How Not to Get Brain-Eating Worms and Mercury Poisoning

Are you experiencing unexplained memory lapses or brain fog? The odds of dealing with both a brain parasite and mercury poisoning at the same time seem vanishingly rare. There are approximately two dozen parasites that we know can reach the brain, says Hany Elsheikha, a parasitology expert at the University of Nottingham, although this doesn’t always happen; many parasites are either cleared by the immune system or end up in the gut. “Parasites don’t normally infect the brain, because it has a special anatomical structure which keeps it well protected,” Elsheikha says. “But sometimes they have a special affinity to the brain, and that person has a preexisting health condition or something going on in the background which makes them immunocompromised, and so the parasite seizes the opportunity.” When parasites have the opportunity to reside in the brain or spinal cord, Elsheikha says, they usually take it, because the brain has a high metabolic activity, which means there is a plentiful supply of sugars on which the organism can feast.