Do I have parasites?

Okay so I I am 21 years old and struggled with poor gut health and sinus issues and skin issues for a good few years now. I have "healed" myself in the past enough to be free of most symptoms if not all but I quickly return to bad health because I end up drinking alcohol too much or indulging in junk food again. Everytime my health goes down again it can take months for me to heal..m even up to a year and even then I'm still sensitive. My symptoms are constant bloating, more fat in places i never usually have much fat, sinus issues, puffy eyes, puffy face, skin gets paler and my face gets reddish, especially on my nose. I get anxiety and irritability also. I'm pretty sure I have leaky gut and some sort of food intolerance and maybe a sluggish liver. But I wonder if these could all be caused by parasites? The reason I think this is because of something that happens when I exercise or when I go to a sauna or have a really hot bath to try flood out toxins through sweat. I get these nipping sensations in my face. This doesn't happen all the time and it's not like really painful but it's painful enough to take notice of it. Could this be parasites pinching my skin or could it be the sweat causing this? It seems to only happen on my face too even if I sweat everywhere else aswell. If anyone has any idea or any information that can shed some light on this than I would be happy to hear it from you.

Hi Healthiskey -

I have good experience with most of your sx so I'll share what I learned and how I healed.

First, you're talking about several different categories of health dysfunction (poor gut health and sinus issues and skin issues) that are likely connected, which you suspected. It's normal to have parasites but if our GI is not healthy, our immune system can't function normally (since 70% of it is in the mucosal lining of our GI).

In order to maintain dominance over parasites and other pathogens, our immune system needs to remain healthy and strong.

So, as you already suspected, a poor diet can easily disrupt good GI health---particularly for those of us who have dealt with these problems in the past. We can heal but we are very susceptible for problems to return if we don't take extra care and focus on a clean diet... it's kid of a hassle - we just can't consume the things other people do and that makes college and holidays not as fun sometimes.

And --GI health is often the way to heal. Sounds like you've been down that road already so that's good.

Y/f overgrowth
You mentioned the following sx, which are classic yeast/fungal overgrowth sx:

constant bloating
sinus issues
puffy eyes & face
skin gets paler and reddish, especially on my nose
anxiety and irritability

It sounds to me like what you're experiencing is yeast/fungal overgrowth that originates in your GI, grows up your throat and into your head (sinuses), out of your mouth, and onto your face.

Here is a lot more info on yeast/fungus overgrowth - give it a good read for treatment:
Y/FO post in the "New to Lyme?" thread:
www.healingwell.com/community/default.aspx?f=30&m=1606610&g=3644275#m3644275

Obviously, sugary or simple carb and processed foods convert to pure sugar in the body, along with alcohol feeds the yeast/fungal beast and overgrowth can happen very quickly. And all this is going on in your GI - it's like a brewery down there, and there's nowhere for the y/f to grow up up your throat. Some people have problems with the yeast growing out the other end, too, which can cause itchiness and rawness.

So - when the yeast starts growing onto the skin, it can be pretty irritating, which causes the redness and the "nipping sensations in my face when exercising or in a sauna or really hot bath" is due to die off - y/f can evolve into a hyphae form, which can drill into the mucosal lining of your GI (which is what causes the damage to the lining and holes that allow fecal matter, toxins and undigested food to see through and enter the blood stream, causing the immune system to react to it like a foreign body and that's how you develop food sensitivities and allergies).

You can feel the y/f start becoming more active as your body warms up - they LOVE moisture and warmth... so you might feel the tinging or nipping sensations then. And or what you're experiencing could be die off as the y/f dies and your skin reacts to that.

Gut-brain
ALso, with the gut-brain connection proved by science with the discovery of blood vessels connecting your GI to your brain, the anxiety and irritability is easily caused by the y/f overgrowth in the GI, which can cause development of neurotoxins like ethanol and acetaldehyde, which then travel to the brain, causing neurotransmitter imbalances that result in those anxiety and irritability sx.

Demodex
Another less common possibility is that you might be experiencing a hypersensitivity to the skin mites (demodex) that everyone has on our skin. Generally, in a healthy state, we don't notice any symptoms or problems with this - our immune function keeps all this pretty quiet. But with a weaker immune function the demodex can cause bacteria and y/f to overgrowth and you could be reacting to this. I will spare you the details for what causes the sensation you're feeling - you can look it up online.

If you think it might be the latter - let me know and I can share some amazing tips I found online from a woman who had to solve this problem on most of her body. VERY easy and straightforward, will take a week or so but it's nothing you hear from anyone in a medical office.

Inflammation
Now this sx: "more fat in places i never usually have much fat" - I can't help you with. More likely than fat all of a sudden appearing is that your body is highly inflamed (alcohol make everything swell in me) and it's causing "squishiness" in the flesh... unless you're just gaining weight with age.

Hope that's helpful!

-p

That food plan looks GREAT! The white rice is more of a concern than the oatmeal. Try brown rice. AND with GI healing, organic is kind of important with produce and grains. All of the chemicals and pesticides, etc., can continue to cause damage and reactions.

The itchiness and sinus pain is also common with y/f overgrowth. The vivid dreams and jaw pain could be from other causes too - but in your case, it's also just as likely from the y/f overgrowth.

It is very unlikely that you are going to fully address your y/f overgrowth with diet alone. You certainly can't heal WITHOUT healing your gut. But with that much overgrowth you will also need to hit the y/f hard and quick and generally, you will need antifungal Rx.

From what I have seen most people who have already developed a problem won't have enough immediate benefit from natural antifungals to get it under control. PLUS, with a substantial amount of overgrowth, you run the risk of the y/f creating a resistance to natural antifungals ---that you will want to incorporate after everything is in better balance. SO I caution people not to rely too much on natural antifungals at the beginning.

So, my guess is you might be experiencing some die off from the great diet. But the new sx could be new ways the y/f finds to survive. If you don't hit it hard and fast, it will learn to survive on other foods beside sugar.

Another theory I have is less scientific... Yeast/fungus and biofilms have a special relationship. These types of growths that spread sometimes do this fascinating thing to communicate called "quorum sensing" where they use the network of the biofilm or fungus to send/receive signals. I theorize that when the yeast/fungus/biofilm starts to die in one place, t starts to spread and/or "move" to other places in the body. Example: I would take an antifungal, swallow it. It immediately killed what it reached in my stomach. but then I could feel it growing into my ear canal and triggering ear pain and crackling.
There is more info in that thread regarding recommended treatment. So that's my theory on how killing y/f in one location (maybe what dies off because it's not getting fed right now in your GI) can cause it to grow further into your sinuses to get away from what is killing it.

I would continue doing what you're doing, keep close notes on your sx and reactions. But definitely try to get on a good antifungal AND incorporate a good GI binder to get that die off out of your system. More info about that in the thread, too.

Hope this helps!

-p

I'm gonna start getting buckwheat pasta too so i can keep getting enough calories to maintain or even gain a bit more weight. I've been through these health problems a lot and managed to heal myself to the point of not showing much symptoms at all, no symptoms at all at times too. This is how it would go for me. I'd heal myself through intense exercise and eating pretty healthy. It would sometimes take months and sometimes just a month. It seems to be getting longer and longer each time to heal myself. Anyways i would get rid of the symptoms and feel amazing and this burst of energy would come back into me like all at once. So i'd stupidly go out and party with a few friends and drink a moderate-high amount of alcohol and eventually i would be right back where i started. I think i have a bit of an addiction to alcohol that i need to sort out. I been through that cycle so many times in the last couple of years. I'm not doing that this time though as i know i need to put and end to this for good and give my body enough time to fully heal. Alcohol seems to be the main culprit by far. I'd nearly go as far as saying that if i healed myself and went on eating a mixed diet of junk food and healthy foods but cut out alcohol i would be fine and almost symptom free. So that's how much alcohol seems to effect my health. Like i could drink 5 beers and my health could be poor for a month afterwards. Also another thing is that i look like a recovering alcoholic when my health is down. Like i look like someone who's been drinking alcohol heavily for quite a while when i don't even drink as much as the average college student. That's what makes me question that what if the main problem in this is my liver? That theory you mentioned is interesting btw. Could be a lot of truth to it. The most debilitating part of this health problem for me is how it affects how i look. I honestly look like a recovering alcoholic/ drug addict when my health is down. Like a totally different person and it has made me become a recluse. I hate anyone seeing me when i'm like this. I missed so many good opportunities in life because of this. I have sympathy for anyone going through anythng similar to this and know that there's people even worse off than me with these health problems is really sad..

With my stomach bloating, i wonder if my stomach is actually swollen rather than bloated. I think it might be, anyways today my stomach has gotten less bloated/swollen. As i'm typing this it's a bit worse now than it was earlier but still not as bad as it's been. This is the first time my stomach has shown any sign of getting flatter in the last few months. Also in regards to milk thistle, i have been taking milk thistle for the last couple of days but the ones i have have sweeteners and sugar in it so i ordered pure milk thistle with nothing added. Should come tomorrow maybe. I'm determined to get healthy and i now i can achieve proper healthiness once i get passed this. Is the GI binder the activated charcoal and pure cholestyramine? I got activated charcoal capsules the other day.