Highlights of Previous Essays. Part 3 of 3.

Today we are going to discuss two classes of parasites; Nematode and Trematode.
As a general rule the Nematode have up to 1 million different species by some scientific
accounts. But for the most part there are a little under 100,000 that are either a concern to
animal life forms or plant life that most people have an active study of in daily life. This class
is affectionately known as Roundworms. Most roundworms that are of a concern to plant and
animal life are basically round in nature and have some degree of length to them. When I
say of concern to animal and plant life, I need to add that these Nematodes are soil borne.
Most of them have 3 stages of life/reproduction cycles. They originate in the soil and then
they eventually return to the soil.
Nematodes can’t really be grouped into a group that you can call, “bad” or a group called,
“good”. This is because only about ⅓ of them are generally considered to be parasitic. The
rest are generally considered to be a productive group and not only beneficial to animal life,
but to plant life and to soil health. The best way to look at the “Roundworms” is to think of
them as the best of two worlds.Some of them are nasty little twerps, some of them are very
beneficial little buggers. Also, one must keep in mind that these are largely, most by far, but
not all, are basically found within the body cavity, IE; from the mouth to the crotch and make up most of bad
pathogens as it pertains to the bad parasites. However, the majority of these are found in the digestive tract.These are ones like pin-worms, that are found in all
animals, IE; humans as well. These various nematodes account for 90% of the animals in
the oceans and 80% of all animals on the earth’s crust. Some other figures estimate that
there are 60 Million of these various individual species of nematodes per individual person
on earth. There are around 2,300 genera found within about 260 families of these
nematodes. About ⅓ are considered to be parasitic, of which about 35 species of these
things are found in humans. So a lot of figures here, but in simple terms, as it applies to
humans, ⅓ are parasitic and ⅔ are considered to be beneficial to humans.
When it comes to dealing with Nematodes, you have to be careful with how you deal with
them. A lot of natural solutions can work very effectively against them. This is perhaps why it
isn’t a good idea to “drink” essential oils. Most essential oils are “anti-”, as in anti nematode.
Yes you will kill a lot with drinking EO's and overdoing many of the solutions out there to deal
with bad Nematodes, but in many cases it also wipes out the good Nematodes as well. If you
have ⅔ of these as being good ones, and ⅓ as bad ones, I guess it becomes a numbers
game. This is essentially what antibiotics do, that is to kill equal numbers from both camps.
So when you hear talk about “Restoring your gut flora” you are talking about restoring the
environment so that the good Nematodes can repopulate and do so faster than the bad
Nematodes can repopulate. Nematodes have a long history of living on this planet. They are
constantly adjusting and adapting to their environment and are really good at doing so.
So how do you effectively deal with these things, as I call them things? It is hard to know
which one you are being plagued with, but if you are sick, then you have a good chance of
having one of these or more than one working you over. Likely the best solution here is good
nutrition. A good working immune system can go a long way to helping here. People that have
a good understanding of these Nematodes can usually come pretty close to getting it right,
most of the time. But treating the pin-worms directly is not a good option, as these also have
a lipid layer to protect them from the digestive tract acids. You have to get whatever
treatment that you are using into the bloodstream. Why? Because these live off of your
blood. They are essentially blood suckers, bloodstream feeders. Where do you primarily pick
up these blood suckers? Of course from the soil. Basically, you can’t avoid this, because you
will get them directly or indirectly. Those of us that have raised grazing animals, know that it
is necessary to “De-worm” our animals at the very least, once a year. Some situations require
more than 1 time per year. Other animals, such as dogs and cats pick them up easily. We
touch our pets, by touching our pets we pick up some of these “hitch hikers”. That is an example of the indirect
route. We pick them up through our food, through our drinking water and so on.The grazing animals pick them up directly by mouth contact with the soil. Raw foods
are a source that most people fail to consider, likely the most likely source for most humans
to pick up these Nematodes. Washing does help in most cases. But then again, what
species of the ⅓ and ⅔ numbers are you rejecting or accepting. Bottom line here is that we
need the good ones, but not the bad ones.

Now let's take a look at Trematodes.
This is likely the most diverse group of really nasty parasites. I like to call these types of
Parasites, well, the political/white collar group of parasites. They act much like bad
politicians, they run the show because of what they do and so on. In simple terms look at this
group as the corrupt politicians of the parasite world. These parasites are like corrupt
politicians in that they live in the present and will do whatever they have to do to gain the
advantage today, when doing so will likely screw themselves over tomorrow. However, they
appear to be in it for the long haul, so in these senses they are like corrupt politicians and
corrupt white collar operatives.
This group of parasites are affectionately known as Flukes. Whatever organ they infect, they
are known by the first name of the organ they are infecting. For example, if they are infecting
the Liver, they are known as Liver Flukes. If they are infecting the Lungs, they are known as
Lung Flukes. Do you see the pattern here? So how do you pick these up? Water is the main
source. If you swim in infected water, then they “hitch hike” on you. They can be sourced
from food as well. However, with these there are some that have only to pass through one
host, some through 2 hosts and some through 3 sources to complete their life cycle. Most of these flukes prefer to use snails as their first go to as a host. From there, they move onto anything else that they can exploit.  Much
like other classes of parasites. The difference between these Trematodes and Nematodes is
that the Trematodes for the most part don't return to their origins as do the Nematodes.
The main way they enter into their human/animal host is by attaching to the skin, then
searching for a cut in the skin or some orifice to gain entry. Barring not finding a quick
entrance, they will enter via the hair follicle. They then will inch their way along the hair shaft,
at about the halfway point along the shaft, it then enters the dermatitis,  IE: under the skin, then at this point they are able to enter the bloodstream. From here they are basically home free. Their
mission/goal is to enter the bloodstream. Once they do this, it then acquires a mask by
mimicking the blood cells to hide from the immune system. The immune system has a very
short/narrow time frame to detect these and dispatch them. Even a person with a strong
immune system has a hard time defending against Trematodes. They will live for up to 20
years in the bloodstream of a human. On average they will lay 300 eggs per day for 20
years. So one living for 20 years will average 109,500 eggs per year and 2,190,000 over that
20 year life span. I realize that many will not live for the full 20 years, but at least it gives you
the potential and scale that they will lay eggs in your system.
I am kind of going backwards here, but to color the picture better, these Trematodes are an
Obligate. This is the name/description given to these types of parasites that can’t complete
their life cycle without exploiting a host. Several of these have been medically proven to be
carcinogenic IE: causes cancer. The S. haeatobium causes bladder cancer. Interestingly
these will migrate from wherever they are to the bladder when they want to frolic. Hey, that is
what the literature states. The S. japonicum causes Liver cancer. However, the liver flukes
that are commonly found in the Bile Ducts, Liver and Gallbladder of mammals and avians
have a strong association and in many cases directly associated with cancer of the bile
ducts. Trematodes are the one class of parasites that have been directly linked to causing
cancer. Most other parasites are classed as having links or associations with cancer. The
Herpes virus is an Obligate Intercellular Parasite. Intestinal flukes live in the lining of the
small intestine.
Now as we come around the straight way and headed for the final line in this series, how do
you protect against the Nematodes and Trematodes? First off you need a strong immune
system. You must always think in terms of degrees of protection. It is not a simple either/or
when it comes to protection. Personal and rationally applied hygiene goes a long way in raising the bar of
protection. Nutritional Sodium/Chloride at proper levels in your system will really make it
hard on these parasites. IE; the nutritional use of Salt and Pepper. Nutritional Sulfur is another key nutrient to factor in here as well. Onions, garlic. citrus, potatoes, turnips, tomatoes, wheat, oats, dill and the list goes on as to protective foods to help with anti-Trematode protection. You know, the foods that key board warriors tell you not to eat because they have one element in them that is not good for you based on a faulty study, yeah, that stuff. 
The one thing that will help a great deal is to determine just what parasite you are plagued
with and coordinating it with the proper treatment protocol. Many times I have been told by
some so called knowable people that feel like they understand parasites will claim that you
need to follow a protocol for 1 month. They also will claim that once you start a treatment
protocol that as the parasites sense they are dying, will lay eggs like crazy. So you have to
treat yourself for that one month. Then you will wipe them out. I wish it was that simple. Well,
with some it is even simpler than that. Some treatments for some parasites one treatment is
all that is medically needed. But then on the other hand, some of these things will lay
profusely for years. But a key here is understanding the precise parasite and how its life
cycle works. Then you can start down the path of rational treatments.
One main thing to remember is that all parasites have to be addressed through the
bloodstream. Some parasites that live in the digestive tract have been shown to respond to
oral treatments. This does not mean that you do a number on these within the digestive
tract. What it means is that you simply are following a course of action that takes it in through
the digestive process then through a natural course of action moves those treatment
elements into the bloodstream. However good this route might be, it is somewhat inefficient in dealing with some parasites.
There are some parasites that are found in food and if ingested then treated within a short
period of time will respond to the treatment within the stomach.
Overall, as one Doctor that I had a long conversation with years ago about these parasites, said this;
“Years ago when someone came into my practice and I figured out that they had a parasite
issue, I would ask where on earth did you pick this one up”? He went on to say that now, 20
years later, he has to treat everyone that comes through his doors for parasites before he
can even begin to work on them. Then a few years later, I was talking with my friend who is a Dr.of
Internal Medicine, (retired now). My main reason why I was asking for his help was that I had
kept running across these Malaria indicators on people living in the desert. He said that as
long as I remember that Malaria is a parasite, that I would figure it out soon enough. Also, keep in mind that I am dealing with the self help population and he is dealing with a high level medical population. He said
that as he was explaining some background on parasites, is that people travel all over the
world in short periods of time and they are back home before symptoms begin to appear.
Also, the food factor, as in food coming from all over the world in a short period of time, then
being consumed in a short period of time, as in harvest to mouth, can cause some real
problems as some of these have to complete the life cycle in a human host and it doesn't just happen over night.. The people
travel all over the place, eat food from all over the place and since some of the parasites
have to finish their life cycle in a human host, well, it becomes hard for people to associate
the cause, effect and result of the situation. To drive home that point, he said, “Here I am on
the edge of the Mojave desert and the majority of my practice is dealing with tropical
diseases, which are basically parasites”. The majority of his patients were snowbirds and college age students.
So there you have it. If you are sick, then you very likely are packing around some
hitchhiking parasite. If you aren’t really sick, then when all things are considered, you are still
likely to be carrying around some of these hitchhiking parasites. You should not give up
hope. These parasites are somewhat easy to work with, it just takes you, as an individual to
do something about it on your own behalf. As my Dr. friend said, “If a GP is not able to deal
with it, they send them to me. If I can’t deal with it, I send the people to a more specialized
person”. I figure that he has the correct perspective on this parasite situation. Remember,you can usually deal with it, one way or the other and if you can't,
someone higher up the food chain can deal with it. Everyone has a parasite issue, it is just a matter of how severe it might be.  Thank you for your interest in what I try to present. I appreciate it.
KK.