Natural Parasite Cleanse

kshama2001

allother94 wrote: »

Xellercin wrote: »

allother94 wrote: »

Xellercin wrote: »

Any particular reason you think you have parasites?

I know this is a "trend" right now, but do you actually think you have parasites? And if so, what kind? Worms specifically?

I don’t have any symptoms of worms, but you never know. I was thinking if, for example, drinking a blended head of garlic for a week would kill anything that may be in there, I might as well try it. You know, natural things that can’t do any damage. I’m hesitant to try any of these non-FDA Amazon treatments, so something I can make that is harmless otherwise is ideal…

I'm a doctor, so I deal with this a lot.

First, drinking a blended head of garlic isn't going to kill any parasites in your intestines. Garlic is food, it gets digested. It has some chemicals in it that might be beneficial, so if you like drinking blended garlic and it doesn't make you feel ill, then go nuts. For me, this would make me so sick, I would feel like I'm dying, but I lack the enzymes to properly digest raw onions and garlic. So yeah, I would be horribly, horribly sick if I did this, despite it being natural.

As for parasites you might have, sure, you might have some parasites, but the vast majority of them are harmless, just like the vast majority of bacteria. So even if you can rid yourself of parasites, the treatments that effectively do so are really hard on your body, so why would you want to unless a parasite is causing you problems.

It's best to just accept that your digestive tract is home to a metric F-ton of foreign critters. The best way to maintain a healthy population of happy little bugs is not to try and kill them, but to try and keep the populations of the healthy ones really high. This is where nutrition comes in. Keep feeding the good bugs and they'll bully out the bad ones.

Lastly, let's talk about natural supplements and treatments.
Uh...those are NOT safe. I don't know if you know this, but the "natural" products world is highly unregulated, with a lot of those pills coming from China, which has even less regulation. No one tests them, and when they do test them, they usually find horrible, horrible stuff in them, and even when they do find horrible stuff in them, there's no regulation to stop them from doing that, so the products just stay on the market.

What do I mean by horrible stuff? Well, a TON of "natural" supplements actually have black market drugs in them. A prime example is that a lot of men's supplements for virility, which claim to have herbs, actually have totally unpredictable amounts of viagra in them. And not pharmaceutical grade viagra, but some low grade black market garbage made by an unregulated lab in China.

So yeah, so much for being "natural" and "safe." More like totally unregulated, potentially highly chemical, and dangerous. A lot of "health" pills are more stepped on than street drugs, and just as unpredictable in terms of what you are getting. And like street drugs, you're probably just paying a ton of money for something that's mostly chemical laxatives. Because pooping a TON makes consumers feel like the pill did something. It also temporarily makes them lose weight, which also makes people feel like it did something.

There are some reputable supplement companies, but none of them would make a BS "parasite cleanse" because there's no real science behind this, so they wouldn't compromise their reputation selling such a nonsense product. So then you really have to wonder about the standards of a company that would...

The supplement industry is one of the dirtiest in the world, so go ahead and drink a blended head of garlic and see how it makes you feel. Hopefully you don't blow up like a puffer fish and vomit all day like I would, but don't pay good money to garbage-peddling supplement companies that are well known to lie and drug people with literal drugs made in some basement in China with no safety regulation.

Thanks for taking the time! This was extremely helpful for more that just my parasite question. I hope others find this post in the future!

What are your thought on organic foods? I often think it’s just a marketing ploy and that corporations are just meeting minimum requirements, causing the food to be only slightly better than non-organic at inflated prices?

What do you mean by "better"? Everyone I know in real life who buys organic does it to avoid pesticides, etc.

Here's a great article by Michael Pollan that includes information about pesticides and potatoes that led me to change my buying habits. (One of the pesticides is no longer on the market - the manufacturer saw the writing on the wall and voluntarily withdrew it.)

https://www.nytimes.com/1998/10/25/magazine/playing-god-in-the-garden.html

*****************

I'm an avid gardener. I rarely use pesticides, and when I do, use ones that are approved for organic gardening, such as Bt. (The kind you spray on, not the kind genetically engineered in.) I see a clear difference in my use of Bt vs crop dusting with organophosphates, as discussed in the above article.

My organic strawberries are indeed better than those sold in supermarkets, but that is because I harvest them at peak ripeness as I do not have to take transportation or storage into consideration.

If "better" to you means better tasting, consider local produce from independent farms. Seasonally, I shop at a local peach and apple orchard and will never buy peaches in a supermarket again, and apples only reluctantly.

Xellercin

allother94 wrote: »

Xellercin wrote: »

allother94 wrote: »

Thanks for taking the time! This was extremely helpful for more that just my parasite question. I hope others find this post in the future!

What are your thought on organic foods? I often think it’s just a marketing ploy and that corporations are just meeting minimum requirements, causing the food to be only slightly better than non-organic at inflated prices?

Well, like with everything, it depends.

In most jurisdictions, the criteria to be considered organic are actually quite stringent. As to whether or not you personally decide organic is worth spending on is up to you because there just isn't enough research out there to prove anything. So anyone claiming to have definitive facts on that front is, well, wrong.

That doesn't mean that organic doesn't have a TON of value, it just means that there is no definitive proof as the value it has. So you can either err on the side of caution and choose to spend on organic and avoid a lot of things that are well known to be toxic, but that no one knows the long-term impact of, or you can err on the side of going with what's definitively known, which isn't much.

I personally buy organic often, but mostly when it's convenient and not too expensive for me to do so. But I also am very picky about everything else I consume. I now check everything I consider buying with the Environmental Working Group app.

If you want more insight into this, check our Gin Stephen's brand new book Clean(ish), which is kind of a practical non scientist's guide to what's worth considering when it comes to environmental toxins. I like her book because she doesn't claim to have all of the answers or facts, just a decent summary of the very limited existing research for the average person.

claireychn074

Actually here’s a different take on parasites - don’t get rid of them, encourage them!
https://www.asthma.org.uk/about/media/news/press-release-worms-could-cure-asthma-new-study-shows/
(Hygiene hypothesis and theory of overactive immune system in response to recent removal of parasite load)

If it worked and the study was rolled out to a wider audience I would happily take part to dampen the asthma and eczema!

* I’m being facetious - please don’t swallow parasites unless you’re in a medical trial.

paperpudding

Side note, that "anti-parasite" smoothie sounds...crunchy. Maybe without the pepitas it could be good. Not gonna treat the intestinal worms I don't have, though.

I think that is the trick to marketing these things - it cant just be ordinary smoothie ingredients making an ordinary smoothie - everyone has been, there done that - it needs to have something different or unusual about it - like crunchy half blended pumpkin seeds - whilst not being so weird that people wont try it

mirianyusm

I am sorry, but I might have missed something. Why would anybody do a "parasite cleanse"? If somebody has pathological parasites (they will have symptoms for sure), they should seek medical advise. Pathological parasites don't disappear with home made remedies. Normal intestinal flora and fauna is there for a reason, it is part of our homeostasis (not sure of the English spelling). If somebody likes special smoothies, they should enjoy them without looking for an excuse. Parasite cleanse sounds like another way to make money in the diet industry.