Parasites affect your health in various ways. These uninvited guests can cause more harm than you know. Our body acts as a host for 90 trillion other living organisms. Most of the time it manages to handle them in a harmonious manner. However, parasites disrupt the balance of the body's ecosystem, and the side effects can be unpleasant. Learn about some of the parasites that might be living in your body.

What Is a Parasite?

Parasites are organisms that live off of other organisms to survive. They’re takers who don’t give anything in return. They latch onto a host and feed off of them, sometimes just for a brief meal and at other times for years on end. They often don’t kill their host, but they can weaken them or pass on disease as they feed.