Threadworms
Threadworms, also known as pinworms, live in the human intestine and around the anus. They are small, very thin white worms that grow to around 13 millimetres in length, and to the naked eye, they look like small threads of white cotton, and this is where they get their name from.
Threadworms are the most common type of worm infection found in Australia. Children, particularly pre-school and school-aged children, are more susceptible to threadworm infections, although adults can easily become infected. Usually, if one person in the household has a worm infection, it is more than likely that other members of the family will also become infected.
Worms are spread directly by children (or adults) who scratch their bottoms and then carry the worm eggs back to their mouth with their hands, or indirectly, in food, dust, or other articles of bedding or clothing. The eggs can survive for up to two weeks outside the body. Around 4 weeks after the eggs are swallowed, they hatch in the small intestine and the female travels down the digestive tract and exits the body via the anus to lay a new batch of eggs on the surrounding skin, often at night.
Helping eliminate intestinal worms
Threadworms do not go away by themselves, and you cannot build up immunity to them, so they need to be treated in order to eliminate them from the body. Traditional anthelmintic herbs such as Wormwood and Black walnut contain substances that help eliminate intestinal worms from the body.
Worms have no means of storing energy, so they need to eat almost continuously to meet their metabolic needs and any disruption in this process results in energy depletion. Worms will also die if they become paralysed and temporarily lose their ability to maintain their position in the digestive tract.
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Starving them, affecting their ability to take up glucose for energy or,
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Paralysing them, so they lose traction in the digestive tract
Herbal support
Wormwood has a long history of traditional use in Western herbal medicine (WHM) as a vermifuge to help remove intestinal threadworms from the body. Black walnut (green or unripened) is also traditionally used in WHM as a vermifuge to remove intestinal threadworms from the body. Black walnut is traditionally used in WHM as a laxative to relieve constipation. See Wormwood Clear.
