Parasites

What is a parasite?

“Something that lives in dependence on something else for existence or support without making a useful or adequate return.”

How can we get this?

Drinking water, juice, swimming in contaminated waters, through the air, pets, other people, and through the soil.

Symptoms vary greatly; Gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea, constipation, gas, mucus and poor digestion. General symptoms may show up as fatigue, skin rashes (very common), brain fog, dry cough, allergies, muscle or joint pains, and many more.

What if we do not do any foreign traveling?

It is useful for us to know which countries the person has traveled, because of the prevalence of certain species in different countries. Due to the increase of traveling, we are finding parasites in the U.S. that were not present in people before. A good laboratory will ask for the countries visited within the last five years and will match the species of parasite with the pathogenicity of it (symptoms the parasite creates in the person).

Can you be treated? Of course.

Is it a good idea to do parasite cleansing without a diagnosis? It is not. Parasites become resistant to medications. It is good to know exactly what you are fighting against. A good practitioner will know what to test for. It could be bacteria, fungi, candida, or even worms.

Just to wrap up, We, Naturopathic Physicians, believe that an important part of the immune system resides in the gut, the so called “Peyer patches”. If your body has a chronic infection with parasites, the immune system will be impaired and unable to deal with daily life.

Get healthy, find out if you are one of those three people out there that might have these parasites.