Insomnia from Parasite Cleanse: Reasons and Remedies

Parasites are a menace. Period. They have to go. Especially I you plan to reduce your total body burden, relieve your liver and give your gut a chance to heal. Our quality sleep depends on it.

What surprised me the most is that I had no classic parasitic symptoms. I merely went by the theory that an immuno-compromised body with stagnant liver is a swamp ripe with conditions for critters to thrive. And as we know from nature, where conditions a right microorganism will come to take advantage of it.

Bottom line, I started cleansing and they came out. Nasty. Gross. About finger length slimy creatures just like in the photos next to their wiki page. I’ll spare you from the images. Not everyone can stomach them.

My initial protocol consisted of: Mimosa Pudica seeds + black walnut hull, wormwood, thyme leaf, cascara sagrada bark, cinnamon bark, and quassia wood extracts. I started slow and gentle. Mimosa Pudica on its own was the easiest to tolerate while the rest of the stuff was pretty rough on the liver but I managed. The two worms that I actually saw was when I did a liver flush and they were simply there in a strainer. Who knows how many (if any) I could have passed before.

All was pretty well a few days after but then I became very gassy. No matter what I ate flatulence was consistent and persistent, as if the food itself made no difference. Then my old symptoms started creeping in: stronger tinnitus, light headedness and sleep was becoming restless with every day until I could not fall asleep at all. I was back in the crisis mode. Just like the good ole days!

OK, no panic. I’ll figure this out. Been there, done that, right? I am basically experiencing a Herx reaction which is quite common while cleansing. Parasites, candida, SIBO, they can all  produce endotoxins, especially when you start messing with them without thinking systemically. So m first question was what the heck happened? What did I miss?

I was brainstorming like mad. Are these leftover endotoxins from parasites? Is this immune activation like MCAS? Could this be candida? What could have possibly slammed my sleep so bad again? Then I noticed that any physical activity like a bike ride made this worse. Adrenals? Ammonia? Heavy metal liberation from parasites or candida?

I decided to double down on my usual stuff and see if this clears so I did a couple of rounds of OSR (heavy metal chelator) – no effect.

Another liver flush – no effect.

Castor oil Packs – no effect.

Sauna – no effects.

Are you serious?! What the heck is going on here? I’m at a loss and now I am starting to worry.

Scouring through various forums and research papers I am starting to see three possibilities:

1.       Decomposing parasites could be releasing stored toxins and producing excess ammonia;

2.       Parasites starting to multiply faster because of the perceived threat from the anti-parasitic herbal formulas;

3.       Disrupted biofilms have exposed candida that are producing toxic byproducts and my liver is not able to keep up with, aka Herx reaction.

One thing I already know for sure – ammonia and toxic byproducts will be extremely irritating to the nervous system and will trigger MCAS and insomnia. I don’t want that.

My most burning question becomes how to reduce the circulating toxins. Where are they in the first place? How to catch them?

My first attempt to remedy this is to try and soak up toxins and ammonia while they are being produced in the gut. This is where binders like activated charcoal and ammonia scavengers (nutrients that assist the body in ridding itself of the metabolite ammonia) come in.

An auspicious confirmation comes in a form of accidental visit to Dr. Hulda Clark website where she’s advising to take L-Ornithine together with her anti-parasitic formula. Bingo! I’m on the right track. I also hear a lot of praise for Cellcore’s protocols so I like to study their products. Their Biotoxin binder contains Yucca Root, which further supports the idea that ammonia scavengers are an important aspect of systemic binding.

I am fortunate enough to already have some Yucca root and L-Ornithine in my supplement graveyard box. So I start taking Yucca root with protein meals and L-Ornithine with snacks or carb only meals (so that there’s less competition among amino acids).

Few days pass and I find little relief. Not enough. Next, I try taking charcoal together with all protein meals. Additional relief but I’m not nearly close to “normal.” Then I add bentonite clay+zeolite powder to some of my meals. Also works but not magic and I have additional problem – wicked constipation!

Detox and constipation don’t go hand in hand so I introduce various laxatives and enemas. By now, it’s a full-time job. Still working the problem. I refuse to give up here and decide to power through it.

I come across a very knowledgeable herbal lady at a local fair. Being aware that I need to cycle anti-parasitic herbs I ask if she has any interesting formulas. She says “Of course.” I look at the package – 25 different herbs! That can’t be good… but I can’t help but notice a big sign on her merchant stand “Certified National Heritage.” This is a big deal here and worthy of respect so I purchase the formula.

Instructions for use are refreshingly simple: “One teaspoon two times a day for two days total. Repeat in a week if needed.”

Immediate surprise: hardly any load on the liver or nervous system. I can feel the herbs but they are gentle. The things I did notice is increased urination  and that my overall neurological symptoms have subsided. This made me study the formula further and what I found was that some herbs support the liver, kidneys and some are diuretics. This formula is designed to kill parasites AND carry out the debris. Wow. All in one.

I’ve been very focused on ‘moving’ the liver but not so much the kidneys and lymph so I studied this further and realized that this was the missing piece to my detox journey. Simply rebounding or walking is not enough to cleanse lymph. It has to be cleared by purifying blood and the so called interstitial fluid or our extracellular matrix. The latter is a complex organ that serves many important functions but one of them is to act like our body’s septic tank. If we are low on energy (low mitochondria function, adrenal fatigue, etc) that septic tank does not get cleaned out as efficiently and produces symptoms as it reaches a limit how much of a toxin load it can deal with.

Look at this extracellular matrix as your body’s informational superhighway. Lymph and interstitial fluid is how all of our organs communicate and exchange nutrients as well as cellular debris. Long story short – cleaning my  septic tank with diuretic teas made me feel feel lighter. It basically helped to push the “polluted” fluids out and replace with fresh water.

Back to the initial brain storm… Why would I agitate candida when cleansing parasites? Something in my formula had to be a biofilm disruptor and as I learned it was the black walnut hull and Neem leaf. The latter two are anti-parasitic and also anti-fungal but who knew? They never warn these things on the bottle, do they?

I am guessing that once they disrupted the biofilm under which candida was  hiding I stirred up a wasp nest and caused all this additional endotoxin load which caused my sleep to take a nose dive too.

Having realized this, I immediately turned my attention to mitigating candida and started looking for a gentle way to address this issue. Once again, I am not sure what lead me to this answer but I found that there is a type of enzyme that will “eat” at the biofilm and then digest candida on the spot. They are called proteolitic enzymes (protein digesting types.)  This enzyme formula literally gives the most intriguing promise: “Cellulase breaks down the yeast cell wall while protease digests the interior proteins. This combination provides a gentle, cleansing effect without harsh discomfort common to cleansing.”

Once I started taking the enzymes, I sensed an interesting gnawing in my gut but it felt kind of good and I also started sleeping even better.  Amazing. The stuff actually works! The enzymes turned out to be quite a discovery and from now on I have them in my toolkit.

At the time of this article my sleep is almost back to where it was which means that my strategy worked. Bottom line: the order of events that I followed in order to restore my sleep:

• Address parasites with anti-parastitic herbs and remedies of your choice;
• Address candida and biofilms with (proteollitic enzymes and anti-fungals);
• Soak up biotoxins with binders like activated charcoal, bentonite clay, Enterosgel and ammonia scavengers like Yucca root and L-Ornithine. Personally, I took binders and ammonia scavengers with food and on empty stomach. When taken with food binders can soak up endotoxins produced during digestion (mycotoxins by candida) and improve nutrient assimilation. When taken on empty stomach they can help sweep intestinal tract of any residue endotoxins remaining on the GI walls.
• Address lymph drainage with diuretic teas. Mine consisted of dandelion roots, black currant leaves, burdock root, pansy grass, wild strawberry leaves, horsetail grass and birch leaves. But there are different varieties so do see if you can find something from local plants. This can allow the septic tank to drain faster and allow more room for flow of debris.
• Do it all it a methodical and gentle way. Introduce supplements over days and weeks. Work out the best binder timing for you.

All of this has the ability to reduce body burden, allow immune system more breathing room and deactivate the nervous system. This means better sleep and further improved detox.

Honestly, I am glad to have had this experience. This is a major piece of a puzzle to addressing one more source of insomnia. Happy cleansing friends!