60 Million Americans Have This Hidden Infection Right Now

You eat clean, you exercise, and yet you are constantly exhausted, bloated, and struggling with brain fog. Your doctor says your labs are normal, but what if conventional tests are entirely missing the root cause?. Today, we uncover the hidden epidemic of parasitic infections—an issue affecting over 60 million Americans and 1 billion people worldwide. Dr. Axe's FREE Heal from Parasites Protocol PDF: https://guide.thehealthinstitute.com/l-324 Sponsors: Sunlighten Sauna: https://get.sunlighten.com/axepodcast Manukora Manuka Honey: https://manukora.com/axe Caraway Home: carawayhome.com/drjoshaxe (Use code DRJOSHAXE) for an exclusive discount Watch The Dr. Josh Axe Show every Monday & Thursday on YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@drjoshaxe?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ 🎧 Early Access! Our podcast listeners get every episode early, and you can tune in and be a part of our exclusive listeners below → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Pre-order my NEW BOOK, Heal Your Cells → https://bit.ly/3QJBcQ5 Watch my free training on how to naturally balance your blood sugar and reverse your symptoms → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DrAxeDiabetesClass.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Discover practical steps you can take today to start healing your thyroid naturally → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DrAxeThyroidClass.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ If you’re ready to start feeling like yourself again and balance your hormones, take my free class → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DrAxeHormoneClass.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Uncover what’s really going on in your body with advanced biomarker testing for hormones, thyroid, and metabolism— plus a 1-hour consultation with a Senior Health Advisor! → ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MyBloodWork.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ CONNECT WITH DR. JOSH AXE ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Website⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up for my newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ask me a question⁠⁠⁠⁠ DISCLAIMER This content is strictly the opinion of Dr. Josh Axe and is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of medical advice or treatment from a personal physician. All viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Neither Dr. Axe nor the publisher of this content takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement or lifestyle program. MB01FKA4YOASPUW

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Josh Axe?

  All right, so you feel tired all the time. Your guts are wrecked, you blow after every single meal, maybe even grind your teeth at night. You crave sugar constantly. You've been to several doctors and they all tell you you are fine. Listen, you're not fine. You may have a parasite. Welcome to the Dr. Josh Akk Show.

• 0:34Josh Axe?

  And so here's what you're going to learn over the next 45 minutes. The 10 hidden signs you may have a parasite. I'll go through how to test for parasites the right way. Listen, people are missing this all the time. People have them, they don't know they have them. I'm going to go through the shocking link between parasites and brain cancer. I'm also going to walk you through my four-phase protocol for a parasite cleanse. Okay, so there's a lot of parasite cleanses out there. I'm going to teach you how to do it the right way and the most effective way. Also talk about why pork is a parasite carrier and what to do about it. Also go through the top eight supplements and herbs that are helpful for fighting and killing parasites.

• 1:17Josh Axe?

  Also, I'll go through any advanced therapies and more all on this show. Before I dive in though, if you want a free parasite symptom checklist and a protocol, go to the link in the show notes and you'll find it there where you can download the free PDF starter kit on how to cleanse parasites and heal your body from parasites. Now here's the reality, parasites are not just a third world problem. This is a developing world problem. In fact, 60 million plus people in America are infected with toxoplasma right now, according to the CDC. Think about that, 60 million people.

• 1:56Josh Axe?

  And over 1 billion people globally carry intestinal parasites. And most people who carry parasites, they don't know it because their symptoms might be there, but they're too quiet, right? Or they think that their symptoms are from something else entirely. So I want to walk you through the 10 hidden signs that you may actually have a parasite. And if you check three or more, then a parasite should belong on your list of suspects. I'm going to walk you through exactly how to get rid of parasites the natural way with an anti-parasite diet. So we'll go through the top foods, top supplements, top herbs, the time of the month to do a parasite cleanse, and so much more. But first, I want to start off with the biggest warning signs that you have a parasite.

• 2:40Josh Axe?

  By the way, there are 60 million people in the United States of America and a billion people worldwide that have parasites living in their body. Here's the 10 warning signs. Number one, chronic bloating. If you're getting bloating, especially after meals, that is probably the single biggest warning sign. There can be other causes, but that is a big one. Number two, chronic fatigue. If you're tired all the time, you almost have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning. That could be a warning sign. Sugar cravings. Parasites love to eat sugar, as a lot of microorganisms, including candida do. Teeth grinding, okay? Grinding your teeth at night, that's a big warning sign. Now, here's another big one, anal itching, especially at night. Listen, if you have number five and you're dealing with number one, that is a very heavy

• 3:25Josh Axe?

  sign that you've got parasites. Number six, skin issues, rashes, eczema, hives. Number seven, brain fog, right? If you can't think clearly, poor short-term memory. Iron deficiency. Did you know that parasites eat up iron in your body? They eat up B12. They cause major nutrient depletions. Number nine, joint muscle pain. If your joints hurt a lot. And then number 10, flares around a full moon. Okay? Those are all symptoms and warning signs. Now, I also want to mention one big condition that parasites have been connected to, and that is cancer. Okay? There are multiple studies, many studies, showing that if you have a parasitic infection and you don't treat it and fix it, long-term, it greatly

• 4:09Josh Axe?

  increases your risk of cancer. Now, let me walk you through exactly how parasites wreck your body and exactly what happens. The first thing that happens is we typically get exposure. can be from travel, maybe it's a trip to Mexico, but it also comes from things like eating pork or raw fish or drinking water that's not fully sanitized or swimming in a river or lake or from your pet like a dog or cat. So there are a lot of exposures we don't realize that's what happens. And then what happens is parasites will colonize and set up residence in your gut typically or another area of your body, even your brain. They will then damage your gut lining,

• 4:49Josh Axe?

  causing a condition called leaky gut, which then can cause all kinds of digestive symptoms or immune issues. Then from there, they will cause constant inflammation in your body. This is where you just don't feel well. Number five is they will start to steal nutrients like iron, vitamin B12, zinc and magnesium. And then they release toxins throughout your bloodstream. Okay. And then that can lead to some of your symptoms like the fatigue, like the brain fog, the bloating, even anxiety, some of those health issues. And here's what happens to most people. You go into your doctor and by the time you have symptoms, most of the time you're already on step five or six. Okay. You're kind of later in here down the cascade.

• 5:32Josh Axe?

  And doctors will often just, you know, treat the symptoms instead of a source. Okay. So they say, oh, you've got bloating. Let's take this medication. Oh, you've got these hives or rashes. Let's take a steroid. And they typically don't do the right type of testing to find out what's actually going on. Now I want to dive into something that is also incredibly important here about parasites is there is a very close connection between parasitic infections and brain cancer. Researchers compared brain cancer rates in those countries that did have high levels of parasites, specifically one parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, okay, in the population versus not. And here's what they found.

• 6:14Josh Axe?

  The countries with the most parasitic infections also had the highest rates of brain cancer. And in countries like Brazil, Iran, France and Madagascar, brain cancer was extremely high.

• 6:26Josh Axe?

  And so were parasite infections. In countries where they had very low parasite infections, like South Korea, the United Kingdom, Japan, and Norway, very low levels of brain cancer like glioblastoma and others. Now, here's another study on a completely different type of parasite called a tapeworm and brain tumors. And researchers found when there was a specific tapeworm in the brain, it would actually lodge in the brain, and brain tumors often developed in the exact same spot. So they found in doing these biopsies that oftentimes when people have brain tumors, there are parasites in the area as well. Same location, same tissue, same person.

• 7:10Josh Axe?

  The brain tumor grew right where the parasitic infection had been living. And the reason why this happens is this goes all the way back into Chinese medicine of looking at, okay, when you have an area of the body where there is stagnation, okay? So there's lack of blood flow, lack of oxygen. Again, think of a swamp instead of a river. What happens if you have water that sits still? Algae starts to grow, okay? When you have an area of the body, of the brain, specifically as we're talking about here, when there is stagnation, there's no movement, no nutrients in and out, it becomes like a swamp and everything starts to grow there. Parasites, certain type of bacteria, but cancer cells as well. And this is why one of the greatest things you can do to fight and beat cancer is

• 7:53Josh Axe?

  bring a lot of oxygen and blood flow to the area and a lot more fluid and nutrient exchange. That's one of the big things you want to do in order to help the area heal. This is one of the reasons why one cancer therapy people often use is called hyperthermia. It's heating an area of the body up or the whole body up really warm. Because what happens when your body gets really hot? There's more circulation there versus if it gets cold, there's less circulation. So when you heat up the body, there's more blood flow, there's more movement. There are things that you can do there to sweat out those cells. Or a similar thing, hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This is where you take oxygen and you drive it deeper into the cells and tissues. So there's more exchange, more oxygen moving in and out of an area.

• 8:34Josh Axe?

  That makes that area inhospitable to parasites and cancer cells. So driving oxygen, driving heat, driving blood, driving nutrients. This is how you heal from things like chronic parasites and cancer.

• 8:51Josh Axe?

  Cancer, dementia, heart disease, they're coming for so many people. And it's not just because of what most people think, which is that it's bad luck or bad genetics. The truth is, your daily choices are either creating health or setting the stage for disease, and your doctor is probably reading your blood work all wrong. They're missing the cellular issues behind the symptoms. I'm currently offering a simple at-home blood test that actually tests for the right things. And just as importantly, it comes with proper interpretation of the results. This new test flips the script. The future of interpreting test results is here.

• 9:32Josh Axe?

  Here's how scientists believe that it works most of the time between parasites and cancer. They believe that parasites will migrate to an area of the body, like the brain, and you will start to form a cyst of a parasite in that area, okay? And then over time, parasites will damage that area, they'll damage the mitochondria, they will make that tissue sick, and then, and that'll happen over the course of a year. But then after that, a tumor grows in around the same spot where the parasite lived, and then that's where a brain tumor starts to grow and develop in the exact same area. Listen, it's not a coincidence, it's a cause and effect relationship. And this happens throughout the body, by the way, it's not just parasites.

• 10:13Josh Axe?

  If you have certain types of viruses like long COVID or Epstein-Barr or bacteria H. pylori, mold exposure, those will go to an area of the body, create toxicity and increase cancer risk or another type of disease risk in that same tissue area. And this is why it's so important to get to the root cause. I have a cousin who was diagnosed with a brain tumor. And he's outlived already by far what most people live. He had a diagnosis called glioblastoma, which most people die from in less than one year. And he has been able to survive and thrive because, rather than just going and treating cancer, he went and did things like,

• 10:56Josh Axe?

  did a parasite cleanse, did ivermectin, did a whole protocol for not only killing the cancer cells in the area, but also for killing the parasites in his body. Now, listen, I'm not saying all cancer is connected to parasitic infections, but the research shows that many types of cancer, especially brain cancer, has a parasite component. Here's kind of the five-stage progression of how a parasite becomes a tumor. It starts with an infection, right? A parasite enters the body and lodges in tissue, okay? And this may persist for years silently. And then the next step is inflammation. So your immune cells are trying to attack and clean up the area, if your immune system is working properly in the first place. And then free radicals flood the area and damage the tissue, okay? And then what you have there is DNA damage.

• 11:42Josh Axe?

  And these free radicals corrode and damage the DNA. And then that causes something called tumor suppression genes, and they get silenced, okay? Because of the DNA damage. So now, think about this. Your cells were saying, "Help me, help me, help me." But now they're damaged. So they can't. So then you have immune invasion. So parasite proteins disable cancer surveillance. And so these mutated cells that are cancerous go uncaught. And this is where a tumor forms. And they start to replicate and grow. But basically, again, here's what happens. Parasites go in the area. They damage your DNA and your surveillance cells that tell your body you have cancer in the first place. The cells are so damaged, it can't tell your body anymore.

• 12:25Josh Axe?

  So cancer starts to grow and thrive without your immune system trying to fix the problem. That's what happens in the body when we see a parasitic infection over time goes unchecked. Now, as I mentioned, Chinese medicine has been talking about this phenomenon in its own way for over 3,000 years, okay? And when I look at this, I want to share with you kind of the Chinese medicine view of actually what causes this to happen in an area of the body. Because, listen, some people can be exposed to parasites. And they will actually then just rid their body of the parasites. Their body will, their immune system will kill the parasites. The intestines and liver will excrete and get rid of the parasites, and there's no issue, okay? The body is functioning like it should.

• 13:07Josh Axe?

  However, if the body becomes weak in a few areas, or if the environment becomes... Unhealthy. That's where parasites can live and thrive in your body. And by the way, Chinese medicine has talked about this for over 3,000 years. And there's really three main patterns that can contribute. One is what they call in Chinese medicine spleen sheet deficiency, which in the Western world, we would essentially call weak digestion or unhealthy gut microbiome. If your gut microbiome becomes weak and unhealthy, that becomes a major issue. And that, and as you've heard, 70 to 80% of your immune system is in your gut. So if your gut's unhealthy and your digestion and your microbiome are unhealthy, that then weakens your immune system. Okay, so this sort of digestive weakness,

• 13:51Josh Axe?

  and it tends to start where, where you aren't able to properly break down food and absorb nutrients. So for instance, if you would have a lot of food sensitivities, or if you tend to get bloating after meals, or you know you have poor nutrient absorption, all right? Constipation, any of those digestive issues, those can be tied to the spleen sheet deficiency or this digestive weakness. So if your digestive system is unhealthy, that creates an environment where parasites can grow. And the other one in Chinese medicine is called damp heat or just dampness. So dampness is where, when you overconsume sugar, dairy, refined carbs, alcohol, processed foods,

• 14:33Josh Axe?

  those foods are almost, they're damp forming. So think about anything that would cause mucus buildup. Like, so when I was young, when I was a kid, even today, actually, the same would be true. If I would drink milk, within minutes, I would have phlegm in my throat. And then I would get bronchitis in the winter. And that would give me, that would give me health issues. When I would drink conventional milk, when I was in my teens and in early twenties. And, and so that, that caused me to create more mucus. If you have a food you're sensitive to and you eat it, or you have any of the foods we talked about, especially sugar and refined carbs. If you overconsume oils and fats that your liver can't keep up with, that creates mucus and dampness. Not only, you might have a little bit in your throat,

• 15:15Josh Axe?

  but imagine now, like, almost like snot or mucus that is in your intestine and your colon. So maybe you don't. Feel it or even notice it, but it's actually in your digestive tract. Parasites love that. They thrive in what we call a damp environment. We call it dampness because, think about it where mold grows. You know, we actually, Chelsea and I had flooding in our house because we had pipes burst here in our home, and right afterwards, the immediate thing we did is we had air moving constantly, and we did everything we could to dry things out. Because if the area stayed damp, what's gonna happen? Mold, right? Mold, bacteria, those sort of things can grow in this damp environment. The same thing's going on with your body.

• 15:59Josh Axe?

  If your body is too damp, and if there's not, and what causes dampness? Overconsuming these foods, and then also lack of movement, right? Stagnation where things aren't moving. That's what causes it, okay? So if you have weak digestion, too much dampness in your digestive system, and your system isn't moving enough from a condition like constipation, your risk of having a parasitic infection, or by the way, any infection, or even cancer, goes up dramatically. And that's why if you're dealing with weak digestion, weak immunity, constipation, you want to do everything you can to start to fix those issues. And some of those symptoms I talked about earlier are related to this.

• 16:41Josh Axe?

  Bloating, any digestive issues, constipation, skin rashes and breakouts on your skin. That's typically a gut issue. Your body can't deal with it, now it's coming out through your skin. You know, those are the biggest warning signs typically. And then those cravings for sweets, that can be another one. And what I often find is east and west are saying the same thing. When I look at Western functional medicine, part of what I practice along with sort of the ancient form of medicine, you know, they'll tell you that cancer thrives in a certain type of terrain, a certain type of environment. So all the medical studies show that cancer loves chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, right, because now cells can't communicate, immune dysfunction, and a corrupted gut microbiome, right?

• 17:26Josh Axe?

  And what does ancient medicine say? It says digestive deficiency, damp accumulation, lack-

• 17:33Josh Axe?

  Of stagnation, right? And then, you know, functional medicine calls it mitochondria health and ATP. And the ancient forms of medicine call it cheat. They're the same thing, different language. Here's the thing to know. Parasites don't cause cancer in a vacuum. They cause cancer by corrupting the environment and the terrain. And you want to take care of these things as early as possible. Now, I also wanted to show you. No, I also wanted to go through how this isn't theoretical. Medical journal after medical journal has shown this connection with numerous different types of parasites being linked to different types of cancer. There's some that are connected to bladder cancer, others, colon cancer, others, bile duct

• 18:18Josh Axe?

  cancer, others, we talked about brain cancer, Burkitt's lymphoma, and the others, glioma. So all of these different types of parasites were connected to different types of cancer. By the way, if this is opening your eyes, I want to encourage you to hit the subscribe button wherever you listen, whether it's on YouTube or Apple or Spotify. Hit subscribe so you don't miss this sort of content. And number two, share this episode. Think about one person who is struggling with a chronic health symptom and share this with them. It might just transform their health and life. And I know we've got so many mission and purpose driven people on the show here. So thanks so much for sharing and subscribing. It means so much to me, so thanks for your support. All right, now I want to dive into where you're getting parasites from.

• 19:01Josh Axe?

  Okay, I want to walk you through the top five ways that you are getting parasites. The number one way in the United States people get parasites today is from contaminated water. This could be your drinking water. It could be, people don't realize is pools. Chlorine doesn't kill all types of parasites. It kills many, but not all. And of course, lakes and rivers, well water. Okay, but, but your water being contaminated is the number one source today. And then after this, it can be unwashed produce and salad bars. Okay, lettuce, berries, herbs grown and rinsed in contaminated water again. That's a big cause of giardia today. Okay, so unwashed produce. And then we have undercooked meat, sushi, and raw.

• 19:43Josh Axe?

  Fish and of course pork, okay? Now sushi grade fish oftentimes still carries parasites. Undercooked pork and beef carry tapeworms. And sometimes even if pork is pretty well cooked, it can still carry parasites. And the number four exposure are pets. And my two year old loves our dogs. And we have a littler dog, a King Charles Kevlar Spaniel. We have a larger dog, which is a Great Pyrenees standard poodle mix. And she loves to hug them. She is a total animal person. She'll be that person with my wife one day, who will have an animal island and rescue all the animals. You know, so she absolutely loves dogs. But on occasion, they lick her face.

• 20:28Josh Axe?

  I've actually seen them, I think, lick her mouth. And but and listen, and I try and absolutely avoid that at all costs. But this is a way that a lot of people today are actually getting parasites. It's from their animals, their dogs and their cats can carry things like roundworms. This is a, this is a big exposure. Cats even more so than dogs, by the way. And number five, international travel and imported food. Okay, going to Mexico, Southeast Asia, India, South America. If you ever came home with traveler's diarrhea, that's often from a parasite. You know, I know I've been to mission trips to China and Africa.

• 21:10Josh Axe?

  And both times I had, you know, some digestive issues after that. And by the way, after that, I did a bunch of clay. I did a whole cleanse, which I'm going to share with you here in a few moments on what to do if you get it. But again, there's no doubt that international travel can be related as well. Now I want to walk you through why pork is the number one parasite carrying meat today. And it's not just because sometimes it's undercooked. It's the biology of the pig itself. Here's a few things to know. Pigs have weak stomach acid. Pigs have weaker gastric acid than humans. So parasites pass through the stomach alive. They survive digestion. They embed in the muscle and in the fat of pork.

• 21:55Josh Axe?

  So when you are eating pork, you are oftentimes getting either dead or sometimes alive parasites. Reason number two, they have a scavenger diet. Pigs eat anything. Rodents, garbage, feces, dead animals. Whatever the pig eats, the parasites colonize. Then you eat the pig. And here's another massive reason why pork is the worst food when it comes to parasites, is there are specific types of parasites where they create larvae. So they're babies, right? In the pork muscle and fat. So cysts can sometimes survive, especially if it's undercooked or if it's cured. Even some smoking. Sometimes these parasites can survive.

• 22:39Josh Axe?

  And this is why the Bible is so clear about not eating pork and other animals that have a similar risk. Is that, you know, we look at the food laws in Moses and they lay out really clearly, do not eat pork, okay? Because there's a good likelihood you could get a parasite from this and it could ravage and damage your digestive system, your immune system, and cause cancer. And just because we're under a new law in the New Testament doesn't now make pork healthy. Pork's always been unhealthy. And I often get the question, does cooking eliminate the risk? Listen, cooking over 150 degrees Fahrenheit does kill most parasites. However, not all. There's some evidence of this that cured, smoked and dry-aged pork,

• 23:22Josh Axe?

  especially prosciutto, salami and jerky, frequently retain viable cyst-based parasites. And so here's what I would suggest for you. If you are a pork eater, I would recommend try not to eat pork, okay? What I would recommend is switching to beef bacon. Listen, I know turkey bacon doesn't hold its weight. It's not quite the same. But you can go to, I know we've gone to Whole Foods Market or health food stores and ordered on low. Beef bacon and that tastes great or I love turkey bacon. I do that too. But beef bacon and turkey bacon, much better options. Stay away from the pork because both the Bible and science have proven that it is not a healthy option for protein. You're much better off doing beef or venison or lamb

• 24:07Josh Axe?

  or any other type of source of protein. Now here's something else that shocks some people about parasites. Okay. And by the way, so we talked about a lot there that there are a lot of exposures from pork to raw fish to our water to. And by the way, here's something you want to do with your produce. And this, this can help with a lot of things, including parasites, but especially bad bacteria. When you get your vegetables at home, you can bathe them or your produce, it could be a head of lettuce, it could be berries. Soak them in water and baking soda for, for, for one to two minutes. Okay. Just really soak them in there and that actually is helpful for parasites. Or you can do a rinse with apple cider vinegar. There's a number, a number of things you can do, but buying organic.

• 24:53Josh Axe?

  And then from there also washing your produce with baking soda is one thing you can do that is very helpful there to eliminate some level of risk. Now here's another thing that really surprises some people, but it'll make sense when you understand the connection between parasites and your gut microbiome, and that is parasites steal nutrients from your body and cells. The number one nutrient that parasites will steal is iron or ferritin, right? So there are certain types of worms that directly impact your blood negatively. And this is why you get iron deficiency anemia. And if you're a person and maybe you did a trip, international trip, or you don't know what caused it.

• 25:35Josh Axe?

  But all of a sudden you have this weakness in this, you feel like it's a low grade anemia. Something, and by the way, you can stick out your tongue. If your tongue is not a bright, healthy pink color, if it's kind of a pale pink, that in Chinese medicine is called blood deficiency and that can be linked to a parasite. Now, now it can be linked to other things as well, but that is a sign of iron deficiency. Now another deficiency can cause is Another thing that's connected to your blood and that's vitamin B12. Fish tapeworms specifically can really damage your gut lining, which inhibits vitamin B12 absorption. This can lead to brain fog, fatigue, neuropathy, so neurological issues. Another one would be zinc. Of course, this is important for your immune system.

• 26:19Josh Axe?

  Also magnesium folate, another big one, and then fat soluble vitamins like vitamin A, D, E, and K. Can all be corrupted and limited when you have parasites. And part of what parasites do is they feed off of your red blood cells. So when your blood becomes damaged and deficient, it can affect all of these other nutrients, especially these ones that are very related to your blood health, like vitamin B12 and folate, are very connected to your blood.

• 26:48Josh Axe?

  Hey guys, I'm here with my good friend, Dr. Dave Jockers. In fact, we've been friends for more than 20 years. He runs the podcast, The Dr. Dave Jockers Functional Nutrition Podcast. Dr. Dave, tell us a little bit about what your podcast is about.

• 27:01Speaker 01

  Yeah, absolutely. We dive deep on functional nutrition, really how to personalize your nutrition plan for better energy, mental clarity, better hormone balance. And we talk a lot about cellular health, mitochondrial function, cell membrane. We do a deep dive on every major nutrition topic and natural health topic. So everything you need right there at your fingertips. Dr. Jockers Functional Nutrition Podcast.

• 27:24Josh Axe?

  I want to encourage you, run out and listen to the Dr. Jockers Show. Again, I'm a big fan of it. I think you will be as well.

• 27:32Josh Axe?

  And so when you're going through a parasite protocol, oftentimes you want to supplement with these. But at the same time, supplementing with these is not going to get to the root of helping you eliminate the parasite for good, which is one of the things I want to get into in just a second. Now, last thing before I dive into my parasite protocol, I want to walk you through the best type of testing to be able to tell if you have a parasite or not. Number one thing to do is a comprehensive stool analysis. And this is where you'll take a sample of your stool for three days. It's called a GI map. There are several great companies that can do this. We do this at the Health Institute. And the thing I really love about doing a GI map is it's not only only testing for parasites. It's also looking at other types of microbes that could be impacting

• 28:14Josh Axe?

  your health negatively. Now, there's also a test that's more specific for parasites. It's called a multi-day OVA and parasite test and O and P. That's another great option. Those are probably the best tests for looking to see if you have a parasite. Now, there are other tests that can give us a idea. One of those is called an organic acids test or an O test. This looks for parasite metabolites in your urine, which can be useful for testing for parasites as well. Now, I also think you can do a micronutrient test, and maybe that will also show the nutrients you're depleted in, and that can also cue, because if you do a blood work test, and you're deficient in iron and B12 and multiple nutrients, that can also be a big warning sign. Now, let me walk you through

• 28:56Josh Axe?

  my four-day parasite cleanse protocol. Okay, here's where you need to start. By the way, this is so important that you follow the right protocol, because if not, parasites can get reabsorbed, and it can make you ill, and parasites can thrive even more. So you want to follow the four-phase protocol here. Number one, okay, you want to prepare your body. You want to strengthen up your organs, like your liver and your gallbladder, and your lymphatic system and your gut, to prepare for cleansing your body of parasites. So you want to cut sugar and refine carbs, right? You want to clean up your diet. I would do about 50 to 100 billion CFU daily, at least, of probiotics. You want to drink bone broth, take L-glutamine, basically eat a lot of soups,

• 29:40Josh Axe?

  just things that are friendly for supporting your gut and your liver. Those are the most important organ systems to support digestion and liver detoxification. So that's what you want to do the first two weeks. And then, day seven to 21, we want to open your drainage pathways, okay? So this is where you want to make sure you're having one bowel movement a day at least, ideally one to two bowel movements a day. You can take magnesium, 300 milligrams twice daily. You could also consider supporting your liver with things like N-acetylcysteine or milk thistle. And then, you want to walk a lot. Get on a mini trampoline or rebounder. Do everything you can to just move your body and your lymph. And then you could also even start sauna or sunbathing around this time as well.

• 30:23Josh Axe?

  But phase one, strengthen your organs. Number two, open your liver and your gut pathways. Okay. And then moving right in here to phase three and four. Phase three is where we want to actually kill the parasite. This is where you're going to take the anti-parasitic herbs like the wormwood and the black walnut and the cloves. Also consider things like oil of oregano, berberine and pumpkin seeds to actually kill the parasites. And then what we need to do here is bind to. This is where a lot of people miss is you go and kill the parasite, but you don't bind to it. So your bowels can completely get rid of it out of your body. Okay.

• 31:02Josh Axe?

  And this is where you want to take binders like activated charcoal, bentonite clay, diametaceous earth, modified citrus pectin, chlorella, and also high dose probiotics are also good here. And you want to actually bind to them as well. So you want to follow this four step protocol that we talked about of prepare and strengthen your body, open your detox pathways, kill the parasite and bind to. And if you do that, you're going to do a really effective parasite protocol and get the results you want. And if you want to get my full protocol, I want to encourage you, you can go in the link below here on this YouTube video. And you can download my free PDF on how to do the Dr. Axe Parasite Cleanse.

• 31:45Josh Axe?

  It walks you through all of this in much more detail on exactly what you need to do. That way you have it in written form. So simply click below here on YouTube. Also make sure to subscribe so you don't miss a thing. I'm constantly coming out with more and more content on how to use food, herbs and lifestyle medicine to heal your body fast. And so I want you to think about this, if you kill parasites in the body where the liver and the kidneys and the lymph and the colon aren't moving, right? Where when you have stagnation, Those toxins get reabsorbed and recirculated in the body and you feel terrible. Okay, so the fix there is open your drainage pathways. Make sure your bowels are moving, your liver is moving, your lymph is draining, your kidneys are flushing,

• 32:28Josh Axe?

  your skin is sweating, you want to open drainage. And here's the other big one, phase four. When parasites die, they release toxins. They sometimes also are living there with heavy metals. If you don't bind them, they also get reabsorbed through your gut wall and you feel sick. It makes you sick. And those remnants of parasites and heavy metals, that's also the type of environment that parasites like to grow in. So you really want to make sure that you follow all four phases of the protocol. I want to go through the herbs that can help you kill parasites fast. These are the top eight in ranking order. Okay, number one is wormwood. It's called wormwood because it tastes terrible. Now, good news is you can often get it in capsule form today.

• 33:12Josh Axe?

  Now, you can take it in tinctures, it's diluted, so it's not as bad. But you want to do around 200 to 300 milligrams daily, two times a day. This also doesn't only kill the adult parasites, but the larvae. Okay, so it kills the offspring as well. That's what you want to do, the wormwood. The second most effective, and these two are almost always done in tandem, and that's black walnut. Now, I own a regenerative organic farm and we actually give our sheep that tend to have parasite issues, we give them black walnut because it's so effective for them as well. But again, black walnut twice daily. Clove, now cloves are important because it's the only herbs that will fully kill the eggs. So if you're doing a parasite cleanse, you often want to find a formula that has one or two

• 33:54Josh Axe?

  or all three of the first ones, especially number three here, because it kills the eggs. Number four, oregano oil. Oregano oil acts like a broad spectrum antimicrobial, also killing funguses, bad bacteria like Candida that oftentimes like to thrive with parasites, also does have some anti-parasite properties. Number five has gained a lot of popularity for its benefits for blood sugar and weight loss and around diabetes and metabolic health, but it's berberine. And berberine also has some really strong antimicrobial properties and can kill parasites. So that's a great option specifically for Giardia, Mimosa pudica, another effective one for biofilms,

• 34:36Josh Axe?

  garlic, you can just simply do that in your food, that can kill parasites, and then pumpkin seeds. A fourth a cup of raw pumpkin seeds, or you could, by the way, put it in a blender, make that part of a smoothie, or do pumpkin seed butter, almost like a nut butter, that can be a great option as well. And in a study, it was 76.7% effective against clearing and killing parasites in a trial. So pumpkin seeds, an unsung hero, one of the top foods there. And then honorable mention here, neem is really effective, olive leaf extract. I mentioned diametaceous earth, it's food grade. And then there are some supplements that you typically want to take before, during, and after to protect your gut lining.

• 35:20Josh Axe?

  One thing that people don't realize is that when you take these really strong anti-parasitic herbs, is that they're so strong that if taken more than a short period of time, they can start to irritate your gut lining and actually contribute to leaky gut. So taking L-glutamine, L-glutamine acts as a fuel for your, the cells in your gut, helping them repair. Probiotics can help crowd out, especially if they're soil-based organisms, can help your body get rid of some of the parasites, especially in the intestinal tract. Magnesium glycinate, I mentioned, this is important for supporting both liver and bowel movements. And then a methylated B complex, or some sort of B vitamins can often support the liver as well, as it's really working harder to toxify.

• 36:04Josh Axe?

  And a few others I like, N-acetylcysteine, milk thistle, those also can support the liver. And then zinc, for some people afterwards, as you rebuild and support boosting your immune system. Those all can be very helpful in helping you heal and restore your body after a parasitic infection. Now, one anti-parasitic medication that gained a lot of popularity over COVID was ivermectin. And most people, again, they heard about this because of COVID, but listen, it actually goes much deeper than that, and ivermectin is more effective against parasites, okay? In fact, in 2015,

• 36:46Josh Axe?

  A researcher won a Nobel Prize for the discovery of ivermectin, and it's been FDA approved for dosing of around 150 to 200 micrograms per kilogram, which is the standard dose for most parasitic infections. And there are some great studies around ivermectin. And listen, not just studies, there are so many people I know that have had parasitic infections, long COVID, a number of other issues, and they've used ivermectin, and they saw really great results on this medication. There are many other medications for parasites. Here's what I encourage people to do most of the time, though. Do the natural route first. I think you could couple ivermectin in part of that. And because ivermectin is a prescription medication, you typically want to work with a trained physician on that. Now, I want to also talk to you about a few therapies

• 37:30Josh Axe?

  where if you're a really stubborn case, or you have more disposable income and you can do some of these therapies, they will really make a difference. Here are the top natural therapies ranked. Number one, sunlight. Here's the good news, sunlight's free. 20 to 30 minutes of sunlight in the middle of the day will help kill parasites. Did you know the sunlight not only gives off red light, which boosts mitochondrial health, it also gives off blue light, which reduces inflammation, and can kill parasites. Also, it has green and yellow light, which tonifies and strengthens your liver and your digestive system, helping you kill parasites. So direct sunlight, a free, great way to do it. Infrared sauna is also very effective

• 38:13Josh Axe?

  at helping kill parasites and rid your body of parasites. And then there's a type of therapy. It's my number two therapy on here for killing parasites. It's called ozone therapy. Ozone, and the strongest type of ozone being called EBOO, that's E-B-O-O. In a 10-day study, protocol, it helped heal 79%, nearly 80% of children with parasitic infections. So if you can invest and you can do a really strong treatment, if, let's say you have a parasitic infection, you say, "I want to do everything I can. I want to do a strong treatment." Ozone, probably the most powerful treatment you can do for killing off parasites. And this is something they do at the longevity clinic. You could check that out as well.

• 38:54Josh Axe?

  Okay, IV therapy, glutathione, B vitamins, magnesium, vitamin C, strengthens your immune system, supporting your body getting rid of parasites. And then hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Basically, getting more oxygen into your body if you are going to do a parasite cleanse. Don't just do the cleanse. You also want to follow the right diet. Okay. And so with that diet, here are the top foods you want to consume. Number one, we talked about raw garlic or cooked garlic. Four cloves daily. You could saute it up with some spinach and coconut oil. You could do a little bit raw, but that is a great natural killer there of parasites. Number two, we talked about pumpkin seeds, right? Four tablespoons to even a fourth a cup a day. Going to be very effective.

• 39:38Josh Axe?

  Papaya seeds, really effective. You could buy papaya seeds ground online. Add a tablespoon of that to a smoothie in the morning. Coconut oil, one to three tablespoons daily. Coconut oil contains loric acid, which kills off parasites. Apple cider vinegar. Now, this is also a great weight loss tip. Add in one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar and a half a cup of water. Drink that about five minutes before a meal. That actually can help you with killing parasites. It creates a more acidic environment, which can help with killing parasites. Number six, pineapple, especially the core. So eat that for breakfast. Pomegranates as well. Pomegranates kill tapeworms.

• 40:19Josh Axe?

  Number eight, drink ginger and turmeric tea, or you could juice it, or you could just add it to meals. But ginger and turmeric have really powerful properties there. Number nine, this is great, fermented vegetables. Sauerkraut, kimchi, coconut yogurt can be great as well. So fermented foods help rebuild the gut microbiome. And number 10 is bone broth. Helps heal your gut. This also is important for getting rid of parasites. So these are the top things you can do to start getting rid of a parasite. And listen, if you want to get rid of a parasite, put together a full protocol. Follow the right diet, take the right supplements, and follow the right protocol in full to fully heal and cleanse from parasites.

• 41:03Josh Axe?

  So here's what this might look like for you in terms of a meal plan. You wake up in the morning and you do a superfood smoothie. You could buy a scoop of protein powder that's pumpkin seed based. So do a pumpkin seed protein, do a collagen or a bone broth type protein. You could add in some, you know, some pineapple and then add in some papaya seed powder. And, and then drink that as a superfood smoothie in the morning. You could add in a tablespoon of coconut oil too. So make that anti parasite smoothie in the morning. And then for lunch, you could do something like beans and fermented vegetables and maybe a little bit of chicken. For dinner, same thing, you do something like chicken, you could do steamed vegetables.

• 41:46Josh Axe?

  You could do avocado, extra virgin olive oil. You could saute up some spinach and olive oil or coconut oil with some raw garlic, sea salt and black pepper. But a diet like that would be ideal, snacking on pump, you know, pomegranates throughout the day. But if you can follow that type of diet for a month, you will see amazing results. And here's, here's where the real magic comes in. It's not taking a single supplement. It's not just eating a little bit better. It's following an entire protocol. So what you want to do is you want to follow a diet and layout and say, here's what I'm going to eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And listen, you don't have to eat exactly like I shared with you, but just eat as healthy as possible. Lots of cooked vegetables, lots of some of those fruits we talked about.

• 42:30Josh Axe?

  If you're going to do meat, chicken is probably the best for you to eat or really well cooked meat. And then to some things like beans and whole grains, but just eat a really good clean diet there for about a four to six week period. Okay. And then take the right supplements and then do that cleanse in the right order. And then if you can't do any of the therapies, even if it's just getting more sunlight. If you can do that full protocol for four to six weeks, that will give you your best chance of completely healing and getting rid of parasites. And this will pay dividends in the future for you reducing your risk of cancer and digestive disease and supporting your immune system all long term. Now, there is a question I oftentimes get around and there's a lot of circulation and questions on the internet about this.

• 43:15Josh Axe?

  And that is, is the timing What about doing this around a full moon? Listen, mainstream science is mixed on this, but the mechanism of why it works is definitely plausible. But I do believe it could be helpful in doing it, but don't make it a requirement. But if you want to try and line it up, you can. Now, lunar cycles affect your melatonin and your serotonin production. Okay, serotonin is a documented driver of parasite reproduction. And many functional medicine practitioners time the kill phase of your parasite cleanse to start five days before the full moon. Okay, this is a useful framework. Again, it's not ironclad evidence, but this is something that people have done in the natural medicine space for a long time

• 44:01Josh Axe?

  in terms of if somebody was sick and they believed they had parasites, with lining it up with a full moon and starting the cleanse, the kill phase, five days before the full moon. So when anything could be hatching, that's when you're going in and actually starting to really kill off in a strong way, any of these parasites. But in addition, what does ancient wisdom say? Everything from the Bible to Chinese medicine, really dive in and understand and combine those things together. By the way, I want to mention, as you've been enjoying the podcast here, I just want to let you know, I am so grateful for you listening to the entire show. And I wanted to say, one of the number one ways, because sometimes people ask me this, Dr. Axe, thank you for adding so much value to me. How can we support you? If you would leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, it would mean so much to me.

• 44:45Josh Axe?

  So if you go to Apple, leave a five star review, it allows us to move up the charts. It allows me to bring on better guests, allows me to create more content like this. So I want to say thank you so much, especially for those of you that are subscribers. And if any of you would leave for a five star review, thank you so much if this has really added value to your life. And I have a few quick Q and As I want to do here as well. So here are a few of the questions. How long does a parasite cleanse take? Typically, 30 to 35 days for a complete cycle. Okay, 14 days for the kill phase, which is kind of in the middle of the cycle. Another question, how often should I do one? You know, let me say this, if you don't have a parasite, you shouldn't necessarily do a parasite.

• 45:27Josh Axe?

  Parasite cleanse. So the answer is, you know, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't just do a parasite cleanse, do a parasite cleanse. But I do think for most people, the most important time of year, where it's the most effective would be spring. Okay. Or one time of year, if you're going to get in the habit of doing it. But again, remember, you can take too many of these really strong herbals, like the black walnut and the diametrous earth. Those can be hard on your body. So you kind of, you don't want to overdo it. And I really do a parasite cleanse if you really feel like or certain you have a parasite. Can I do this while pregnant or breastfeeding? Absolutely not. Especially no wormwood, no black walnut or clove. Those are absolutely contra indicated herbs.

• 46:08Josh Axe?

  So you definitely want to wait. What about kids? Yes, I do think doing the dietary version with kids where they're doing pumpkin seeds and papaya seeds and garlic and probiotics and pumpkin seeds and pineapple and following it that way, coconut oil. So I would do the food based version. However, I would not do the really strong herbs like the black walnut and the wormwood, but I would do the more gentle dietary version with kids. Will my pets reinfect me? They can't, you know, now you could deworm your pets at the same time and work with your vet on

• 46:48Josh Axe?

  that and then, and then you don't have a risk. Okay. Another question is, what if I did a testing for a parasite and I still have the symptoms? You know, I would say this conventional tests miss about 50%. Okay. But if you do a three day test and it's a really good test, I would say it's going to pick it up 80 to 90% of the time. It's not 100%, but still quite often if you do the right type of test. And so then I would say you could still do a 30 day and, and see how you feel. See if you feel better. If you follow the protocol, especially the dietary part and you say, you know what, I've got some relief here because you're getting some die off and it's lessening. Then that can clue you in that you may have, you know, you might go all the way then and a

• 47:32Josh Axe?

  month later, do a full parasite cleanse. By the way, if, if you really Want my full protocol on how to do a full parasite cleanse? I have a full downloadable cheat sheet of my parasite cleanse. You can download the PDF in the show notes. Just click on it. You can download the PDF and get the exact, you know, my full Dr. Axe full-on parasite cleanse of everything we covered in the show and of exactly what you need to do. Now, here's what I want to encourage you to do to start today. Okay, three options. Option A, do a pork fast. Okay, cut out all pork, bacon, ham, sausage, pepperoni. Do beef bacon, do turkey bacon, but just do a pork fast. Cut out pork out of your diet for at least one month.

• 48:17Josh Axe?

  Okay, that's option A to start today. Option two, start to rebuild your gut. Okay, drink more bone broth, do more probiotics, L-glutamine, zinc. These things are going to support and build your body. And number three, get tested. You can do a comprehensive stool analysis via a GI map. That's a great thing to do. Or you could find a great functional medicine practitioner or a coach. Somebody that can walk you through how to do this. This is something we do at the Health Institute. You go to thehealthinstitute.com and sign up to get blood work done or GI map or something like that or the longevity clinic. So you could check those out. Again, the Health Institute in terms of getting tested, learning more. And then also you could go download the full protocol here in the show notes

• 49:01Josh Axe?

  where I walk you through and you can download the PDF on what to start to do to do your parasite cleanse today. So let's do a quick recap. Here's the thing to know. Parasites are much more common than most people realize. And here's the other thing. The consequences are oftentimes so much bigger. We talked about the link between parasites and cancer. And we know parasites have been linked to a lot of symptoms as well, especially bloating and digestive issues, brain fog, gut dysfunction. They can also drive deficiencies. Remember parasites love to eat up and destroy your red blood cells. They can cause anemia. They can eat up iron and B12. Major issues there. If you're going to do a parasite cleanse, follow a proper protocol.

• 49:46Josh Axe?

  Follow those four phases. As I talked about, because that will change everything and make the biggest difference. I want to encourage you, take action right now. Number one, go and grab the free PDF, okay? It's in the show notes. This is going to give you everything you need, whether it's now or later, all the things you need to do to start to do the right type of parasite cleanse. Number two, hit the subscribe button, become a subscriber. It is the number one thing you can do to support the show. That way you won't miss other episodes like this. And number three, you can share this episode and help somebody who is struggling with their health. I want to say God bless you. I'm so grateful for you and I'll see you on the next episode of the Dr. Josh Ak Show.