Long term threadworms - I think I have found a solution

This is the best post I've read out there so thanks everyone. So in May, my boyfriend ate something dodgy on a flight back to the UK and soon after started throwing up, contracted diarrhoea and fatigue and found he had threadworms. That was May and the sickness continued into July, causing him to loose weight from 11 stone to 10 stone. Doctor couldn't verify he had worms, but as a precaution prescribed him one ovex tablet.. A month later he got to see the gastro doctor where a sample was given (with worm in it) but he was told that he didn't have worms (although they admitted the part they scraped off to go to the lab may have been worm free). GP again wasn't helpful and the route became a dead end. He voluntarily went to the tropical school of medicine in London, and sat in their version of A&E and next to cried at them when they suggested he be referred by his GP who did nothing. Because of his anxiety about this, they saw him and did a bunch of tests where they ruled out anything major but couldn't confirm he had threadworm. He now takes pictures of his stools every time he sees one because he is anxious that people don't believe him. The thing which is confusing is that he has severe fatigue in his muscles and will exercise and the ache will last days after. Of course, I've now been passed these worms. We have zero choice but to self medicate because no one is helping us. In South Africa they say take the mebenzadole 2 tablets morning and evening with a glass of water for 3 days. So we have just done that course and finished yesterday. My stomach was making noises so I've decided to keep going one a day until the worms go away (how long will that be!). Hilarious walking into the pharmacy - I've taken to saying I have a family of 6 so they will give me two packs of 4, because pharmacists insist that one tablet works and I can't be bothered to tell them our whole life story. I've just bought a pack of 90 tablets online for £46 so that'll keep us going without the questionning. What I want to know, is did anyone else have leg fatigue or any other symptoms than itchyness? Luckily I'm not itchy, phew.  

We've been working through a herbal remedy, Paragone, which is basically garlic, cloves and wormwood, and it makes a lot of loud sounds in the stomach, and seems to stop the larger worms, but hasn't got rid of juveniles. Not a total solution, but pretty good to use in the 2/3 weeks between mebenzadole/abenzadole treatments. 

Anyway, we came across a few sites which might be useful:

Basically, once worms leave the stomach area, then mebendazole doesn't seem to be an effective cure. Abenzadole is apparently much more effective.

I'm not sure why then the doctors didn't believe that mebendazole wasn't working, when the answer is pretty simple. 

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Hello. I m not sure if I'm going crazy but they are in all my clothing and in the seems of all clothes ..looks like a centapeeed almost and small larva in every bit of food . I can take the clothes and dunk in cold water and out comes from these worms some grey some black and as the cold water hits them they have this black black liqiux come out.nut I have them in my body more when I get a bruise. Today I noticed there in my mouth and one along the top gum ...I'm terrified and no one believes me..and I see larva pooping up in the walls and my hardwood floors..and I see them in my dog...very noticeable...I'm going crazy and I have no idea if I'm crazy or its haopening. I know what I see and feel but I'm at a loss. Just needed some advice or have you known of this..thank you

I think I have seen minute pinworms ( 1 per wipe after having a slightly sloppier bowel movement) but no adults from about 1 week of taking vermox (It's been 5 weeks since I first took the meds which brought out the worms as I hadn't been getting any symptoms prior to this). 

If I take another vermox tablet, surely this should kill off the tiny ones before they have a chance to mature into big ones ? I've also started taking DE 4 days ago (1tbsp per day), so should I stop taking that if I want to take another vermox pill ? 

Thank you in advance for any advice, I haven't had the full scale emergence of adult worms in about 4 weeks so I'm hoping that's a positive - I am aware that if any tiny one is present there could be more growing inside of me so perhaps now is the time to take another vermox and not just pin all of my hopes on the diatomaceous earth food grade ?

I just want to be free from this, it's horrible and I don't want to keep infecting myself or my son (who doesn't seem to have had any further activity since his initial outbreak 5 weeks ago. 

Well, after all the herbal remidies and nonsense, we went to South Africa on holiday, bought one tablet of Abenzadole over the counter and threadworms gone.. 

its 6.24 and im writing this after being awake fir over an hour with this horrible itching. i have had this on and off for a few years now and im glad its not just me, although i wish there was a permanent cure. i have thrown out numerous pairs of pants/trousers/pyjamas to try and stop this. I am too embarrassed to talk about it although i did speak to a female doctor who was amazing and very sympathetic when i told her how disgusting it feels. all the comments ate really helpful and i can confirm petroleum jelly does help to relieve the itching at night. im of to buy a large pack of Ovex tomorrow as had run out, and going to consciously reduce sugar intake to see if that helps. thanks for the posts and glad to know im not alone

I would just like to add the point about SWEETS!!! Ive suffered for years and never been able to pin point it. Since covid 19 i have washed my hands more than ever, my house is spotless, i have a balanced diet and had no threadworms !! However... 2 days ago we massively binged on sweets and chocolate... and I now have worms. I have always had a sweet tooth so now i am 100% convinced its linked to sugar intake. On the same note my skin (face) has been clear (no spots) and since my binge i now have spots. PLEASE take note of your sugar intake and threadworm re-occurance!!! I now truly believe that for some people there is a link. Please think about your sugar intake and your childrens diets. I hope this helps x

Hi, I was just wondering how you were getting on as I am in a similar position and if you managed to have any luck getting rid of them for good?

hi people, thank you, I have been secretly following this thread for years but sadly no one seems to really know what to do.

suggestions I can think of are:

~ alcohol gel on the anus once or twice a day. As a solution I made this up. Maybe it will help kill the females as they emerge, or the eggs!! Also cleaning hands with it may delete worms from them. so just keeping a bottle in the toilet and bathroom may be a good thing. or it may irritate the anus and cause haemorrhoids who knows, but I think its worth a try. As I said, I invented this remedy but it's partly based on the idea that I believe hand washing with soap and water does not kill them so then we reinfect ourselves. Please share your experience of using alcohol, for hands, and for anuses!!

~ taking Ovex every 2 weeks - over and over, till forever, or till kids leave home? I've never had a doctor support me on this, but I do think one or even 2 doses are not enough. if they are 6 weeks in your system, why aren't 4 doses 2 weeks apart the MINIMUM recommended treatment?

~I wrote to Ovex and they said, from what I understand, that the drug was tested and considered safe. in 1976. i want to know if its EFFECTIVE (nowadays!) not just on killing the odd worm or 2 but in deleting worms from a family. I'd REALLY like their leaflet to give better guidance about how many times its safe to take it, and about where to turn if it doesn't disappear, why are people just having to turn to random sympathetic or unsympathetic doctors who have no more information than we have?

~ underwear in bed? may help but not foolproof, as, honestly, if a worm lays 11,000 eggs, these are small enough to get right through clothes. meaning, if you itch through underwear, they are on your fingertips. hence my suggestion for using alcohol gel. I think it deletes them better than soap.

~ the sugar food is a catch 22 because the worms make you crave sugar and then it gives them tons of energy its hard to break loose of sugar binging because basically you need money and time to upgrade your diet to fresh salads and cooked salmon and chicken. obviously it can be done, but don't be hard on yourself if it's not easy.

~ I would like more research done on how much aggression and depression are linked to worms. I think a lot. maybe connected to toxins the worms release, or to disturbed sleep. not to frighten you but just to use it as a warning signal - why are my kids all fighting again, why am I too overwhelmed to deal with it. oh. we have worms again. and my ears itch! duh!!!

Best wishes for your health, and I ask for your collaboration on eliminating this. if you know of a governmental body who can take this needed research further, please say so. I have tried writing letters to my MP and Public Health England but got nowhere. Can you help?

Oh god, reading all this has just filled me with dread...its utterly horrible that people are living with this for so long. I have been suffering for nearly 8 weeks and I'm at the end of my tether with it. My problem is that I discovered I caught them from my youngest, when I was 8 weeks pregnant. So of course I couldn't take Ovex. The GP just told me to follow a list of hygiene measures!...which i did but I think that just created a super infestation and by week 12 I couldn't take anymore and I took mebendazole. I did read that the risks are mainly associated with first trimester so that reassured me, to be honest the risk to my overall health of having to live with them would probably do more harm to the baby than the meds. I took the 2nd dose a week later, then a 3rd dose 10 days later. But I still feel like I have them! Is it psychological?! I'm nearly 16 weeks now and just don't know what to do - it doesn't feel right to keep taking it regularly when I'm pregnant. I'm sleeping in PJ bottoms every night and washing them each day, I smear coconut oil there every night (heard that was better than Vaseline) I eat pumpkin seeds, have hardly any sugar intake, hoover bedrooms and change bedding weekly ( it was daily for the first 2 weeks which is horrendous when you also have morning sickness!). It seems pointless going through doctors then if everyone is having no joy with medical professionals... it is just so utterly depressing 😦

I've just found this and wondering if anyone has found any proper solutions yet? Im four years down the road... lengthy courses of Albendozole, nothing works. I have noticed that I get right sided pain just before a particularly bad attack. I have had a chat with a private gastroenterologist about appendix removal, it was a relief to talk to someone who didnt think it was in my head and he was quite calm & matter of fact about saying that in most cases of appendix removal the find worms. There is so much more to worms than you think!

I have read many comments and it has helped me, maybe it helps someone who is reading or participates in the forum. I have had this worm for 5 months, I tried fasting for 1 day or 2 days a few times and I also became a strict vegetarian, it seems that I eliminated other worms without knowing it but it was not effective against pinworms. Now among some of the things I’m currently trying to do: Sulfur, Garlic, Apple cider vinegar and without consuming meat and sweets, I’m always trying to put coconut oil in the anus, I read that they can migrate to other areas but at least it seems improbable when the female is pregnant already going down there for regions like nose or ears, it seems to me that this happens in another way, maybe lost worms I don't know. Because it seems very likely that I have been trying reinfestations occurring from the eggs in the anus entering the intestine again, that's what I believe so I will try the treatment by always putting coconut oil for 2h or 3h, and petroleum jelly at night. From what I've seen, the eggs only mature with oxygen so the larvae need to leave to leave the eggs. And it seems unlikely that can take it and travel the whole body to leave it in other regions, you know?

By the way, I eat lots of vegetables, carrots, taking meat out of my diet and putting vegetables helped me to work my bowels every day. Sorry for the English mistakes I'm Brazilian.

I took albendazole 5 days in a row, and from 3 to 6 days I had white dots in my stools, so albendazole worked for me, I just can't take it directly because of the liver. In my view the main point would be in the anus, not to let the worms lay the eggs there, I saw people saying that suddenly they could migrate to other areas like nose, mouth and etc but think like a pregnant woman to give birth, and the hospital it's crowded, she having to go to another city in another hospital there, she probably would have children before that right? I believe it is the same thing, and apparently the eggs only mature with oxygen (which would be outside the anus) these larvae would take a long time to reach the nose, ears, etc. It seems to me that the main focus of care would be down there. What do you think?

The more I research this the more i think there is something going on chemically with certain people to make us predisposed to getting them. There has been research in the links between serotonin, other hormones and their link with helminths which is worth investigating, ncbi articles. Also links to gut microbiome etc. Most of the bodies serotonin is made in the gut.

Last year I had a few weeks on heavy duty drugs (codeine primarily) for a back injury. During this time and for a few months afterwards the crawling and itching stopped. But they are back again. Codeine increases serotonin levels.

Apropo this is probably why the lady on here improved with anti depressants and then found that they were returning again.