Parasites, Heavy Metals, Nutrition, Melatonin and Nighttime: A Survivor's Guide
Hello, I am Julie Donaldson and I am a clinical nutritionist with functional health training. I specialize in restoring balance in complex, chronic and acute health conditions. I welcome you to peruse other articles that may be of interest to you in your health investigation!
“When I first talked with Julie, I’d had just about every “diagnosis” of chronic illness there was...SIBO, mast cell, bile acid malabsorption, leaky gut...and more. While these things were all happening, they were not the root causes of my issues. I had a dormant parasite infection that was never even considered. It took time and patience to handle it, but handle it we did and just WOW. I have a whole new body.”
Parasitic infections are much more common than suspected or investigated in conventional medicine. There are no great tests for comprehensive parasite diagnosis, which makes identifying the problem even trickier. Parasites are also very stealthy organisms, highly adept at hiding out in the body and highjacking the immune system’s surveillance as well as manipulating its rhythms. As research shows, “this can lead to a host-parasite arms race...”
Naturally, people are reluctant to entertain the idea of being infected with a parasite, so avoidance behaviors are also common. But, this issue is possibly one of the most damaging and overlooked of our time. Many assume that parasitic infections are “rare” in a first world country, and this simply isn’t true. This article will explore how heavy metals, your individual nutritional status, melatonin, circadian rhythms and nighttime activity fall together in ways that encourage parasites to thrive in your body. Steps to consider for achieving holistic health in the midst of this problem will be covered.
The CDC reports 14% of the US population having been infected with parasites at some point. This number, however, is thought to be extraordinarily low because of low diagnostic reliability that is due to false stool test results, incomplete species testing, low overall investigation and misunderstanding of symptoms. In my own practice and that of my colleagues, the discovery of parasites through provocation is around 70% in client populations. This number cannot be extrapolated to the general population but is telling in and of itself.
What are the symptoms of parasitic infections?
Most parasites come from contaminated food (especially fresh water fish, pork and vegetables) and water, but parasites live everywhere you eat, play and sleep. They are in or on:
All animals (whether wild or your pet)
All bodies of water (lakes, streams, puddles, swimming pools and rivers)
All soil (whether in the mountains or your lawn in the city)
Symptoms of parasites in the body can be varied and numerous. Here are a number of the most common ones:
Digestive problems, including unexplained constipation, diarrhea and persistent gas
Muscle and joint pain
Fatigue, even with adequate sleep
Constant hunger and/or never feeling full, even when you are eating enough
Bile acid malabsorption
Iron deficiency anemia
Insomnia
Teeth grinding
Skin issues, including unexplained rashes, eczema, hives, and itching
Unexplained feelings of anxiety
Recurrent yeast infections
Recurrent herpes outbreaks
Itching of the anus, vagina and sometimes ears
Headaches
Vision problems
Compromised immunity/frequent illness
Adrenal fatigue
Anyone reading this can see that these symptoms could (and often do) occur with a whole host of conditions and diseases. This is part of what makes diagnosis so challenging. Doctors always begin with the most likely condition to cause a symptom and the most common tests and first steps to address it. Additionally, many parasites are not exiting the body in the stool but have colonized and are avoiding expulsion and recognition. Let’s consider the means by which this is happening.
The host and nutrition
One of the most significant recent studies has shown that the number of parasites present in the body as well as the nutritional status of the host are key to long-term survival of the parasites.
The team found evidence that more food increases the odds of a long-term stay. Historically, the perspective has been that food only mattered for the host. Within the last 10 years, there has been more of a focus on what nutrition is doing to the parasite. The amount of available fat (and its inflammatory state) in the body was one critical discovery around the long-term survival of the parasites.
Our bodies are brilliantly equipped with a guardian-at-the-gate known as the immune system. Any and all nutritional habits that stress the immune system are going to contribute to parasitic survival, inclusive of dietary excesses and insufficiencies. To what extent the phase of immune rhythms is due to the host’s homeostasis or protecting against invasion is unknown. If these two functions are incompatible, the host faces a trade-off that parasites could exploit by invading hosts when their defenses are down (literally).
Research shows that zinc and selenium are key factors for fighting parasitic invasions, as is vitamin A. This same research also shows that certain diets help to combat inflammatory obesity patterns as well as regulate blood sugar., two other key elements in fighting these infections. Paradoxically, specific use of a high fat diet (HFD) reduces the inflammatory nature of fat tissue while increasing IL-13 activity that helps the body to expel parasites. This application also increases macrophage (immune “gobbler” cells) activity in the existing fat tissue, improving immune response. Indisputable and researched repeatedly are the harmful effects of sugar on the immune system. Also well researched are the detrimental effects of sugar on the microbiota of the GI tract. Now, add to this the findings that poor microbiota integrity affects the body’s ability to quickly eradicate parasites.
Interestingly, one study shows that some specific micronutrients, vitamin C and vitamin B12 in particular, can actually prolong the lifespan of the parasite. This is a key reason to work closely with a skilled practitioner to find the “Goldilocks” level of all nutrients in your unique case.
Authors of this study also conclude: “micronutrients obtained from the diet or supplied by the microbiota affect human health by complicated mechanisms that are difficult to systematically characterize”. This leads us back to the very important and constant reminder here at True Nature that personalized nutrition is the only way to properly approach biochemical individuality. Your Metabolic Type® also feeds your genetic microbiome.
Lastly, we understand via research that when organs and tissues function with maximal efficiency and synchronize efforts through circadian rhythms, “futile metabolic cycles” between feeding and fasting are prevented. What does this mean? It means that the right amount of food, the right foods themselves, and the right timing between meals optimizes this efficiency alongside rhythms that are in sync. Too frequent or too seldom eating places stresses on these metabolic cycles.
Strength in numbers
Though the specifics aren't totally clear, prior research led the same team of researchers who observed nutritional status to suspect that a critical mass of parasites may unleash a barrage of molecules that confuse or suppress the immune system and allow the parasites to begin highjacking a host's nutrients.
The study authors state: "Anything that a parasite does to increase its own access to resources indirectly deprives the host of them”. The more parasites there are, the better they are at manipulating resources, and the better they are at manipulating, the better the parasites grow. And then they're even better at manipulating. So you get this positive-feedback loop that allows them to establish a chronic infection."
Some parasites, such as liver flukes, can reproduce at the rate of 500 eggs per male/female pair daily. This poses a very long-term and threatening scenario for the host to “win” if all the contributing factors are not understood and addressed sufficiently.
The heavy metal connection
Heavy metals in our environment are widespread and quite problematic. The majority come from mining of gold and the burning of coal, the residues of which end up in our air, water and soils. While there is little human research on heavy metals and parasites, there is actually quite significant research on this connection in fish. And since a large percentage of human parasitic infection is now associated with fish consumption and with metal concentrations in parasites, we want to give detailed attention to this complicating factor.
While mercury (and heavy metals in general) are a huge topic in and of themselves, it is important to highlight that long term exposure to mercury compounds from different sources e.g. water, food, soil and air create toxic effects on cardiovascular, pulmonary, urinary, gastrointestinal and neurological systems as well as skin.
An 8-year study revealed that mercury content in the shallower ocean areas has tripled since the beginning of the Industrial revolution. Calculations from the study suggest that the ocean contains about 60,000 to 80,000 tons of mercury, with almost two thirds of the mercury present in water 100 meters or shallower. The remaining one third is in intermediate waters. “Higher mercury concentrations in shallower waters could increase the amount of toxin accumulating in food fish, exposing humans to greater risk of mercury poisoning”, states the author.
All clients at True Nature are advised to use binders when consuming fish, of any kind. It used to be that the main cautions were against regular consumption of ocean fish. This is because we know that mercury levels are high in ocean fish. Heavy metals are a common toxin in marine environments thanks to industrial waste.
In studies with both sharks and freshwater fish , researchers have looked at parasites taken from these species and found levels of cadmium and lead 278 to 455 times higher than in the fish themselves. What does this mean? Parasites consume heavy metals and seek out environments where they are abundant.
Again, let’s have some brief discussion on cadmium and lead - cadmium is destructive to bone, and bone health is key to whole body health. Cadmium may also cause hair loss and iron deficiency. Its antagonist is zinc, so low levels of zinc in the body can increase toxicity.
Lead is a systemic toxicant affecting virtually every organ system in the body. Its most profound impacts are upon the central nervous system, especially the developing brain. Consequently, children have the highest risk of suffering from the neurotoxic effects of lead. Lead’s ability to pass through the blood-brain barrier is due in large part to its substitution for calcium ions. Within the brain, lead-induced damage in the prefrontal cerebral cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum can lead to a variety of neurological disorders including brain and nerve damage, mental retardation, behavioral problems, and possibly the degenerative neurological diseases. At the molecular level, lead interferes with the regulatory action of calcium on cell functions, disrupting many intracellular biological activities.
in yet another study, researchers found that concentrations of metals in water, the livers, and gonad tissues of fish samples revealed a strong link between them. Concentrations were higher in the liver - a result of its role as a detoxification and toxicant storage organ in the body. Heavy metal accumulation altered the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the liver and gonads inclusive of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH). Heavy metals may cause the inactivation of these important antioxidant enzymes. Alongside the contamination, 80% of fish disease resulted from parasitic infection. The link between the two is clear.
Lastly, the results of a study of animals infected with liver flukes showed that heavy metal levels were highest in the flukes themselves, followed by the levels in the liver and in muscle tissues. These authors also state “The adverse effects of the high concentrations of heavy metals in the host body on the immune system cannot be ignored.”
All living beings are accumulating heavy metals.
They must be regularly methylated and bound in order to protect health.
Parasites, nighttime and the full moon
As noted earlier in the article, parasites have the capability to monitor and manipulate rhythms in their host. Massimo Pigluicci noted in his 2001 book, “to organize rhythms is to respond directly when reliable time-of-day cues appear in the environment. In evolutionary ecology, this is called “phenotypic plasticity” and is defined very broadly as a change in phenotype (which includes traits, behaviors, etc.) in response to environmental change”. In simple terms, this means that parasites monitor and sense regular cues and take advantage of disruptions and/or opportune times to feed, reproduce and increase activity.
Rhythms offer parasites the opportunities to synchronize activities with other individuals in their population and to express traits at specific times of day. Let’s discuss some examples of this.
Red blood cells (RBCs) are a key parasite resource and follow rhythmic releases from our bone marrow and during redox states. They carry key nutrients such as B vitamins, zinc, copper and magnesium. Through monitoring of this rhythmic release, parasites can enjoy heavy feeds and also cause depletion of these key nutrients in the human host.
Hormones such as insulin, glucocorticoids and vasodilators are also rhythmic and available in the blood for parasites to monitor. Glucose is a major source of food/energy for parasites, and temperature changes (associated with vasodilation) are utilized for developmental transitions of the parasites. Instability in rhythms that are more common in illness states are capitalized upon by the parasites.
A most critical understanding of the hijacking behavior of parasites is their rhythmic migration during the host’s resting phase. (This has been observed in multiple studies.) This means that nighttime is prime time for parasites hosting in the human body. Reduction of immune, cellular repair and detoxification processes at night all create opportunities for increased parasitic activity. This activity provides us with the potential for activation of the nervous system and disrupted sleep.
The period of the full moon lunar cycle is an especially opportune time for parasites to increase their activity at night. Why is this? During full moon cycles, the body produces less melatonin and more cortisol and serotonin. The additional serotonin is crucial, as it has been found that parasites have serotonin receptors in their nervous systems, suckers and digestive tracts, utilized for mobility and greater sensing capacity of their host for attaching and feeding. Greater mobility also contributes to higher reproductive activity.
Equally impactful is reduced melatonin production in the full moon phase. Melatonin is believed to influence immune cells leading to modulation of the proliferative response of stimulated lymphocytes as well as cytokine production. This immunomodulatory capacity of melatonin is key to keeping inflammation in check while the body utilizes specific processes to fight the parasitic infection. Combine the increased activity of parasites during this phase with less immune modulation and the timing is perfect for worsening of infections. (It is also perfect for strategically handled protocols to fight these infections!)
Other study shows that organisms seek more feeding during the full moon lunar cycle and this may also be true of parasites.
Ciracdian rhythms are balanced by a multitude of factors, including homeostasis. The reverse is also true, in that circadian rhythms impact our ability to maintain homeostasis. This important feedback loop involves the delicate balance of numerous functions in the body. Excess stress, too much hormesis, improper nutrition for the individual, etc. all contribute to disrupted rhythms and homeostasis.
Circadian rhythms and detoxification
Avoiding or eradicating parasitic infections requires very careful attention to detoxification. Your body cleanses itself via the following mechanisms:
mitochondrial activity
lymphatics and fascial clearing
bile production, liver function, lungs and kidneys
skin, sweating
GI tract and bowel elimination
brain and glymphatic cleansing
Your body utilizes the 3 phases of liver detoxification at different times of the day and night. Phase I breaks apart toxins and breaks them into polar molecules. This breaking apart is called metabolism, and the substance that is formed is called a metabolite. Phase II binds a cofactor to the metabolite from Phase I and makes it water soluble and easily excretable. Phase I takes place almost entirely during the day, while phase II occurs during both day and night. Elimination is the final phase, occurring for most people early in the day through the bowels and throughout the day via the kidneys. Circadian rhythms of the organs throughout 24 hours play a role in holistic health. When organs and/or systems are compromised, parasites are likely to manipulate the environment and take advantage of vulnerability.
Circadian rhythm of the organs
You can see from this diagram that the liver and gallbladder rhythms (adjacent to each other) are highest in the middle of the night. Wakefulness during these hours is quite common in those with chronic illness and is indicative of stress/disruption in the organ and its rhythm.
One of the main phase II detoxicants is glutathione. Studies show that glutathione is higher at night in healthy subjects and supports better sleep. Glutathione is one of the body’s most important (and self-producing) antioxidants. It is regularly tested/monitored in clients here at True Nature.
Another major factor of detoxification which includes both the liver and the gallbladder is bile acid production, release and synthesis. Parasitic infections disrupt the normal processes of bile synthesis and can cause bile acid malabsorption. Some types of infections can also block the bile ducts with parasites, their waste and their dead remains. This can cause a secondary infection being released into the colon from the bile ducts.
Of great import is also the fact that disrupted circadian rhythms negatively impact bile synthesis. This circles back to the feedback loop between circadian rhythms and homeostasis. Wrong diets, wrong timing and the failure of the body to maintain homeostasis can create issues with bile production, quality and synthesis.
Detox pathways
Brain and glympatic cleansing occur during the night. When the nervous and glymphatic systems are overburdened with toxins, this may contribute to the heightened activity of parasites at night.
Summations and solutions
This is a complicated and unattractive problem, to say the least. No one wants to deal with parasites, but turning a blind eye to their presence (including not even considering it) can be dangerous and make it much harder to resolve the problem. Long-term immune dysfunction is possible in their presence, and because of their hiding and hijacking capabilities, you can be in inclined to believe it’s something else. The presence of heavy metals in our environment and our bodies creates a ripe environment for parasites, as do nutritional and blood sugar imbalances. Our all-important homeostasis and circadian rhythms either contribute to or detract from parasites’ interest in our bodies as hosts.
If you have any of the above-listed symptoms and your health is not improving at an acceptable rate, it may behoove you to consider parasites as a cause.
Here are the steps to design a solution:
Understand the intersections. Why? Because there are a whole bunch of do-it-yourself parasite “cleanses” out there, and if you don’t understand your detox/methylation capacity or your immune expressions or your vulnerability to derailed rhythms/homeostasis, you may suffer if you attempt to eradicate something on your own. Low energy, brain fog, bloating and pain are all symptoms of a system not ready to purge parasites - all of them can lead to more serious imbalances.
Utilize preparation and provocation. Preparation comes first and includes the next 5 steps.
Complete your personalized nutrition assessment with MT® and practice its fundamentals for at least 1 month prior to any cleansing steps. Eliminate all sugar from the diet.
Complete appropriate individual testing for biochemical & methylation imbalances.
Initiate and maintain protocols designed expressly for your needs for at least 1 month prior to any cleansing steps. These protocols give you foundational support for weak areas that pertain to your ability to utilize all detox/drainage organs and processes in your body. This would include some of the specific nighttime supports mentioned if needed.
Initiate and maintain support practices for at least 2 weeks that help parasite cleanses to be better tolerated and more successful. These include coffee enemas, sauna/sweating and lymphatic drainage.
Initiate and maintain use of toxin binders (appropriate to your test results) for at least 2 weeks prior to any cleansing steps.
Provoke parasite expulsion with appropriate substances under careful supervision. This includes specific foods and herbs that are anti-parasitic. Almost no medical stool tests will detect a live parasite, making provocation a very important step.
With evidence/physical expulsion, fine-tune the longer term protocol ingredients and cycles under careful supervision. (NOTE: most parasite cleansing programs require 4-6 months to completely eradicate all mature and egg forms of parasites. Cycling treatment is a must.) Killing substances, immune modulation substances, biotoxin substances and metal binders are all pieces of the puzzle. Different organisms respond to different substances. This should always be an individualized approach.
Consider ongoing full-moon parasite cleansing protocols. Once you have eradicated an active infection, maintenance over full moon cycles can be very helpful to prevent any further infection, but should only be undertaken after a supervised program. Depending upon the sensitivity of the person, 3-day up to 7-day cleanses may be chosen.
Please contact me at Julie@truenaturehealthconsulting.com to discuss the possibility of this health condition in your body. A personalized approach will be taken to assure success and resolution for you going forward. We provide holistic telehealth services.