Casting my nylon line into the depths of pristine backwater in the hope that my tasty garden morsel would entice “the big one” from its watery hiding place, I wondered just how long a worm could hold its breath and what it must be thinking when a fish eyes it off for lunch?.

Strange as it may seem, I felt a pang of sorrow for the worm and hoped that there is no Worm God or Evil Worm Menace that might strike me down for this act of nematode annihilation.

Worms on a hook seem to make sense but worms inside a human does give one the errkkks.. It’s not surprising that worms are indeed a common part of our existence and love having us as hosts to their breeding habits.

Let’s take a look at what we have to deal with and this will put the wind up you. There are over 300 different types of worms that find inhabitation of the human body as a pretty good gig. Yep, 300 of those little blighters can jump into your skin and party like there is no tomorrow.

Around 1500BC an Ebers Papyrus described parasites indicating that we have been targeted for quite some time. Even the esteemed University of Copenhagen has found great interest in exploring more on our hungry little co-inhabitants and have explored ancient latrines in the quest of seeing what type of worms civilisations in the past have consumed or grown in their bodies. Now worms aren’t what you might call great organisms for creating a fossil however; eggs from these guys are in fact hard shelled and can survive the odd few thousand years. For instance, prior work by archaeologists discovered worm eggs in mummies dating back to 1200BC.

Having googled up a little more interesting reading on worms, I had forgotten about my bait that I have decided to call Nigel. Nigel was still out there in the deep briny and still holding his breath so I thought it was opportune to consider what are the main worms that we have to watch out for in our day-to-day existence.

Ok, we all have to admit that when growing up and sharing all sorts of things with our classmates we also shared worms. Yes, you and I had a more than 50% chance at some time during education of having or transmitting nasty pinworms/threadworms. The classic evening bedtime ritual of having a bottom itch like nobody could believe was the tell all result of a female worm exiting the body via the anus and then laying loads of eggs. The reason it itched so bad was the chemical the female worm secreted during the egg laying process.. icky eh.. So with that itch driving us nuts, we did our level best to scratch and scratch and scratch and collect eggs under the fingernails and at school we’d happily break apart bread rolls and cakes and share the bounty (and worms) with friends. And so the cycle continued.…

There are quite a few products that we can take to battle the worms. Most are available from your friendly pharmacist and usually require a single dose. Pharmaceutical products are very convenient and work well. One issue is the need to repeat treatment 2 to 4 weeks after first dose because most drugs attack the adult female worm but not eggs or immature worms.. This is a problem because without going for a second round of treatment, you can possibly remain infected and the worm lifecycle kicks off again.

Herbal treatments are well regarded and very effective at eradicating worms and helping to inhibit re-infestation.

Wormwood (great name), cloves and black walnut are 3 powerful herbs that have been used in traditional medications for hundreds of years. The active ingredients have different mechanisms of action but typically attack by disrupting the metabolism of the parasite.

Singularly, each herb can deal with parasite infection but when you combine all three into one very potent medicine, it’s curtains for worms.

Tri Plex® is an herbal medicine that has been around for about 30 odd years. It comes from the studies done by a Canadian Naturopath Hulda Clark. Hulda was of the view that parasites are significant causes of other infections in the body and therefore, we need to cleanse ourselves of these unwanted organisms regularly.

With all three ingredients contained in Tri Plex®, its certainly a good alternative to other therapy options. Tri Plex® has a treatment phase of 3 weeks and this is the key difference to other medications. In order to rid yourself of the infection adult females must be eradicated and treatment continued to ensure that any remaining immature worms are dealt with before they mature and cause problems.

Small doses of 1ml diluted with water or juice are easy to take and flavour easily disguised.

At the end of the treatment plan, it’s fair to say that you have given yourself a great cleanse. Tri Plex® can also be used to treat pets since our furry companions are also a source of worm infections.

Always be mindful of what your body is telling you and where symptoms continue or you don’t seem to be responding to treatment please speak to your healthcare practitioner for further advice.

The day by the river was lovely, I decided to reel in Nigel and let him be part of nature once again. Nigel was no longer on the hook and perhaps he had managed to swim off (however a worm does that) to safer locations or a decent size fish was now host to a tasty parasite.