Beyond the ordinary

The questions that have arisen during our 15-year journey with this disease are both many and multifaceted. We will present them as we encountered them, sharing the uncertainties we faced along the way and the answers we have found.

Driven by passion

Beyond their clinical presentation, the cardiometabolic implications of cysticercosis and related diseases are examined through their underlying pathophysiology.

The metabolic gears of cell and mitochondria, as modified in the aforementioned twindemics, are analysed across the continuum from health to disease.  Furthermore, we examine the influence that dietary and supplemental vitamins, exert on metabolic competence and performance.  Supporting documentation is provided, with specific attention to pharmacological recommendations —including drugs to be prioritized, those to be used with caution, and those to be strictly avoided—

Monthly themes

Our blog will feature a monthly newsletter providing an in-depth longitudinal analysis. 

Each edition will focus on a key aspect of the disease, ranging from epidemiology and demographics to regional educational strategies and environmental influences.  The discussion will extend to hygiene and socioeconomic factors, with a focus on how lifestyle and climatic variables modulate disease acuity. Additionally, we provide guidance on identifying and avoiding triggers that elicit acute symptomatic episodes. This review addresses the risk of life-threatening complications that can arise from a wide range of medications and offers suggestions for potential life-saving antidotes.

Quality and speed

We aim to raise awareness among patients and physicians regarding the sudden, acute manifestations of this disease. These require prompt recognition and a proactive approach, including early screening and timely pharmacological or procedural intervention.  Whether presenting as hypertensive crises with associated cerebral hemorrhages, atherothrombotic events (cardiac, visceral, cerebral, or peripheral), or demyelinating episodes, these consequences can be sparked by predisposing conditions or potent triggers that must be carefully managed. Since empowering patients with knowledge about the disease can significantly improve outcomes, patient education will be also addressed. 

Pandora's box

Having already recognized the great prevalence of the disease, primarily through the professional observations and collected evidence, and through proofs coming from the direct, closer circle of the affected community, rather than through coordinated initiatives from national or supranational health organizations

—we at HBVS-PanCyBliver only later uncovered the really most critical finding.

Once hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) had resolved the primary cysticercosis infectious signs, diarrhea among them,

it became clear that, surprisingly, the significant communicable illnesses, from it provoked, gradually, consistently, and univocally, faded.

Two to three months of consecutive 1.5 ATA treatments (for a total daily time of 4 to 6 hrs) consistently improved hypertension, diabetes, severely increased prothrombotic state, cardiovascular, and vascular disease,

and led to the withdrawal of some specific drugs. 

Additionally, secondary neurological conditions showed measurable and significant improvement.

Personal clinical data further demonstrate that hyperbaric treatment is also capable of modifying patient's infectivity,

as well as rate of ova endowment & vascular deposition.  

Times and promptness

It would have been highly beneficial for the global community, if an earlier and better appreciation of the WHO 2014 figure stating a neurocysticercosis worldwide number of at least 50 million people (see also Our services, driving scientific debate) had been more deeply analyzed, and better understood. Furthermore, based on those figures, a derived total number of approximately of 500 million people among cysticercosis-affected individuals, could have already been extrapolated as of 2014. Since then, such significant data should have already mandated an immediate in-depth research. Had this occurred, the perception of cysticercosis would have shifted from that of a sector perspective, neglected, primarily neurosurgical illness, to one of extensive systemic pervasiveness. This realoty could have been recognized and openly acknowledged as early as 2014, well before the pandemic years likely exacerbated its prevalence. With such foresight, the clinical expressivity of the disease could have been identified as progressively worsening, characterized by 

  • Spreading systemic manifestations
  • Sn ↑ n° of affected organs
  • The presence or absence of triggers for mast cell degranulation
  • Heightened titer of circulating Taeniid ova and EV, as the primary noxa determining the rate of vascular seeding, and the severity of tissue-level cysticerci crowding.

Still lacking

In cases of immune depression, such acute disease flares necessitate the prompt detection of disease reactivation through:

  • Disease proxies such as "microstarry" lesions visible on brain 3T MRI (void in T1 & hyperintense in T2),
  • Appropriate laboratories techniques for both clinical and environmental screening,  which are currently lacking,
  • The identification of the most suitable Taeniid markers —selected from over 7000 genes with a detection limit of 33 copies, to be utilized in in body fluids and habitats—.
  • Standardized detection protocols for wastewater and freshwater sampling.

Such monitoring would represent a far more critical marker of habitat safety than the  Sars-CoV-2 wastewaters surveillance implemented during the pandemic.  

Once established and deployed for environmental and clinical assessment, these optimal diagnostic indices, could—and should—facilitate the identification of cysticercal stigmata and the subclinical spread of cysticercosis within the community.

This would allow for the prevention of both "smouldering" chronic cases

and acute presentations, such as severe cardiac or neurological compromise and sudden death.

Fruits w/out worms

The exact markers of the acute burden of disease in natural and human environments—as well as those defining the severity and reactivation of induced chronic conditions—remain to be fully elucidated.

While the presence of swine and bovine livestock and slaughterhouses has long been recognized as a definitive biohazard, it is now evident that contaminated hay and "unfocused" habitat engineering pose equivalent risks.

Similarly, flaws in land-use engineering and "third-level" agriculture (when lacking modern farming technologies) have been reassessed as critical areas requiring expansion, restructuring, and reorganization. Such efforts are essential to better standardize environmental safety guidelines.

Army & Navy at disposal of laypeople

In the spring and summer of 2024, we attempted—unsuccessfully—to involve the Army and, more specifically, the Navy in a collaborative effort regarding these critical public health issues.Having recognized the pivotal role of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT), and noting the successful precedents set by both the Army and Navy during the SARS-CoV-2 surge, we proposed that the military forces resume this "duty"—this time specifically for the management of cysticercosis. Perhaps too far ahead of our time, our urgent call for State involvement in community safety was neither understood nor embraced. Nevertheless, we intend to renew this appeal for the sake of those who cannot afford a personal hyperbaric chamber or lack the technical knowledge to manage one independently.

Self-inquiring and HCS-requiring

Awareness of the disease within the healthcare system (HCS) must be fostered by enabling providers, at all levels, to recognize critical alert thresholds.

Any clinical sign of extensive vasoreactivity, vasoconstriction, or pro-thrombotic states—potentially escalating into full-scale histaminergic storms—should trigger an immediate alarm and mandate in-depth investigation.
It is not uncommon for inadequate HCS responses to cysticercosis challenges to stem from unpreparedness or, in some cases, severe organizational failures.
Consequently, direct patient involvement in managing their own health is crucial, particularly in identifying unexpected or disproportionate atopic reactions and diarrhea.

    Beware of downwards spirals: alarms

    Given the limitations of current diagnostic standard, a careful clinical evaluations of signs suggestive of both acute and chronic, indolent cyticercosis is pivotal.

     Beyond the overt clinical presentation, the cardiometabolic implication of these conditions are examined through their underlying pathophysiology; this suggests that metabolic compromise increases proportionally with the systemic dissemination of ova and EVs.

    The disruption of cellular and mitochondrial metabolic pathways within the context of the aforementioned "twindemics" is analysed across the continuum from health to disease.

    Supporting documentation is provided, with particular emphasis on pharmacological guidance. Notably, the use of steroids and niclosamide is strictly advised against in these specific contexts.

    Self-care/prevention in sound habitats

    Geographical zones with a significant concentration of human and animal carriers must be accurately identified and rescued through comprehensive interventions targeting habitats, livestock, and human populations.

    To this end, a combined approach could be suggested, compounded of a fine-tuned laboratory-assisted diagnostics and imaging-supported detection of disease proxies with a more rigorous reappraisal of clinical evaluations.

    This strategic framework aims to screen for index pathologies suspected of having a cysticercosis etiology, categorized by the following clinical groups:

    1. Gastrointestinal disorders (e.g. chronic diarrhea),
    2. Atherothrombotic and cardiovascular diseases;
    3. Metabolic dysfunctions;
    4. Neurological and locomotor impairments.

    Travel and food

    In addition, acute episodes characterized by unexplained atopy or diarrhea should raise suspicion of intercurrent contamination through food or other vectors (such as drinking water, clear water sources, micronized agricultural substrates, contaminated environments, or direct human contact). 

    We will periodically analyze specific topical aspects regarding the durability and persistence of the noxa in the environment—factors that often endure for months or years, regardless of seasonal temperature fluctuations. This analysis will include sterilization methods and precautionary measures to be implemented in households with affected individuals, near sources of contagion, or during travel. 

    Furthermore, we address antidotes for acute cysticercus ova proliferation—whether induced by viruses or hypoxia—as well as histaminergic activation.

    “Particle man, particle man
    Doing the things a particle can”

    They Might Be Giants, Particle Man.