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• Seizures are frightening enough, but seizures caused by tapeworms add an element of "eww."
According to doctors in Massachusetts who recently described the case in the New England Journal of Medicine, the otherwise-healthy 38-year-old man had had dead tapeworm cysts lodged in his brain for decades -- a relatively rare form of infestation called neurocysticercosis.
When these cysts become stuck in the brain, they can cause pressure, inflammation and neurological symptoms that are sometimes confused for brain tumors.
But symptoms may not manifest for years. This man's cysts caused no problems until three years ago, when he fell out of bed, "shaking and speaking gibberish," then had a two-minute seizure on the way to the hospital.
Luckily, he was discharged after five days of treatment and remains in good health today. [Gizmodo, 11/19/2021]