Alcoholism found to be associated with strongyloides

“Alcoholism is also associated with S. stercoralis infections [13, 41]. Ethanol depresses the immune system and, when excessively consumed, causes behavioral changes, which can further expose an already impaired host to infections [41]. In a paper published by Silva et al. [13], S. stercoralis infection prevalence was higher in alcoholic patients (23.5%) than in nonalcoholic ones (5.4%). Among the alcoholic patients, 81.3% presented high parasite loads, suggesting that high cortisol levels, commonly associated with alcoholism, may lead to massive infections. Increase in ethanol levels leads to an increase in corticosteroids, reducing T-cells function and increasing S. stercoralis females fertility [13], alerting that not only alcoholic patients but also patients requiring corticosteroids use are at risk.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5292188/#!po=0.609756

“It is possible that immune deregulation may influence the larval development. As chronic alcohol abuse interferes with the immune response, this immune deviation may be favoring the direct development of rhabditiform larvae into infective filariform larvae thus enhancing autoinfection and increasing the number of worms in the duodenum and the chance of finding larvae in the stool examination.”

“In conclusion our results indicate that ethanol abuse is a factor associated with the high prevalence of Strongyloides larvae in stools, with a positive correlation to the intensity of alcoholism, even in absence of liver cirrhosis.”

“Decreased intestinal motility permits delay of rhabditiform larvae in intestinal lumen, favoring the chance of their maturing to the infective filariform larvae, thus increasing the risk of autoinfection.”

The above statement is actually saying that when you’re constipated or your GI system has slowed for any reason you’re more likely to become autoinfected. That’s because the larvae will penetrate your colon and autoinfect. Then you’ll get diagnosed with things such as colitis, or diverticulitis, and etc. Which is a entirely different post and subject.

“In fact chronic ethanol abuse interferes with the innate and adaptive immune response, both in human beings and experimental animals (review in [11]–[16]). There are defects in T cell functions, especially in helper T cell type 1 (TH1) immune response [17]. However, it seems that helper T cell type 2 (TH2) immune response is not impaired by the consumption of ethanol.”

“Other mechanisms triggered by ethanol abuse may be involved in the development of rhabditiform larvae, increasing their differentiation into infective filariform larvae, thus favoring autoinfection. In this way, the number of females would be increased in the duodenum, increasing the number of rhabditiform larvae in the stools, enhancing their chance to be found in a stool examination.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2889815/#!po=1.13636
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