Parasite burden
Parasite/biofilm↓
Also searched as Parasite/biofilm.
You want it cleared: whatever is feeding on you is paid for out of your weight, your gut wall, and energy that can still be missing years later.
In depth
The total load of parasitic organisms a person is carrying — helminths and single-celled protozoa together — and what that load costs. The atlas treats it as a load rather than a diagnosis: it holds body weight down, opens the intestinal barrier, blunts the immune response to vaccination, drives DNA damage, and is associated with fatigue years after the infection itself.
What drives it
Roundworm burden increases it.
Taxonomic edge. Roundworms are one of the three main helminth groups infecting humans. Verbatim: “Helminths of three main groups—cestodes (tapeworms), trematodes (flatworms, or flukes), and roundworms (nematodes)—are human parasites responsible for an enormous burden of disease.”. PMC9155875
The Long Tenant increases it.
Taxonomic edge. Tapeworms are one of the three main helminth groups infecting humans. Verbatim: “Helminths of three main groups—cestodes (tapeworms), trematodes (flatworms, or flukes), and roundworms (nematodes)—are human parasites responsible for an enormous burden of disease.”. doi 10.1371/journal.pntd.0000319 · PMC9155875
Fluke burden increases it.
Taxonomic edge. Flukes are one of the three main helminth groups infecting humans. Verbatim: “Helminths of three main groups—cestodes (tapeworms), trematodes (flatworms, or flukes), and roundworms (nematodes)—are human parasites responsible for an enormous burden of disease.”. doi 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006393 · PMC9155875
Protozoan burden increases it.
Taxonomic edge. Intestinal protozoa are a distinct parasite class from the helminths. Verbatim: “Intestinal protozoa multiply rapidly in their hosts, and as there is a lack of effective vaccines, chemotherapy has been the only practised way to treat individuals and reduce transmission.”. PMC2754014
What it drives
It reduces Iron status.
Five countries, three languages, unrelated groups. Vietnam 54-month WHO/Melbourne program; Cochrane screened-infected arm; Bolivia; Eritrea; Philippine pregnancy. Verbatim: “The prevalence of hookworm infection was reduced from 76% to 11%; mean hemoglobin rose from 122 g/L to 131 g/L and anemia prevalence fell from 38% to 18%.”. doi 10.1371/journal.pntd.0002146 · PMC3623698
It reduces Supports weight management.
Cochrane screened-infected arm, with the adversarial IPD network meta-analysis retrieved in full alongside it. Verbatim: “a single dose of deworming drugs may increase weight (0.58 kg, 95% CI 0.40 to 0.76, three trials, 139 participants; low quality evidence).”. PMC8356492
It reduces Gut barrier.
Three organisms, three unrelated groups, one endpoint — plus a human stool-leucocyte measurement. Verbatim: “intestinal barrier dysfunction upon G. duodenalis infection during which alterations of cellular ion transport were followed by breakdown of the tight junctional complex and loss of epithelial integrity.”. PMC5955458
It increases Daily energy.
10.1093/cid/ciu629 — A natural experiment: the Bergen 2004 waterborne Giardia outbreak in a non-endemic population, with a matched control cohort — replicated independently in US insurance data. Verbatim: “Giardia infection in a nonendemic setting is associated with an increased risk for irritable bowel syndrome and chronic fatigue 6 years later.” (25115874; 29378314). doi 10.1093/cid/ciu629
It reduces Immune support.
A placebo-controlled trial of deworming before vaccination, a systematic review and meta-analysis, and a restoration experiment. Verbatim: “… antihelminthic treatment with … albendazole versus a placebo one month prior to immunization with a seasonal influenza vaccine.”. PMC4459874
It increases DNA integrity.
IARC Group 1 classification — three helminth species are definitive human carcinogens. Five independent sources agree. Verbatim: “The International Agency for Research on Cancer categorizes infection with the fish-borne trematodes Opisthorchis viverrini and Clonorchis sinensis and the blood fluke Schistosoma haematobium as Group 1 biological carcinogens.”. doi 10.1371/journal.ppat.1006393 · PMC4274992
It increases Allergic signaling.
Parasite burden polarises the host toward a type-2 response with IL-4 and IL-13. doi 10.3389/fimmu.2018.02293
It increases Regulatory T cells.
Regulatory T cell expansion is how chronic parasite burden establishes host tolerance. doi 10.1038/s41467-017-01886-6
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.