E251: Parasite Cleansing The Wrong Way Won't Help Your Hormones And May Make Them Worse

Have you seen the ads for parasite cleanses that fix EVERYTHING and thought...maybe I need to do that?

Maybe you do, but it also can make things worse, not better if your body isn't ready! 

Let's talk today about when a parasite cleanse is the right option, what to know first, and how to decide if the one you're thinking about is actually the right next step for you or not. I'll help you sort through if you need lab testing & a personalized protocol or if your body might be stable enough to DIY this one.

Here’s what I’ll walk you through:

• Why most of us DO have parasites, but not everyone is ready to cleanse safely
• The surprising mineral and drainage issues that make parasite cleanses backfire
• Two at-home parasite cleanses I trust, and how to know if your body is ready for them

You're going to want to discuss this one with your bestie, so send it to her when you push play and she'll be prepared with all the details. 

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Disclaimer: Nothing in this podcast is to be taken as medical advice, please take informed accountability and speak to your provider before making changes to your health routine.

This podcast is for women and moms to learn how to balance hormones naturally in motherhood, to have pain-free periods, increased fertility, to decrease PMS mood swings, and to increase energy without restrictive diet plans. You'll learn how to balance blood sugar, increase progesterone naturally, understand the root cause of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, PCOS, insulin resistance, hormonal acne, post birth-control syndrome, and conceive naturally. We use a pro-metabolic, whole food, root cause approach to functional women's health and focus on truly holistic health and mind-body connection.

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Do you need a parasite cleanse to fix your hormones? And if you do, which parasite cleanse do you need today? I'm gonna dive into all of the things parasite, so buckle up and let's do it. 

[00:00:00] Hey ladies. Welcome back. I have had mostly only parasite questions in my inbox lately. Mostly questions like, do I have parasites? Should I do a parasite cleanse? If so, what kind? And as you know, I'm just basically never short-winded on anything. And so I was not able to think of a really concise, like typed out email answer because there's so much to this question.

is one of those things that's like really kind of complicated but also fairly simple. And so I'm gonna go through all the details of that and help you understand, do you think you need a parasite cleanse? If so, why and when and how And should you do it on your own or should you do it with me for a friend because it's more fun with a friend.

Okay, so let's talk about it. First question is why parasite cleanse? I think that there have been. In my world, there have been a lot of ads out there about parasite cleanses and let me tell you, I almost bought one for [00:01:00] my husband last week because it was like, do you have these symptoms?

Parasites made me have brain fog and I was like, you know what, this is only $60. I think I should find this parasite cleans. And it makes me laugh how easily those marketers can target me because I'm just. I just like marketing. I like to be marketed too, I guess. Did not buy him the parasite cleanse because I was like, hold on.

first of all, I have parasite cleanse stuff here. I know how to run a parasite cleanse and maybe that's not even what's going on with him. I need to do a little more research for him first before I'm just like, you know what? Let's just try this because it's worked for other people. so why Paraic cleans?

I would actually put money on that. Most of us have parasites. There are first world countries where parasite cleansing a couple times a year is a pretty regular practice. It's not just something that happens in third world countries, and it's not just if you're dirty, it's not just like a hygiene issue.

There really is an issue with susceptibility in the body. And so we're exposed to things through food, through soil, through water, [00:02:00] any of those ways we can. Have parasites and they can be really physically draining to the body. I really honestly would say many of us, most of us need to parasite cleanse.

I can't exactly think of who doesn't. It just comes down to is your body ready for it? And so that's what we're gonna focus on for a little while before I talk about, how you would cleanse or what that looks like. And the other question that I get a lot is if you parasite cleanse, do you need to do it on the full moon

this is something that I think is a, it is great to do it over the full moon, but it's a myth in my opinion, that we can just cleanse over the full moon for a few days and then be like, good to go. It really needs to be a longer process because the life cycle of parasites is about 28 days, so doing more of like a month long cleanse and then taking a couple weeks off and then doing a couple more weeks to cover that second part of their life cycle.

If you had. Like reproduction happened in the guys. This is just, it's just gonna be gross. Thinking about parasites, I'm sorry, but if reproduction was [00:03:00] happening during that first cleanse, you wanna make sure to, , be able to do one more cycle to get rid of things. So yes, do it during the full moon, but because you need to do it for a month and they are more active during that time, you will cut.

You know, if you do it for a full month, you will catch a full moon. why do I not recommend that everyone's just like jumps into a parasite cleanse and this could be a two minute episode and I could just say, Hey, try this parasite cleanse. Here's my link. Goodbye. Because there's so much more in the body that we have to understand before we just do a parasite cleanse.

If you have done one in the past and don't feel like it has worked very well, there could be many reasons for that. Or if you're like, I wanna do one, but I wanna make sure it's going to work, then this is what you need to know. minerals have a really big role in being able to help your body drain well, detoxify well, and to help your body be resilient enough to be able to parasite cleanse.

So we need to make sure before we do a parasite cleanse that you have been [00:04:00] working on replenishing minerals. In my opinion, the best way to do this is to get some testing and be doing something specific, whether that's muscle testing. Or something like an HTMA mineral test. Those would be the ways that I would personally test to see what minerals need to be replenished.

The ones that I see need to be replenished a really high percentage of the time are potassium and magnesium. And, sodium as well. Oftentimes, calcium needs to be balanced in the body. You need some co-factors to use your calcium, but not necessarily that calcium is typically low. It's more just that it's not being used or utilized effectively.

Replenishing minerals. This can look as simple as just like doing some adrenal cocktails for a while and hoping that that works. Or you can do testing and really dive in and find out what your body specifically needs. That's clearly what I would recommend. I think that it's the most helpful and some people are not gonna do that, and that's, you know what you gotta.

Go with your gut and what [00:05:00] works for you. And so just knowing that if you are really depleted in minerals, the parasite cleanse may not work as well because you don't have some of the co-factors that your body is going to need to get rid of the parasites effectively. Essentially. Another really big factor for parasite cleansing and why it may not work or may not work as well as it could is drainage pathways.

This is huge, honestly. When we think about our bodies and the drainage pathways, I always like to think of a funnel. So when I'm thinking of this funnel, I'm thinking of the top of the funnel is like where everything comes in. So that's your food, your water, your air, like everything's coming in your body, right?

And to be able to effectively detox, a lot is coming in. Your body processes it, it uses some of it, , and it moves it through our various organs and organ systems. And then we need to detoxify through several different areas. So we detoxify through the gut. That's a huge one. We just detoxify through our skin, sweating.

We detoxify through breathing. We [00:06:00] detoxify through our kidneys and through our liver and our lymphatic system. There's probably a few more that I'm missing, but those are, that's plenty to start with. So when we're detoxing through all of these organs, we need to make sure that these drainage pathways are open because parasites are creepy little creatures.

And they also have waste. They also have toxins that come out of their bodies. So not only are they depleting us of some of our nutrients because they're using some of our nutrients, but they are also excreting their own toxins in our body that we have to deal with. And so. This is true while they live, and this is true while they die as well, and especially when they die because they're not really happy to die, and they would rather make it a little bit harder on us to get rid of them.

And so when we do a parasite cleanse, that detox process needs to be supported through your detox pathways being well supported. So when we think about, let's just start with the liver. The liver needs to. Function optimally. [00:07:00] It needs certain nutrients and minerals. It needs support for any inflammation.

There may be some support that's needed for digestion and bile flow for both the liver and the gut to be working properly. And so it needs specific nutrients. And when blood sugar is really dysregulated, the liver will struggle. And when there have been. medications coming in, like birth control or when there's been estrogen dominance, which a lot of you would be familiar with.

All of these things affect the liver, and when we're working on a parasite cleanse, the liver needs to be supported. I would love to say optimized. Honestly. Sometimes it's not going to be optimized. I'm not saying you have to spend like a year getting your body ready for a parasite cleanse, but I also don't think it's a good idea to just like, Run home with a parasite cleanse and start it out of the blue because you could be missing some pieces If you are constipated. Don't do a parasite cleanse to help you with constipation. You have to be going to the bathroom regularly before you do a parasite cleanse. Or you can do a cleanse that has enemas that [00:08:00] makes you go, but you really will not do yourself any favors killing off parasites, and then they're stuck in your gut.

Please don't do that. It's a bad idea. When we're thinking about drainage pathways, we want the liver to be supported. We want the gut to be supported. You need to be going in the bathroom regularly. You need enough fiber, you need enough water, but you also need enough fats in your diet. You need enough, , antioxidants, you need prebiotic and probiotic rich foods.

All of these things are gonna help your gut function well, and these are all things that I look into with a GI map with my clients. If this is not optimized for you and you've like been constipated forever. It can be life changing to find out why and to change that. Because even just that can change your hormones.

A client that I was working with today, we've been working on her digestion and she, I'm just like so excited to see the results for her hormones just by working on her digestion. there may not even be much we need to do, quote unquote for her hormones because we found so much going on in her gut.

There was constipation, there was a lot of bacterial overgrowth and. all of these things would make her gut more susceptible to [00:09:00] parasites as well. But I'm, that is not even my focus right now because we just need to get things moving well, and we need to get her good bacteria nourished and we need to get her, , gut lining nourished so that she can absorb the nutrients well and be, even ready for something like that in the future.

So. They got the liver. I've gone over those. The kidneys are huge too. I think we kind of forget about our kidneys a lot. I don't know about you. I dunno if you think about your kidneys all day long, but I definitely don't. but your kidneys need to be supported too. So you need to be drinking plenty of fluids.

You need to be moving your body. And then there's some. Herbs and tinctures and things like that, that can be good for the kidneys. the, one of the parasite cleanses that I will talk about actually has like a kidney tea included in it to help support the kidneys during the detox process. I like the one from, I believe organic.

Olivia has a kidney tea. I think there's several different ones that you can get, like a loose leaf kidney tea, but that would be even something to just I'm just throwing out numbers here, but at least once or twice a year, like drink some kidney tea for a little while. Just give your kidneys a little bit of extra nourishment from those herbs because , [00:10:00] it's often overlooked detox organ.

That is really important. What I was really trying to get to though when I got myself sidetracked with the kidneys was the lymphatic system. I would say gut, liver, lymphatic system, top priorities. When we're thinking about a parasite cleanse, we've got to support those things, and so supporting the lymphatic system.

When we think about the lymphatic system, again, maybe it's not something you think about all the time. But all of our lymph nodes go throughout our whole body, and this is a passive detox system. It is really important for immune health, it's important for detoxification, and , there are a lot of toxins that go through our lymph and we need to make sure that it's flowing well.

So B flow is important. Hydration is important, and then movement is really important. So supporting your lymphatic system can be really helpful to be able to detoxify well during and before a parasite cleanse. So if those are things you have not thought about and you've been like, I'll just order this parasite cleanse and do it, I would take a little chill pill for a minute and see what you need to do to support those organs for.

A little while, I would say at least a few weeks or a month before you would [00:11:00] jump into any type of parasite cleanse. And then the other thing that I think is almost always overlooked is a lifestyle food for sure, but a lifestyle emotionally, physically that encourages parasites. So this looks like a lifestyle full of stress, full of fear, and.

A mindset that is more of a victim mindset. A mindset that is. Essentially like leaching nutrients from your body as well, just like parasites do. It makes more of a welcome environment. It really does. And that can sound kind of woo woo I think, and kind of like it's energy based, but it's not because when we think about the way our thoughts and our words affect what is happening in our bodies, just having those thoughts and actions.

And words that are related to fear, scarcity, victim mindset, even anger, those type of things can all create an environment [00:12:00] in our gut, in our bodies that allows for parasites. And you know what I am talking about gut parasites today. There are parasites that can show up in other places of your body. the other most common would be like liver flukes.

But I'm just gonna focus on the gut and the liver. For parasites today. I'm really not going to go into that whole big conversation. but , emotionally there are some things that can make it more easy for parasites to be there and thriving, but also physically eating, a lot of toxic foods.

Clearly you're probably not doing that if you're listening to this podcast, but if you are, let's work on it. And then the other thing that we really need to think about too is what is your digestion like, how can we support digestion and maximize digestion? that is really, really key too. So I have a little, I have a super simple video that I will link in the show notes if you want to check in with your digestion.

, It's really about the full digestive system, how you can optimize digestion. This has no supplements. It has nothing to buy. It's [00:13:00] only, it's honestly just mental and then physical. Mechanics of digesting your food well, I've never given this away before, but I'm gonna put it in the show notes.

I'll link it to an email for you so that you can get that for free. It's called Maximizing Metabolism. So I'm just gonna put that in the show notes today and I want you to listen to that too. Again, if you're considering like gut support or parasites or anything like that, is actually just one of the little mini lessons in my coaching program.

And so I'm just gonna give you that one little piece so that you can. Assess that for yourself, but digestion is really, really important and being able to digest your food well, just from a like physical, mechanical standpoint, every time I give this lesson to someone, oh, I mean, I only give it to my clients typically, but every time I talk to my clients about it, they're like, oh yeah.

They're like, I'm not doing that. I really need to focus on this. And it makes a huge difference. Again, free, do it at home, costs you nothing. You just have to think about it a little bit. Supporting digestion is huge before doing any type of parasite cleans. So those are [00:14:00] things I would think about before I would just jump into anything.

And then what I would want to tell you about doing a parasite cleanse, if you decide, you know what? I'm going to, , support my detox pathways a little bit, but I do wanna do a parasite cleanse on my own. Then I'm gonna tell you two that I know of that you don't need a practitioner for, that you can do on your own, that I've seen people have good results with.

One I have done myself and one I have not, but I've had some other people do it who have said that it worked well for them. And I like the ingredients and . The protocol and everything that kind of goes with it. So if you were to do a parasite cleanse on your own, if you're convinced parasites are a thing for me, I need to do this, then the two that I recommend, they're different.

The first one is the one that I have done. It's from sanctuary wellness it, it is kind of like a full detox system. This one I would recommend if you're gonna be able to be all in and you really want to just do a full cleanse, I would not recommend this if you were in a season where you were really depleted or a season that's really [00:15:00] stressful or super busy because it is a lot.

Okay, so this cleanse does have tinctures for parasites, but it also includes a 10 day fruit and vegetable only fast. You essentially can eat organic fruits. And you can eat organic vegetables as long as they're pureed in these specific, like vegan soups that they give you recipes for. It does include enemas every single day, and it includes the supplements, the binder, it's, there's like a greens powder that you drink, some amino acid tablets that you take just to make sure you're getting your nutrients in.

And so I did this in the spring, and honestly, I definitely saw some results with parasites. I didn't notice a huge difference in how I felt, but I wasn't really feeling bad. So I guess I can't really say like, oh, my energy was terrible. And then it was way better. My energy was fine, I felt.

10 times better than I expected. I would during the whole cleanse itself, because I thought that, like I'm kind of a protein girly. I do eat a lot of [00:16:00] protein and I just eat a lot of food Also, I eat a lot of dairy, so all of those things being gone, I was like, am I gonna survive? , Will I be able to stand up without my protein in my dairy?

Sure enough, I was. I do not recommend working out if you're doing that kind of cleanse. I think I worked out one day and I was like, okay, that was too much for me. That was not a good idea and it just made me tired. But other than that, I was able to tolerate it pretty well. But I just wanna warn you with that, it is a commitment.

I think when I did it was around $300 for everything. And, it was also just like. girl, you just have to be committed. If you're gonna have fruits and vegetables only for 10 days and they recommend a little bit of an intro phase where you're phasing a few foods out and then a little bit of like a gentle go back to your regular eating.

honestly, I didn't do those parts. I just did the 10 days and that worked well for me. But this is something that I will do again. I might do it a little bit shorter since it'll be a second time for me, but. Anyway, you have to be ready to commit. You need to read. They give you this whole super long PDF knowing what to expect, what to do.

 , They even have journaling things in there. If you're kind of [00:17:00] anti woowoo, like I am, there are a few woowoo aspects in there of, I think there were like some crystals and some sage. I just took them out. I just didn't do them and got rid of them. , And then I think that there was also.

There were some of the journaling prompts that I didn't feel really aligned with, and so I just didn't do those either. I was able to just kind of say like, I'll take most of this, I'll leave a few things, and it worked well for me Now. If you're like, I would like to para cyclones, but I don't know that I can be that committed in this season.

Then there's also a, and by the way, just circling back to my original point with the 28 day thing,, you do it for 10 days, but then you go back a couple weeks later and finish out like part of the parasite tincture or something like that. So it's not just a 10 day cleanse. It's actually a little bit longer than that with the tinctures, but you're just doing , the foods and the enemas and everything for the 10 days.

Okay. Second option for parasite cleanse is like DIY. Parasite cleanse is through Rogers Hood and it's called Paray. I think that one's [00:18:00] pretty famous on TikTok. I've been asked about this one multiple times, so I've looked at it multiple times and honestly, I would recommend it to my own mom. I did recommend it to my own mom.

The ingredients are good, the science is there. Lots of people have had results from it, and I think it's closer to a hundred dollars a hundred. 20, something like that. So it is more affordable and I don't think they're nearly as restrictive with food. I haven't done that one myself, but it's more of a tincture based parasite cleanse versus a big lifestyle based cleanse.

With that being said, still absolutely think your body needs to be in a place where it's safe to cleanse, where you're not, , overly depleted and. Where you're able to devote, a little bit of extra time to rest and drinking extra water and sleep and stuff during your cleanse time. So I wouldn't just, , go for it.

And with this being said, all of this is clearly not medical advice. , I don't know your situation and so I'm not saying like these are safe for everyone. Nope. I'm not even endorsing these products necessarily. I am not an affiliate for any of them. I'm just telling you, these are the ones that [00:19:00] I know of on the market that seem the most.

Reasonable, for a parasite cleanse where it's still good, clean ingredients, effective, and something that you could pretty safe, you know, of course for anyone, it's going to be different, but very likely would be safe to do on your own. Now, do not do this while you're breastfeeding. Do not do this while you're pregnant.

I think you probably know that, but just a little disclaimer. In my opinion, the very safest way to parasite cleanse would be to have a practitioner who knows. Your story, your mineral status, your hormone status, your lifestyle, your gut status, all of those things. I recommend what they would recommend for you because there are so many factors here.

I don't use these with my clients typically because I will use more targeted supplements based on what we see on their testing. So we're typically working, you know, we do a GI map test. If we have gut concerns and we're doing things like building up the right good bacteria, were. Doing, bacterial balancing.

Sometimes we have bad [00:20:00] bacteria to fight off. Sometimes we are focused on the gut lining, inflammation, the liver, and sometimes we do see parasites on these tests. And if so, or if I'm just. essentially like they only test for about 10 parasites on the gut test and sometimes they can be missed.

So sometimes I just say, you know what? I think there's parasites here anyway. Do you wanna do something about it or not? But we're always making it more targeted. Once I know what's going on and when you have a practitioner working with you and looking at your stuff than when you have a symptom come up.

If you have a symptom come up during a parasite cleanse, you have someone to back you up and say, oh, this is normal. This is not normal. I will say something, I. Just I don't like, but also I understand why they do this on the sanctuary parasite cleanse.

there's a list of literally everything that could ever be wrong with you that's like, these all may be symptoms of detox. If you need emergency help, ask for emergency help. And I'm like, okay, well that's kind of crazy. it's like some serious stuff on there. So that scared me before I did it, to be honest, but I was fine.

so that's really. My big [00:21:00] overview of parasite cleansing. If it's something that you've been feeling kind of drawn to but you're scared to do on your own or you're like, you know what I hear the point here it would be helpful to get testing. I do still have a couple spots left for coaching for 2025, and you are always welcome to just book a call with me.

We'll talk about it. I was asked recently, like if I get on a call, is there so much pressure to join? No. My goal for you is that you'll be clear. On whether or not it's for you. That's it. I'm not gonna follow up with you 17 times. I trust that if God has brought you to me and you're the right client, you're gonna know it and I'm gonna know it and we're gonna move forward.

And if not, then you're gonna ghost me and I'll never talk to you again until maybe later, or you might email me with the different question and that's fine too. But all that to say, if you want help with this, I'm here for you. And hopefully this has helped you answer the question that might be floating around your head.

Like, do I wanna do this? Do I not? Do I feel like I'm good to do it on my own, or do I need some help? [00:22:00] Text me with your additional parasite questions. There's always a link in the show notes for a text and I might might be coming back to Instagram. If you see me there, you'll know that I'm there. Maybe I'll make an announcement if I ever come back.

But I've been feeling a little bit drawn to come back to Instagram because the truth is I miss the conversations that I get to have there and the, you know, having a podcast, I get to hear from some of you, but most of you I never hear from. And I really like the relatability of being able to , reply to someone's story and get to know each other better and actually talk about things.

So, 2026 maybe. Maybe you'll see me there. I don't know. Lemme know what you think about that. I'll see you ladies next week.