Parasites, Weight Gain, and Tiredness

Good morning and happy weekend! It's me again, dropping in to share that I weighed myself again this morning and after another week of NOT dieting and feeling quite content about that, I am up another two pounds to 252. How do I feel about that? Fine! Believe it or not, I have zero stress or anxiety about my weight, food, or diet and that is a welcome relief from the years of food and weight obsession that drove me from diet plan to diet plan. As I said in prior posts, I don't believe I will just get "fatter and fatter" as some suggested by doing this; to the contrary, as my eating disorder goes into remission I will be much better able to lose weight and be healthy without making that the focus of my thoughts and life. Guess we'll see!

Now about the parasites I mentioned in the title. I have a friend who goes to a naturopath (not local, so not a naturopath I am able to see). She has been talking to me about how tired she was but doctors could not find anything in her blood work or exam that should cause her long term fatigue. She also has had a heck of a time losing about 50 pounds she had gained in her late 30's and 40's. Finally, she went to a naturopath who told her it was likely that she had internal parasites causing her fatigue and inability to lose weight. So she put my friend on a 10-day herbal parasite cleanse, which she took and then rested for 2 weeks and repeated. Apparently most Americans have parasites of some type, at some point in their lives and they can range from microscopic to liver flukes to intestinal worms (ewwww!!!). Maybe this is TMI for some of you, but when I asked my friend if she actually SAW anything in the toilet during her parasite cleanse, she said there were only tiny white specks and some things that looked like brown pieces of tomato skins (which turned out to be liver flukes). There can be far more things that pass unseen, from what she told me.

Well, I am a skeptic, and for good reason. Fifteen years ago when my mother was very ill and bloated for weeks and the regular doctors could not give her any reason, she went to a naturopath too. She was told she had parasites and put on a cleanse. I don't know if the cleanse worked at all but what everyone missed was that my mother had ovarian cancer. She was dead before she ever got to go back to that naturopath. So I have some resentment and skepticism towards "natural" practitioners... because they missed cancer and sent her on a wild goose chase after tapeworms. Anyway, if I hadn't seen the change in my friend with my own eyes I would just have rolled them at the thought of a parasite cleanse. Hello, we wash our hands after we use the bathroom or change a diaper. We wash our produce and eat clean foods. We don't eat dirt and we don't eat raw, parasite-ridden meats. There is no way I have any bugs, critters, or microscopic grossness lounging around in my body. NOPE.

She is a clean person too. She had the same doubts. But she SAW results not just in what was eliminated but in her health. Her energy level increased. Her "brain fog" went away. And her weight gain gradually went away as she lost over 30 pounds in the months after the cleanse, without severe dieting. She had tried lots of diets but had a huge appetite and desire for sweets and carbs, and that went away after her cleanse, too. I know I always thought parasites = weight LOSS = skinny sickly person as the parasites take your nutrients for themselves... but what she tells me is that only *some* parasites cause those issues (famously, tapeworms, which people used to eat to lose weight). Other smaller and microscopic parasites cause their host to crave and overeat and GAIN weight to sustain the parasites, while still sucking up all the nutrients to make the host tired and grumpy and deficient in certain nutrients. I am not posting a bunch of parasite info links here; you can easily do your own research on various parasites and cleanses. My goal here is to explain why I am doing one myself!

After seeing her results I decided why not? It can't hurt to give it a try. Like I said, I eat clean food and am hygienic but hey, we were all kids once and what little kid has not eaten dirt by accident or walked barefoot outside at some point? I have never done a cleanse so perhaps sometime in my 47 years I picked up something that is contributing to my long-term struggle with fatigue and weight gain. I chose this one because of the ingredients, all of which I looked up and they make sense to me: Parasite Pro. I started taking it yesterday (2 pills, 3 times a day for ten days) and I feel fine. I don't expect to visibly SEE any results (meaning I don't think I have anything that would be visible and am not going to prod around the toilet to find out) but hope to feel more energetic when this is done. And no, I have not had any digestive symptoms (upset stomach, urgency to use the bathroom, etc) taking this and neither did my friend (whose cleanse was a different brand but many of the same ingredients). I have read and been told that a day or two into the cleanse, you lose your taste for sweets. I haven't had cravings lately but I do like sweets a little too much! Maybe this will help. I'll keep you informed.

I might do some other herbal cleanses if this one works well. My friend's naturopath is having her do a liver cleanse so I may look into that next.

That's it for now. I had some delicious eggs, sausage, and a bit of red potatoes with coffee for breakfast and it's a gorgeous day for a nice, long walk! Enjoy your weekend!






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