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Comment by tragomaskhalos | Hacker News Reader

Finding worms in your excrement is pretty distressing in modern times even with cause and treatment clearly understood, it must have been vastly more so when the only aetiology was based on the cockamamie humours model, and treatments were so haphazard. The same is true for many other diseases of course, but there is something especially and viscerally repulsive about worm parasites.

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I wonder how repulsive it actually was to people 1000 or 5000 or 10000 years ago though. In the wild – especially in the tropics – intestinal parasites are incredibly common in mammals, presumably including our ancestors. The invention of cooking must have reduced the parasitic load among hominins, however, as well as the discovery of soap. Various cultural taboos on eating or handling specific types of animals almost certainly originate from the desire to avoid parasites as well. Also, base parasitic load is reduced for people living in cooler climates, so worm infections may have become more yucky to Europeans not as accustomed to them.

These days, despite soap and cooking capabilities, we are doing our best to reintroduce the occurrences by everyone out here licking their partners anus.

"by everyone out here licking their partners anus."

Projecting much?

And by everyone, I mean me.

I do partake every chance I get, assuming it’s been washed recently. And assuming further activities are available.

See above comments if you doubt the prevalence of licking anus.

I do not doubt some people are doing it. Go have fun with it, if you are into that.

But clearly not "everyone" is doing it and I strongly doubt a majority is.

I have yet to get such an infection as a result of this activity. Perhaps choose partners more wisely?

ass eating is one of lifes simplest pleasures...

It seems like a majority of cases come from plants grown in fertilizer made from poop of humans or pigs, which keeps the cycle going. In Pre-agricultural times, never using fertilizer would imply intestinal worms would occur much more rarely in hunger gatherer tribes.

That’s a good point.

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