Thursday, February 5, 2015

This Week's Favourite Things! January 26th - February 1st 2015

1.  This past week has all been about health, so this is going to be a long list, and I've been delayed on my next firing because I've been cleansing.  It started with my watching this video lecture about inflammation being the cause of most diseases
How To Prevent Inflammation and Oxidation by John Bergman

John Bergman also has a bunch of other great lecture videos on youtube, like How to Heal Yourself With Your Thoughts

2.  In looking up more about inflammation I saw a video where the host said it's really important to cleanse from parasites, check it out, do your own research.  Which led me to watch this.  This video is a bit sensationalized and sells a product but gets the point across in a compelling, shocking way. 
Parasite Cleanse - What's Eating You?

3.  Next is an interview with naturopath Valerie Saxon talking about how widespread parasites are in humans, according to a source she cites 85% of American could be hosting at least one form of parasite.  This is the link to part 1 of 3 but the other segments come up for viewing.  She makes a convincing argument that parasites are more common that we think, and cleansing is very important
Parasites: What the Medical Doctor Will Not Tell You

I'll admit that I stumbled on to this stuff when I accidentally started a parasite cleanse by drinking nothing but fresh ginger cubes in hot water for a day, because I wasn't feeling well.  I ended up in severe pain, but it wasn't hunger.  The next day all I wanted to eat was chia seeds and apples.  By the next day I had figured out I was probably cleansing parasites.  Coming from a farm family, my mom had worms as a kid so it didn't sound too far fetched.  I have another farmed raised friend who was also 'dewormed' as a kid.   Parasites would explain the struggle I had with weight the past few years - now I'm thinking that even just eating small amounts of starches, sugar or dairy seemed to be enough to keep  a colony of whatever I had alive.  So I started a serious natural raw vegan cleanse and yes, I had a few types of worms and probably some protozoa or fungus, who knows.   All I know is that I feel way better now and seem to be getting things under control but I did experience some die-off symptoms.  I felt a bit less crazy with respect to feeling worms moving in me when  I read this woman's blog post:

4.  Parasitic Die-Off, what to expect (blog post).  This blogger has other great posts with advice for doing a natural parasite cleanse.  I had a bunch of these die off symptoms, including pain, the feeling of things wriggling out my ears, nose, back of the throat, and eyes.  No I'm not kidding or delusional, this really happened, for several days.  Yes it's gross.

There is also this whole "Parasite Support Forum" for people who have figured out they have parasites, as a place to post questions and stories of their experience.  On here I found my new favourite cleansing breakfast:  soak chia seeds in a couple inches of water in the fridge overnight, and eat with some diced pineapple or papaya (both are antiparasitic fruits).  Pretty tasty.  There are also a lot of great raw vegan recipes online that would be easy to fill with high chlorophyll food (parasites don't like raw chlorophyll apparently).  I made a modified version of these raw vegan thai lettuce wraps but with no sweetener, they were really good! Raw vegan maki sushi has also been a lot of fun to experiment with.  

I don't know that anyone can have the right answer for the very best antiparasitic diet, there's some conflicting information out there and I think people are just starting to wrap their heads around the fact that parasites are even a problem for humans in 'first world' countries and cities.  I do find that as I cleanse I get more signals from my body as to what foods are nutrient rich and cleansing, versus what foods support parasites.  Here's a good video with an antiparasite juice recipe, though personally I try not to juice too many apples because of the fructose that is released - this is still a simple sugar.  Probably better to add apples in a blender or eat them raw to keep the fiber.  At the same time I got serious and tried adding onion to a juice I made, and ending up needing to add apple juice in order to drink it.

Since I've gotten all excited about parasites and identifying the probable cause of a whole pile of my problems, I've noticed that most people just plain don't want to hear about parasites, or are in denial they could possibly be hosting some.  Not naming any names!   As a biologist I'd love to just remind everyone that, highly evolved as humans may be, we're all running around in chassis that are pretty much ape-based.  Apes get parasites.  Most living organisms get parasites.  It's a pretty common thing in the animal kingdom for parasites to control their host's behaviour, so it's not surprising to hear that food cravings may well be the chemical signals sent up by parasites.  This makes sense if you think about it.  Why on earth would humans crave for nutrient-poor, crap food, especially sugar and other simple carbs that could come from dairy and starches.  And how can so many people eat and not feel like their getting full, leading to overeating and the corresponding obesity epidemic.  Blame parasites!!!  

As an aside, apparently teeth grinding is another symptom of parasites, they feed at night triggering an "eating response" in the mouth. 

It seems to me since we all started moving off the farm and into cities, people have begun to lose touch with where our food comes from.  From what I've read and heard it seems that deworming with some castor oil twice a year was a pretty common anti-parasite routine back in the day on the small farm.  And maybe North America used to be more parasite free.  However, look at globalization and where all our food is coming from.  It'd be so easy for parasites to travel on produce even, from foreign countries where the water being used for irrigation could be contaminated.  Raw fish and rare meat is also a culprit.  Not to mention the possibility of transmitting parasites human - human in a variety of places.  Couple all of this with our western beliefs that "we can't have parasites that's impossible" we drop our guard and the parasites start to win.  

5.  Here is a favourite example from elsewhere in the animal kingdom of parasites controlling the behaviour of their hosts:
Article: 12 Real Parasites That Control The Lives Of Their Hosts

I'm quoting the linked article here, which is by Joseph Benningon-Castro, to see more examples check the out the link:

"1. Hymenoepimecis "Build Me a Web!" argyraphaga

12 Real Parasites That Control the Lives of Their Hosts

Hymenoepimecis argyraphaga is a Costa Rican parasitic wasp that terrorizes the spider Plesiometa argyra. When it's time to procreate, an adult female wasp will seek out a spider, paralyze it and then lay an egg on its abdomen. After hatching, the larva wasp will feed on its host, while the spider goes about its business like nothing's wrong.


Then things get interesting. After a couple weeks of bloodsucking, the larva will inject a chemical into the spider, which causes the spider to build a web like none it's ever built before. The spider sits motionless in its creation — which is far from pretty, but super durable and able to withstand pelts of rain — to await its fate. The parasite then kills the spider with poison, sucks it dry and builds a cocoon that hangs from the middle of the new web.

Image via William G. Eberhard."

Here's another article about this wasp:


6.  Parasite Alert: 3 Signs to Watch Out For (article)

7. Gut feelings: the future of psychiatry might be in your stomach (article)

This next point admittedly sounds insane but my first degree was in animal behavioural ecology so I really do think this is in the realm of possibility, and perhaps the world could be saved in a few weeks if everyone would just do a cleanse.  Maybe if the Nova Scotia government and members of the Turkey board would all do a cleanse suddenly this province would be more pro-small farms and healthy food and less pro-factory farmed gmo fed turkeys that keep fueling our parasitic overlords...

8. My cracked out theory that maybe the storyline in the movie "The Matrix" is real and we're secretly all at risk of parasitic control.  I mean, look at all the things this would explain: agribusiness, government, our medical system, school system, grocery stores and chain restaurants full of processed food, factory farming, the whole GMO industry, big pharma, big oil.  Some of these very systems seem "parasitic" in a way.  This Stefan Molyneux youtube video about the decline of Canada makes the point of how harmful a bloated government, and increased regulation can be to an economy.

Our parasites would prefer stupid hosts that never clue into their presence, and who are largely sedentary, gather with other humans for better transmission, and who eat a nutrient poor diet full of the sugars and simple starches, dairy and meat that parasites love so much.  

Voila, look at modern North American culture. So many parts of it look like they could absolutely be driven by our internal parasites. Many people seemed to be employed in the production and distribution of worm food.  Could we be like those zombified spiders in point #5, though at a bigger scale?

For example look at what food is being fed hospital patients: boiled out soup and fruit cups.  Cooked food is dead food, and dead food is worm food.  Why aren't patients in hospitals being fed fresh squeezed juices and a healthy raw vegan diet?  Maybe because they are under parasitic control, via the hospital administrators.  And really, what a great place to pick up a parasite if you don't already have one.  

As for grocery stores, we've had storms lately and since I started cleansing I've noticed a lot of people are pushing carts with chips, cookies, pop, and other highly processed food.  Are they being driven by their parasites to eat this stuff that doesn't even provide their bodies with proper nutrition?  Something to think about, though most people probably won't want to.  

Even kids don't play outdoors as much any more, and so many people spend so much more time on the couch glued to their laptop or smart phone.  A prone body is a parasite's dream environment, as the less we move around, the easier it is for them to feed.  

If I want to get even crazier with this: I've been noticing all the movies on Netflix that seem to glamourize cheating and white collar crime.  Not going to name names but there's one that's really funny but the moral seems to be that all men cheat, but it's ok, because you can make friends with your husband's mistress and drink wine in eachother's closets trying on eachother's clothes as you become BFFs.  This makes sense if you realize that parasites will spread themselves if their hosts can't stay monogamous and start running around.  As for the white collar crime: the victims of these crimes are kept in a state of stress.  Perfect.  And check out the news we take in: lots and lots of fearmongering.  Also perfect for parasites as their hosts suddenly want to munch out on chips to reduce the stress of coping with the impending apocalypse, financial collapse, world war, what have you.  Do parasites run Hollywood and mainstream news media?  Maybe we could test that hypothesize by having every human involved in these industries do a cleanse!

I have a hunch my own personal parasite build up began to take off when I started seeing my husband, who was working shiftwork and loved to eat frozen yogurt late at night; perfect worm food at the perfect feeding time, not something I used to do.  Where I was less active this seemed to be the beginning of my issue and the beginning of years of 'wtf is wrong with me I can't lose any weight'.  Since starting my cleanse I've dropped 12 pounds in about 10 days and I'm still getting down to a better weight for my height.  Thank god. I'm pretty sure that any weight problems I've had throughout my life have really been a function of chronic inflammation from parasites.  Now there are other parasites that would likely have the opposite effect: people can eat tonnes and not put on weight, I think tapeworms might do this.

9.  My other cracked out theory that maybe there are no "empaths" and "psychopaths", after all that time I spent obsessed with this topic, that maybe there are  just people who have been infested with different types of parasites. 

As I've cleansed I'm starting to feel more connected to the world but at the same time less fearful and anxious.  It makes sense that parasites would want their hosts fearful and anxious, so they keep eating more chips and cake.  

After a short time cleansing any food cravings for junkfood vanished and I've hardly gotten hungry.  The cravings I do get now are for the things I think parasites would hate.  Drinking lots of fresh vegetable juice helps (I've been drinking beet, carrot, ginger, celery, parsley), so does drinking lots of hot water with ginger or just water with cayenne or apple cider vinegar.  

Now I wonder if there could be parasites that could cause their hosts to be psychopathic, drug addicted or alcohol addicted. It is interesting that I think I've heard that psychopaths can't be rehabbed in prison.  Well, prisons also serve up nutrient poor, processed foods that parasites would love.  Maybe there's an opportunity for a study here.

9.  There are definitely people looking at the link between Toxoplasma and mental illness.  Toxoplasma is a common cat parasite that can travel up into the human brain and start messing around with the wiring up there.

Toxoplasmosis May Trigger Schizophrenia And Bipolar Disorder (article)

Really.  If cat parasites end up being behind these debilitating, stigmatizing mental illnesses I don't know what to say.  A lot of psychiatrists might have egg on their face.  How awesome could it be if these disorders could be cured quickly with anti parasitic drugs.

Here's another interesting article about it, in The Atlantic Magazine, with an interview from a scientist from a Czech research lab:

How Your Cat Is Making You Crazy

On this topic, I wonder how many other diseases might have inflammation at the cause, with inflammation due to parasitic infection at the cause of that.  Bear in mind parasites aren't just 40 foot long tapeworms, they could be tiny fungi, bacteria, single-celled organisms, and all sorts of microscopic worms.  In all my reading, diseases and symptoms that could have originated with parasite infection include eye disease, cancer, vasculitis, colitis, heart disease, seizures and the list goes on.  Seeing as parasite will clear themselves out through a person's lungs, I even wonder if IPF (Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis) could be caused or aggravated by parasites.   Suddenly a parasite cleanse is looking like a good idea, and really, if you do a natural one, what harm could it do.  

Here is a youtube lecture by a Naturopath (I think that's what he is) Internal Overhaul by Dr. Tent.  It's long, but at a few spots throughout he mentions how medical doctors will often assume patients concerned with parasites are crazy, and he lists off various health problems he's treated by treating parasites.

To be effective in my experience and from what I've read, I'd suggest doing a cleanse that is 100% raw, vegan and full of antiparasitic foods or even supplements - I've seen black walnut hull, wormwood and fresh ground cloves recommended though I've only been able to track down cloves so far.  The thing is as soon as you cook even vegetables, the enzymes are killed and they become 'worm food'.  And as for meat, it has no fiber and slows down digestion.   I've had success with lots of fresh juice and raw vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds.  For example raw pumpkin seeds and garlic are anti-parasitic.  There's lots of information on the internet, if you're interested best to do your own research!

And to see more about the health consequences that parasites can have, on youtube there are a bunch of episodes of "Monsters Inside Me" a documentary series from Animal Planet with real life stories about what people have gone through with parasites.  

Finally I'll admit I've been wondering if Oprah might have a problem with parasites, and that likewise explains her struggles with weight.  I've got this daydream that wouldn't it be awesome if Oprah did a parasite cleanse, found some worms, and did a big spread about them in her magazine.  What a service that would be to humankind, destigmatizing the parasite issue and dragging it out into the light.  Imagine the headline "Oprah has worms, lifelong struggle with weight solved".   And a photo shoot "Meet Oprah's Worms".   And suddenly having parasites and talking about them would be chic.  Oh to dream the impossible dream...

10.  Ok, that's a lot about parasites, for now, I also loved this article in the Herald:
Oxford Foods' Home Loan Program helps keep workers in Rural NS
I think it shows a great example of companies helping their employees via the opportunity to own their own homes; nice to see a "feel good" story in the paper.

11.  This movie which is now on Canadian Netflix:  GMO OMG





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