I am reading so much about how people want to get rid of parasites, special in their intestines. Is it really worth doing it, how... More on connect.mayoclinic.org

"I run the parasite subs on Reddit". There's a good joke there somewhere . . . Thanks for sharing this interesting information. There are a lot of health scams out there, but this is something I had never heard of. Convincing someone you're removing parasites from them they probably don't even have is pretty sinister. More on reddit.com

Short answer is it depends on the size, location, and traits of the parasite. Our bodies have responses beyond just antibodies, such as inflammation, defecation, digestion, &c. In most cases antibodies are going to do a better job of preventing secondary infection while our bodies try and sort out how to deal with the parasite issue. Keep in mind that as humans, we can take medicine, get surgery, use creams, take showers, and things like that, as well. This is probably our biggest boon. You asked about helminths; this is a good example of how we use medicine (antihelminthics) to fix our problems. With some parasites, however, we just don't have any defense. Take N. fowlerii, for example. You get those little guys in your brain, you die (about 99% of the time, at least....). We have treatments, but those mean protists are better at killing us than we are at killing them. The one-ish percent that do survive have a chance of serious brain damage in place of being dead, which is still a win for the parasites' column and a loss for Team Humans, I'd say. Moral of the story: wear nose clips when swimming in warm freshwater so you don't accidentally become host to any brain-eaters, and use your unique human ability to drive a car to the hospital for meds if you get worms or whatever. Try to just....not get these things, though, in the first place. Eat safe, drink clean, take showers, don't roll around in sewers if it's not your job, those kinds of things. That's honestly the best defense. More on reddit.com

Mind you, I work with insects on a daily basis so I wouldn’t be surprised if I actually had to get some form of anti-parasitic medication one day from an actual proper med. evaluation, granted I wouldn’t really care and I would probably be fairly interested- most likely one day I’ll get accidentally get botflies which I will probably try to grow to maturity lol, i’d like to pin them. More on reddit.com