Keeping your gut healthy isn’t always easy, but there are some simple strategies that can make a huge difference.
By adding anti-parasitic foods to your diet, you can improve your overall health. Moreover, eating the right foods can help you recover from chronic disorders like Adrenal Fatigue Syndrome (AFS). So, here’s what you need to know to adopt this simple strategy today.
What are Parasites?
Parasites are one of the most common threats to gut health, but they are not necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when you have an upset stomach—yet they could be the underlying cause. The most common intestinal parasites are protozoans, a group of single-celled organisms that rapidly multiply inside your body. In particular, Cryptosporidium and Giardia are common in the US. Intestinal worms, including hookworms, tapeworms, roundworms, and pinworms are also often found in the human gastrointestinal tract. In addition, opportunistic fungi like Candida albicans can appear at the same time, leading to further digestive distress and general ill health. Fortunately, regularly eating anti-parasitic foods can make it fairly easy to avoid these problems.
It can be hard to tell if you have gut parasites—after all, you can’t actually see them—but you can look out for some tell-tale symptoms, including the following:
unexplained weight loss
bloating
stomach pain
gas
nausea
general fatigue
vomiting
diarrhea
worms in your stool.
If you suspect you may have worms but leave them untreated, you could end up with long-term health problems. Intestinal worms can put you at risk of intestinal blockages and anemia, especially if you have a compromised immune system. They can also cause chronic discomfort and intestinal difficulties. So, to avoid poor gut health, why not try making anti-parasitic foods part of your regular diet.
AFS and your Gut Health
Stress has been linked to a variety of serious health issues and because it is often chronic, has become one of the biggest threats to human health in the modern world. Moreover, a number of stress-related disorders, including AFS, can affect gut health. Your body manages stress via the so-called NeuroEndoMetabolic (NEM) stress response, a system designed to protect your body from the damaging effects of stress while preparing you to respond to the source of it. However, these days most sources of stress are not imminent or life-threatening. Instead, they are subtle ongoing stressors such as emotional pressures, work deadlines, or even environmental stressors. This means your body is constantly experiencing stress and your NEM stress response system is always switched on.
When the NEM stress response remains activated over a long period of time, your adrenal glands can become fatigued and will struggle to perform. This can also lead to imbalances and dysfunction within the interconnected circuits of your NEM system, often resulting in troubling symptoms.
How Gut Health Affects the Inflammation Circuit
Adrenal fatigue can directly affect your inflammation circuit, which is comprised of the immune system, gut, and microbiome (the good bacteria present in your body). This circuit is usually activated when there is some kind of threat to your body and the inflammatory response is designed to eliminate threats. However, modern stressors are ongoing threats that can result in imbalances in this circuit. This can lead to chronic inflammation, which has been linked to heart disease and cancer.
Imbalances within the inflammation circuit can cause changes to your microbiome, resulting in an overgrowth of harmful bacteria. Therefore, gut parasites are common if you’re suffering from AFS and they not only cause digestive problems but can also cause or worsen other symptoms of AFS. As parasites continue to multiply in your gut, your digestive problems will worsen, which means you probably won’t be getting all the nutrients you need from the food you’re eating. Symptoms that occur as a result of these issues will activate your inflammation circuit, leading to even more inflammation and eventually, inflammation circuit dysfunction. Moreover, these imbalances will place even more stress on your already highly taxed body, potentially causing or worsening the symptoms of AFS. This is quite literally a vicious cycle that can be extremely difficult to interrupt.
If you’re experiencing these types of symptoms, you’ll need to find a safe and natural way to get rid of parasites. This will allow your stomach and intestines to return to their natural state of health, reduce inflammation, and help rebalance your inflammation circuit. It will also improve your digestive efficiency to ensure you’re getting all the nutrients you need from the food you eat. Adding effective anti-parasitic foods as part of the adrenal fatigue diet will help you achieve these aims.
How can Anti-Parasitic Foods Improve Your Health?
The best way to avoid the health problems associated with intestinal parasites is by implementing strategies that will keep your stomach and intestines as healthy as possible. One of the best ways to do this is by eating anti-parasitic foods regularly. These foods work in a number of different ways—some attack parasites directly while others improve the overall health of your stomach and intestines thereby preventing the growth of harmful organisms. Eating certain foods will not only help you manage existing parasites, but will also improve your digestive health, lower inflammation, and help fight several common problems associated with AFS.
Most of these foods are easy to find and use, and some are really delicious too. So, it’s incredibly easy to add them to your diet. Here are four of the most useful anti-parasitic foods.
Garlic
Garlic is an extremely powerful medicinal food and is also one of the best anti-parasitic foods you can add to your meals. Garlic works because it contains sulfur compounds such as ajoene, alliin, allicin, and diallyl sulfide, which destroy harmful organisms. If you have an overgrowth of gut parasites due to AFS or poor health in general, then regularly eating garlic could help. In addition, eating garlic can have a warming effect on your gut and intestines, and can help your stomach produce the acids it needs for digestion. This is important because a low acid environment can encourage the growth of bacteria, yeast, and parasites in your gut, which could negatively affect your health.
Apart from its anti-parasitic functions, garlic can also improve your general health, which can be particularly beneficial if you are suffering from AFS and are experiencing a variety of seemingly unrelated health problems. Garlic contains some pretty powerful compounds, for example, its antithrombotic agents prevent blood clots and germanium helps fight cancer. This close relative to the onion also contains antilipidemic agents, which can reduce fat in your bloodstream and can even help alleviate type II diabetes.
Pineapple
The core of pineapples contain bromelain, an enzyme known for its strong anti-helminthic properties, and therefore, one of the most effective anti-parasitic foods available. The enzyme acts by destroying the cuticle of parasitic worms—their flexible exoskeleton and primary defense, against your immune system. Adding pineapple to your diet can help your immune system to ward off and clear unwanted worms from your body.
Eating pineapple can also help your digestive system in other ways. The tropical fruit improves protein digestion to boost overall digestive health and will help ensure you’re obtaining all the nutrients your body needs to function properly. This is extremely important if you’re suffering from AFS, since a properly nourished body is key to successful recovery. Another added benefit of pineapple is that it can reduce gut inflammation. In fact, pineapple has been used for hundreds of years as a safe and natural way to treat swelling and inflammation. This means pineapple may be an easy way to reduce chronic inflammation, rebalance your inflammation circuit, and therefore, reduce your AFS symptoms. And give your body the rest it needs to heal and recover.
Turmeric
Turmeric contains a plant compound called curcumin which can inhibit the growth of a number of different strains of fungi, including one of the most common, Candida albicans. Harmful strains of Candida can grow in your stomach. In fact, studies have found that turmeric is far more effective than commercial antifungal drugs. Turmeric can also boost digestion, which increases your overall gut health, and creates a hostile and unwelcoming environment for parasites. These benefits make turmeric one of the best anti-parasitic foods you can eat.
Turmeric has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for thousands of years to increase metabolism and correct many of the imbalances that lead to fatigue and sluggishness. This amazing plant can boost circulation, nourish the tissues of your body, help clean your blood, and promote better digestion. In addition, this herb can invigorate your body and brain to alleviate some of the symptoms of AFS, including fatigue and brain fog.
Pumpkin seeds
Pumpkin seeds are one of the oldest anti-parasitic foods still in use today. When eaten, they release tetracyclic triterpenes, which are compounds that can actually encourage the expulsion of parasites from your body. But that’s not all they can do! Another compound called cucurbitin paralyzes worms so they can’t cling to your intestinal walls, which means they are expelled more easily during bowel movements. Pumpkin seeds also contain a lot of magnesium, which can reduce gut inflammation and encourage the growth of important Bifidobacterium—beneficial bacteria that help your body digest dietary fiber, prevent infection, and produce essential vitamins. This type of gut bacteria is therefore essential to the overall health of your entire digestive system since it protects your gut from harmful organisms and helps your body produce vitamin B.
The magnesium found in pumpkin seeds is also important for a number of other organs and promotes heart and bone health, helps regulate blood pressure, and can even help your body cope with stress more effectively. This last benefit is very important if you suffer from AFS. By adding more pumpkin seeds to your diet you can alleviate some of the negative effects of stress and encourage your body to start healing.
The Takeaway
The health of your gut is absolutely pivotal to the health of your entire body—it affects your immune system and inflammation, and poor gut health can lead to imbalances that can affect every aspect of your health and wellbeing. This is why digestive problems, including those caused by parasites, can take such a heavy toll on your overall health. Whether you have AFS or not, you need to protect your gut health if you want to maintain a healthy body and mind. Adding anti-parasitic foods to your diet is a simple and effective way to do this. Not only will these foods keep your gut healthy, but they will also benefit the rest of your body in a number of different ways. So, if you’re looking for an easy way to safely and naturally protect your gut, try adding these foods to your meals every day.
