q about parasite - alemama

Yes! The parasite you have can give you sugar cravings and also yeast overgrowth. I wouldn't do another thing until I got tested if I were you. They can test your yeast levels and look for parasites. The first thing I would do in your place is test. Look into the great smoky mountain labs (I think they have a new name) for testing, they seem to be the best at actually finding parasites. The particular type of parasite you were diagnosed with is mean as hell and hides very well- so you will want to test at least 3 samples. I doubt very seriously that Flagyl or garilc would kill it.
You can read about it here: http://www.fda.gov/Food/FoodSafety/FoodborneIllness/FoodborneIllnessFood...

For my son, we've come to terms with living with the parasite. We take great care to nourish his body and immune function. We have an entire routine to make sure he stays healthy. I can share with you what we do for him right now and it works for us as far as- he's symptom free and has been for the last 5 or 6 months. He has slowly returned to health and it was a long road. I believe he still has the parasite. We will test for it again at some point. But right now we are just happy he's not in pain all the time.
So here's what we do: He drinks cod liver oil each day- not a little- up to 2 tablespoons. We have been very selective in where we get our clo from and feel good about the source. He takes D3- up to 10,000 IUs daily (he was deficient in D. We learned this during an extensive blood work up the pediatric GI doc had done to rule out Crones disease and other intestinal issues. It happens most of the time when you have a parasite- the vitamin deficiency). He takes up to 10,000 mg of vitamin C a day (we use the lypospheric vit c- not sure if it makes a difference but it seems easy on the tummy- some days he takes 1,000 some 10,000 just depends). He also takes beta carotene and vitamin E at times. He takes calcium and magnesium (Calm is the product we use). He also drinks floridex for iron. It's mild, plant derived and low dose. The last thing he takes daily is a very good probiotic. I don't think you can skimp on this. If you get one- get one that requires refrigeration and read up on the strains you really want in your body- different issues call for different strains and sometimes you can screw it up and feed the parasite because they like the probiotic. Same thing for yeast.
At first he was fruit, grain, bean, nut and dairy free. We did this very strictly for about 6 months. Now he's eating limited fruit, nuts and dairy with no issues. For his birthday I made him black bean brownies with whipped cream (all made from scratch- very low sugar). They were good (10g of sugar a serving) but a big treat. A once a year kind of thing.
So mostly he eats meat (mostly wild caught alaskan salmon and amish farm raised chicken and turkey but sometimes we buy half a cow locally), sweet potatoes, and vegetables (mostly kale, broccoli, beets and collards right now). We cook everything from fresh- and use loads of onions and garlic. An apple a day, or a plum or a handful of grapes, blueberries- I say limited- but what I mean is less than I give the other kids and he avoids bananas and watermellon (also dried fruits like raisins) they are too sugary. He snacks on nuts sometimes. I love to feed him fermented foods like sauerkraut and pickles (we like bubbies) and drinks like Kombucha and Water Kefir.
I doubt very seriously that he has shed the parasite completely. But I know that the volume of parasites has decreased greatly.
The thing is, if you are craving sugar and you are having shooting pains in your breast tissue you need to give your body about 3 months to rebalance, parasite or not (though if you still have the parasite and you can't kill it- it will be more like a life time of rebalancing and immune support).
I've read so much over the last few years about parasites and they are freaky! I've read tons about the herbal cures, the food grade DE, the food grade peroxide, traditional western antibiotic therapy and ACV and I've debated back and forth about if I want to do anything more than we are doing and so far I keep coming back to *support his immune system and he can live with the parasite* with a plan to try to kill it when he is bigger.
Die off is hard to deal with. Yeast die off too. It can make you foggy headed and tired. With kids you can see really weird behavioral stuff like nail biting and head banging. It can make you feel angry too. So we don't want to kill it off right now. Just make the environment less easy to live in and reproduce in. So we don't feed them and they don't bother him. or that's my theory anyway and it seems to be working for us right now.
You know, I'm still healing from my antibiotic therapy (month long) that I had to take for my crazy ear and mastoid bone infection. I've taken 2 bottles worth of the probiotic I like (healthy trinity) and just bought a third bottle this weekend. I had an overgrowth of yeast in my breast tissue and my baby had the white patches all over her mouth for almost a month. We are finally clearing it out but I'm still really sensitive to sugar. I could feel it in my breasts this weekend that I had run out of probiotic and noticed that when I was at the store buying the probiotic I also bought a chocolate bar. I was craving sugar. So it does take time and you really must be very strict.
Whew. that was a book. feel better. yeast sucks but you can clear an overgrowth if you want to and it's not *hard* the way it's hard to get parasites out of your system. But it isn't easy to watch what you eat when your body is screaming at you to feed it sugar!

Chickaboom - are you currently pregnant or breastfeeding? I also had shooting pain in my breast caused by a milk blister in my 3rd trimester (I was still occasionally nursing my other child). If you are breastfeeding, be sure to check your nipples for the tell-tale white bumps, since mild blisters can turn into blocked ducts.

hi Chickaboom,
I'm afraid I don't have any wisdom on parasites but I did quit sugar entirely for 7.5 years so am very familiar with sugar cravings!
When I first quit, I used L-Glutamine to help lessen the intensity of the cravings and it helped a lot. if you google l-glutamine + sugar cravings you will get many hits.
at that time I used it in pill form but I have since used it in powder form - incredibly less expensive. it tastes almost like nothing at all (and I really dislike gross tastes) and I don't mind it at all. that way you can get a feel for what dose works for you and take only that much. also handy how fast it works. you can let some dissolve under your tongue. most health food stores have it now and probably all sports nutrition places (it's used by body builders).

Another thing that helped me tremendously was using stevia to make things sweet so that my sweet tooth still got satisfied.
*important* stevia is super concentrated and if you have too much it's awful. most people have too much the 1st time and assume they hate it.
for example, you may sweeten a cup of tea with the amount the size of a capital 'O' in this font. seriously! it's incredibly concentrated. so imagine if someone used a spoonful in their tea - ack! totally gross!

some brands have more of an aftertaste than others.
I like the NOW brand white concentrate powder or Herbal Select (but that may be a Canadian company).
I use it in herbal teas, on cereal, in baked goods, truffles, puddings etc
If you ever want some stevia recipes that work, let me know. it's hard to replace sugar in baked goods because of how well sugar effects the recipe.

I have recently fallen off the sugar-free wagon somewhat and am so glad it's autumn because soon I can use the oven again and make cakes, cookies etc to replace the sugary things I've been eating.
I dumped almost an entire 2L tub of ice cream down the sink yesterday to remove temptation.
that's another thing that helped me - making sure there was nothing in the house to tempt me. hard if you live with others who eat sugar.
wishing you the best of luck beating the sugar beast
☺

pumpkin seeds are great for some intestinal worms- not for the kind my son has though and probably not for the kind you have/had either. They work well on the bigger bugs. Papaya seeds are amazing for the big ones too. I'm sure that there is an amazingly healing food out there- I just don't know what it is.
We avoid grains like crazy most of the time. So brown rice is out. He would just rather eat fruit.
We do not use any substitutes for sugar. We made things really simple: meat and veges for a while. Then added fruit and nuts and let that adjust. Finally added back dairy (organic grassfed butter and cream). Total carb load is what we take into account. That and making every bite count. We need to balance his nutrient intake- so it makes a difference in what we choose to cook if he's had tons of fruit or tons of vege that day-
To be able to eat beans he needs to give up fruit that day. Most of the time he'd just rather eat the fruit.
and for the most part our whole family is on this special diet. We've also rubbed off a bit on our friends too.
Salt, I've had stevia. In my friend's garden. Just popped a handful of leaves in my mouth and chewed. You have never seen a woman identify mint as fast as I did! Spat out that stevia and filled my mouth with mint. Whew! It was sickeningly sweet. I've since had the leaf brewed into a tea and I thought it was great there.....

all grains went away because they made my son's tummy ache.
Poop.
Well the kids usually poop twice a day- and lots of it :)
the adults are about the same. Veges, fruit, eggs and nuts are the main staples of our diet. Meat is kinda like a side dish now.
I was vegetarian before we made the change- and I think the meat poo is heavier- which I was concerned about at first- but then it didn't make any difference-
We all have very high metabolisms- and fast gut motility.

Regarding the withdrawals: oh man that's tough- once you get past the first two weeks they will get less and less. You might like to read the paleo stuff- there is a newer book out about it that talks a ton about sugar- I can't remember the name of it. Anyway, I exercise my cravings away usually or try to figure out what I really want (like if I crave ice cream it's probably the fat and calcium my body wants).

we did a form of elimination diet when my oldest was three yo. we eliminated all white sugar and flours, most grains, many (but not all) fruits. so I guess we still did have *some* sugar. but still the cravings were bad. mostly it made me cranky and short tempered and hungry all the time. It lasted about two weeks iirc. my dd, btw, had not gained any weight between her 2 yo and 3 yo check ups, but one month of the elim. diet and she put on almost 5 lb. it was pretty crazy-weird. in our case we never did find the diet-related culprit to her symptoms but since the elim. diet she's refused to eat corn and will literally vomit if she smells popcorn or corn chips. sometime I wish our guts would speak English and spell it all out for me nice and slow.
alemama, your story impresses me everytime I read it. I'm in awe of your stamina and determination.

hi Chickaboom,
I'm so sorry I didn't reply sooner. I'm still getting used to this forum and haven't found a way to get notified if someone replies after me in a post so I had totally missed your replies and questions!

this will be a long post.

re: why did I quit sugar for 7.5 years?
I had severe, intractable depression that made me unemployable and in my desperation I came across a book that had a diet supposed to cure you of depression in 7 weeks or something hype-y like that :)
The main focus of this diet was no sugar. not a single speck.
I could have something like 1/4 cup of sugar-free fruit juice a day I think. after the 7 weeks, you were able to add fruit back in in moderation.

What happened was that partway through the 7 weeks I 'cheated' and ate sugar... and noticed that about 24 hours later, I had a spell of severe depression that lasted for a few days (borderline suicidal). I thought it was a fluke but carried on with the diet.
Next time I 'cheated', the same thing happened.
and the next.
so I quickly had proof that sugar made my depression dive to horrible depths.
this was enough motivation for me to quit and stay quit for 7.5 years. I usually cheated about every 6 months either on purpose (thinking maybe it was okay now) or accidentally by eating a dish in a restaurant that had hidden sugar.
Each time the same result - suicidal depression about a day later. so I had huge motivation to stay sugar-free.
and for me, sugar-free meant I could have any sugar at all. no salad dressing, condiments, soups, sauces etc unless they had no sugar in any of it's forms.

the thing that led me to eat sugar again was that I had gone to an energetic healer who, as part of her work, said she had healed my sensitivity to sugar. I hadn't believed her but the next time I cheated, I was fine. and the next.
for a few years, my sugar eating was limited to convenience things like being able to buy regular ketchup and salad dressing again. or a dessert at a restaurant a few times a year. but in the last few years, it has slowly increased to eating chocolate and ice cream - the last few months were many times a week or day! ack!
it was better when I had the horrible result from eating it!! :-)

re: hoping for motivation to quit:
The reasons I am stopping again now are because I notice myself getting emotionally out of control often. anger, anxiety, despair etc. and I suspect a sugar connection.
with the prolapse happening, I absolutely need to stay calm and not depressed or I know I'll fall apart (imagining living with this for another 60 years etc).
Also, when I was sugar free, I could eat whatever I wanted, any amount, and not gain weight. that is shifting recently and it could be connected to being 35 but once again, I suspect sugar.
Another great thing from the sugar-free time was no cavities, healthy teeth, gums, breath etc.
Sugar gives me tonsolliths which are so gross so that another bonus to quitting.
And perhaps most importantly... it is horrible for my adrenals. I have fatigue and am so much more functional when I don't eat sugar.
At first, I was more tired when I stopped sugar about 2 weeks ago because I had been using it to force my adrenals to give me energy so they were tired.
That is slowly improving (and so is my sleep yay!)
Other bonuses/motivations I've heard people share: nicer skin, less UTI's and yeast infections, healthier bowels (I could definitely use help there :).

Based on my personal experience, reading and watching other people, my opinion is that sugar is a drug. one of the most widely accepted in our culture - few even think twice about giving it to children. And I say this as a person who has quit alcohol, drugs, smoking and caffeine. sugar was the hardest. maybe partly *because* it's so accepted and omnipresent.

that said, it's definitely possible to quit and, for me, L-glutamine did help make the cravings more bearable.
know that you are not alone on your quest to quit - I'm doing it right now with gritted teeth ;-)

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post resources (if not let me know and I'll edit it out :)
if so, I recall that I found some useful resources years ago on this site: http://www.sugarshock.com/
I haven't used it recently but I'm going to look through it again now.

wishing you all the best
Salt
p.s. my username wasn't related to quitting sugar but you asking made me totally aware that I've been replacing sugar with potato chips the last few weeks! thanks! must work on that :)

hi chickaboom,
CONGRATULATIONS on those 2 weeks!!!!
that is awesome and a big achievement :)
i've done pretty well ignoring the cravings and they are getting much less often and less intense.
I did 'cheat' and ate a bit of sugar at thanksgiving (canadian) and did notice that i felt more emotional and found it verrry hard to get up the next morning. felt hungover almost!
so i intend to still avoid sugar. though I don't avoid sweet - I make desserts etc using stevia (I know that's controversial and doesn't work for everyone)
i, too, had been using sugar as fuel - the same way a person might use coffee or tea to help wake themselves up or give a false energy boost.
now I feel I'm treating my body better.
if I'm so exhausted that I need a boost, I rest for a bit instead of forcing my adrenals to give me energy I don't have!
I hope that you feel less lethargic soon.
if you had systemic candida overgrowth to any degree, it can take a while to feel better after cutting out the carbs that feed it.

may your cravings lessen faster and faster and your energy return soon!

Alemama, I'm kind of jumping in here, but may I ask what your sons symptoms were?
My 3yo is losing weight, and craves salt and sugar, and we've been getting nowhere with doctors. She's had pleny of opportunity to pick up all sorts in the farmyard where we used to live.

losing weight was a big one for us- he has always been tiny and tall, so when he started losing weight it was pitiful. He was so gaunt and drawn.
But the worst part was the tummy and leg pain and lethargy. He would wake up screaming in the night- nothing we would try actually helped the pain. It got so that all he could do was hang out on the couch all day and watch the other kids play. So sad.
I was so worried it was cancer. The pediatrician originally thought it was gastritis. Told us to wait a few months to see if it would resolve. Well, we tried to wait but he just got so bad that we came back about a month later. He had lost about 2lbs and at 38lbs to start- it was a big loss. She took one look at his legs and ordered tests. When he came back positive for parasites we gave flagyl (which doesn't work for his particular parasite but seems to be all there really is to offer kids as the other drugs are just not so safe). After he retested positive she sent us to the pediatric GI specialist- they wanted to do exploratory surgery (but did run tons of blood tests- lots of vials of blood). We said no thanks and that's about the end of the story. Blood showed many things - one was a severe vitamin D deficiency. We figured out how to feed him into better health- he started gaining weight again and things are what they are.
Anyway, other signs were anxiety, dark circles under the eyes, sugar cravings and a weird spacey sort of persona. He was out of it. Forgetful. Foggy headed. Had trouble sleeping.....I don't know.
We tested everyone- my second son tested positive but the only symptom he has ever had was diarrhea at random times. That went away completely with the elimination of grains and sugars.
I encourage you to do the stool testing- It's expensive if you are paying out of pocket- but do it anyway. If you are not up for that- then just switch the diet and see if it helps. It certainly can't hurt. Also, a blood test can be illuminating.
Many parasites you can pick up are easily treatable with things like pumpkin seeds or papaya seeds- garlic- you know, that stuff.