The Bizarre Beauty Trends of the Victorian Era

Modern Day Tapeworm Therapy

The Victorian Era was a strange time in history. It is perhaps one of the most iconic eras simply because of the bizarre beauty standards of the time.

In the 1800s women were expected to look a certain way. They must have an hourglass appearance. This means a large bust, a narrow waist, and wide hips. This is when corsets became popular because they shrunk the waist and gave the appearance of a very thin waist. The most desirable women were also very pale with rosy cheeks and big dark eyes.

It may not be jumping right out at you but this appearance has a very particular etiology. It’s what sick people look like.

In the 1800s tuberculosis was very common. It caused made people chronically sick which caused them to lose weight. They were often anemic which made them pale. Low body fat leads to low fat deposition on the face which makes the eyes appear larger.

Tuberculosis was not well understood but they understood enough to know the effects. It was historically called “consumption” because of its effects on the body.

Mother’s Day is right around the corner.
Show her how much you love her with the gift of superior health.
Give her Renegade Health Magazine.

---

However, many women (and most people in general) got over tuberculosis on their own with time. The body walls it off within the lung and permanently sequesters it within a ring of tissue. It may sit there and fester for decades, never doing anything until the body is immunocompromised.

Without consumption (tuberculosis) to keep their weight down, they turned to alternate means. One alternative was the corset. This is a tight piece of cloth that wraps around the waist and shrinks the waist. As long as you’re below the ribs, most of the organs in the abdomen are somewhat moveable. When you tighten a corset they simply shift up or down to make room.

But you can only tighten a corset so much. Women still had to eat something so they needed another way.

This is where tapeworms come in.

A common diet during the Victorian Era was the “tapeworm diet.” This is exactly what it sounds like. Women consumed tapeworm eggs in the hopes they would hatch in their digestive tract and grow up to be tapeworms.

When a tapeworm is in our gut it does what all worms do: eat. There are dozens of types of tapeworms so I won’t bother going into that. Basically, they all do the same thing more or less.

After the tapeworms grow they eat whatever food the women consumed as it enters the intestines. This means the woman can consume as many calories as she wants and fill herself up while still losing weight. If she ate a 2000-calorie meal but the worms eat 2/3 of the calories, she would lose weight.

It’s really rather clever when you consider the time period they were in. In fact, people still seek out this treatment today. Every few years a story pops up about a person dying from tapeworm infections.

Unfortunately, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. Tapeworms definitely have side effects. Many of them are quite unpleasant.

First and foremost, this increased the risk of nutrient deficiencies. I can’t imagine people in the Victorian Era had extremely diverse diets. Now take away a significant portion of their micronutrients because of the worm and you’re seriously at risk for nutrient deficiency.

Anemia is another risk. Poor nutrient absorption increases the risk of anemia in general. You need iron to make red blood cells, for example. The worms also cause bleeding. If they bite the intestinal lining it bleeds. Over time the chronic loss of blood leads to anemia. This leaves you with low energy and poor stamina. They probably didn’t mind this, however, because it also makes you pale.

The most severe risk is the risk of invasion. Worms don’t just sit there waiting for a meal. They are surrounded by their next meal. When food isn’t coming down the pipe, they go digging. Tapeworms have been known to dig through the intestines and enter other parts of the body. This can be extremely dangerous and deadly.

Obviously, looking back we can see what a stupid medical treatment that was. Right? We must have learned something from that time. Right?

I don’t think so. I think we as a society are still pretty stupid.