Transcript: The Eczema Podcast #9: How Parasites and Candida Affect Your Eczema

Click here to listen or watch Episode #9 of the Eczema Podcast

Abby:

Hi everyone, welcome to The Eczema Podcast. Today I have a special guest here, her name is Jennifer Papaconstantino and she is a holistic nutritionist and a natural health practitioner. I’ll let her introduce herself.

So hi Jennifer, thanks for being on the show today.

Jennifer:

Thank you very much for having me Abby.

Abby:

No problem – my pleasure! So tell me a bit more about yourself and how you got into your role.

Jennifer:

Well it actually started with my daughter who is now 21. When she was four, she was on ten different medications, she was too sick to attend school and she had been through the medical system, I had done everything that was ever asked of me, in regards to medicating her and taking care of her, from a conventional perspective.

When she was no longer well enough to attend school, my husband and I knew that there was something different that had to be done, so we…you know, we had already explored our options, we had already been to pediatrics and emergency rooms and doctors and specialists and everything else. And it was actually natural health and doing a 360 degree overhaul on our diet that really brought about the changes, and of course using natural medicine and herbs and homeopathy and things like that; where we started to see the difference.

Eventually, we got her off all ten medications and her issue, actually, started with chronic ear infections and then it was asthma and then it was eczema, from head to toe; I know that you specialize in doing research on eczema and stuff like that. We got her off all medications and she’s never had an asthma attack since we changed our diet. Seventeen years ago her eczema went away and she was able to go back to school and her whole cardiovascular system just became stronger and her immune system and everything else, it was just wonderful to see that.

After working with that, of course I was an advocate for natural medicine and I actually, in the past, did day care for over seventeen years and I saw the same pattern over and over again with other kids and even adults as well. I was the person where people would come to for advice, however I wasn’t a practitioner. So, ten years ago I put myself back through school and started studying holistic nutrition and I haven’t stopped, I’m always taking this course or that course or something else that can help me help clients and move forward.

Abby:

That’s amazing! Your daughter’s story is truly incredible, especially with what you and your husband have been able to do to help her.

Jennifer:

Thank you, thank you! It wasn’t easy back then, I mean, there was no Internet, there weren’t gluten free cookbooks, there was no such thing as celiac back then, it wasn’t a medical diagnosis and so we didn’t have any help when we had to remove wheat and dairy and things like that out of her diet, but we did it!

Abby:

Wow, that’s amazing though, it’s one of the things where during in a time where the Internet wasn’t that huge and gluten free things weren’t that huge too, you guys pioneered through that. So that’s truly incredible.

Jennifer:

Thank you.

Abby:

So, tell me about the eczema patients that you’ve worked with in the past and what your experience was like working with them.

Jennifer:

Well, really, again and when I teach holistic nutrition, from a clinical perspective, I teach this exact thing. For each person, it means something different and so really, it’s imperative to root cause of that, so for one person it could be something simple like reacting negatively to dairy, for another person, it could be a food allergy of any sort. But you know for some people, it could mean that they’re deficient in essential fatty acids, for another person, it could be related to the kidney.

In traditional Chinese medicine, the skin is considered the third kidney, so it could be kidney-related. A lot of times when you’re working with the skin, the skin is actually the last organ that you treat and so the skin, being the largest organ of elimination on the body. Usually when something shows up on the skin, that means there are other systems that are out of balance. So, be it the bowels are not eliminating, the liver is not detoxifying properly, and metabolizing fats, the gall bladder comes into play there. It could be an issue with the kidneys, it could be for some people, parasitic or fungal, and so again, it’s really a matter of asking yourself by what mechanism or what’s the root cause here. So, honest to goodness, that is different for every single person that comes in front of me, so trying to determine what that is, is basically my job, I’m like a health detective.

Abby:

That’s awesome. Now, what’s your usual protocol to figure out what the root cause is for each person? Is there a specific thing that you do, or does it range for every person?

Jennifer:

Well, definitely diet first and foremost, because everything that goes into your mouth is either a potential item that could heal the body, or it could cause damage to the body. So, the great thing about holistic nutrition is that we are trained to look at all aspects of a person’s life in relationship with their health but with focus on diet and nutrition. So, definitely first and foremost, looking at a diet diary, seeing if there are potential allergen-type foods, high inflammatory foods, because eczema is an inflammatory condition; so, we definitely want to look at that.

I also take into consideration, of course, places that they travel, so I’ve mentioned about the fungal and the parasitic component of it. So doing an intake form where you’re kind of asking some of the questions; I’ve seen clients with eczema and their diet is pristine. There’s no way that they should have eczema just based on their diet diary, so that’s why you need an intake as well.

And particularly in my clinical practice, the lifeblood analysis is a modality that I use to help assess the body as a whole. I can tell sixty-five different aspects on health from one drop of blood, and I’m looking at some of the things that I’ve mentioned; liver, kidney involvement, inflammation, a leaky gut is also a big issue where the gut is compromised, it’s no longer a semi-permeable membrane, but more of a permeable membrane and what is involved with digestion and digestion gone awry in order to have this issue with the skin.

Abby:

Right. So, with people who have a pristine diet, what factors do you usually find that are the underlying root cause?

Jennifer:

Well, so more often it would be, like I said, a leaky gut type picture, definitely liver and definitely fungal and parasitic. Unfortunately, people don’t realize that because we live in a developed country, parasites are not an issue here. They think that parasites are an issue for developing countries, places like Africa, India, Mexico, and things like that. But unfortunately, number one, we travel to all of those places and we go on holidays there and so we go and we enjoy the beach, and the resorts, and the food and whatnot, but we don’t practice the way they practice. I’ve had clients, as well as students that I’ve taught that come from Mexico, for an example, and they practice parasite cleansing twice a year.

My background is half West Indian, so my mother comes from St. Vincent, and my grandmother who’s 98 years old this year would bowel cleanse and parasite cleanse every single one of her seven children twice a year, so this is the practice. We go into these places and we enjoy them, and then of course, there’s not only just international travel, but other things where we are eating food that’s coming from different countries that may not have been washed properly.

Honest to goodness, parasites can come from anywhere; they can come from your back garden, they can come from your pet, they can come from walking outside in bare feet, and they can come eating a fruit, or vegetable or salad from a restaurant that wasn’t washed properly.

Abby:

And know that it’s even in sushi, especially with the raw salmon and the raw fish.

Jennifer:

I can’t tell you how many times I see that as well.

Abby:

Wow. So, if it is a parasite that’s causing the eczema, what can people usually do about it to help eliminate the parasite? I know they’re hard to treat.

Jennifer:

Well, they’re not necessarily hard; you just have to have the kind of right ratio of herbs and the right type of earth. So basically what you’re doing is you’re creating an unfavorable environment where these pathogenic bacteria and bugs like to live.

Number one, first and foremost, you have to increase the pH of the body. Bacteria, viruses, parasites, cancer, things like that, cannot live in an alkaline environment. So, first and foremost, creating an alkaline environment, used with diet, with proper digestion, with certain vitamins, like vitamin D with certain minerals. Of course, you have to re-mineralize the body, and so pH is number one, first and foremost.

Number two, you have to make sure digestion is functioning pristinely; these things also thrive in an environment where fermentation occurs, so undigested food particles…You have to make sure the digestive system is purring like the engine of a brand new Porsche, basically, so making sure you have enough stomach acid, making sure the pancreas is giving out great digestive enzymes, making sure that there’s sufficient bile, so how’s the liver, gall bladder functioning and of course, you need to eliminate them, because once these things die off.

It’s not just a matter of going to the health food store and buying a parasite cleanse in a box, because you can actually do more harm than good, and once these things die off, they give off very toxic by-products, so if the body cannot eliminate that by-product, you can actually make the situation worse. Because, if these toxins are in the body; once they die, they actually give off noxious gas, a lot of acid, some of them give off enzymes, and if the liver is not strong enough, the bowel’s not moving properly, if the body’s not alkaline, then you can actually make eczema or psoriasis worse, because now these toxins are going to come out in the body’s largest organ, which is the skin.

So, you know, it’s important, I always say “BEDMAS”; the mathematical equation – brackets, exponents, division, multiplication, etcetera, there’s always an order of operation and even when you’re cleansing and working with the body, there’s an order of operation as well. That’s important for the viewers to note, if they’re listening to this and they think that something I say resonates with them, it’s not just a matter of running to the health food store and buying a parasite cleanse kit in a box, because – again, it could make the matter worse before it gets better and you don’t want to do that, especially if you have really bad eczema where it’s all over the body, or if it’s with a little child. You definitely want to support the body’s detoxification and elimination systems first, before you run out and do something like that.

Abby:

So, it sounds like sometimes it’s best if people work with natural health practitioners to help them overcome this, rather than trying to do it themselves and running off to buy a DIY kit that they can do themselves.

Jennifer:

Absolutely, absolutely. You know, it’s really important – it’s great to try to self-diagnose and self-treat, and I know Dr. Google is very busy these days, a lot of people Google their symptoms and they’re looking up natural cures and things like that. But – and again, you have to clean up the diet as well, so it’s not just a matter of health comes in a box or a bottle, you have to work with the diet first and foremost and make sure the diet is right for that particular person and situation. So you need to clean up the diet, then you need to organize the digestive system and some of the things that I talked about, then you can cleanse.

I made this mistake years and years ago when I was a student. I have a cottage three hours Northeast of here on a lake called Lake Kashwakamak. It’s absolutely gorgeous, it’s a beautiful freshwater lake and we have a lot of these her in Ontario, and that’s where I picked up more than one parasite and I thought, “You know, I’ll just run out and I’ll do a cleanse.” And a lot of my symptoms, when I looked them up – I started learning about natural health, were kind of those symptoms of a parasitic-type infection and I ended up in bed, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, you name it, because I didn’t do the work beforehand.

So all the other things that we talked about, pH, digestion, you know. A lot of people, as well, their bodies are stuck in something called ‘fight or flight,’ which is where their endocrine system is not working, so adrenals, thyroid, all of those things come into play. Now in relationship to eczema, the adrenal glands, when they’re fatigued, they’re not making, or sometimes making too much cortisol, and cortisol is one of the body’s most powerful anti-inflammatory substance, eczema being an inflammatory type of condition.

Not only that, when you’re stuck in fight or flight, this phenomenon is known as sympathicotonia and it shuts down digestion, so now you’re not digesting. It also puts the cells into lockdown, so now your body cannot detoxify at the cellular level, and very often, you have to do work on the endocrine system before you can do any of the other things that I talked about and getting the body out of fight or flight. So now you’re making sufficient amounts of cortisol, the adrenals are functioning correctly, now digestion is functioning better, the body can regulate pH better, now you can start cleansing or detoxifying.

So, again, we could even take it a little bit of a step further there and now we have endocrine involvement. Really it is a holistic aspect where you’re just looking at so many components, when you’re looking just at eczema, you can’t just look at the skin, you have to look much, much deeper than the skin, because the body functions as a whole. That would be like the engine light of your car goes on and you just smashed the dashboard, and you smashed the engine light, and then you don’t have to worry about it. Or, when you open the hood of your car, you actually need a mechanic to look under the hood, because I don’t know what’s going on underneath the hood of my car, I don’t know how to fix an engine, my husband does! But, again, you know, there are so many pieces involved that it could be something completely that you would think is unrelated, but to a holistic health practitioner, or someone who knows the body interworkings and how it functions as a whole, it actually directly is related.

Abby:

I love your response, I think that will help tons of viewers, because I know a lot of people try do it themselves, and then they get frustrated that it doesn’t work, so that part is hard. But, what about Candida, how do you tell the difference when it’s Candida and when it’s parasites? Because I know Candida is a pretty common cause as well.

Jennifer:

Candida is a very common cause, but when I see Candida overgrowth, I even have to take that issue a step further and ask myself, “Why? How did the Candida get there?” Again, we’re looking at diet, was the person eating too much sugar, carbohydrates, etcetera, and some people who have Candida that do not eat a lot of sugar, so then in that respect, where would it come from? It would come from faulty digestion and so our viewers need to understand that when you don’t digest, you’re not breaking down the food into its most component parts, and that causes fermentation.

When you ferment, picture your compost bin. What happens when you forget to take that out or you put too much veggies in there? It’s gross, it’s wet, it gets sweaty, there’s all this weird juice at the bottom and what’s all that smell that’s coming out of there? So, picture fermentation like your compost bin. If you’re fermenting, number one, fermentation is a bacterial process, so these undigested food particles are feeding these unfavorable or antagonistic types of bacteria.

Now, also what viewers need to understand is that everyone has Candida albicans and others strings of Candida naturally residing in their gut and elsewhere in the body. It’s just that these types of bacteria are very antagonistic, so if not left in check, these bad guys can overgrow. Of course, that’s unfavourable; that’s called dysbiosis, and dysbiosis is basically just a term to describe an unfavorable ratio of bacteria in the intestine. Candida overgrowth is a little bit scary, only because these Candida can overgrow and switch into something called a mycelial form, and mycelial is almost mushroom-like or fungal-like and they can grow roots and perforate the small intestine. Once they get out of ratio in the small intestine and then the small intestine is perforated and it’s no longer a semi-permeable membrane; so picture your small intestine like this – perforations occur and now like this, well, now you’ve got little holes in there that are bigger and things can get through including Candida.

Candida can manifest anywhere in the body that has blood supply. So, you can have Candida in the brain, in the eyes, in the foot, that’s what foot fungus is, and in your private parts, so that’s kind of what athletes’ foot is and, you know, vaginal yeast infections and really a lot of people even have fungus in their toenails, that’s Candida overgrowth. So, really, it’s very antagonistic in that respect, and can it manifest in the skin? Again, absolutely!

Not only that, once it overgrows, the body is trying to eliminate it, so it overworks the kidneys, it overworks the liver, the bowel’s not functioning correctly at that point, and of course, when those three systems of elimination are overworked or sluggish or taxed, then there is going to be more of an issue with the skin, because again, the body’s fourth largest organ of elimination is the skin. Not only will there be toxic accumulation, but there’s going to be yeast-like accumulation, inflammation and all that other junk, and it’s no fun.

Abby:

Yeah, definitely no fun, indeed. I know we’re a bit running out of time, but do you have any quick tips if people do suspect that they have Candida, how they might be able to help it?

Jennifer:

Again, it’s some of the things that we’ve talked about, so it’s not just a matter of going out and buying Candida cleanse in a box, there’s that BEDMAS, or order of operations that needs to happen in the body before any type of cleansing. This could be Candida parasite; detox – that word, it’s not just a matter of going out and getting some type of cleanse, it’s making sure the body can eliminate, making sure the organs of elimination are….so I would start usually, number one, first and foremost, with pH and digestion, making sure every aspect of digestion is purring like an engine of a Porsche, okay? So, digestion is not faulty, and then when that is all sorted out, then you can put in a Candida cleanse. Again, it’s not just a matter of using herbs that are anti-fungal, like oil of oregano, like olive leaf extract, like grape seed extract and things like that, it’s also a matter of putting in a nice binding fiber everyday that’s going to scrub out the intestinal tract and make sure that all of these pathogenic microorganisms are getting pulled from the body in a healthful way, and removed every day. Sometimes, it’s using a little bit of activated charcoal to get rid of the bacteria.

One other quick warning is that some of these bugs live in film, called the biofilm, where they create kind of colonies and they hide from the immune system and they hide from anti-fungal treatment and things like that in something called a biofilm, which is mucopolysaccharide sacs and sometimes, it’s a matter of breaking down the biofilm before you can even get to the Candida or the parasite.

Health doesn’t come in a box, sometimes it’s multi-faceted. Just so the viewers know if they go and try some of the things that are recommended and it didn’t work for them, this is the reason why, there’s still something underlying that hasn’t been addressed.

Abby:

I love your wealth of knowledge, I think it definitely helps a lot of my viewers and listeners out there who are watching and listening. Do you have any last minute tips or last words of advice that you would want to leave people who are going through eczema?

Jennifer:

Well, my main advice is, deal with the diet first. First and foremost, before you even go see a practitioner; because the first thing that any practitioner really should be looking at is diet. My recommendation is a whole food diet, so if it walks, and if it grows, then you can be eating it. Basically, get rid of a lot of inflammatory foods, things like grains, everyone knows about “white deaths,” – white potatoes, white rice, all of these refined grains that we’re on.

You can go on a basically intestinal healing type diet, which is almost like a caveman diet, so removing all of the grains, which are actually very difficult to digest, and glutinous grains which irritate a lot of people. High fat and clean protein type diet, where you’re basically eating like a caveman, so lots of nuts and seeds, lots of clean proteins, anything that grows on the ground, so lots of veggies, fruit in moderation, of course, because they are still a sugar.

Once you get the diet cleaned up and you have the good fats in there, lots of omega threes, so fish, chia, flax, olive oil, some of the good oils, sesame oil, evening primrose, things like that, and you get that cleaned up, then it makes it easier for a lot of practitioners to see you and then you’re not so overwhelmed when you’re in the appointment as well if you choose to move forward with some of the other issues that we talked about; liver, kidney, parasitic, Candida and cleanses and things like that. And you’re not so shocked when you go to the appointment, you’re like, “Oh my goodness, you want me to remove gluten and you want me to not eat so much dairy?”

To my viewers, or to your viewers rather, I would say first and foremost, you’ve got to do an anti-inflammatory, high fat, clean protein, caveman, almost paleo, but you don’t have to be that strict, type diet – would really help. And some people might see immediate relief just from that; just cleaning up the diet, so I think anyone who’s watching, who has eczema or someone who knows someone who has eczema, you’ve got to start with the diet first and foremost.

Abby:

That’s wonderful; I love that piece of advice. Diet is key, so thanks for that. Now, Jennifer, if any of my viewers want to see you for a consultation, do you only practice in Toronto, or do you also do Skype sessions and online sessions?

Jennifer:

Well, I prefer if my clients come in, only because, like I said, I like to look at the blood. My clinical practice is in Pickering, I’ve had clients from all over the GTA; I have clients actually from other countries as well by referral. Coming into Pickering would be okay, but if that’s not feasible for somebody, I do over the phone or Skype consultations, absolutely.

My website is www.healnaturally.ca and I can be found on the Internet, there’s more information about all of the services that I offer on my website and a little bit more about my philosophy and what I do and how I practice.

Abby:

Wonderful, thanks so much, Jennifer! I found this interview with you incredibly helpful and I know my viewers and listeners probably feel the same way, so thanks so much for being on the show!

Jennifer:

Thank you, Abby, for having me, it was such a pleasure!

Abby:

You’re welcome; take care.

Jennifer:

Have a healthy day!