slayadragon
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A few times during my illness, I have suffered extreme gut problems subsequent to heavy detox. The first was when I started Rich's protocol back in 2007, when I was living in my moldy house. That resulted in a small intestinal blockage that got me into the "Adverse Events" section of his paper. Over the past year, I've managed to do a lot of really fast detox through my gut, and things have again gotten messed up.
Starting in early January, I decided to put some effort into working on my gut. I did a week of fasting (just 16 ounces green juice and a small amount of pureed vegetable soup daily), then another two months of mostly raw produce. (I don't advise most CFS patients to follow this -- I'm quite far along in my recovery.) This whole time, I was taking a variety of parasite herbs, doing at least a couple of enemas or a colonic a day, drinking a quart or two of homemade kefir a day, and doing other things to support my gut.
I bring this up because it was only after doing all these things that I realized that I had a real intestinal parasite problem -- some intestinal flukes, some pinworm, and a tapeworm! After some research, I got my doctor to prescribe praziquantel, which is an anti-parasite drug. An enormous amount of stuff has been killed off (passing it has been rather extraordinary). This is feeling like it may be really important with regard to my health, but we shall see.
So in general, it is very very very hard to find these things. Even tapeworms, which can be very long (many feet) do not always create obvious symptoms. Looking back, I feel certain that I have had these since 2007, and perhaps all the way back to the beginning of my illness. I actually treated with anti-parasite herbs on multiple occasions and felt like I had made progress, but I now think that I just weakened the parasite (especially this tapeworm) rather than killing it. I've had multiple stool tests over time, spent many many months in the past taking anti-parasite herbs (including artemisinin), and have a really good doctor. Apparently these things are very hard to find and very hard to kill. You can weaken them, but until they're really killed off, they just come back when the intestines get dirty again. (And boy, do they love toxins!)
Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt has been talking over the past few years about intestinal worms, saying that they're really common in this illness and can prevent people from getting better. Based on my own experience, I suspect that may be true. If it's taken me this long to find and address this problem, I can't imagine that others aren't affected too.
Just last week, BiancaS talked here about her experience, which sounds very similar to mine:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?12722-Methylation-hair-loss/page3&highlight=tapeworm
Now, I bring this up specifically here because some of my reading suggests that B12 (and to a lesser extent folate) deficiencies are common with tapeworms. For instance, in the book "Guess What Came To Dinner?" (p. 49), it says:
>In the intestine, fish tapeworm can consume 80 to 100 percent of the host's vitamin B12. A striking vitamin B12 deficiency or pernicious anemia is the most debilitating defect.
Below are some related articles.
In light of my own experiences and the absurd amounts of B12 that people with CFS often need to get methylation going, I am wondering if intestinal parasites in general or tapeworms in particular might be really common.
Perhaps the reason that some people need so much is because a tapeworm is eating it all? And perhaps they need the activated form because it gets into the system really fast, before the tapeworm gets it?
I think this is worth a discussion.
Best, Lisa
*
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17465485
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14730392
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2204895
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6329550
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7435259
Starting in early January, I decided to put some effort into working on my gut. I did a week of fasting (just 16 ounces green juice and a small amount of pureed vegetable soup daily), then another two months of mostly raw produce. (I don't advise most CFS patients to follow this -- I'm quite far along in my recovery.) This whole time, I was taking a variety of parasite herbs, doing at least a couple of enemas or a colonic a day, drinking a quart or two of homemade kefir a day, and doing other things to support my gut.
I bring this up because it was only after doing all these things that I realized that I had a real intestinal parasite problem -- some intestinal flukes, some pinworm, and a tapeworm! After some research, I got my doctor to prescribe praziquantel, which is an anti-parasite drug. An enormous amount of stuff has been killed off (passing it has been rather extraordinary). This is feeling like it may be really important with regard to my health, but we shall see.
So in general, it is very very very hard to find these things. Even tapeworms, which can be very long (many feet) do not always create obvious symptoms. Looking back, I feel certain that I have had these since 2007, and perhaps all the way back to the beginning of my illness. I actually treated with anti-parasite herbs on multiple occasions and felt like I had made progress, but I now think that I just weakened the parasite (especially this tapeworm) rather than killing it. I've had multiple stool tests over time, spent many many months in the past taking anti-parasite herbs (including artemisinin), and have a really good doctor. Apparently these things are very hard to find and very hard to kill. You can weaken them, but until they're really killed off, they just come back when the intestines get dirty again. (And boy, do they love toxins!)
Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt has been talking over the past few years about intestinal worms, saying that they're really common in this illness and can prevent people from getting better. Based on my own experience, I suspect that may be true. If it's taken me this long to find and address this problem, I can't imagine that others aren't affected too.
Just last week, BiancaS talked here about her experience, which sounds very similar to mine:
http://forums.phoenixrising.me/showthread.php?12722-Methylation-hair-loss/page3&highlight=tapeworm
Now, I bring this up specifically here because some of my reading suggests that B12 (and to a lesser extent folate) deficiencies are common with tapeworms. For instance, in the book "Guess What Came To Dinner?" (p. 49), it says:
>In the intestine, fish tapeworm can consume 80 to 100 percent of the host's vitamin B12. A striking vitamin B12 deficiency or pernicious anemia is the most debilitating defect.
Below are some related articles.
In light of my own experiences and the absurd amounts of B12 that people with CFS often need to get methylation going, I am wondering if intestinal parasites in general or tapeworms in particular might be really common.
Perhaps the reason that some people need so much is because a tapeworm is eating it all? And perhaps they need the activated form because it gets into the system really fast, before the tapeworm gets it?
I think this is worth a discussion.
Best, Lisa
*
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17465485
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14730392
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2204895
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6329550
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7435259