While many people are trying weight loss drugs like Ozempic and Mounjaro that carry their own risks, some are turning to far more dangerous alternatives purchased from the darkest corners of the internet.
Recently, medical professionals issued warnings that tapeworm egg capsules are being sold on the dark web as a quick weight loss fix. However, consuming them puts users at risk of severe illness and potentially death.
Tapeworms can typically infect humans after they unknowingly consume their eggs in undercooked meat. Once in the digestive system, certain species can reach lengths of 30 feet, feeding on partially digested food and causing their host to lose weight. The strange practice of deliberately swallowing the parasite's eggs to shed pounds dates back at least to Victorian times.
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Dr Bernard Hsu, a US-based oncologist who hosts Chubbyemu, a YouTube channel exploring bizarre medical cases, recently shared the story of a woman who purchased tapeworm egg capsules using cryptocurrency.
Identified as 'TE,' the 21-year-old patient had been struggling to lose weight traditionally when she came across an ad on social media, showing a 'controversial' weight-loss cure backed by convincing before-and-after photos. “TE was intrigued. A ‘forbidden’ method is one that must be so good and so powerful that it’s the one true secret that she needs to know,” Hsu said.
TE took two of the tapeworm capsules and soon saw the results she'd been hoping for. Although the effects came with recurring stomach cramps and bloating, TE was so pleased with her new weight that she dismissed any symptoms. That was until she had a disturbing bathroom incident.
"She thought she could feel something flapping and slapping around her cheeks while she was sitting down,” Hsu recalled. “When she was about to flush, she looked back and saw some tan, rectangular pieces floating around in the bowl, creeping out of the bulk mass.”
TE passed her unusual bowel movement off as 'fat leaving her body', but her symptoms only grew more strange.
A few weeks later, she discovered an odd lump beneath her chin. When she pressed on it, she reportedly lost consciousness and woke up face-down on the floor with no idea how long she'd been out. This was then followed by days of intense headaches and pressure on her skull.
Eventually, TE admitted herself to a hospital, complaining of intense headaches and abdominal pain, but didn't mention anything about the tapeworm diet.
“She would have periods in time where she’d suddenly wake up in the middle of the day and she couldn’t remember anything from the last few hours,” Hsu explained.
When she returned to the hospital about a year later, physicians discovered multiple lesions in her brain, tongue and liver. Doctors discovered she'd ingested two different tapeworm species. The first, beef tapeworm (Taenia saginata), explained the tan rectangular pieces she'd seen in her toilet weeks earlier.
The second type, Taenia solium, which is transmitted through pork, caused the real damage. Unlike beef tapeworms, it escapes the gut by releasing eggs into the bloodstream, which lodge in various tissues including the brain. Those eggs caused the lump under her chin and the lesions throughout her body.
The condition, called cysticercosis, can trigger personality changes and cognitive problems depending on where the eggs settle.
Thankfully, in TE's case, she received medication to kill the worms and steroids to reduce brain swelling. After three weeks of being hospitalised, she was parasite-free and sent home.
“In an able-bodied human, weight loss with diet and exercise is physically doable, and that has much less risk than letting extra organisms intentionally live inside of you,” Hsu warned.