Written by Dr. Christine Traxler, MD
Endoscopies and colonoscopies can sometimes find parasitic worms like roundworms, tapeworms or intestinal flukes.
But, sometimes even a severe parasitic worms infection will be missed by this test (I’ll explain why below)…worst of all, microscopic parasites will always be missed.
Coloscopies detect parasites by seeing them with a camera.
To visually see the insides of your intestines, a long flexible camera is guided into your intestines. This long camera can be passed through your mouth (endoscopy) or your rectum (colonscopy)(1). At the end of this tube there is a camera. This camera magnifies things up to 50 times their normal size – making it easier to detect intestine abnormalities like parasites.(2)
Overall, I’d give this test a D- for detecting parasitic worms.
These tests can detect parasitic worms or intestinal flukes, but it is often hit-or-miss. A colonoscopy can be inaccurate as much as 36% of the time when detecting colon cancer (2). Many parasites are much smaller than colon cancer or are completely invisible to the naked eye, so these can be even tougher to spot (even when the doctor is specifically looking for them).
In the best case scenario, it is possible for the following parasites to be detected using endoscopy or colonoscopy:
There are 2 reasons why an extremely skilled doctor can miss parasitic worms during this test. It comes down to the parasitic life cycle:
Any parasites you’d need a microscope to see will always be missed with these tests.
Girardia, a common American parasite, measures 10 micrometers, or 0.00039 inches…which is 100 times smaller than the thickness of a penny, or 10 smaller than the thickness of paper. Because of how small some parasites are, it’s impossible for a doctor to confidently indentify a tiny spec in your colon as Girardia (4).
Here is a list of common parasites that won’t ever be detected by a colonoscopy or an endoscopy:
So if Giardia lamblia is the cause of your diarrhea symptoms, it will never be detected by an endoscopy or a colonoscopy.
To summarize, here is what this parasite test can find:
So based on the above facts, these are unreliable parasite tests that I would not recommend.
These might be good tests for detecting bowel or stomach cancer, but not for detecting parasites. There are much better parasite tests available that also don’t involve the risks of being sedated, bleeding, or having a perforated intestine if the tests don’t go well.
If you’re serious about getting an effective intestinal parasite test, then stick with the parasite stool test.
The benefits of a parasite stool test are:
To summarize, here is what this parasite test can find:
So based on the above facts, these are unreliable parasite tests that I would not recommend.
These might be good tests for detecting bowel or stomach cancer, but not for detecting parasites. There are much better parasite tests available that also don’t involve the risks of being sedated, bleeding, or having a perforated intestine if the tests don’t go well.
If you’re serious about getting an effective intestinal parasite test, then stick with the parasite stool test.
The benefits of a parasite stool test are:
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