Seeds to Treat Parasites. Does It Work? - Verywell Health

Posted: 20 May 2021 02:52 PM PDT

Getty Images / Verywell Health

Key Takeaways

A new TikTok trend recommends people eat papaya seeds to help treat or prevent possible intestinal parasite infections.
While data is limited, experts say the seeds may actually be beneficial in treating parasites.
If you're going to eat the seeds, start small to avoid upsetting your stomach.

When we think about stomach trouble, many of us never imagine that we may have an actual parasite living in our gut. But parasites entering our gastrointestinal tract—causing some unsavory side-effects—are more common than you may think.

Parasites are living organisms that live off of another organism to survive. When you are infected with a parasite, that organism sets up its home inside of you and depends on what your body offers in order to survive.

"Most people think that parasitic infections are rare, but they're actually very common, even in the United States, even among people who've never left the country," Robin Foroutan, MS, RDN, HHC, integrative medicine dietitian and spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, tells Verywell. "The idea that parasites are only a problem in underdeveloped countries is entirely flawed."

Without proper treatment, being infected with a parasite can lead to nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. While there are some tried-and-true ways to prevent parasitic infections, trendy home remedies continue to surface on social media. One of the newest parasite-combating home remedies on TikTok is eating papaya seeds.

Yes, those little black circles that are typically scooped out and tossed in the trash are now finding their way on people's spoons to get rid of parasites they may not know they have.

What Are Papaya Seeds?

Like most seeds, papaya seeds are loaded with nutrients like fiber, antioxidants, and healthy fats. And while human studies are lacking, animal and test-tube studies show that eating these seeds may improve kidney health and reduce inflammation.

Some data suggests that a potential downside to eating these little pips could be possible reduced fertility. But this effect was found in research conducted on rats given high doses of papaya seed extract.

Can Papaya Seeds Prevent Parasites?

"Papaya seeds are a traditional parasite remedy that's safe and seems to be pretty effective against certain types of parasites, though there isn't a ton of published data," Foroutan explains.

In one 2007 study published in the Journal of Medicinal Foods, 71.4% of children who were given a combination of dried papaya seeds and honey had their stool cleared of parasites compared with 0 to 15% of children who only took honey after seven days.

And in a trial conducted in school-aged children based in Kenya, a daily serving of porridge that included papaya seeds resulted in a reduction in the Ascaris lumbricoides egg count (indicating a parasitic roundworm infection) by 63.9% after two months. As an added benefit, ringworm was reduced from a 54.4% infection rate to a 34% infection rate.

"The real problem is that most stool tests for parasites are highly unreliable and the majority of them miss most infections, making parasites difficult to find," Foroutan says.

She adds that natural remedies, like using papaya seeds to combat and prevent parasitic infection, withstand the test of time and may end up being valid. Papaya seeds, after all, contain fiber, which helps pass stool and other components through the digestive tract.

What This Means For You

Eating papaya seeds, in moderation, likely won't harm you. And they may even be effective at treating intestinal parasites. But if you think you might be infected, your best bet is to seek medical treatment. Effective treatments exist and delaying treatment can cause harmful side effects like vomiting and diarrhea.

How to Include Papaya Seeds in Your Diet

Foroutan shares that there are two main ways papaya seeds are used:

Drying and grinding the seed to a powder and mixing it with water
Rinsing the whole papaya seeds and eating them with a spoon.

If you plan on eating them whole, Foroutan advises being prepared for a taste that is nothing like papaya flesh. She advises to start small—take 1 tablespoon on your first day and work your way up as your digestive system gets used to the fiber boost.

Looking at the big picture, until there is clinical data to support the use of papaya seeds to prevent parasitic infections, it may be best to save your efforts. If you're worried about a possible intestinal parasite, reach out to a doctor who can help diagnose your stomach issues.

Centuries-old sewage shines light on New England elite's lifestyle - WaterWorld

Posted: 07 May 2021 12:00 AM PDT

Hazard & Caswell bottles from an apothecary in Newport, R.I., that contained a medicinal concoction marketed as a cure for digestive and other ailments.

Credit: Austin Chad Hill

HANOVER, NH -- In the early 19th century in North America, parasitic infections were quite common in urban areas due in part to population growth and urbanization. Prior research has found that poor sanitation, unsanitary privy (outhouse) conditions, and increased contact with domestic animals, contributed to the prevalence of parasitic disease in urban areas. A new study examining fecal samples from a privy on Dartmouth's campus illustrates how rural wealthy elites in New England also had intestinal parasitic infections. The findings are published in the Journal of Archeological Science: Reports.

"Our study is one of the first to demonstrate evidence of parasitic infection in an affluent rural household in the Northeast," says co-author Theresa Gildner, who was formerly the Robert A. 1925 and Catherine L. McKennan postdoctoral fellow in anthropology at Dartmouth and is currently an assistant professor of biological anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. "Until now, there has not been a lot of evidence that parasitic disease was anywhere else other than urban areas in the early 19th century."

In June 2019, a team of Dartmouth researchers led by Jesse Casana, a professor and chair of the department of anthropology at Dartmouth, excavated a privy in front of Dartmouth's Baker-Berry Library. Earlier, an archaeological survey using ground penetrating radar instruments had identified the location as an area of particular interest. The site was home to where the Choate House once stood. Based on historical records from Rauner Special Collections Library on campus and other sources, the researchers report that the Choate House was constructed in 1786 by Sylvanus Ripley, one of the first four graduates of Dartmouth who would become a professor of divinity and a trustee at Dartmouth. In 1801, Mill Olcott, a Dartmouth graduate who became a wealthy businessman, politician and trustee, purchased the house. For several decades, Olcott and his wife and nine children lived in the house. As the study explains, the Olcotts "would have been among the wealthiest and most educated people in New England" during that time. Nearly one century later, to make space for the library in the 1920s, the Choate House was relocated to another area of Dartmouth's campus.

The Dartmouth dig revealed that the privy and its interior stone walls and contents had been well-preserved. A privy functioned not only as a toilet but also as a garbage, a place to discard food and other unwanted items. In the soil levels of the privy, the researchers found stratified deposits containing numerous artifacts from over the years, including: imported fine ceramics; peanut and coffee remains, which were considered exotic items at the time; and three fecal samples. In addition, 12 Hazard and Caswell bottles marketed to cure digestive ailments were found at the same soil level as the fecal samples, along with eight bottles of Congress & Empire Spring Co. mineral water from Saratoga Springs, N.Y., in a later soil level.

"The state of medical care during this time period was pretty terrible," explains Casana. "A lot of people probably experienced symptoms of parasitic infections but wouldn't know what was causing them. Privies would have been getting a lot of use at this time," he adds. "If people had the means, they would order special medicines to treat an upset stomach, which were really just tinctured alcohol that offered no medicinal benefits."

Gildner, whose research focuses on parasites, was out of town doing other fieldwork during the Dartmouth dig but had asked Casana to let her know if the team finds anything that resembles fecal material. To her surprise, Gildner learned that three fecal samples has been unearthed. "In studying intestinal parasites, I am used to working with fresh material— not fecal samples that are almost 200 years old and practically dirt," says Gildner, who researched how to work with the centuries-old samples.

After rehydrating the fecal samples, Gildner ran them through a series of mesh sieves, from large to small, to filter out the bigger particulates and trap the small parasite eggs. The material was washed and centrifuged and slides were then prepared from each of the samples. Using a light microscope, the slides revealed that tapeworm eggs (Taenia spp.) and whipworm eggs (Trichuris trichiura) were present in each of the specimens. While the number of eggs was considered low by research standards, the parasite eggs were consistent across the three samples.

The co-authors explain that their findings are especially striking given that parasites typically prefer "warm, tropical regions" rather than the cold, snowy weather that is characteristic of New Hampshire winters, conditions which are typically thought of as inhospitable to parasite eggs.

Tapeworms are parasites that are transmitted between humans and livestock (e.g., pigs and cows). The animals consume vegetation contaminated with parasite eggs, the eggs hatch and the parasites travel to these animals' muscles. The consumption of raw or undercooked meat then leads to infection in humans. Adult tapeworms living in the intestine of the human host then lay eggs, which are passed into the environment with fecal material, starting the cycle again. Like tapeworm, whipworm eggs are passed in feces. These microscopic eggs then infect new human hosts through fecal-oral transmission (e.g., the ingestion of fecal contaminated food or water), generally due to unwashed hands and an inability to properly clean food items.

While the researchers are unable to determine if the fecal samples came from an Olcott family member, it's quite likely that all members of their household were exposed to tapeworm and whipworm. The findings demonstrate that parasite infection did not just affect urban and lower income areas, demographics which have been highlighted in previous research.

Casana says that, "I think that we take a lot of our health and infrastructure that we have today for granted. Our results show that even wealth could not protect you from these parasitic infections 200 years ago."

"Tapeworm and whipworm are still really common today in various parts of the world and can lead to nutritional deficiencies, digestive problems, and poor growth," says Gildner. "Although these infections are preventable and treatable, there's still more to be done to help prevent these infections. Access to clean water, which is essential to good hand hygiene, and sanitation are two things that many people still do not have today."

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