A collision with blood-sucking parasites is always perceived negatively. Mosquitoes, fleas move freely in space, do not stay for a long time on the "host", lice parasitize obsessively. Getting rid of them is not always easy. This state of affairs is frustrating, shocking, invariably provoking a state of stress. There is an opinion that nervous disorders are not always a consequence of the appearance of lice. Sometimes an unstable mental state is attributed to a causal dependence of the occurrence of parasites. Can lice appear on nerves? It is necessary to understand the issue in order to understand this myth or reality.
Head louse: who is this
Head lice are insects that are parasites. The basis of nutrition is human blood. The pest settles on the head, in a mustache and beard. The creature lives without food for 2-3 days on foreign objects.
The insect does not die when washing the hair. For life, the parasite chooses a clean and healthy hairline. The male grows up to 2-3 mm. Females are larger and reach 4 mm at puberty. The body is gray in color. The color changes after consuming blood and turns reddish.
The parasite eats 2-3 times a day. The parasite drinks up to 1 ml of blood per day. Head lice are much safer than body lice, which are disease vectors. Itching of the skin is the result of saliva entering the wound. This becomes the cause of severe irritation.
With head lice, the likelihood of infection increases. The insect reproduces all year round in the presence of favorable temperatures and external conditions. The life cycle of each individual lasts up to a month.
Over the entire life cycle, the female parasite lays up to 100 eggs. The insect becomes sexually mature as early as 20 days.
Head lice are wingless insects. The main sense organ is the sense of smell. The insect cannot fly and jump. The parasite moves pretty quickly. The insect moves quickly. Able to quickly move from one owner to another.
Lice are very small
What are the reasons for the development of head lice
An insect is incapable of dwelling inside a person. The parasite lives on the head and drinks the owner's blood. The deposition also occurs on the surface of the body. The female attaches the nits to the hair with a special adhesive.
The methods of transmission of the parasite are presented in the table.
Contact method | This is the main mode of transmission of the parasite from a healthy person to a sick person. Infection is likely through close contact with the patient. The insect moves from one head to another. |
Non-contact method | This method of transmission is less common. In this case, the parasite gets in when visiting pools or swimming in someone else's water. Parasites are also transmitted through the deliberate or accidental use of other people's things - combs, clothes, hats. |
Infection occurs through contact with the patient. The insect quickly crawls onto a healthy person during sexual intercourse, games, close hugs. Insects start regardless of a person's financial situation, as well as personal hygiene. Pediculosis appears not only in people without a fixed abode, but also in those who rarely wash.
You can get infected on a regular bus
It is enough just to ride in public transport with a sick person to get infected.The main risk group includes people who prefer to walk with long, flowing hair. This will be the easiest way for insects to get on your head.
You can get infected from all things that come into contact with the head. Better not to try on someone else's caps and not use someone else's towel.
It is believed that lice are transmitted from animals. This point of view is fundamentally wrong. Fleas - congeners of lice can live under the fur of pets. The insect affects only our smaller brothers and does not pass on to people.
Question answer
Many people faced with head lice infestation ask questions:
- Is it true that stress contributes to the emergence of bloodsuckers? During severe psychological upheavals, the composition of a person's inner secrets changes, as a result of which he is more vulnerable to lice, since the heavy smell of sweat attracts parasites.
- Can you get lice if you swim on a citywide beach? The pubic louse has the ability to survive in stagnant water for up to 2 days. Swimming in stagnant water carries some risk of infection.
- How to protect yourself from lice infestation? To reduce the risk of head lice, you must adhere to the following recommendations: try not to visit crowded places where there are unsanitary conditions, not to use personal items of strangers, not to give their own, to lead a healthy lifestyle, which contributes to the good functioning of the immune system.
An attack on a person by blood-sucking insects always causes negativity. This is a natural reaction, because parasites obsessively affect the general mental state, causing significant discomfort and pain. In addition, getting rid of them is not always quick and painless.
Therefore, to prevent infestation with head lice, it is recommended to adhere to simple rules of personal hygiene.
Nervous lice: myth or reality
Some parasites enter the body and do not manifest themselves in any way for a long time. Symptoms will appear only when the body is greatly weakened, for example, as a result of severe stress and anxiety.
Many diseases develop or worsen with stress. That is why many are sure that head lice also has psychosomatics. In fact, this does not apply to lice. Insects are not able to start even with a strong weakening of the body and prolonged depression. This applies to both adults and children.
Stress alone cannot cause head lice.
There is no psychosomatics for pediculosis. However, there are interesting observations. A person under severe stress is faced with excessive sweating. Such people become more attractive to parasites. The likelihood of infection is increasing.
Psychosomatics of the disease
The popular belief that the appearance of lice on a nervous basis is real is associated with the psychosomatics of the disease. Itching is simultaneously characteristic of stress, head lice, and many other diseases. Nervous strain does not affect the occurrence, development of parasites.
People who become infected with head lice often recall that they experienced stress on the eve of the detection of the disease. After that, itching arose (initially, the dislocation areas are different). Then, miraculously, the parasites were discovered. There are many similar histories of lice disease. This is all the influence of psychosomatics.
On the basis of this relationship, many "legends" are born that tell that lice, like some bacteria, fungi, constantly live in the human body. Stress activates the activity of parasites. Nervous disorders "start" the mechanism of development of insects, quietly "dormant" inside the body.
Attention! Scientific theories disprove stress assumptions. To a large extent, psychosomatics contributes to the emergence of conjectures. It is convenient for people to write off everything on their nerves.Many do not want to deal with the true causes of infection. Even Louise Hay, an authoritative researcher on the psychosomatics of disease, refutes this theory.
What can be the signs of stress
Under stress, the performance of the whole organism is disrupted. Itching and flaking of the scalp are signs in which a person immediately suspects the presence of head lice. In fact, such symptoms are not typical and may indicate other disorders.
Symptoms similar to head lice can indicate a course of:
- an allergic reaction;
- dermatitis;
- psoriasis;
- seborrhea.
All of these diseases can be exacerbated by excessive anxiety and stressful shocks. If signs appear, consult a doctor so as not to miss the course of dangerous deviations.
With seborrhea, the head is also very itchy.
Diagnostics
For effective treatment, it is important to establish the exact cause of the allergy in a particular person. To do this, at the reception, the allergist conducts two types of examination:
- collection of anamnesis;
- visual inspection.
The first stage includes a number of questions that help the doctor to suggest the etiology of the pathology. An unbalanced condition of the patient, characteristic behavior for a mental disorder, will enable the doctor to suspect that the patient has an allergy from the nerves. Visual examination includes examination of the skin and mucous membranes.
Laboratory diagnostics includes:
- Skin tests to determine the causative agent of an allergic reaction. If a positive reaction is not observed for any of the allergens, stress allergy development can be assumed.
- To differentiate pseudo-allergy from true, the level of immunoglobulin E is studied. If this indicator remains unchanged, in a patient with increased excitability and frequent mood swings, the cause of the allergy is an unbalanced state of the nervous system.
What is the evidence that lice from stress is a myth
There are several facts that confirm that head lice has no psychosomatics:
- people who prove the presence of psychosomatics in head lice never say exactly how lice get on a person's head;
- lice cannot live without food for more than 3 days, which means that the parasites are not able to be asymptomatic on the head.
It must be remembered that parasites are transmitted only by contact and non-contact methods. Pests themselves do not appear.
Stories from our readers
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The most susceptible to infection are people at risk. More often, parasites start in people:
- with unfavorable living conditions;
- working in medical institutions, shelters, hostesses, etc .; living in confined spaces such as prisons or barracks;
- with a tendency to promiscuous relationships;
- regularly attending public events;
- working in educational institutions.
This video will help you get rid of lice quickly:
However, everyone has the risk of getting infected. Lice can appear even in the wealthy and clean. Most often, the sick are children. This is due to the constant presence in educational institutions.
Reproduction of lice
They reproduce actively. Reproductive individuals appear as early as two and a half weeks after the nits have been laid.Even under unfavorable conditions, within a month, the newly appeared louse is able to actively reproduce offspring.
It should be stated that the reality is that 50-60 days after the settlement of even one individual, the whole population of lice, regardless of whether a person is under stress or not, will inhabit the human body.
The need for emergency measures in the fight against these parasites is not a myth, but a harsh reality.
What other myths about parasites are there?
There are many myths associated with parasites. For example, some people think that nits and lice are very different insects. In fact, they are one and the same. Nits are the eggs of parasites. By about the second week, the parasite hatches and becomes sexually mature.
Despite popular belief, lice do not appear due to dirt. Like other insects, the parasite results from mating and laying eggs.
Lice also live on colored hair. The intolerance of paint to parasites is a fiction, just like the psychosomatics of head lice.
What kind of treatment
Pediculosis needs treatment. It is strictly forbidden to ignore the parasites. Otherwise, the number of the pest will increase significantly. It is most convenient to use the medicine in the form of a shampoo. The most popular drugs include:
- Hygiyu;
- I'm leading;
- Nyx;
- Paralyzed.
Paranil is a very effective remedy for lice
Shampoos are rubbed into hair and left on for 5-10 minutes. After that, the medicine is washed out. Sprays are convenient to use. They are applied for 10 minutes and then washed off. The most popular are:
- Pair Plus;
- Nyuda.
From folk remedies, vinegar is in demand, with which hair is treated every week.