Parasites: friend or foe?

We may have misunderstood them just as we misunderstood bacteria

Jun 18, 2024

Realizing that viruses don’t exist and bacteria don’t cause disease overturns everything we thought we knew about those aspects of health. This is an astounding change that is also destabilizing, in that these familiar markers of reality are no longer there. What does make me sick then? What are bacteria actually doing? Etc. You know.

But that’s only the beginning! Today I’m going to explore another aspect of disease and health—parasites—and how we may have been misunderstanding them all along.

Bacteria, we learn when we question the disproven germ hypothesis, do not attack healthy tissue. They only come to do their job when we have damaged, dying, or dead tissue that needs to be cleaned up. They are there to help, not to attack us. They only cause problems when there is too much dead and dying tissue in our body, and our system becomes overwhelmed with the metabolic waste produced by the bacteria that are cleaning it up. (And why is there too much dead and dying tissue in our body? That is the question we should be asking, and what we ought to do about that, not which antibiotic to use to kill the bacteria.)

Are parasites vampires, or are they here to help us?

But what about parasites? We learn that they attack and feed on us, that they harm us, that they cause ill health. Just the same thing that we were told about bacteria.

Could it be that parasites, too, are actually there to help us?

This goes right against the grain, even more than asking this question about bacteria. We have bacteria in our bodies. We know that. They help us digest food—and in fact, our digestive tract would not work without them, and we would die. Even if we believe (wrongly) that there are “bad bacteria” that are lying in wait to do their worst to us, we still understand that bacteria are basically our helpers, and we need them.

Parasites are a different story. We aren’t supposed to have any parasites in our body, if we are healthy. There is no such thing as a “good parasite” or a “helpful parasite.” On top of that, even the word conjures up something nasty that is feeding off of us—sucking our blood or organ tissue, like a vampire. How can this be good?

Stay with me, if this idea is new to you. I am certainly no expert—I’ll give you again my usual disclaimer, which is that I have no science background, my degrees and expertise are in English language and literature, and everything I know about the terrain model of health I have learned in the past two to three years by reading, watching videos, and using my own common sense. What I offer you here is some of that learning.

Parasites can help like bacteria do

There is some evidence that parasites, like bacteria, show up when we have unhealthy tissue in our body. I have heard some say that parasites do the same thing that bacteria do: clean up dead and dying tissue. But I have also heard that they have a more specialized role, which is to detoxify our tissues by sequestering heavy metals. The same has been said about some yeast and fungi that grow in our intestines, such as candida albicans. I’ll come back to this a little later.

This is what makes sense to me from my limited but conscious and critical perspective. Bacteria show up when we have dead and dying tissue to clean up. Parasites show up when we have an excess of heavy metals in our cells.

Here is a short video that

Albert

has posted a couple of times as a Substack note (thanks!). I don’t know the young man in the video, but what he says makes sense to me. I’d like to know his sources. He also says something interesting which I can’t verify yet, that parasitic microorganisms are part of the pleomorphic cycle (see toward the end of this article for more).

Seeing parasites as helpers seems to be a new way of looking at these types of creatures, just as it is for bacteria. Largely because of the predominance of the disproven germ hypothesis in our understanding of health and disease, parasites, like bacteria, have been viewed as enemies. The idea that they could be doing something positive for us hasn’t even been on the radar until recently. There are many, many different kinds of parasites, opening up a wide area for research on how each one affects us.

It’s also important to acknowledge that it may only some kinds that are helpful in detoxing our bodies from heavy metals. Maybe some of them are truly inherently harmful, and are simply living out their lifecycle which includes feeding on our bodies for their own purposes and making us sick in the process. Research that is not constrained by previous understandings of what these entities do needs to be conducted. It’s also essential to know that parasites can cause serious problems for people. Parasitic disease is real.

Parasites and heavy metals—some evidence

In regard to some types of parasites, however, research done since at least 1999 has shown that parasites increase in the bodies of some animals as levels of heavy metals in the tissues increase. According to an article published that year in the journal Parisitology Today, “Certain parasites, particularly intestinal acanthocephalans and cestodes of fish, can accumulate heavy metals at concentrations that are orders of magnitude higher than those in the host tissues or the environment.”

An article in Nature News in 2007 reported on a study that came to the same conclusion, this one involving sharks living in the ocean. The intestinal parasites in the sharks had 200 to 500 times the levels of heavy metals as the tissue in the sharks’ bodies. Note the third sentence: “And [the parasites] could be saving the sharks from heavy metal poisoning—at least for now.”

Does this apply to humans? Could intestinal and perhaps other parasites be absorbing heavy metals out of our tissues so that we are not poisoned by them? Research is needed. But it seems quite likely that this is what happens in us.

More parasites than 50 years ago

Anecdotal evidence suggests that the incidence of parasites in humans is higher than it was in the recent past. In the 1970s, when I went to Ecuador to study, we were warned not to eat “street food” or drink the water. At that time, if a North American had parasites, it was assumed they had been to a “third-world” country and picked up the parasites there. In fact, many people in that situation found that their North American doctor was so unfamiliar with the symptoms of parasitic infection that it was difficult to get a proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment. Parasites were considered to be rare in more northern countries with good hygiene practices in place.

That seems to have changed. As much as a decade ago, it was already being stated that parasites were becoming more common in “developed” countries. CBS News reported on a CDC report issued in 2014:

Many people think parasites may be acquired only in developing and third-world countries or as a parting gift on an exotic vacation. However, a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds these buggers are very much alive in the U.S.

Parasite cleanses seem to be all the rage right now—another bit of anecdotal evidence. Either it’s just a fad, or there actually are more people suspecting or finding that they have parasites in their bodies. Why might that be?

Heavy metals increasing

Do you suppose that heavy metals in the environment have increased in the past 50 years, perhaps even in the past 20? It’s not difficult to find evidence for this. For example, a 2020 article from the journal Heliyon, found on PubMed, begins this way:

Environmental pollution of heavy metals is increasingly becoming a problem and has become of great concern due to the adverse effects it is causing around the world. These inorganic pollutants are being discarded in our waters, soils and into the atmosphere due to the rapidly growing agriculture and metal industries, improper waste disposal, fertilizers and pesticides.

When articles in mainstream news mention proliferation of parasites, though, they typically do not reference heavy metals, but rather attribute the increase to “climate change.” One example is an article I analyzed about a month ago, from the Washington Post. But, since we know that the climate narrative has no scientific basis, the more likely explanation for the proliferation of parasites is the proliferation of heavy metals to which we are exposed through every possible pathway.

Candida is also a heavy-metal absorber

It may not be only parasites that are assisting us in dealing with excessive heavy-metal loads in our bodies. Some yeasts and fungi that typically inhabit our gut and other locations in the body, such as candida albicans, have also been shown to sequester heavy metals. An article from the Journal of Preventive Medicine and Public Health published in 2014 makes the connection between excessive exposure to mercury and overgrowth of candida albicans, and also acknowledges the protective role that yeasts, bacteria, and molds play when we are exposed to heavy metals.

Interestingly, the ingestion of mercury is oftentimes associated with increased levels of yeasts, bacteria, and molds which are thought to function in a protective manner to absorb excess mercury from the body. Indiscriminant and rapid destruction of the Candida albicans and other pathogens by antibiotics in adults with a significant body burden of toxic metals, including mercury, may cause the sudden release of large amounts of toxic metals contained within them and be potentially very dangerous.”

A website called Detox with Danica has a blog post that also links both candida albicans and parasites to excess heavy metals, and explains in more detail why it is so important to do parasite cleanses only after detoxing heavy metals.

For instance, candida and parasites feed on heavy metals and sugar and store them within biofilms or within their own organism. When people kill candida with antifungals, the die-off symptoms that are experienced are partly the result of the release of heavy metals into the body, which overwhelms the liver and cannot be excreted fast enough.

Misunderstanding parasites misleads us about what’s really wrong in the world and in our bodies

Once again, what we are dealing with is, I believe, a significant misunderstanding of the role of what we call “parasites” in our bodies’ efforts to maintain the highest possible level of health. When we are living in an environment that is heavily polluted with heavy metals which find their way into our tissues, we are not as healthy as we probably think. The parasites, yeasts, fungi, and bacteria come along to keep us from being poisoned by these substances by absorbing them out of our tissues.

So, you may be asking, as I did when I first began to consider this: How do parasites just “show up?” Where do they come from to get into our bodies to clean up heavy metals?

Where do they come from?

I still have this question, and if I find an answer that is based on more evidence than my own sense, I will share that another time. For now, I will answer it according to common sense and (maybe) critical thinking. In the case of parasites that are worms, I suspect we have the eggs within us at any given time from food or water (neither of which is likely to be free from such things in our highly compromised world). If our body is relatively free of heavy metals, these eggs will remain eggs, or will be excreted. But when heavy metals are present in large amounts, they hatch and the worms start absorbing the heavy metals from our intestines or other organs.

In the case of yeasts and fungi such as candida albicans, these creatures are already present in our bodies, and more can be “made” in the body via the pleomorphic cycle. Microbial parasites also can be created this way, as explained in the video above.

Pleomorphism—the capability of microbes in our body to change their form as required by the body’s condition and needs—is scientifically documented. Basically, these life forms—bacteria, yeast, fungi, and spores (some of which are considered parasitic)—can morph from one form to another. Thus, an “infection” of candida albicans could happen when the body has become significantly toxified by heavy metals. The candida proliferates through bacterial forms morphing into yeast forms and into fungal forms to deal with the heavy metals, and it overgrows because there is so much heavy metal for it to pull out of the tissue. The overgrowth ends up causing other symptoms (e.g., thrush, genital or urinary tract infections, digestive issues, etc.). As with bacteria, the problem does not originate with the candida just deciding to overgrow. It originates with the body being assaulted by heavy metals and needing the help of the candida to absorb them.

The pleomorphic cycle is pretty fascinating. To delve into it, see Mike Stone’s article, Germ Theory House of Cards.

ViroLIEgy Newsletter

The Germ Theory House of Cards

“The general public, however intelligent, are struck only by that which it takes little trouble to understand. They have been told that the interior of the body is something more or less like the contents of a vessel filled with wine, and that this interior is not injured …

2 years ago · 116 likes · 32 comments · Mike Stone

We are being poisoned

If parasites show up when our bodies are in danger of being poisoned by heavy metals, we need to be aware that our health is seriously compromised. Heavy metal pollution of the environment and in our bodies is certainly happening, among other environmental effects. Yet these are rarely mentioned, especially when the “masters of the universe” gather to plan our future at events like Davos and the G8. Instead, we are told that “climate change” is the main threat to the future of our planet. We are supposed to be willing to give up freedom and self-determination to “save the earth” from “global boiling.”

What is actually happening is that we are being poisoned, along with every other living creature on the planet—including wildlife, trees and plants, ocean creatures, and even soil and gut microbes—by heavy metals, plastics, air pollution, industrial waste in the water, pharmaceutical poisons, mining effluent, and unnatural radiation like EMFs. And when we don’t understand how our bodies work and how nature works, and we mistake biological processes that are trying to help us survive for efforts to kill us, we stray even farther from a true understanding of the threats that we face and what we need to do to actually save our planet and ourselves.

I want to put special emphasis on this. Believing that the microorganisms and various types of parasites are out to kill us as they try to survive—and MISSING the fact that they only eat damaged tissue and are there to help us by doing that—means that we mistake what is happening in our bodies. The very real physical problems that can result from these helpers’ activities are NOT caused directly by them but exist because we are that unhealthy to begin with.

We are (far) less healthy than we think

I feel we need to let this sink in. We are already significantly compromised by numerous effects of our way of life—pollution, stress, noise, inadequate sleep, exposure to EMFS and dirty electricity, vaccines and pharmaceuticals, dental amalgams in our mouths, eating nutritionless and actively harmful “foods,” fear and other toxic emotions and thoughts, isolation, soul-killing jobs, daily trauma in a narcissistic abuse system, etc. etc. etc. We are NOT healthy bodies that are “under attack” by microbes and entities like parasites. We are like the plants that are attacked by insects which also, like bacteria etc., do not attack healthy plant tissue, as I wrote about in The war against insects is a hoax!

I’m putting the finest point on this that I can. We have within us lots of what bacteria, fungi, and parasites eat—dead and dying tissue, heavy metals, and other unhealthful materials and conditions. It isn’t our fault, but it is what is going on. And it’s our work to address it, not by blaming and fearing and killing off the entities that we think are attacking us, but by dealing with the things that are compromising our health and drawing them to us.

Thanks for reading

Once again, thank you for staying with me and reading all the way to the end. So I don’t leave you on a dark note, I will add that even though it is probably impossible to avoid taking in heavy metals in the current global system we live within, there are many protocols for detoxing them. And we can minimize our intake by choosing filtered water or spring water and organic, regenerative, or biodynamic foods. It is deeply unfortunate that these choices are financially out of reach for many. There are projects helping to supply such things to impoverished communities. Look for these, and donate if you are able. And put some of your energy toward envisioning a world where no one starves and everyone has pure water to drink, and where heavy metals and the whole list of pollutants are not making people and other beings unhealthy.

This Changes Everything

Discussion about this post