Obsession of anything is bad!
A 30-year-old guy, from Fresno, California, proved this right. He is likely altering his regular sushi habit after discovering a tapeworm that might have entered his body through the raw salmon he loves so much.
Last August at Community Regional Medical Center, a young man walked into the emergency room with an unusual demand.
UCSF Fresno Emergency Medicine Physician Dr. Kenny Banh said a young man walked into the hospital complaining of bloody diarrhea and asking to be tested for worms.
Dr. Banh is usually sceptical of patients who self-diagnose but in this case, the man was adamant about his symptoms.
The self-diagnosis seemed a little suspicious to Banh — until the man opened a grocery bag he had with him.
“I take out a toilet paper roll … and wrapped around it of course is what looks like this giant, long tapeworm,” Banh said.
A tapeworm measuring five and a half feet long.
"He says the one thing I like, that I love, I love sushi, specifically salmon sashimi and I eat it every day," said Dr. Banh.
He says raw fish is a reasonable cause for an infestation. The tapeworm had likely been growing in the man's intestines for at least six months.
Last year, the CDC put out an alert warning about parasites found in Alaskan caught salmon.
"What does everyone want to know? When did I get, where did I get it from, he wants me to go all WebMD on him," said Dr. Banh.
Questions also arose if the tapeworm helped the man lose any weight.
"Everybody asks me that. And the answer is absolutely not he's like all the negatives of the worm infestation and none of the positives," said Dr. Banh.
Dr. Banh says ingesting worms is not the way to lose weight.
In this case, the man visited too many local sushi restaurants to pinpoint where he may have gotten the infestation.
He did tell physicians as he left, he would never eat sashimi again
