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Parasites
Parasites are among the most energy-draining biotoxins. We test carefully, open drainage first, clear organisms in measured cycles, protect the household and pets, and restore the gut terrain.
What you may be noticing
Digestive symptoms that started after travel, camping, well water, raw seafood, or a stomach bug that never fully resolved. Bloating, loose stools, cramping, or irregular bowels. An appetite that swings, or weight that changes without explanation. Anal itching at night, especially in children. Fatigue, unrefreshing sleep, skin rashes, or iron that keeps running low. Some people also notice night-time teeth grinding, a clue some clinicians watch, though the evidence is mixed.
Bloody diarrhea, high fever, or severe dehydration need urgent medical care.
Why it is rarely one thing
Parasites range from single-celled protozoa such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium to worms such as pinworms and roundworms. Some, such as Blastocystis and Dientamoeba, appear in people with and without symptoms, and whether they cause disease is still debated. Pets, shared households, contaminated water, and undercooked pork or fish are common routes of exposure.
In my framework, parasites sit in the biotoxin portion of your toxic burden bucket, alongside fungal overgrowth, mold toxins, and tick-borne infections. Unlike chemical toxins, biotoxins are living organisms that replicate and draw on immune energy. When environmental toxins already fill the bucket, the immune system has less capacity left to clear living invaders. Because parasites are such a large and energy-draining group, I usually address them first in the biotoxin sequence, before yeast, mold, and tick-borne work. That ordering is a working clinical hypothesis built from practice.
Not just an invader, but a terrain that allowed it to persist. Low stomach acid, reduced mucosal IgA, microbiome imbalance, and slow drainage all lower resilience. Modern stool tests can find organisms at very low levels, so a positive result is weighed against your symptoms and history rather than treated automatically.
Patterns we look for
- Exposure history: travel, camping, wells, raw seafood or pork, pets, livestock, and daycare.
- Household members and pets with similar symptoms.
- Specific organisms on stool testing.
- Eosinophils on a blood count.
- Iron, ferritin, and B12, which some parasites deplete.
- Stomach acid, mucosal IgA, and gut immune function.
- Bowel regularity and other drainage pathways.
- Skin and histamine reactions, and post-infectious IBS patterns.
How I evaluate it
The comprehensive functional neurological exam assesses autonomic balance and vagal tone, which shape gut immunity and motility, and it includes the jaw and chewing muscles when grinding is present.
Functional labs may include comprehensive stool analysis with molecular pathogen testing, ova and parasite microscopy across multiple samples, a complete blood count with eosinophils, ferritin, B12, and mucosal IgA. I coordinate prescription treatment with your physician when a pathogen is confirmed.
How we address it
- Confirm the organism and its clinical relevance.
- Open drainage first: daily bowel movements, hydration, bile flow, and lymphatic movement, so released toxins have a way out.
- Clear confirmed pathogens with prescription care through your physician, or with botanical categories in short, pulsed cycles paired with binders.
- Advance only when a cycle is tolerated without crashes in energy, sleep, or mental clarity.
- Pause sugar and alcohol during clearing and support lymphatic flow, and release jaw tension where grinding is present.
- Treat the household in step where spread is likely, including pets with your veterinarian, and reduce re-entry through food, water, and travel habits.
- Restore stomach acid, gut immunity, the microbiome, and the intestinal barrier, and replete iron and B12.
Clearing an organism is one step. Rebuilding a resilient terrain is what keeps it from returning.
Book your Comprehensive Functional Medicine Eval/Neurological Exam today to discover what the contributing root causes are that are underlying your health concerns.