Homeopathy for Parasites – What You Need to Know.

What is the homeopathic approach to parasites? How does treatment with homeopathy for parasites actually work? We recently held a talk on this very topic, and in this article, I’ll share some of the main insights from that evening. I hope they’re helpful. 

Watch the video below, or keep reading, to get a comprehensive overview on the subject of parasites from a homeopathic perspective. 

The homeopathic approach to parasites

As homeopaths, we tend to look at parasites in two broad groups.

1. Endemic – in other words, they belong in us, and are part of our normal natural ecosystem
2. Non-endemic – so something that we have contracted, and those are the ones that really make us sick.

Endemic parasites form part of our ecosystem, and I don’t know if that’s generally acknowledged in a lot of circles. We have so many conversations with people who say they need to get rid of parasites. Well, you need to get rid of the ones that ail you, but not all of them should be removed, because you need some of them. Our ecosystem has an absolute myriad of microbes that live in it. Parasites are part of that. Bacteria, yeasts, fungi, all sorts of different protozoa.

We are a microbial soup.

Dr Zach Bush talks a lot about the absolute plethora of microbes that we need in order to function.

So if you think of yourself more as an ecosystem rather than just a ‘you’, then it starts changing the conversation a little bit because the more important question is – do you have the right microbes in you or do you have any microbes in you that shouldn’t be there at all?

That’s really the two broad distinctions we draw in homeopathy. Secondly, have you got too many of one microbe or a number of microbes? Because that’s what will happen when that ecosystem becomes imbalanced and typically it will go quite acidic. What you’ll find is that some of the microbes will proliferate beyond their normal levels, and that’s when you can become symptomatic.

When it comes to non-endemic microbes, your body has this amazing defence mechanism, and you’ll never miss it. So please don’t feel like you’re not aware of something being in there. If your immune system is functioning, it will let you know.

So anything is in excess, the body will get rid of it. For example with pinworms, they’ll be up at two in the morning saying their bottom’s itchy. So that’s just the body trying to rebalance and getting rid of the excess parasite. So we want some of it, but not too much, and that’s pretty much true for all of the microbes in our ecosystem. We want them to be within normal range.

While we all want perfect health all the time, that’s just not realistic. So from time to time, our ecosystem goes into its homeostatic process and gets rid of some of the excess.

Non-endemic parasites

These are the things that we can have through contaminated water. So when we hear about Dehli-belly, or Bali-belly, that would be an example. Or if you’ve gone hiking and you’ve had water with giardia.

So there are contaminants, there are parasites that we definitely don’t want in our ecosystem, but you’re not going to miss that because your body is going to go into a purge response. Typically, you’ll raise a fairly substantial fever and you’re going to start squirting somewhere. Top, bottom, skin or somewhere else – something’s going to start coming out. You’re not going to not know that it’s there. Your body has this amazing defence mechanism against microbes that are non-endemic, and you’ll never miss it. So please don’t feel like you’re not aware of something being in there.

Modern life can be at odds with the natural process

As a society, we live in a hyper-sterilised environment and we often forget that good bugs are a natural part of a healthy ecosystem. We actually need some dirt around us for us to have a healthy ecosystem. So when we are constantly bleaching and cleaning everything to an inch of its life, especially using chemicals, we are creating a situation where we become hypersensitive to any change in our environment. It’s the hypersensitivity that becomes an issue.

Nowadays our internal ecosystem is not as robust as it should be. The vast majority of people in the first world Western society have bioaccumulation of toxins, environmental toxins and they are way too stressed, and have way too little sleep. So they become chronically inflamed and chronically acidic, a perfect environment for the ecosystem and some of the microbes in that ecosystem, specifically parasites, to proliferate. What’s more, to stay that way, because this ecosystem can no longer function and rebalance as it should.

So that homeostatic process that you see with little kids who are really healthy of the body having too many pinworms and getting rid of the excess. That’s the normal natural process. But the older we get and the worse the situation gets, the less capable our ecosystem becomes. So now we just live it with that proliferation, and then one thing leads to another.

In addition, if we know the specific parasite, we also have the homeopathic nosode for that parasite, (a nosode is a remedy prepared from the diseased material in potentised form). We can safely and naturally assist the body in restoring balance, ridding itself of any parasites non-endemic to our ecosystem, without causing further imbalance or damage to the terrain. 

So when you’re on social media and every second post seems to be about parasites at the moment, then you can start going down some rabbit holes. Apparently the parasites are flying through the water and coming through your tap, there’s all sorts of conversations. It doesn’t change what you do about it. Your question is, what can I do to protect my environment? What can I do to help my internal environment to rebalance so that I’m naturally healthy?

Importance of nutrition and lifestyle

Holistically and homeopathically, optimising the environment also encompasses nutrition and lifestyle as a means to avoid the situation in the first place, as well as repair it.

Our resident holistic nutrition coach Tracey Silinzieds is a nutritionist who works homeopathically and energetically. For Tracey, food plays a larger part than just nutrients, it has a big role in healing.

“A balanced, nutrient-rich diet is always going to work to complement any kind of treatment you’re having. It’s going to help you overcome those infections that you have better because you’ve got a strong fertile soil underneath.”

“You can’t keep throwing food into your system that doesn’t support you and hope for miracles,” she said.

A diet rich in whole foods, encompassing good attention to the basics of fruit, vegetables and lean proteins is best, and supporting the gut with fermented and probiotic foods. However, she gives a word of warning about overdoing probiotics.

“If you’re dumping a heap of fermented foods on an already fermenting system, you can make yourself sick. There needs to be balance and acknowledgement that everyone’s different, what works for one person may not be right for you.”

“It’s also really important on any program when you’re detoxifying, to keep all the pathways open. So you’ve got to eat a fibre-rich diet, make sure your bowels are working properly, you’re detoxing your liver, every pathway,” she said.

While it may not be a “quick fix” Tracey says that nutrition is the cornerstone of good overall health.

“I think a lot of these things are brushed under the carpet and everything’s got a different connotation now, but when you can eat well and your body’s working well, everything works better. So it’s just an important add-on to homeopathics,” she said.

Focus on the ecosystem, not the parasite

Homeopathic approaches are about creating that whole environment that’s conducive to healing rather than just blaming the parasite.

Too much of what we see out there is “buy this product because it kills this parasite” or “use this detox program because you’re going to get rid of heavy metals and parasites” and more. The focus remains on the bug, the microbe, the product or the substance. 

Instead, we can ask a better question  – what can I do to improve the whole environment so that the environment isn’t so prone to getting sick and accumulating all of this waste, which then leads to all of the imbalance?

So it’s a higher value conversation to have with yourself rather than feeling like the victim at all points. You know how these things work – there will be another product and then there’ll be another problem. So we recommend stepping away from that and looking at the whole environment. As Tracey says, this is not the quick fix, which means it’s going to last. Because if anybody’s going to tell you, you do this protocol for 30 days and your life will be different forever, I would hope that we are savvy enough about marketing now to know that’s not true. The change has to come from inside.

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