Parasites

[eclyps]

You've been eating a ton your whole life, yet you never get fat. You're not unhealthy, you're not overweight, you are pretty normal, you just eat twice as much as normal people.

You go to the doctor for a routine checkup and he discovers that you have a parasite that's been consuming all the extra food you've been eating. This isn't a little worm, but a 4 foot worm that multiplies every now and then.

There's nothing dangerous about this worm - in fact it helps you stay fit regardless of what you eat. The only downside is you have fucking worms in your stomach, and once a year when your belly gets too full with worms... well... half of them will come out with a bowel movement. Only once per year though.

The surgery to get them removed is incredibly painful and will give you severe pain and nausea for two weeks solid, but after that you'll be fine. There's a chance you'll gain a bunch of weight after the surgery, though, as you're body is used to the parasites feeding off the extra food.

What do you do? Keep the parasites or have them removed?

[nesdude]

http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6825/snapshot20090714122526.png

//not amused

[Manbearpig]

i came in here expecting a thread about phear

[Snappy]

Keep the little buggers. They seem to like where they are. XD

[Fatal1ty Wannabe]

Given the very precise situation you describe, I would keep them, but only in those circumstances where its guaranteed not to fuck with my health. Pooping out some worms once a year in the sake of good health and being fit seems like a good gig. Just don't look at your poop. Besides, the body is already crawling with countless amounts of organisms and weird shit.

[HaZe]

Hmm.. Since you said they would not be dangerous towards you at all. I would say keep them. They help you with your excessive eating, and only once a year would you have to shit out the excess worms.. Though that would be.. distrurbing.

[vertically challenged]

sorry, no way i could handle keeping them. the idea of being pregnant even creeps me out cause you have some other thing living inside you... worms i could never handle, just stop eating so much

[Timmah!]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[mosiah]

Fact, this is a parasite.

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/fetus2.jpg

[vertically challenged]

fact, this is a parasite.

http://www.babble.com/cs/blogs/strollerderby/fetus2.jpg


aaaahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Count Blah]

I would have them removed if they could follow my request to keep me awake during the procedure.

I saw house remove a worm from a girl in one of his episodes. it was amazing.
There was also an episode where a guy came in with a fetish for cows and all I could think about was E for the rest of the day....

[Arkice]

Fact, this is a parasite.

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/fetus2.jpgTechnically your right. A fetus does fit the description of a parasite.


I'd rather just keep the parasite to be honest it would cost more to get the surgery than paying a little more for food. Plus, the eating habits wouldn't change and you would become overweight once the parasite was out.

[hOoLiGaN]

I'll take the two weeks of sickness. A 4 foot parasite isn't welcome ANYWHERE in my body.

[Crimson]

i would keep them and hope the mutate to give me super human abilities!!! to be technical they are not parasites (if I remeber my biology). Parasites are organisms that live of another and cause it harm. A mutalist relationship (Mutualism) between two organism is more what this sounds like. You keep it alive and help them reproduce and it keep you fit and extra healthy.

[Vee]

I'd get rid of it.

I would never sleep knowing that there's something like that inside me.

[stegorawrus]

I would have them removed if they could follow my request to keep me awake during the procedure.

I saw house remove a worm from a girl in one of his episodes. it was amazing.
There was also an episode where a guy came in with a fetish for cows and all I could think about was E for the rest of the day....

Oh man, I loveeeeeeeee that episode! Everyone were like WTF. It's so crazy that it can be huge. For a school scavenger hunt in AP Bio, we were suppose to find a dog/cat tapeworm and the one that we got was like probably 2mm. Super duper tiny, and that little thing could hurt an animal so bad.

Plus, I'd get rid of it. No need to have it on display :/. Watch Monsters Inside Me on Animal Planet, shows the best for these cases~

[Prosthetics]

Worms stick parts of their body out of your butt to lay eggs.

[Katie <3]

Considering the risks of any surgery compared with inconvenience of shitting worms once a year, the fact that my eating habits wont change and Id become 1,000 pounds, and I could still have kids (make sure the worms wont eat all of the baby's food)... I'd rather keep the worms.

[Glork]

It sounds like, other than crapping worms every year, there is ZERO downside. If that's the case, I keep them.

[cixelsyd]

i named mine. his name is "Los Illuminados"

[Tango]

Worms stick parts of their body out of your butt to lay eggs.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS

What E has failed to describe is all worm parasites are dangerous to their hosts. The worm feeds and shits out toxins into your blood steam that breaks down your immune system. Cysts form around the egg deposits throughout the body. It gets worse over time.

Even if the miracle of situation above happened, I wouldn't want to be laying worm eggs everytime i used a toilet.. and infest my family or friends.

[Timmah!]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS

What E has failed to describe is all worm parasites are dangerous to their hosts. The worm feeds and shits out toxins into your blood steam that breaks down your immune system. Cysts form around the egg deposits throughout the body. It gets worse over time.

Even if the miracle of situation above happened, I wouldn't want to be laying worm eggs everytime i used a toilet.. and infest my family or friends.

l2hypothetical

[Catas]

l2hypothetical
l2chew

Om om om om om om om om om

[Fatal1ty Wannabe]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
THIS

What E has failed to describe is all worm parasites are dangerous to their hosts. The worm feeds and shits out toxins into your blood steam that breaks down your immune system. Cysts form around the egg deposits throughout the body. It gets worse over time.

Even if the miracle of situation above happened, I wouldn't want to be laying worm eggs everytime i used a toilet.. and infest my family or friends.

You are extrapolating beyond what the given situation is. If we are hypothetically assuming the circumstances that E has set up to be fact, then what you have said does not apply.

[KeeperoftheToast]

well considering almost 250 million people are infected with them (roughly 4% of the human population) i'd say just live with em.
theyre probably more common than you think, and im sure someone on this forum knows someone who has some type of parasite, whether they know it or not.
and since, in E's post, he mentioned that nothing negative should turn out of it, id say the plus's wayyyyy overrule the minuses. keep them, they seem to only be helping.

[InertiaCreep]

it's like a new superpower!

but it's still fuckin disgusting to me so i'd man up and plow through those two weeks of manchismo-pain.

[Guy Fawkes]

well considering almost 250 million people are infected with them (roughly 4% of the human population) i'd say just live with em.
theyre probably more common than you think, and im sure someone on this forum knows someone who has some type of parasite, whether they know it or not.
and since, in E's post, he mentioned that nothing negative should turn out of it, id say the plus's wayyyyy overrule the minuses. keep them, they seem to only be helping.

Where do those 250 million people live, and how's their health? I think I'm with Tango here - even if your doctor tells you that it's not going hurt you (and it's true, but how are you going to know that?), are you really going to trust your long-term health to that?

[Cynthetic]

doctors are never wrong!

[Red Salvo]

...a parasite that is perfectly harmless, oh that's believable(sarcasm)...

[*dianne*]

hard to belive that only 25% of the entire population of India is infested with parasites. I would bet that 250mil is a VERY low estimate. I would put money on that being closer to 1 billion. Seriously. Also, parasites do their best NOT to harm the host, they would lose their food source if they did. Parasitoids kill/harm the host (where is wiggles?!) I would also bet 1 of every 2 dogs either has or will have some form of parasite in their lifetime. Most of those parasites are transmittable to people.

[Arkice]

...a parasite that is perfectly harmless, oh that's believable(sarcasm)...
There are parasites that are perfectly harmless.

Nonpathogenic Intestinal Protozoa, they exist in millions of people and cause no harm. Even when inside hosts with weak immune systems.

Some scientists believe that eventually humans/parasites will evolve to the point where some parasites are helpful the same way that bacteria has come to help our system rather than harm it. Maybe parasites will evolve and help blood flow, or help inflammatory problems, or even cure/prevent common illnesses like bacteria. While yes, there are bad bacteria and there will always be bad parasites.

Hell, sperm is technically bacteria and it hardly harms. (Except if your an eye or a teenager that doesn't beleive in condoms when in reality you deserve that parasite called a baby since your dumbass thought it took the romance out of the situation.)

[CoolJon]

I would keep the worms. I'd probably name them something like Garfield so that when people asked how I can eat so much and not gain weight I'd just say, "Oh, that's just Garfield, he's a hungry guy". Just as long as there was a no chance of the worms taking over my stomach or something. Live and let live I say.

[PhilTheAmmoGuy]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
QFT

Regarding the "harmless parasites" argument, no there are not harmless parasites. Parasites are detrimental to the host by definition; a symbiote that is harmless but not beneficial is a commensalist organism. If beneficial, it's a mutualist.

[Shadizzy]

Fact, this is a parasite.

http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/strollerderby/fetus2.jpg

those are pretty good, i prefer these though

http://4pack.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/shrimp.jpg

[Kirock]

I know it's a hypothetical topic, but E's story is just too close to real Tape worms and they live in your intestines not your stomach and they can be 4' long.

I'd have them removed. In this case it's not that you WANT eat so much, it's that you HAVE too b/c these things take so much nutrients for themselves. Again I know it's a hypothetical, but I just can't see how it's possible for there not to be a Down side to all that eating. It takes the body effort to digest and absorb food, you must be wearing it out somehow with all that consumption. Not to mention the basic fact that it costs you twice as much in food to stay alive. That's a major down side to me right there.

Out damn worms.

[DarkAssassin]

i didn't even have to think about it, i was decided before i was halfway though it. i mean come on! a pet worm! that's inside of you! and you can eat all you want and not get fat!!! I MEAN COME ON!! that's just AWESOME!!! i'd have a surgery to have one of those things inplanted! i mean, a pet worm!!! that's 4 feet long!!!!

[AGZOQ]

remove them.

avoid shitting worms at all cost