Prepare to have your mind opened wider than a parasitic tapeworm's appetite as I discuss the mystery of intestinal parasites and their deceptively celiac-like symptoms. With the unnerving reality that these invaders can be blamed for a slew of digestive distress, this episode is here to help you avoid any confusion. From the deceptive discomfort caused by hookworms to the alarming weight loss triggered by tapeworms, I'll guide you through the importance of distinguishing these symptoms from those of an accidental exposure to gluten.
Tune in to discover why knowledge is your best defense in the fight for digestive health, and learn the key to protecting your well-being whether you're at home or adventuring abroad.
Learn more about Ultimate Celiac System here
www.belindawhelan.com/ultimateceliacsystem
Join my free community and grab your copy of 11 Mistakes People Make Living Gluten Free here www.belindawhelan.myflodesk.com/11mistakes
Check out my Daily Health Tracker here
HEALTH TRACKER | The Healthy Celiac (belindawhelan.com)
And I would love to connect with you on Instagram thehealthyceliac
If you have a spare moment, please pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review. Let me know what you like, what you've taken on board and what you'd like to hear more of. Thank you!
Music Credit bensound.com
Prepare to have your mind opened wider than a parasitic tapeworm's appetite as I discuss the mystery of intestinal parasites and their deceptively celiac-like symptoms. With the unnerving reality that these invaders can be blamed for a slew of digestive distress, this episode is here to help you avoid any confusion. From the deceptive discomfort caused by hookworms to the alarming weight loss triggered by tapeworms, I'll guide you through the importance of distinguishing these symptoms from those of an accidental exposure to gluten.
Tune in to discover why knowledge is your best defense in the fight for digestive health, and learn the key to protecting your well-being whether you're at home or adventuring abroad.
Learn more about Ultimate Celiac System here
www.belindawhelan.com/ultimateceliacsystem
Join my free community and grab your copy of 11 Mistakes People Make Living Gluten Free here www.belindawhelan.myflodesk.com/11mistakes
Check out my Daily Health Tracker here
HEALTH TRACKER | The Healthy Celiac (belindawhelan.com)
And I would love to connect with you on Instagram thehealthyceliac
If you have a spare moment, please pop over to Apple Podcasts and leave me a review. Let me know what you like, what you've taken on board and what you'd like to hear more of. Thank you!
Music Credit bensound.com
Okay, full disclosure. This episode may be a little bit stomach turning and be a little bit gross to listen to. However, it is important because what I'm about to talk about, the symptoms, are very, very closely linked to celiac disease symptoms, and I think a lot of people, more than we probably know, are suffering from what we're about to talk about, when, in fact, they are probably blaming gluten, and I know on the show I like to talk about things that maybe we aren't thinking about because, like I've said in the past, gluten gets blamed for so many things. Don't get me wrong, I hate gluten. Gluten is the devil in my eyes. However, I think we are very, very quick to blame gluten for so many problems, and often it can be something else. So, in today's situation, we are talking about parasites and, in particular, intestinal worms, and this is important because there are a lot of people that have been struggling with ongoing symptoms of what they believe was linked to their celiac disease, and when they found out, it was, in fact, from parasites. So we're going to talk about some of the symptoms on today's episode, what you can do about it, how you can prevent getting these intestinal worms and why you may be suffering from this rather than from getting gluten. So let's dive into it. So if you've never had intestinal worms, lucky you. My children have had them and let me tell you it is discussed in the last episode.
Speaker 1:It is not fun and we live in the Western world. We live in beautiful, healthy conditions. We have flushing toilets, we have clean, healthy water, we have a clean place to live. However, my children still got intestinal worms. So it happens more than you probably realize, and when you kind of do some research into this, you'll see that many places are being blamed for intestinal worms. So certain countries when I say places, so certain countries that might, you know, cop the brunt of oh, you know, if you travel here you'll get this intestinal worm, or if you travel here, you might pick up this parasite. Well, I live in South Australia and you can get parasites here in South Australia. That's as simple as it is. You can still be living in the Western world and still get parasites. You do not need to. You do not have to have traveled to one of these. You know so-called destinations where you can pick up parasites. They are everywhere and two of the most common parasites are hookworms and tapeworms. So you know they are very common and they are very easy to pick up on. So pick up, brother. If you have children, then you probably may have experienced your children having worms, and then you have to deworm yourself as such as well.
Speaker 1:So let's get into it, let's talk about this because it is it is important, like I said. So what are the symptoms of having parasites in your gut? I've got a list here, so let me read these off to you. So you're gonna listen to this and you're going to be like, yeah, wow, these are very, very similar to the many common, very well-known symptoms of, you know, having gluten, if you've got celiac disease or non-celiac gluten sensitivity. So the first one listed is abdominal pain. So if you experience some sort of continuous abdominal pain and you can't put it down to gluten, something to think about. The next is diarrhea, nausea or vomiting. Again, gluten can be blamed for those Gas and bloating, fatigue, unexplained weight loss and the tenderness in the abdominal area. So let's talk about the unexplained weight loss. So the reason for this is is your body is not able to absorb the nutrients from your food because these nasty little worms are stealing the nutrients from your body. They are literally taking the goodness from you. So if you're failing to thrive as such, or your children are failing to thrive, there may be these parasites in your body that are stealing your beautiful nutrients from your body. As simple as that. Isn't it ridiculous? Like isn't it crazy, to think about that? Your body could have something inside it that shouldn't be there and it's ruining your health. Like when you listen to those symptoms. Is that not just so similar to many people that have gluten? That's pretty much all like. That whole list is pretty much what I suffer from if I get gluten plus other things. So if this is something that you get and it kind of goes on for a couple of weeks, I highly, highly recommend you look further into it.
Speaker 1:You can get an over-the-counter, I guess it's. There's different worming tablets. It sounds like we're talking about worming dogs here. It's it's important to know about. So you can get a worming tablet over the counter. If you have been overseas, then I would say don't just go to your local pharmacy. Go to your doctor and get tested, because these over-the-counter medications as such may not be enough for you. You may need something more specific for that particular intestinal worm or parasite, whatever it is that you've got. So your doctor will then do further testing, whether that will be testing your feces or doing an x-ray testing different things. It is definitely something that I would say if you've been overseas, please go and get checked out, because you can pick up intestinal worms from a number of different ways.
Speaker 1:So it's not, it's not just gross children, it's not just a lot of kids that pick it up. Adults can get it as well. So it can be from a number of different ways. It can be from walking on contaminated soil. So if you're walking barefoot on contaminated soil, we're talking about contaminated with feces and I know that sounds disgusting, but it's not that someone's gone and taken a poo on the beach and you've walked on it or anything gross like that. It can be that there's contaminated water that has gone onto some soil and you've walked on it and then the basically the worms enter your feet through that way. Sounds horrible, but it's an awareness thing and I want you to understand how easy it is for this to happen. So that's one way walking on contaminated soil. Another way is from drinking water. So I used to live in Darwin, which is a tropical area of Australia, and I would never drink the water up there unfiltered. So in Darwin there's a parasite in the water called Gardia and it does make you very sick. One of my girlfriends she got incredibly sick from drinking the tap water up there and after that she would never touch the tap water again. She always bought boxes of water that was safe and I always used filtered water when I lived up there because I was just not risking getting Gardia. So depending on where you live, that may be something that is in your tap water. So it's important to be aware of Now.
Speaker 1:With children picking up worms, this is really gross, but this is how simple it is. It is from them touching contaminated surfaces. So if your children are in kindergarten, childcare, school, go to public toilets, whatever. Think about how much kids touch things and then they put their fingers in there now. So they are then consuming the eggs of those worms or parasites. What happens is they go into the body, so you swallow those eggs. It doesn't have to be children. This happens with adults as well, if they're not washing their hands and being clean. They swallow those eggs, those eggs hatch and then those worms come out. So those worms are then in your intestine, so they are living in your body. Some of these worms will exit the bottom and they will lay eggs around the anus. That's how they lay their eggs, and so this is where children get itchy bottoms and adults I shouldn't keep saying children, I guess we want to talk about kids because it doesn't seem as gross but when people have itchy bottoms, that is usually from worms. So those worms come out at night, when it's dark and quiet and it's safe to do so, and they lay eggs around the bottom and then those eggs hatch and then those worms go back up into the body, live off your beautiful nutrients that you are providing for those worms and continue on their merry way and keep doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:So in little girls and women, they can also complain of an itchiness around the vagina, and that can also be linked to worms. So that's something to be aware of. If you have children that are explaining that they feel that you know they've got a sore tummy or they feel like they're going to be sick or they've had diarrhea or they've just got this itchiness Worms, worms, worms. It's always going to be that. When there's that itchiness around the bottom, it's definitely worth going and getting some worming tablets for them, and then I'd also say the whole household. So no matter how many people live in your house, even if they're not showing symptoms, you'll get everyone in the house to take a worming tablet. Some people don't show symptoms, some people don't realize the symptoms, or it can be like anemia. So a while back I had anemia from an iron deficiency. I didn't pick up on it straight away, it happened very, very slowly and I kind of got used to living with the symptoms. So this can be similar with living with parasites, that your body can kind of get used to how it feels. It gets worse and worse and worse and next thing you feel like rubbish. So everyone needs to get a worming tablet when one person in the house has worms Very, very important.
Speaker 1:So let's just recap so you can get it from drinking contaminated water. You can get it from walking on contaminated surfaces such as soil. You can get it from food Don't think we've touched on this one yet and you can get it from touching eggs. Okay, so touching eggs that may be on a surface say a public toilet, a public dining room, where someone else has eaten before you and they've put their manky hands all over the table, and then you've touched that surface as well. This is probably going to freak the living daylights out of you. I'm sorry if it does, but again, awareness is just helping you understand.
Speaker 1:And then the other thing that I just touched on there was food. So you can get it from food as well. So you can get parasites from eating food that's not cooked correctly. So if you eat meat that hasn't been thoroughly cooked, you can get worms from that. There's different types of worms in different types of meats, and you can also get parasites from vegetables. So if you are perhaps visiting a country where the food is not very clean, you can also get it from that. So it can be from staff being gross and not washing their hands after they've been to the toilet. Then they go and prepare that food and then they serve it to you.
Speaker 1:You might think you've been gluten, when in fact you've just picked up their disgusting parasites because they didn't wash their hands. Disgusting, isn't it? I know it's scary and it's gross to think about, but it's easy to get rid of them. So once you're aware of these symptoms. So now that you've heard me talk about the symptoms and what can be causing it, hopefully, if you ever were to get worms. Let's just refer to it as that.
Speaker 1:If you were to get worms, you would be like, huh, okay, this is what Belinda talked about in the podcast. This all sounds very familiar. I don't think I've been gluten. I actually think I've got some intestinal worms going on. I'm not feeling my best. Go take a worming tablet and you should start to feel better much quicker. It's as simple as that for many, many people just taking an over the over the counter worm tablet and feeling better very, very quickly. So it's incredible, all of the different problems that are out there, that, like I said, we blame gluten so quickly for so many issues, but often it can be something else.
Speaker 1:So please have an awareness around these, please think about these things when you are going about your day-to-day life because, like I said, it's not always gluten and when you have this information kind of stored in the back of your head, you can tap into that info. And this is my goal with the podcast is sharing as much with you about different aspects of your health and different areas of your life that you can look at so that you can go huh, that's right. I learned about this and now I know Hang on a minute. I went out for tea or I went and travelled here and now I feel like this oh, hang on a minute, maybe this is what's going on for me. So that inspires me to share more with you and help more people, because I know how much of an impact it has when you are more tuned into your body and your health and the things that can impact you in this lifetime.
Speaker 1:So with my kids we are very, very open and honest. We talk about so much with our bodies and our health. My son especially, because he has got non-celiac gluten sensitivity. He's very open about his toileting. He tells me the ins and outs of his poo and we talk about it because it is important for him to relay that information to me. I don't want him to ever feel embarrassed that he can't come to me and talk about these things. So you know, he got diagnosed when he was four with non-celiac gluten sensitivity. He's now seven. He's very aware that if there's changes in his bowel movements that there's something not right. He doesn't just accept it. He comes straight to me and tells me. Sometimes he asks if I want to have a look at it. Often I don't. I can just let him explain it to me now, because it's so much grosser now that he's older, but it's okay for him to come to me and tell me about these things.
Speaker 1:So when they first did get worms, I didn't pick up on it immediately, but as soon as the itchy bum thing came in because they'd never had them before as soon as they started complaining of itchy bums, bang. There's the final straw. That was the straw that broke the camel's back, as they say. That was the last thing that I went. Yeah, absolutely, let's go get some warming tablets, let's sort this out.
Speaker 1:We looked for gluten-free ones. That's another thing to be aware of. Make sure, when you are purchasing them, that there's no gluten in them, because I did come across some that had gluten in them as a binder. So look for one that is gluten-free. If you don't know I know it's embarrassing just talk to the pharmacist. If you've got worms and you're embarrassed, just blame your kids. That's a great go-to. Yeah, my kids got worms from school. We all need to be wormed, it's okay. These pharmacists see this all the time. It's nothing really to be embarrassed about, but just know that it's very common.
Speaker 1:And if you want to jump on the internet and research more and have a look at pictures. This stuff fascinates me. I know it's disgusting my husband thinks I'm crazy when I look up stuff and find out more about different things. But it's just educating yourself and having that awareness. So jump on the internet and Google what some of these worms look like. Some are small, some are big. You'll be grossed out. You might love it, you might think it's amazing or you might just be like no, belinda, I'll just stop you right there. I've got enough information.
Speaker 1:But if you want to go on the internet and discover more and find out more, you will be just blown away about what you can discover about all the different worms and parasites that can basically leech off of our bodies and we are their hosts. So we basically are hosting them where they're free air BNB until we boot them out by taking a over the counter medication or, like I said, going to the doctor and maybe getting something a bit stronger, depending on the type of parasite. But initially I would definitely be blaming the most common worms to start with, that I mentioned earlier. So blame them, take it, take an over the counter medication to get rid of those ones, if it's not them and the symptoms don't go away, then definitely go and see your doctor and get tested further to look more into it, because if it is worms, like I said, it's so easy to get rid of and you'll feel so much better very, very quickly, rather than constantly just blaming gluten and thinking that it's always gluten. So I hope that inspires you to look further into this and to maybe blame worms next time you're having intestinal problems, or to be aware of this when you travel overseas, making sure that you're eating well and looking after your health with as far as water goes and things like that and the places that you walk and barefoot. So thank you so much for listening. If you made it to the end, well done, proud of you.
Speaker 1:It's always fun to talk about who, isn't it? That's just so normal for us. With silly, I have to say, it's just such a topic that comes up. I just don't know. It just rolls off the tongue these days talking about who, but anyway. So yeah, thank you so much for tuning into the episode and learning more about parasites with me, and I hope that this has helped you to keep healthy and look after your body for now and the future. So thanks again and I'll talk with you again very, very soon. Have a great week, take care bye.