Parasite Cleanse/ Extreme Side Effects - Help?1

[nalosch]

I don't remember a time in my life, when I didn't have gas. Apparently, as a child of 3 years I had a very bad form of diarrhea. God knows, how that was taken care of/ cured, but I have had cramps, bloating, gas, nausea all my life. Recently however - with an enormous amount of on-going stress - it has gotten so much worse. All kinds of demands and expectations on me have grown, but it seems I do not/ cannot cope with stress as well as I used to. I'm 36 and terrified that things could go on like this. By chance, in the magazine I get from my health food store I read about a parasite cleanse (this kit is Para-Rid from Alpha Omega) and thought that this might be a good idea.
I started about a week ago and paid attention to everything that I had researched. I'm a vegetarian, so avoiding meat is not an issue, but you're also supposed to elimnate sugar, which I did (don't use that much anyway) and tried to stay hydrated, continued taking 2 acidophilus capsules every day, yoghurt, etc., but the last 3 days were so horrible that I had to cancel it yesterday. I had diarrhea, which increasingly got worse, so I couldn't go anywhere. Also, I was nauseated every single day of taking the capsules. My stomach has made rumbling noises pretty much all the time. Literally, before, during and long after meals, which I don't even want to think of these days, since I'm so full all the time. I feel so extremely bloated all the time and when I pass gas I can barely bare it myself as it reeks of sulphur. I have regular bowel movements that change colour (strikingly pale as of today), when they were sort of two colors (normal brown and very dark) but since yesterday with the diarrhea I am passing bigger food particles. Sorry, great subject, hm!:-)
Since I cancelled the cleanse yesterday, it got somewhat better. Is this sort of reaction normal? Can anyone help me understand why this happened and if it'll gradually get better? Our health system here in Canada is so lousy that I don't even bother going to the doctor, because she'll probably laugh at my idea to want to see a gastroenterologist. Not to mention that appointments take so long that you could be self-cured, dead, whatever by the time you actually get to see a specialist ...

Does anyone have the time and inclination to help me with this?

[cordellcarrier]

About 6 months ago I started having indigestion really bad, to the point where all my food was being spit back up due to hiatial hernia, infrequent acid reflux, constant gas, and constipation. Not to mention, afterawhile I also developed muscle twitching and heart racing at times which I found out through research was caused by damage to the vagus nerve system from the constant pressure of my stomach problems. Anyway, to make a long story short I found out this problem was due to a parasite of some sort (which I'm almost positive I got from cat feces, as I lived with my cousin for awhile who had 10 cats). So, I started on a parasite cleanse... I had side effects so extreme there was points where I thought I was going crazy! I had mini seizures, trembling, confusion, nausea, headaches to name a few. However, my stomach was digesting food again!! In the past 3 months or so I've been doing cleansing off and on because everytime I stop the cleanse my stomach problems come back. So I had to choose, either I deal with the side effects of the cleanse and die-off effect of the parasite dying OR I suffer with digestive problems that will probably eventually debilitate me. I will say, though, that ever since the initial cleansing the side effects have been less dramatic. For example, I no longer experience trembling or full body spasms as often, but I do feel weak, and nauseated at times... but my digestion has been improving tenfold. From what I've read, cleansing can be mild to extreme depending on the severity of the bacterial infection. And also, that sometimes cleansing can take quite awhile to do depending. But, at any rate if youre suffering from digestive problems it's most likely due to bacterial overgrowth in your stomach (where the kritters like to live) and I would strongly encourage you to go through with it, even if it seems extreme at first, eventually the side effects will become less severe. Still, you can always take it slow if you find the effects too strong for you, and then gradually increase the dose of whatever cleanse youre taking. Personally, I've tried different cleansing agents and I've found that (besides avoiding sugars and yeast of all forms) things like grapefruit seed extract works good and is not too strong, as well as swedish bitters, not to mention the parasite formula in most kits that includes black walnut hull, cloves and wormwood leaf. Of course, you could go to the doctor and have him prescribe some sort of anti-biotic, however you'll probably still experience side effects and the major problem with that is that in this process you destroy healthy bacteria along with the bad, which may make you worse off once you stop taking it. Along those lines, I recommend taking a good quality probiotic supplement (which is basically good bacteria in a bottle) to help combat this overgrowth in your stomach and improve digestion, as well as digestive enzymes to help break down food better while you take something to destroy the bad bacteria. I wish you all the best! And, remember what dont kill you can only make you stronger!