Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Clear skin and aging beautifully conversations, trainings and challenges by Dr. Stacey Shillington ND.
Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
A Surprising Connection: Acne and Parasites with Dr. Stacey Shillington ND
Unlock the secrets to lasting clear skin as we explore a surprising connection between acne and parasites with Dr. Stacey Shillington. You might be astonished to learn that 20 to 30% of acne sufferers could have parasites contributing to their skin woes. Through her extensive 18-year naturopathic practice, Dr. Shillington reveals how identifying root causes—like gut issues, anxiety, and unexplained breakouts—can lead to genuine healing, rather than temporary fixes. Join us as we dissect the symptoms, often overlooked by mainstream medicine, and discover how markers like high eosinophils in blood tests can guide effective treatments for your skin and overall health.
Embarking on a parasite cleanse is a journey that requires careful preparation, and Dr. Shillington highlights why rushing into it unprepared can be detrimental, especially for those with gut sensitivities. Learn about the Cellcor Para Kit and how timing around the full moon can influence the cleansing process. With Dr. Shillington's guidance, we unravel the preparation steps, potential rounds needed, and maintenance strategies to keep parasitic loads in check. Equip yourself with the knowledge to effectively manage these underlying issues and achieve the clear, healthy skin you've been seeking.
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Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello, beauties, and welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr Stacey Shillington. I'm a naturopathic doctor. For the last 18 years, I've been helping women heal their acne for good by healing their body from the inside out. I'm incredibly passionate about doing it.
Speaker 1:Today, we're going to talk about acne and parasites, and I know this is not a topic that everybody loves. Some people kind of get an itchy feeling when we start talking about parasites, but it's real. Parasites are out there and acne can be caused by parasites. So we have to talk about this. So, first of all, if you're suffering with chronic acne, you are in the right place. I have pretty much seen it all, I've healed it all, and I understand the root causes of acne. I understand what you need to do to heal your acne. So that's what this podcast is all about. It's about helping you, teaching you the root causes of acne and, most importantly, helping you achieve optimal health so acne is no longer an issue for you. This is how we solve acne by healing your body.
Speaker 1:My mission has never been to provide band-aid solutions that are temporary, and I'm actually obsessed about this. I'm obsessed about finding the root cause. I don't want my patients to be with me for a few months, get clear skin and then, once they stop doing whatever treatment I give them, their acne comes back. That's just not the way I work. I'm really into like what's really happening? I think it's because it's kind of like a puzzle sometimes and I love puzzles, I love figuring things out. So that's why I'm here doing what I do, and let's talk about the connection between acne and parasites.
Speaker 1:So I would say, clinically, about 20 to 30% of my acne patients have parasites, so not everybody is going to have parasites. If you have acne, I don't want you thinking, oh my God, now I have to do a parasite cleanse. That's not it. 20 to 30%. However, the CDC estimates that 60 million Americans are affected by parasites. That's a lot of people and this is a condition. This is a situation that's pretty much ignored by mainstream medicine, but it really is a big deal because a lot of people are affected and parasites really tend to affect the skin. Often I see parasites leading to acne, but itching skin rashes are also another really big sign of parasites. So if that's something that you're experiencing in addition to your acne. That might be a red flag that parasites are an issue for you. So how do you know if parasites are actually an issue? And this is a really important question to talk about because, like I said, I don't want every woman with acne running out and doing a parasite cleanse.
Speaker 1:It's not necessary and for some people it's not going to be beneficial to do a parasite cleanse. In fact, it could cause more problems than it could help if it's not done the right way. So first of all, I look at clinical symptoms of all my patients that I work with and I'm at a point in my career where I can, you know, pretty much pick up on certain things that are happening and lead me to believe that parasites are the issue. So some of the clinical symptoms I look at, obviously gut symptoms. Parasites, first of all, tend to colonize in the gut, so we're going to see constipation, maybe we're going to see constipation, maybe we're going to see diarrhea. There could also be other digestive complaints severe bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, also being agitated and anxious. So anxiety, agitation, I mean these are things that you know are common in acne patients that actually don't have parasites, but I see this almost amplified in those patients with parasites.
Speaker 1:Anal itching is another symptom that's really common with parasites. People do not want to talk about this at all, but as soon as somebody suggests to me that anal itching is a symptom, I'm like all right, we need to look at parasites and non-hormonal skin breakout patterns. So this means that your acne is just going to pop up all over the place. There's not a cyclical pattern to it. It could happen on the chest, it could happen on the back. Sometimes I even see patients they get acne on their inner thighs, the back of their thighs, the back of their arms, their buttocks.
Speaker 1:Whenever I see acne happening all over the body, I always think about parasites. And also, if acne is really quite large, if it's really cystic, it takes a really long time to go away. This can also be a sign that it could be parasites and also difficulty sleeping, and this goes along with being agitated and anxious and just your nervous system is very raw. It just can't calm down. Those are some of the clinical symptoms that many acne patients have. And then, of course, I always take a look at labs whenever I'm dealing with my one-on-one patients.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing Parasites are very stealth. They're very tricky. They know how to hide in the body very, very well, and so there's not a lot of great testing for acne very well, and so there's not a lot of great testing for acne. In fact, years ago I used a preceptor with a very famous doctor in New Mexico who is very famous for treating parasites, and he did not even do any testing in North America at all. He would send all his tests to Kenya and the hospital in Kenya would interpret the tests and do the stool tests for him. And he just said in North America we don't understand how to test for parasites. And I find that to be very true. I mean, I've read a lot of GI mapping tests, a lot of GI effects tests, a lot of gut tests, and it's not often that I see frank parasites on these tests.
Speaker 1:However, there are other markers In the blood, often high eosinophils, that can tip me off that parasites might be an issue. And often, on a lot of tests, we will see protozoa present. It's much easier to detect protozoa. A lot of tests, we will see protozoa present, it's much easier to detect protozoa. And often if I see protozoa, then I suspect that parasites could be part of the picture as well. And then there's also inflammatory markers. And I take a look at the inflammatory markers on the GI mapping test, on blood work, and if some of the values are high, then I suspect that, yes, parasites may be an issue. So it's really putting together a set of patterns to determine whether or not parasites are an issue.
Speaker 1:So how do you get rid of parasites? Once you suspect that parasites might be an issue for you, what are you going to do? Remember, like I said, parasites are very stealth. They're often difficult to detect and difficult to kill. So timing is very important and we want to time our parasite cleanses around the full moon. And this is because during a full moon our bodies produce higher levels of serotonin and when serotonin levels in our body are high, parasites are going to come out of hiding. It's going to activate them a little bit, and this is the perfect opportunity for us to utilize our medicines to kill and remove these parasites from the body. And I do want to say that if parasites are present, it's often difficult to get rid of parasites completely, because often parasites are going to lay eggs and these eggs hatch in different cycles. So you may kill a lot of parasites during one parasite cleanse, but the eggs are still present. So those eggs are going to hatch and I know this is going to make you feel itchy all over as I'm talking about it. So there's going to be a perpetuation of parasites and this is not something where you do one parasite cleanse, you are one and done and parasites are no longer part of your life.
Speaker 1:If you do have a parasite infection, not only do you have to get rid of the bulk of parasites and this can mean you have to do a couple of consecutive parasite cleanses but then you're also going to have to do one or two parasite cleanses a year for maintenance, just to be sure that you're getting rid of all the parasites. And there are many countries around the world and it is just a very common protocol for citizens to take anti-parasitic medication once or twice a year. This is not discussed in North America at all. Our medicine barely recognizes parasites, but parasites obviously do exist. The CDC estimates again there's 60 million Americans with parasites. So you know it's.
Speaker 1:It's very interesting to talk about this. It's very interesting to treat parasites, because when you start to reduce the load of parasites in somebody's body, health conditions really start to improve, sometimes dramatically, and that's the same with the skin, all right. So how do you know if you're ready or not for a parasite cleanse? And this is a really important thing to talk about, because many people think they may have parasites. So they go out, they buy a parasite cleansing kit and they just start right away. But I want you to really understand.
Speaker 1:You need to be ready for a parasite cleanse. If your body is not, if it's not draining properly, if your liver is not detoxing optimally, if you suffer from constipation, if you have gut inflammation or if you're hypersensitive, you do not want to jump in and do a parasite cleanse because you could potentially have a really bad reaction and it could leave you feeling even worse than before. So if any of those conditions pertain to you, and in fact even before you decide to do a parasite cleanse, I would definitely suggest that you see a naturopathic doctor, you see somebody that's an expert in acne, so they can help you prepare for a parasite cleanse. You want to support drainage, you want to support detox, you want to make sure that the gut is in a good place, because the herbs that we use for parasite cleanse they're really strong and they can really be hard on the gut and especially for people that are sensitive. So often we have to do a couple months of preparation before your body is actually ready for a parasite cleanse. And so what if your parasite load is really high?
Speaker 1:So parasites they usually start off colonizing in the gut. As the infection grows, they can migrate to the liver, to the lungs, to the sinuses, and this can lead to multiple symptoms throughout the body. If you're experiencing many different symptoms around your body, you want to work with an expert and you want to have them guide you through the parasite cleanse. You're probably going to have to do multiple rounds. You're probably going to have to take herbs in different ways, such as, you know, through the nasal cavities, in order to get rid of colonization there. This requires the support of drainage and detox, and the gut has to be protected as well. This is really important.
Speaker 1:So what parasite cleanse do I use? I love Cellcor and I've done many, many different parasite cleanses in my time. I think Cellcor is the best one out there. It is formulated in such a way that it is effective. First and foremost, it is very effective. It can also be very harsh with sensitive people, which is why you need to take it in a certain way. If you're interested in jumping right into a parasite cleanse, you think that's the right thing for you. You've already worked on your drainage and your detox and your gut's in good shape. Click the link in the show notes. I'll have a link to the parasite cleanse there that I love, the Cellcor Para Kit and the code to order. So if you're ready but I caution you If you're a sensitive person, if you have gut issues, if you have hormonal acne, because hormonal acne can often point to drainage and detox issues If any of these things are present, if you have acne on your cheeks, you need to work with somebody to prepare you for the parasite cleanse so your skin does not blow up, because if you're not detoxing well, you're going to purge through your skin and, believe me, this is not going to be a pleasant experience.
Speaker 1:Your acne can get worse. Other symptoms can get worse, but this is really avoidable. We just have to prepare your body properly. So what should you expect from a parasite cleanse? So, if you've prepared properly, parasite cleanses are incredibly easy to do and the CellCore kit I find really it's not a problem at all.
Speaker 1:My patients don't usually experience any cramping, any bloating, any diarrhea, and I often ask my patients to sift through their bowel movements with a disposable chopstick following the full moon and doing this for a couple of days. And generally you're going to see. And generally you're going to see. You know you're going to see what's in there. If you have a high parasitic load, you're going to see a lot. If you have moderate, you'll see moderate, and sometimes you may not see anything at all, but generally you see mucus strands, worms, sometimes flukes, but you also only usually see about 30% of what is there. And again, if you see a lot, you may need to repeat the cleanse. So just to explain a little bit about how the cleanse works. So it's seven days and of course we do it around the full moon, we do it three days before the full moon, three days after the full moon, and there's a lot of pills that you take. I'm not going to lie, it's not for those that don't like to take capsules. There's four different products that are used during this cleanse Para 1, para 2, biotoxin Binder and Para 3. And usually my patients don't experience a lot of side effects at all, but that's because I've prepared them well to do the cleanse.
Speaker 1:So how long does it take to get rid of parasites? So it depends on the parasitic load. If you have a lot of parasites, we are going to have to do probably three months of consecutive back-to-back parasite cleanses at least, and then we're going to have to do maintenance. Sometimes one or two parasite cleanses are enough. I have some patients they'll do two parasite cleanses. Their skin will magically clear up and they're good. However, you know, I still encourage them to do maintenance parasite cleanses as well and, like I said before, it can be impossible to remove everything. So we need to manage the situation and we need to do those biannual or even annual cleanses to make sure parasites do not overtake the environment again.
Speaker 1:So I hope this information on parasites and acne has helped you. I want to encourage you to work with an ND specializing in acne if you suspect parasites and also if you have hormonal acne or gut acne. Again, hormonal acne that tells me that you're not detoxing properly. Gut acne that gives me an idea that your gut may not be in the best shape and we need to support these systems before you embark upon a parasite cleanse. However, if you're ready to go, link in the show notes for the parasite cleanse that I've been using for the past few years very successfully with my patients, been using for the past few years very successfully with my patients.
Speaker 1:So if you've enjoyed this training, if it's given you an aha moment, if it's taught you something you didn't know before, please leave a review. This is the best way for me to reach other people out there that are suffering with acne so that I can teach them different steps and things they want to consider on their clear skin journey. You do not have to suffer with acne, but you do have to, you know, educate yourself and gain the knowledge to understand what is going on in your body to be causing acne. This is so important. This is my aim. This is what I want to share with you. So next steps after leaving review. If you want to know more about the five types of acne that I've identified in my 18 years of being a naturopathic doctor, check out my free clear skin masterclass. My link is in the show notes. And if you want to book a call with my team to sign up for one of my acne programs right away, click the link to book a free call in my show notes as well.
Speaker 1:So thank you very much, and a quick medical disclaimer. All information that I've shared with you should not be construed as medical advice or instruction. I don't know your health history. Please consult with your medical practitioner before implementing a parasite cleanse. Please do this. These are serious herbs. We are treating potentially a complex medical condition, and being guided by the right person is the smart decision. So please be very mindful of that. Protect yourself, take care of yourself and get the guidance and the support that you need always. So thank you very much for listening. I'm sending you all my love and healing energy. Thank you so much for allowing me to guide you. Have a beautiful week and I will see you soon.