We never had to worry about getting parasites before and we never had parasites but if we did, the good bugs in our tummies eventually won out. We’ve always eaten lots of raw garlic, along with yogurt and sauerkraut, which gives our intestines the good bacteria it needs to fight off parasites and bad bacterias, at least most parasites.
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| Bad, mean and ugly parasite |
When you live in an area where your water keeps going out every few months (went out again today) and sometimes several times per month, and where there are no restaurant hygiene inspections to speak of, yes, you will have potential stomach issues more often. For us, all it took was missing just one or two days of garlic, yogurt and sauerkraut to make us more susceptible to getting stomach issues as well as parasites and amoebas.
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| Amoeba - UGH |
Most parasites and amoebas can be prevented when a person stays on a strict routine. Some of the more obvious ones are, don’t drink the water for 24 hours after it’s been turned off; don’t even wash your vegetables in the water; don’t brush your teeth with the water, and don’t eat outside of your home. But can human beings really stay that strict? I doubt it; not unless we lock ourselves up in a closet and never do anything. Trying to practice these precautions, does help however.
Does Prevention Really Work?
There are foods you can eat on a daily basis that will help our bodies to stay free of parasites but the reality is, you will have to eat these foods on a daily basis and you will have to take care to nurture your body in the process. You can’t eat the parasite prevention foods and then at the same time, drink alcohol, soda pop and sugary laden foods and think you’re good to go. This would be very counterproductive.
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| Homemade sauerkraut |
The natural food products we're talking about are the foods that give our colon the good bacteria it needs to kill off the parasites when they enter inside of our bodies. Skipping a day or two, like we did, will actually allow the parasites to multiply, which is what parasites do. It gives them an edge to begin building more of their kind in your gut and pretty soon the bad bugs have killed off the good bugs in your tummy. That’s when we begin to have the symptoms of a parasitic infection. We had mild cramping, nothing else.
Most parasites stay in the intestines, but some can travel through the blood stream to other organs of your body and then it can be very detrimental to your health. We had the Entamoeba Histolytica parasite which can travel into your blood stream in certain people and into the organs, where cysts attack the cells, causing a lot of damage. Once this happens it is too late to naturally get rid of this parasite.
To put it bluntly, we were a bit put off by having this parasite and to be on the safe side we just went ahead and took the pharmaceutical antibiotic. But let us warn you, the drug absolutely destroyed our intestinal flora; it killed off any good bacteria we had, and for the past 3-weeks we have been doing everything in our power to bring back our body’s immune system through natural foods, which we’ll talk about in a moment.
The medicine given to us (I did the research) is routinely given to people with dysentery, which none of us had, not even our son, who had a more advanced stage than us (stage 2). We are still somewhat constipated from the drug and it’s been almost a month since we took it. It is bad news! We only took the antibiotic because of trepidation that the parasite may have entered into our bloodstream. People have died from this parasite!
Giardia, worms and other parasites that stay strictly in the intestinal tract can easily be eradicated on a strict natural food regimen and so can the E. Histolytica parasites if the cysts have not already migrated to the organs. If we happen to get this parasite again, because we do not stay locked up in our closet, then we will use the natural foods described below.
Natural Foods to Help Prevent and Rid Parasites
- Kefir - drink tall glass every morning
- Yogurt – see video on making soy yogurt
- Sauerkraut – see video on how to make in 3 days!
- Raw garlic – mince 3 to 4 cloves and add to salads, soups, sandwiches, etc
- Raw onion - add to salads and sandwiches
- Coconut – water, milk and the oil are anti-parasitic
- Papaya and seeds – see recipe below
Papaya and Coconut Smoothie - see video on making fresh coconut milk with coconuts grown in Ecuador.
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| Papaya and seeds |
In blender add whole papaya and half of the seeds to 1 cup coconut milk and one tablespoon coconut oil, drink on empty stomach. Drink this every morning for one week.
Pineapple ONLY for 24 Hours - An older Ecuadorian naturopath told us that eating fresh pineapple for 24 hours and nothing else, will rid the body of parasites.
Seeds & Grains - Eating pumpkin seeds and roasted brown rice also helps rid the body of parasites.
We’re sure there are other natural foods you can eat and prepare to rid and prevent parasites but we live in Ecuador where coconuts and papayas are readily available, thank goodness, and so we prefer this method of prevention, along with our normal healthy diet and the eating of fermented foods, and let’s not forget about Diatomaceous Earth (seashells)!
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| DE |
Building up Intestinal Flora
The most important prevention of all is building up intestinal flora so we can fend off the bad bugs with the good bugs and that begins with eating a healthy diet that is full of fresh foods. The colon needs to be healthy to resist the parasites in the first place and that means to discontinue eating refined sugars and products that turn into sugar in our body, such as white flour products and alcohol. It’s the only way to beat the little buggers.
Now that we live in South America we have to be even stricter about what we put into our bodies, where we eat out, and what we do, and there is NO doctor in the world that is going to do that for you. We are responsible for our own health!
In our family we have been sorely reminded that Pharmaceutical medicines are not the long term answer to a strong, healthy body and in fact, for us it was just the opposite. Prevention is the key, but if one of these little bugs slips through the cracks, we will practice all the natural ways to rid them from our bodies.
Until we write again…
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We're an Expat Family of Five, Living Frugal, Healthy and Happy Abroad. We live in Cuenca, Ecuador and travel the Ecuador coast whenever we get a chance. We just adventured throughout the country of Panama for five weeks! Come along and enjoy some of our experiences with us!
