Madison Area Lyme Support Group

Disclaimer: I am a physician for 25+ years, and I’ve worked on establishing clinical practice guidelines for numerous healthcare entities (insurers and hospitals) as part of my career. Having said that, I’m not your personal physician. I believe that each person deserves personalized care based on their symptoms, test results, presence or absence of risk factors associated with parasites, diet and lifestyle, personal & family history, etc. This post is to provide you with the necessary information about 2 types of parasites: protozoa and helminths (worms). Compared to many countries who have many risk factors, including their environment and contaminated food/water supplies, the US nearly does not have the number of parasitic infections than they do. However, recent surge of illnesses, rise in inflammatory bowel disease and auto-immune disorders, association of parasites with cancers, and the fact that COVID was treatable by anti-parasitic drugs, people are reevaluating whether ‘parasites’ are a real problem in the US as well. For this reason, the information provided below, should help one evaluate their own risk so that they can determine the need for treatment and/or a cleanse, with their physician’s guidance. Please keep in mind the following:

1. While i’ve tried to make it a thorough review, there are numerous parasites. There maybe some missing, either because they don’t infect humans, or there were no recommended treatments found for them. Feel free to add comments if I missed any that you want more information on.
2. This review does not cover fungal infections or viral infections. Many viruses are known to cause cancers as well, such as, EBV, HPV, HCV, etc. They have their own treatment protocols.
3. I’ve included recommended treatments based on review of multiple sources. If there is new evidence that supports the use of a drug for a parasite that I have not listed, feel free to add in comments, so I can review the study and add to the recommendations.

What are Parasites?

Parasites require a host to survive and spread. The adult forms of parasites live and feed from within the host (animals, humans). The eggs and larvae are what ‘spread’ through various means (food, water, flies, bugs and mosquitos). Most parasites, go undetected, and people are ‘asymptomatic’ because the parasite does not disturb the environment. Sometimes, there are slight symptomatic changes, but the person doesn’t think of them as worm related. For example, feeling more hungry, desiring more sweet foods, bloating or indigestion, abdominal discomfort or pain if you don’t eat, and general fatigue and malaise. These maybe signals sent by the parasite, so you take the actions that benefit them, i.e. survive, and have a constant source of food.

General To-Do’s and Not-To-Do’s about Parasites

Here are some To-Do’s:

• Vitamin rich foods or supplements:
  • Carrots, sweet potatoes, and squash are high in beta-carotene, which turns into Vitamin A, which helps to resist parasitic worms and larvae.
  • Eat foods rich in Vitamins C & B
    • B12 is depleted by many worms
    • Folic acid (Vitamin B9) also depletes from malabsorption due to worms
• Minerals such Selenium and Zinc: Selenium and Zinc are required for immune function and resistance to infection
• Include more garlic in your meals: raw garlic has sulfur containing amino acids that are anti-parasitic
• Ensure you have “good” bacteria in your gut by taking probiotics or eating probiotic rich foods like yogurt. (see below regarding probiotics used for natural treatment and prevention of parasites)
• Perform ‘gut cleansing’, such as with psyllium, beetroot, flaxseeds or supplements containing Senna
• Wash all foods well, including vegetables and fruits, prior to use

Here are some Not-To-Do’s:

• Don’t eat raw or undercooked meats, fish, crustaceans, and snails
• Avoid coming in contact with any animal feces or saliva, including from pets
• Avoid coffee, sugar, alcohol, and refined grains

More information on natural prevention and treatments is provided later.

Anti-Parasitic Treatments

Parasites can be treated both naturally and with anti-parasitic medications. Natural herbs and supplements can help maintain an internal environment that prevents parasitic infections in the first place. Some herbs and supplements however, do directly reduce adult worms and egg count. But the effectiveness rate is not as high as anti-parasitic medications that have very targeted mechanism of action. More on natural treatments later.

You are likely to come across Ivermectin, Fenbendazole, Doxycycline and others drugs as treatments. Febendazole is a benzimidazole, and is just one of many other benzimidazoles available, such as albendazole, parbendazole, mebendazole, flubendazole, etc. It is a common practice for drug manufacturers to make different compounds under the same class of drugs, and those products are used in different markets and for different purposes such as animal vs. human use. Fenbendazole is used with animals and majority of data and studies on this drug are from animal studies. So while fenbendazole and albendazole are the same class of drugs, albendazole is a product recommended for use in humans but requires prescription, whereas fenbendazole is over the counter for animal use. What matters most is whether fenbendazole and albendazole have the same level of efficacy. Based on a review of many comparative studies, the efficacies vary based on parasite type. One was superior than the other in each study, but all were animal models. Efficacy studies on humans are available for albendazole, mebendazole, flubendazole, triclabendazole etc. Below, when discussing each parasite and treatment, you will notice that albendazole was recommended as ‘drug of choice’ for many parasites due to higher efficacy, compared to mebendazole, flubendazole and other benzimidazoles. Therefore, these drugs do not all work equally in terms of efficacy.

My review below is based on studied, recommended and approved drugs for the treatment of each parasite in humans. (See link for article)

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**Comment**

A wonderfully thorough article.

For more:

• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2017/10/03/removing-parasites-to-fix-lyme-chronic-illnesses-dr-jay-davidson/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2025/05/01/overlap-of-parasites-lyme-disease-how-to-treat/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2024/05/15/the-importance-of-looking-at-parasites-viruses-yeast-and-fungal-infections/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2023/01/06/are-parasites-making-you-sick-heres-everything-you-need-to-know-if-you-have-lyme-msids/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2022/12/14/dr-gatti-is-back-new-paper-shows-metals-and-parasites-in-plasma-from-a-treated-lyme-msids-patient-that-dfpp-with-chelating-agents-might-detox-these-microparticles/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2024/07/31/mold-parasites-emfs-cancer/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2025/01/09/chlorine-dioxide-yet-another-safe-cheap-treatment-attacked-by-the-fda/
• https://madisonarealymesupportgroup.com/2025/05/08/existing-evidence-for-chlorine-dioxide-in-treating-human-disease/  Many other articles on Chlorine Dioxide at end of article.