Parasites: An Inconvenient Truth

One of the last things we want to hear about is parasites. They’re disgusting and most of us are in denial of the fact that we may have one. According to the CDC, each year millions of people in the US are affected by parasitic infections. They can be long like tapeworms, or microscopic. As unappealing as it is, it’s important for all of us to be aware of the problems parasites can cause.

Parasites Damage Health

Author of Guess What Came to Dinner?: Parasites and Your Health , Ann Louise Gittleman says parasites suppress the immune system more than anything. Many of us may be suffering from poor health that can’t be explained, without knowing it’s parasites that are causing it. This is one of the most overlooked aspects of regaining health. Whether you’re suffering from brain fog, fatigue, or inability to lose or gain weight, parasites could be the underlying cause. Frequent colds, digestive problems, asthma, leaky gut, and even Crohn’s Disease can also be caused by parasites.

Mind Control Parasites

Parasites can get in your brain and even become mind control parasites. Some of your thoughts might not be your own. A parasitic infection is like being possessed. They hijack your nervous system and take control of your mind, making you think you’re in control. Parasites have their own interests. They might make us do crazy things that make no sense. The Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite that can infect a rat and make it love the smell of cat urine, instead of being afraid of it. The parasite makes the rat do things it wouldn’t otherwise do (hang around cat urine) so it gets eaten and by the cat. That way the parasite can infect the cat!

It’s a scary world out here with many people unknowingly infected by parasites. Could parasites be the ultimate form of evil? Are they the reason for times when we “aren’t ourselves?” What if they’re responsible for the evil on this plant? What if the devil in the bible is a metaphor for parasites? Remember, the devil came in the form of a serpent. A serpent looks like a parasite. And what did the serpent do in the bible? It made Eve bite the apple.

Parasites and Autism Connection

Increasing amounts of evidence suggests that parasites may be contributing to autism. If this topic interests you, I highly recommend watching Kerri Rivera’s talk from the AutismOne conference held in 2014. She also has a book titled Healing the Symptoms Known as Autism , which outlines the protocol used to completely reverse hundreds of cases of autism, and significantly reduce the symptoms in thousands of others, including her own son.

Where Do Parasites Come From?

There are many ways you can be infected with parasites: water contamination, raw or undercooked foods, pets, international travel, just to name a few. In the video below, Ann Louise Gittleman says, “There are over 240 infectious diseases that humans can catch from animals. 65 of those are transmitted by our beloved dogs and 39 by cats.” One way to combat parasites in your cat or dog is to add garlic to their food. Just sneak it in there and watch what comes out.

Kids commonly get parasites, so be conscious when your kids are playing with animals and remind them not to put their hands in their mouths before washing their hands. They can also get parasites by just walking barefoot on the ground where a dog has pooped. Don’t let your kids play in a sandbox where animals may have defecated either.

Besides getting parasites with animals as pets, you can also get parasites from eating undercooked meat and fish. Pork is notorious for being loaded with parasites. Raw fish like sushi is another culprit. Remember to cook your fish thoroughly!

The three most common fish loaded with parasites are:

1. Salmon
2. Rock fish
3. Haddock

Parasite Testing

Since parasites can cause a myriad of health challenges, it’s imperative that we get tested. You may be infected even if you think you have no symptoms. If you’re not feeling well then you should definitely get tested. Without testing, how will you know? Are you infected?

Anne Louise Gittleman offers parasite testing on her website, www.AnnLouise.com. If you have the money, I recommend it so you know where you stand. If money is tight, you may just want to put your money towards a parasite cleanse.

Parasite Cleanse

One of the best things you can do is a parasite cleanse. It’s actually one of the best first steps you can do on your health journey. There are a lot of different parasite cleanses available on the market today. Most of them contain the following 3 main ingredients:

1. Black Walnut Hulls
2. Cloves
3. Wormwood

These 3 herbs are usually included in any good parasite cleanse formula, often with other herbs too. Gittleman even has a colon cleansing kit for parasite elimination that she recommends. It’s well worth the money, but whether or not you buy a parasite cleansing kit you should still eat an anti-parasitic diet for at least 30 days. It takes about that long to let the different parasites go through their life cycles. Maintaining an anti-parasite diet for at least 30 days gives the eggs time to hatch so you can kill those too.

Anti-Parasitic Diet

Eating an anti-parasitic diet is importance for maintenance. While you should do at least one parasite cleanse, it’s wise to eat anti-parasitic foods regularly.

Anti-parasitic foods:

• 3 herbs mentioned above for parasite cleanse (clove, wormwood, black walnut)
• pumpkin seeds
• garlic
• onions
• thyme
• fennel
• sage
• papaya seeds

(Anti-parasitic foods should be eaten fresh instead of in powder form. Store-bought powdered cloves won’t work.)

When eating an anti-parasitic diet, it’s important to starve the parasites. They love to feed on sugar so it’s best to reduce or eliminate sugar during the anti-parasitic diet. That also means starches like pasta should be eliminated because they turn into sugar in the digestive system.

Another great tip from Gittleman is to drink unsweetened cranberry juice in water in about a 1:7 part ratio throughout the day, with a total of about 4-8 ounces per day. This is great in between meals. The key to it is to make sure it’s unsweetened. You can make your own cranberry juice at home too, organic of course.

If you want to cleanse your body of parasites, one of the best things you can do is to clean your colon. Colonics and enemas are very effective at doing so. This would be a great adjunct to your cleansing protocol. Some people even add a small amount of baking soda to an enema, or do hydrogen peroxide enemas, making enemas far better at removing parasites!

While on an anti-parasitic diet, Gittleman recommends limiting your antioxidants such as vitamin C because antioxidants can feed the parasites. She also believes that high doses of probiotics can also feed parasites, so she recommends avoiding supplementing with probiotics for the first two weeks of the cleanse.