PARASITE CLEANSES: HOW TO DO THEM (AND WHY YOU’LL WANT TO)
Have you ever thought about doing a parasite cleanse? We live in a world where parasites thrive and grow inside our bodies without us knowing it. But if you do a quick search online, you’ll find so much conflicting information. There are just as many articles saying that people in the United States don’t have to worry about parasitic infections as there are ones giving complicated protocols and selling expensive supplements.
Despite the contrasting viewpoints, parasitic infections are much more common in the United States than many realize. Even the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) acknowledges that parasitic infections affect millions of people in the United States each year.
In fact, this press release from the CDC says, “These infections are often undetected and untreated because most people do not know they are infected or at risk, or don’t have access to appropriate care. Doctors are often unfamiliar with these parasitic infections, and therefore may not diagnose or treat them appropriately.”
So what are you to do? If most allopathic doctors don’t recognize or acknowledge parasites as a significant health issue, can’t that result in potentially serious health complications? Yes, it sure can. And if you are struggling with unexplained digestive issues, fatigue, or skin problems, now might be the time to detox your body with a parasite cleanse.
HOW DO YOU KNOW IF YOU HAVE PARASITES?
if you’ve ever walked barefoot on the earth, pet an animal, swam in the ocean, or eaten sushi—it’s a guarantee that you have them. In other words, if you have a pulse, you have parasites.
So do you need to be tested for parasites before doing a cleanse? That’s a personal decision and we recommend Emily Brown’s biogenetic testing. You can find her at @GeneticGarden. If you’re an adult who’s never done any sort of parasite cleansing, it is safe to assume you have parasites. But here’s the thing—not all parasites are bad. There are even people purposely swallowing certain parasites called helminths as a potential treatment for a range of autoimmune disorders, such as type 1 diabetes, Crohn’s disease, and multiple sclerosis.
While we don’t recommend purposely swallowing parasites without a doctor’s supervision (or maybe even at all), you actually don’t need an official diagnosis from a medical doctor before deciding to do a cleanse. The stool testing offered by your general practitioner will almost certainly come back with negative results. And most of the time, these are false negatives. There are so many instances where someone’s stool sample had a visible worm in it, and the results still came back negative!
Because general testing typically isn’t helpful, it’s common for people to do a cleanse without testing. There’s really no harm in taking this route with a gentle protocol like the Full Moon Para Kit by CellCore which addresses parasites while also supporting a healthy gut microbiome and immune system. When the method of the treatment isn’t going to change based on the results of a test, the testing isn’t necessary.
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But parasites are just one part of the picture. To fully understand the whole ecosystem of your gut, doing a 3-day comprehensive GI mapping can be extremely helpful. This doesn’t just give you a positive or negative result. Rather, you get a full breakdown of the exact levels of yeast, fungi, and particular types of parasites so you can customize your protocol accordingly.
The last thing you want to do is aggressively kill off everything. Doing so can totally destroy your gut by getting rid of the good bacteria, which may likely leave you worse off than if you never did a parasite cleanse in the first place.
Besides, the goal isn’t to eliminate every single parasite. The goal is to eliminate the overgrowth of parasites and create an internal environment that isn’t hospitable for them.
The 3-day comprehensive GI mapping is available at Magnolia Wellness and will make your parasite cleanse much more effective. Our Naturopath, Dr. Allison Wills, can walk you through this process. Appointments are able to be done virtually and you can book yours here.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW BEFORE STARTING YOUR PARASITE CLEANSE
There are various types of parasites that can infect your body, including protozoa, helminths, and ectoparasites. These parasites can breed, feed on your nutrients, and disrupt your digestive system's balance, leading to various health concerns.
A parasite cleanse is a process of detoxifying your body from harmful parasites that might be inhabiting your gut (as well as other tissues, organs, and even your blood). Despite what you may envision when picturing a parasite, they aren’t all worms—and different protocols will work better for different types of parasites. Each type of parasite can cause different health issues, from digestive problems to skin irritation to neurological disorders.
That being said, you want to get these little suckers out of you. And no matter what sort of parasite cleanse protocol you end up doing, there are a few very important things to know before starting.
Please note that people on chemo medications, blood thinners, or antibiotics should avoid doing a parasite cleanse as well as women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
YOU NEED TO OPEN YOUR DRAINAGE PATHWAYS BEFORE DOING A PARASITE CLEANSE: Before starting a parasite cleanse, it's crucial to open your drainage pathways. These pathways include the colon, liver, kidneys, and lymphatic system, which help eliminate toxins from your body. If these pathways are not open, you might experience a healing crisis, where your body reacts to the sudden influx of toxins released by the dead parasites. Cellcore Phase 1 is an excellent way to open up the drainage pathways.
This blog dives deep into why this is such an important step that cannot be skipped. If you’re not pooping 1-3 times a day, you absolutely have some work to do to open your drainage pathways.
AN EFFECTIVE PARASITE CLEANSE TAKES 3 MONTHS: Parasites have a complex life cycle that includes the egg, larval, and adult stages. Hence, a single round of treatment is not enough to be effective. In order to effectively clear parasites from your body, a longer cleanse is needed. This not only makes sure you cover all of the life stages, but a longer length of time also ensures you address multiple species of parasites as each type can require a different length of time to effectively eliminate.
Because parasites can develop a resistance to certain treatments over time, it’s best to rotate the herbs used on your cleanse from month to month or use a high-quality protocol that already does this like Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3 of the CellCore Comprehensive Protocol.
YOU NEED TO TAKE A BINDER WHEN YOU DO A PARASITE CLEANSE: Taking a binder during a parasite cleanse can help enhance the effectiveness of the cleanse and reduce potential side effects. When you kill parasites, they release toxins as they die off.
These toxins can cause side effects like headaches, fatigue, and nausea. Binders can help absorb these toxins and safely remove them from your body, reducing these symptoms. Binders can also prevent the reabsorption of toxins into the bloodstream by trapping them and facilitating their excretion through the digestive tract. Some binders may also help in directly binding to parasites and other unwanted organisms, thus enhancing their removal.
Keep in mind that the purpose of a binder is to evacuate things from your body so it’s best to take these on an empty stomach (2 hours before or after eating).
YOUR BODY WILL NEED A LITTLE EXTRA SUPPORT WHILE YOU’RE DOING A PARASITE CLEANSE: A parasite cleanse can be taxing on the body as it’s working hard to eliminate the parasites and their toxins. For this reason, you’ll want to eat easy-to-digest foods, support your liver with supplements and castor oil packs, take probiotics, stay hydrated and take electrolytes, support your mitochondria with adequate sleep, eat foods that kill parasites (like pumpkin seeds), make sure your drainage pathways remain open, and keep your lymphatic system flowing.
YOU WILL WANT TO AVOID SUGAR DURING YOUR PARASITE CLEANSE: Sugar, particularly refined sugar, is fuel for parasites. These organisms thrive on simple carbohydrates, like those found in sugar, which they can readily metabolize for energy. Consuming sugar can also contribute to dysbiosis, an imbalance in your gut microbiota. This imbalance often accompanies parasite infections and can exacerbate symptoms and make the infection harder to treat. Also, sugar can increase inflammation and potentially impair immune function, making it more difficult for your body to fight off the parasites.
IT’S A GOOD IDEA TO CONSIDER DETOXING HEAVY METALS AS WELL DURING YOUR PARASITE CLEANSE: Parasites thrive on heavy metals and use them as a survival mechanism, making it harder for your body to eliminate them. By detoxing heavy metals, you will potentially weaken the parasites and make them easier to remove. Both parasites and heavy metals can negatively impact various aspects of health, including digestion, nutrient absorption, immune function, and mental health. Addressing both issues could have synergistic benefits for overall health.
A foot soak made from fulvic humic minerals is a fantastic way to pull heavy metals out of your body (and even some parasites too!).
THE BEST TIME TO DO A PARASITE CLEANSE IS DURING THE FULL MOON: Parasites are more active during the full moon making them more susceptible to treatments aimed at eliminating them.
If you’re doing the first 3 phases of the CellCore Comprehensive Protocol (Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phase 3), each phase will last an entire month and thus you’ll be cleansing during the full moon. The CellCore Comprehensive Protocol is a personal favorite because it slowly walks you through your parasite cleanse over 3 months, traveling from the gut to the different areas of the body where parasites can invade and helping to kill off anything that’s accumulated.
If you’re doing the Full Moon Para Kit by CellCore, you’ll begin your cleanse 3 days before the full moon and finish it 3 days after. A shorter cleanse like this is great for an annual deep clean, but if it’s your first time doing a parasite cleanse, you’ll probably want to either do the Full Moon Para Kit 3 months in a row or incorporate other parasite protocols in the following months to make sure you get all the stages of their life cycle.
No matter what protocol you’re taking, it’s best to make sure you’re cleansing the week of the full moon because this is the time parasites lay their eggs.
HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN PARASITE CLEANSE PROTOCOL
Different herbs have varying levels of effectiveness against different types of parasites and at different stages of their lifecycle. It’s important to note that most herbs used to combat parasites come with a warning saying not to use them longer than 3 weeks at a time. This is one of the reasons why you’ll want to consider rotating the herbs you use for a parasite cleanse (beside the fact that the parasites can build up a tolerance to herbs used for prolonged periods of time). If you only do your parasite cleanse around the full moon and then take a break between cleansing, you may find that repeating the same combination of herbs works just fine.
Some herbs known for their ability to eliminate parasites include:
Wormwood, Black Walnut, and Clove: These three herbs are often used together because they're thought to target different stages of the lifecycle of worms, particularly roundworms and pinworms. Wormwood is believed to kill adult worms, while clove is thought to kill eggs, and black walnut is used for its general antiparasitic properties.
Garlic: Garlic is often recommended for a wide range of parasites due to its broad-spectrum antimicrobial properties. It's also thought to boost the immune system, which can help the body fight off parasitic infections.
Goldenseal and Oregon Grape: These herbs contain the compound berberine, which has been shown in laboratory studies to have activity against a variety of parasites, including Giardia and Plasmodium (which causes malaria).
Oregano Oil: Oregano oil has both antibacterial and anti-parasitic effects.
Grapefruit Seed Extract: Grapefruit seed extract has been shown to have antimicrobial properties against a wide range of organisms.
Chinese Rhubarb: In addition to its anti-parasitic effects, Chinese rhubarb is also known to promote intestinal movement, which can aid in the expulsion of parasites from the body.
At Magnolia Wellness, we’re big fans of Parasidal Formula by Support The Mountain for eliminating parasites because it contains a blend of organic clove buds, organic black walnut hulls, Chinese rhubarb, organic sweet wormwood, as well as pumpkin seed and other powerful ingredients parasites hate.
Whether you choose a product like Support The Mountain, a kit like the Full Moon Para Kit, or a more comprehensive protocol like CellCore Phases 1, 2, and 3, you might also want to grab some bamboo chopsticks. This might sound gross, but once these parasites start evacuating there’s a good chance you’ll want to start poking around to see exactly what you’re detoxing from your body. What you’ll start to notice is yeast, which is kind of like a sheet of glue. And if it’s new yeast, it will be kind of clear. But if it’s old yeast, it will have sort of a yellowish tinge to it. When you start to pay attention to these things, you’ll also notice something called biofilm that looks sort of like seaweed. This is essentially the stuff that traps all the toxic junk in your body and prevents you from being able to absorb the nutrients from your food.
Whether you’re the kind of person who is going to sift through their own poo or not doesn’t really matter though. What’s most important is that you’re pooping like a champ during your parasite cleanse. If at any point you become constipated, getting those bowels moving again should be your number one priority.
SO MANY CHRONIC DISEASES ARE CAUSED BY OR MADE WORSE BY PARASITES
There’s a huge correlation between chronic disease and parasites. Depending on where they travel in the body, you could experience a number of conditions that you wouldn’t normally associate with parasites. Everything from appendicitis to varicose veins to auto-immune conditions are correlated with parasites so please let today be the day you decide you’ll be making plans to send the official eviction notice to these little buggers.
They won’t leave on their own. They need to be evacuated. If you’ve never done a parasite cleanse before, just choose a protocol and commit to being consistent. You can start small and do a larger scale cleanse in the future, but every day that goes by without doing anything differently, these parasites are draining your vitamins, minerals, and nutrients from you. Once you complete the cleanse, you’ll likely notice a big difference in your food cravings, sleep, mood, energy, focus, skin, and digestion.
And remember to open those drainage pathways before you do any detoxing!