Life is hard for a parasite. … As a parasite, you do know where your next meal is coming from most of the time. In return for that security, you have probably given up most of your nervous system and sense organs. Considering that you probably live in the mire of someone’s intestine or their bile duct, not having sense organs is probably a plus.

Roger M. Knutson, Fearsome Fauna: A Field Guide to the Creatures That Live In You

Types of Parasites

There are three main types of parasites that can affect humans: protozoa, helminths, and ectoparasites. They can live on or in the human body and cause various diseases. The Cleveland Clinic provides clear, succinct descriptions, as follows.

Ectoparasites

Ectoparasites live on the outside (exterior) of the body. They carry diseases between other animals and humans and usually carry infections through blood. They generally include the following:

• Fleas are small, wingless insects with strong back legs that they use to jump long distances. Infected fleas can spread disease when they bite or if a person accidentally swallows an infected flea.

• Head lice and pubic lice (crabs) are tiny, flat insects that travel by crawling. Both types of lice travel from person to person through close contact, which may include sexual intercourse or sharing personal items like hats, sheets, pillows, or towels.

• Mites are small arachnids, relatives of spiders and ticks. They’re small, about as tall as a stack of 10 sheets of paper. They may cause scabies.

• Ticks also are arachnids. Their bites usually don’t cause pain or itchiness. They typically bite you and then burrow into your skin.

Helminths

Helminths are worms that usually live in your gastrointestinal (GI) tract. They are visible to the naked eye in their adult stage — and range from greater than 1 millimeter to a little longer than 39 inches (slightly smaller than the width of a doorway).

The main types of helminths that affect people include the following:

• Flukes (Trematodes) are a type of flatworm that can spread through contaminated water or aquatic animals (including snails, crabs, and fish). The many different types of flukes may infect your blood, urinary bladder, liver, lungs, intestines, and other organs.

• Tapeworm (Cestode) adults are long, flat worms that live in the intestines and feed on the nutrients that you get from eating food. They spread by laying eggs that leave your body when you poop. The eggs then spread through infected food and water or undercooked meat.

• Roundworms (Nematodes) are small parasites that also live in your intestines. They spread from infected poop or soil.

Protozoans

Protozoans are one-celled organisms that live in your intestines or blood and tissues. You can’t see them without a microscope. They can spread through several means, including contaminated food or water and person-to-person contact.

There are tens of thousands of types of protozoans. Experts classify them according to how they move. The main types that affect people include the following:

• Amoeba, which form temporary “false feet” (pseudopods) to move. The amoeba Entamoeba histolytica (E. histolytica) causes dysentery.

• Ciliates use many short, hairlike structures (cilia) to move and gather food. Balantidium coli (B. coli) is the only ciliate that affects people. It causes dysentery.

• Flagellates use one or many whip-like structures (flagella) to move and sense their surroundings. The flagellate Giardia intestinalis causes giardiasis, and Trypanosoma brucei causes sleeping sickness.

• Sporozoans (apicomplexan) aren’t capable of moving in their adult stage. They eat the food you are digesting or your body fluids. The sporozoan Plasmodium causes malaria, and Cryptosporidium causes cryptosporidiosis.

Human(-Infesting) Parasites

According to Knutson, the parasites that live in humans are generally ugly, not smart, and extremely motivated to reproduce.

Given where they live, parasites have little need for such sense organs as eyes or a sense of smell. As Knutson says, “Better you should have a good set of hooks, suckers, or clamps or a mouth for hanging on or the capacity to swim with vigor.”

According to the CDC, more than 60 million people in the US are infected with parasites. The overall prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections was 16.1%, according to the NIH. Soil-transmitted helminth infections (14.3%) were more common than protozoan infections (1.8%).

I’ve focused on the U.S., where neglected parasitic infections are not rare. NIH says neglected parasitic infections affect at least 12 million Americans, either through new infections (e.g., trichomoniasis) or from prevalent persistent infections resulting in chronic conditions. Limited access to clean water and sanitation are major factors. Practicing good hygiene, thoroughly cooking meat, and drinking clean water also helps prevent many parasites.

“One or another of them [parasites] can live in nearly all our internal spaces or cells, and sometimes during an adolescent ‘walkabout’ they wander from our skin to our bloodstream to our lungs to our gut and during the wandering create their own small spaces where we had none before. They drink our blood, eat our cells, infest our muscles, and compete with us for the food we have already eaten and for the vitamins we need to keep us healthy.”

Roger M. Knutson, Fearsome Fauna: A Field Guide to the Creatures That Live In You

Treating Parasites

Treatment is extremely important. You may develop a serious infection with severe symptoms if you don’t get treatment and follow your doctor’s orders carefully.

Treatment specifics depend on what type of parasite you have.

For treating ectoparasites such as lice, fleas, and ticks:

• Bathing with soap
• Shampoos
• Ointments
• Washing your clothing, bedding, and towels in hot water
• Vacuuming carpets, mattresses, and furniture and emptying the vacuum bag into the trash outside

For other types of parasites, your healthcare provider may prescribe:

• Antiparasitic drugs
• Antibiotics

With a proper diagnosis and treatment, most people make a full recovery. So carefully follow your provider’s instructions. If you don’t, your parasite may come back.

Symptoms of Parasites

How can you know? Because there are so many different types of parasites, the symptoms also vary widely. According to the Cleveland Clinic, common parasite symptoms include:

• Diarrhea
• Nausea and vomiting
• Abdominal pain
• Unexplained weight loss
• Increased appetite
• Muscle aches
• Fever
• Chills
• Problems sleeping (insomnia)
• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Skin rash

You may have a parasite and no symptoms, or the symptoms may appear a long time after infection. You may also not have any symptoms and accidentally pass a parasite to another person who develops symptoms.

Parasites Everywhere!

NIH estimates that there are between 75,000 and 300,000 helminth species alone parasitizing vertebrates. But they have no credible way of estimating how many parasitic protozoa, fungi, bacteria, and viruses exist. According to an article in Salon, several estimates suggest that parasites actually outnumber “free living” organisms by about 3 to 2. In short, they’re everywhere.

Conclusion: although you might feel queasy to learn that you have a parasitic infection, don’t take it personally. Instead take appropriate steps to recover and to avoid having anything eating you in the future!

Bottom Line: Parasites are an ugly fact of life. But you don’t have to despair. And learning about them can be fascinating.

Why not? There are now upwards of 50,000 named species worldwide, on every continent except Antartica. Chances are you cross paths with spiders frequently.

The vast majority are harmless. They’re actually helpful to humans. Without spiders to eat pests harmful to agriculture, it’s thought that our food supply would be at risk. And there would be a heck of a lot more mosquitoes, ants, and flies around!

Some people actually leave spiders alone in their houses to take care of these other household pests.

Is Everyone Afraid of Spiders?

Even so, spiders are far from popular. We all try to avoid things that make us feel uncomfortable, and most people are not comfortable with spiders!

If you give children a free option to tell researchers what sorts of things they fear the most, both boys and girls report “spiders” as their top fear (the second fear is being kidnapped, third is predators, and fourth is the dark).

Insight Pest conducted a survey about people’ fears, with the following results:

• The first question we asked in the survey was on the most frightening pests in general.
  • Interestingly, the most frightening pest for most people is actually a snake.
  • Spiders are second, followed by wasps.
• Men are more scared of snakes and wasps than women are, and women (24%) are more scared of spiders than men (17%).
• Level of spider fear (1-10): men 4.4, women 5.6
• Fear of spiders by age: 26% of those 18-34; 20% of those 35-54; 13% of those 55 and older.
• Level of spider fear (1-10): 5.1 for those 18-34, 5.0 for those 35-54, and 4.70 for those 55 and older.

Visit the website for more info on the worst place to find a spider, how people deal with spiders, who would tolerate a house infested with spiders, sleep problems related to spiders, etc.

FYI, to remove a spider in the house, put a clear plastic cup over it, slide a thick paper sheet under the cup and spider, and let it go outside.

Based on the literature, arachnophobia affects 2.7–6.1% of people in the general population and is significantly more prevalent among women than men. Arachnophobia differs from a fear in that a phobia is an intense and irrational fear. Most spider phobias are completely unwarranted. Only 0.5% of spiders are potentially harmful to humans and most of those are in Australia and South America.

Why Do We Fear Spiders?

Daniel Frynta at Charles University, Prague, and colleagues posit that we evolved to fear not “essentially harmless” spiders but a dangerous close relative with a similar body plan. Scorpions do pose a real threat, killing an estimated 2,600 people every year. Their data don’t prove that people generalize an evolved fear/disgust of scorpions to spiders. Unlike the vast majority of spiders, scorpions are also an ancient group, and species with a venom tailored to mammals are native to Africa and the Middle East — so our distant ancestors and dangerous scorpions could have evolved side-by- side. “Fear of scorpions therefore seems to be better warranted than fear of spiders,” the team writes. The corresponding conclusion is that our brains over-generalize, reacting to spiders in the same way.

Other explanations of spider fears include classical conditioning following a traumatic incident, and learning from parents and those around the child.

Don’t Be Afraid!

Fun facts that may (or may not) make spiders seem less creepy.

• Spiders are nearsighted.
• Females can lay up to 3,000 eggs at one time.
• Jumping spiders can jump up to 50x their own length.
• The ‘daddy long-legs‘ you see might not actually be a spider.
• There’s a spider with a cartoonish butt.
• Some spiders can jump on demand.
• Cannibal spiders look like pelicans.
• The tiny Samoan moss spider is .011 inch long (smaller than a typed period).
• The Goliath birdeater is a tarantula with a leg span of almost a foot.

According to National Geographic, most species are carnivorous, either trapping flies and other insects in their webs, or hunting them down. They can’t swallow their food as is, though—spiders inject their prey with digestive fluids, then suck out the liquefied remains.

Spiders are arachnids—i.e., their skeletons are on the outside—so they aren’t insects. They have eight legs, a body in two segments, a spinneret to exude incredibly strong silk, and fangs generally able to inject venom.

Though all spiders have venom to one degree or another, only a handful are dangerous to humans. Those include the black widow and the brown recluse, both found in the United States.

Though not all spider species build webs, every species produces silk, a strong, flexible protein fiber. They use the silk to climb, to tether themselves for safety in case of a fall, to create egg sacs, to wrap up prey, to make nests, and more.

Most spider species have eight eyes, though some have six. Despite all of those eyes, though, many don’t see very well.

A notable exception is the jumping spider, which can see more colors than humans can. Using filters that sit in front of cells in their eyes, the day-hunting jumping spider can see in the red spectrum, green spectrum, and in UV light.

Bottom Line: Wherever spider fears come from, they are as common as they are irrational. And spiders are fascinating!

Circadian rhythms are the physical, mental, and behavioral changes an organism experiences over a 24-hour cycle. The word stems from the Latin “circum” (approximately) and “diem” (day). Light and dark have the biggest influence on circadian rhythms, but food intake, stress, physical activity, social environment, and temperature also affect them. Most living things have circadian rhythms. In humans, nearly every tissue and organ has its own circadian rhythm—which is why I’m talking about your body’s clocks, plural—and collectively they are tuned to the daily cycle of day and night.

Circadian rhythms influence many functions, such as:

• Sleep patterns
• Hormone release
• Appetite and digestion
• Temperature

How Long is a Circadian Rhythm?

Early research suggested that most people preferred a day closer to 25 hours when isolated from external stimuli like daylight and timekeeping. However, this research was faulty because it failed to shield the participants from artificial light. Although subjects were shielded from time cues (like clocks) and daylight, the researchers were not aware of the phase-delaying effects of indoor electric lights. The subjects were allowed to turn on light when they were awake and to turn it off when they wanted to sleep. Electric light in the evening delayed their circadian phase.

More recent research has shown some more specific things:

• Adults have a built-in day, which averages about 24 hours
• Indoor lighting does affect circadian rhythms
• Most people attain their best-quality sleep during their chronotype-determined sleep periods

A study by Czeisler et al. at Harvard found the range for normal, healthy adults of all ages to be quite narrow: 24 hours and 11 minutes ± 16 minutes.

In normal subjects in the real world, the body’s “clocks” are reset, primarily by exposure to light, so that they follow the 24-hour light/dark cycle of the Earth’s rotation.

When the Body’s Clocks Break

Circadian rhythms can fall out of sync with the outside world because of factors in the human body or environment. For example

• Variants of certain genes can affect the proteins that control biological clocks
• Neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease, can disrupt circadian rhythms, causing poor sleep quality and changes in symptoms from day to night
• Light from electronic devices at night can confuse biological clocks

Drowsiness, poor coordination, and difficulty with learning and focus may occur when circadian rhythms fall out of sync short term.

Working swing shifts can also disrupt the body’s clocks. Forcing oneself to wake up and go to sleep at varying intervals from one day to the next leaves the body confused. Shift Work Sleep Disorder (SWSD) can cause trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, sleeping deeply, and waking up. People who work as nurses, late-night retail workers, overnight hotel staff, or fire fighters (just to name a few) often experience insomnia, hypersomnia, or both.

Jet lag causes disruptions in the circadian rhythm because modern travel allows the body to cross time zones faster than the body’s clocks can adapt. Earlier methods of travel, even early air travel, were slow enough that the body could keep up with changes in sunrise and sunset times. That’s why you won’t get jet lag on a boat!

Long-term sleep loss and continually shifting circadian rhythms can increase the risks of obesity, diabetes, mood disorders, heart and blood pressure problems, and cancer, and can also worsen existing health issues.

Changes With Age

According to National Library of Medicine, Biotech Information circadian rhythms shift throughout the lifespan, peaking in lateness during adolescence and then gradually shifting back as we age. This shift mirrors the U-shape curve of happiness, which some researchers suggest may be related.

Consistent with the transition to a morning chronotype in older adult humans, the circadian phase of sleep onset and wakening advances with age, whereby older adults (mean age of 68 years) report preferred bedtimes 1 to 2 hours earlier, on average, compared with younger adults (mean age of 23
years) (National Institutes of Health (NIH).

With age, people are less able to recover and recover quickly from disruptions to our circadian clocks. Changes to the circadian rhythm are a common cause of sleep problems in older adults .

Bottom Line: Be aware of your body’s clocks and work with them, not against them, to maximize your physical and mental well-being.

I’m celebrating lots of things on this December 26th!

Mummer’s Day (Cornwall)

Boxing Day (UK, Australia, Canada)

Junkanoo (Caribbean Diaspora, see image above)

South African Day of Goodwill

Poya (Sri Lanka)

Candy Cane Day (USA)

Zartosht No-Diso (Ancient Persia and Zoroastrianism)

Slovenian Independence Day

Feast of Our Lady of Andacollo (Chile)

Saint Stephen’s Day (Ireland)

The beginning of the Decembrist Uprising against Tsar Nicholas II (1825, Russia)

First exhibition of wood pulp paper (1854, Buffalo NY)

National Whiner’s Day (USA)

Quviasukvik (Inuit, Upik, Aleut, Chukchi, and Iñupiat)

Grant of patent for FM radio (1933, USA)

Second Day of Christmas

Proclamation Day (South Australia)

Dionysia ta kat’ agrous (Rural Festival of Dionysius, Ancient Greece)

Father’s Day (Bulgaria)

Howdy Doody Day Eve

January 10 is Peculiar People Day, an annual opportunity to recognize and celebrate peculiar people. Oxford Languages defines peculiar as, “strange, odd; or unusual.” Pretty straightforward. But when talking about this day’s peculiar people, other issues tend to mix themselves in.

For example, saying it’s those who refuse to conform to the world’s idea of normal assumes a conscious resistance. 

Some put it even more baldly: Peculiar People Day is to celebrate the leaders of the strange and unusual, who refuse to succumb to the world’s idea of what is normal and sane.  This view, by adding the role of leadership, requires influence.

Even taking out resistance and influence, honoring individuals who are eccentric, non-conformist or unique in some manner is still subjective. Indeed, we’re all deviants by someone’s standards, in some places, at some times.

Finding/knowing who to celebrate is a public vs. private dilemma: in order to be labeled quirky (or whatever) one’s behaviors, beliefs, or attributes need to be perceived.  If a peculiar tree falls peculiarly in a forest and no one sees it doing so peculiarly, was it still peculiar?

The etymology of ‘peculiar’ is, in itself, fairly peculiar. Originally, it referred to a herd of cattle privately owned, from the Sanskrit word ‘pasu-‘ for cattle. Not until the 16th century did ‘peculiar’ develop its modern connotations of something distinguished or special, generally in reference to those especially well-endowed in wealth or social standing. By the 17th century, ‘peculiar’ had come to refer to something strange, curious, or unusual.

Of all individuals, the hated, the shunned, and the peculiar are arguably most themselves. They wear no masks whatsoever in order to be accepted and liked; they do seem most guarded, but only by their own hands: as compared to the populace, they are naked.” –

Criss Jami, Healology

I couldn’t find any solid info on the origins of Peculiar People Day; the earliest record (that I could find) showed up on a list of January Days published in the The San Francisco Examiner on January 1, 2002. But Peculiar People Day has too many options for fun and awareness to disappear anytime soon.

Peculiarity manifests in many dimensions:

• Jobs
• Opinions
• Appearance
• Physical characteristics
• Speech or phrasing choices
• Mannerisms
• Pets
• Reading Habits
• Talents
• Hobbies

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs is a fascinating fantasy read! But that’s not the only book with peculiar people:

• “I thought to myself Mr. Rochester is peculiar — he seems to forget that he pays me £30 per annum for receiving his orders.”
  • Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
• “I love my love with a b because she is peculiar.”
  • Four Lectures by Gertrude Stein
• Don’t you realize that in my world my parents are peculiar because they’d never been divorced? Basically because it would have been too much trouble. But you live in a world where not only are your parents not divorced, they appear to love each other.”
  • Ring of Endless Light by Madeline L’Engle

Still need a reason to celebrate? Some believe people who are termed ‘peculiar’, ‘different’, ‘strange’, or ‘abnormal’ set the world in motion.

Bottom Line: Celebrate and recognize yourself as well as others on Peculiar People Day.

A resolution is a firm decision to do or not to do something. As such, you can make a resolution any old day. You needn’t wait for New Year’s resolutions.

In practice, people tend to make resolutions when something personally significant happens: birthdays, anniversaries, birth of a child, death of a loved one, when celebrating a big achievement or suffering a major defeat…

But New Year’s Day is the single most popular day to do so.  Based on the average of five studies, 38.5% of U.S. adults make New Year’s resolutions. Younger adults are more likely than older adults to do so.

Why this day? “The New Year offers a blank slate — an opportunity to get things right. When we set New Year’s resolutions, we are utilizing a very important concept called self-efficacy, which means that by virtue of aspiring to a goal and following through on it, I have a sense of control over what’s happening in my life.” (Piedmont.org) 

New Year’s Resolutions Then

New Year’s resolutions aren’t a new thing. According to Merriam-Webster, the practice has been around since the early 19th century, and perhaps as far back as the late 17th century.  Anne Halkett wrote a number of “Resolutions” in her diary on January 2nd, 1671.

On the other hand, History.com says the ancient Babylonians were making New Year’s resolutions 4,000 years ago. They also held the first recorded celebrations of the new year, called Akitu—though for them the year began in mid-March.  They made promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed.

When Julius Ceasar established the Julian calendar circa 46 BCE, he named the first month of the year after the god Janus, who looked both backward and forward. Romans believed that if Janus had seen them making improvements in their lives during the previous year, they could start the new year with a clean slate. At New Year celebrations, Romans made offerings to Janus and promised the god that they would behave better.

Inspired by a 1312 poem by Jacques de Longuyon, medieval knights began the practice of taking the Vow of the Peacock (les voeux du paon) at New Year banquets. During the presentation of the subtlety (a special dish designed for visual or entertainment value more than actual nutritional value), people frequently made boasts, pleadges, and vows. When the host presented a roast peacock at a New Year feast, dressed in its own plumage, knights would vow upon the bird to uphold the values of chivalry.

For early Christians, at least as far back as 1740, the first day of the new year was the time to think about one’s past sins and resolve to do and be better in the future. John Wesley, an English clergyman and founder of Methodism, held a Covenant Renewal Service in 1740. Many Christian communities still hold Watch Night services overnight on New Year’s Eve.

The Jewish calendar begins with the High Holy Days (יָמִים נוֹרָאִים), running from Rosh HaShanah (רֹאשׁ הַשָּׁנָה) to Yom Kippur (יָמִים נוֹרָאִים). During the ten days between, people work to improve the judgement presented upon their actions during the previous year. They seek atonement, donate to charity, and ask forgiveness from those they have wronged. Many Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur customs, including wearing white and eating honey with apples, originated in the Middle Ages among the Ashkenazi community.

New Year’s Resolutions Now

Now, of course, New Year’s celebrations are mostly secular and resolutions are usually promises to oneself. The most common resolutions are to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their behavior. In particular, according to 413 U.S. adults (18-89 y/o) surveyed Oct. 25-Nov. 2, 2022, who intended to make one or more resolutions (Source: Statista Global Consumer Survey);

• To exercise more, 52%
• To eat healthier, 50%
• To lose weight, 40%
• To save more money, 39%
• To spend more time with family/friends, 37%
• To spend less time on social media, 20%
• To reduce stress on the job, 19%
• To reduce spending on living expenses, 19%

But note: according to Discover Happy Habits, only 23% of survey participants planned on making new years resolutions for 2023. And the most popular resolutions for the coming year are living healthier (23%), personal improvement and happiness (21%), and losing weight (20%).  

Twelve percent of new gym memberships are created in January. Sales of healthy food spike by nearly 30% in January every year, though sales of junk food do not diminish much during the same period.

Keeping New Year’s Resolutions

But why bother? Do resolutions really work?  Of those who make New Year’s resolutions, after 1 week 75% are still successful in keeping it.  After two weeks, the number drops to 71%.  After 1 month, the number drops again to 64%.  After 6 months, 46% of people who make a resolution are still successful in keeping it.  And by year’s end, only 9% are successful. (Medical News Today)

To increase your chances of success (according to various things I’ve heard or read):

• Be specific. (Lose XX pounds vs. lose weight)
• Write it down.
• Make it public.
• Start small to see success early. 
• Consider the steps it will take to reach your goal. 
• Track your progress.

If you are tired of the same-old, same-old, consider some more unusual resolutions. In 2016, I shared suggestions for New Year’s resolutions for writers. Real Buzz published some more suggestions for unusual New Year’s resolutions, including the following:

1. Take your photo in five interesting places
2. Learn a decent party trick
3. Break a record
4. Make a new friend each month
5. Develop a good relationship with your body
6. Learn something you didn’t learn as a child
7. Try new food each week
8. Make the usual unusual
9. Sort out financial worries
10. Do something nice for someone else every day

BOTTOM LINE: To resolve or not? And remember, anytime, anything. Make it your own.