Last July I put myself, my husband, and my stepfather on a parasite cleanse. We all needed it. And now, 6 months later, we are feeling the positive results of living parasite-free.

My parasite history spans most of my life, starting with several bouts of giardia over the twelve summers I spent camping in the Rockies. Then there was that 48-hour train ride from Budapest to Istanbul during college, where we ran out of water bottles and had to do an emergency refill at a public fountain in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Ooohhh.. I paid for that little mistake for the next decade until the vicious buggers I picked up in China and Tibet laid me too low to ignore and sent me running for the anti-parasitic medication Flagyl when the horrifying lab results came back.

See, with many intestinal parasites, you can go through an acute stage of violent illness which then mellows into a chronic condition where you live at a level of reduced vitality but come to believe that this is just the way life is. You might feel sluggish and tired a lot during this chronic stage. You might experience random bouts of loose bowels or even vomiting and fainting. Irritability and restlessness can be symptoms. You might see many other symptoms.You might not.

My man suffered from the same Asian critters I did, dropped down to 130 lbs. during the initial acute stage and looked positively skeletal (he’s 5’10’). Over the years he went on several rounds of Flagyl as the bugs would reappear and he would briefly revisit the acute stage. When last spring rolled around, I was convinced he still had parasites.

The thing about Flagyl is that it is absolutely toxic and kills off a lot more in your body than just the parasites. I feel seriously poisoned every time I take it. It takes a long time to recover from both the parasites and the remedy. I really didn’t want to put his body through it again, particularly since it hadn’t worked completely the last 3 or 4 times he’s taken it. Maybe his bugs were Flagyl-resistant?

My stepfather had the most recent case of parasites among us, picked up, I suspected, on a trip to Mexico last spring where he became violently ill. Afterward, he seemed tired a lot and looked worn, as if he hadn’t fully recovered.

We all picked up our parasites traveling but most people are probably hosting some parasites picked up right at home from food, water, kitty litter, animals, dirt, or elsewhere.

After conferring with others in the natural health field, I put us all on Dr. Hulda Clark’s Parasite Cleanse protocol of Black Walnut Hulls, Wormwood, and Cloves. Here’s her explanation as to why you need all three herbs:

Black walnut hull and wormwood kill adults and developmental stages of at least 100 parasites. Cloves kill the eggs. Only if you use them together will you rid yourself of parasites. If you kill only the adults, the tiny stages and eggs will soon grow into new adults. If you kill only the eggs, the million stages already loose in your body will soon grow into adults and make more eggs. They must be used together as a single treatment.

It was a complicated regimen — I was grateful for Dr. Clark’s handy chart to follow to keep track of days and dosages — and took more than 2 weeks. At the end of it I was kind of disappointed because none of us felt any big changes.

Until now.

Here we are, 6 or so months later, and the three of us are all noticing changes. Little changes that add up to big changes.

My husband, who has struggled for 10 years to regain the weight he lost after we returned from Asia, has started to bulk up in the past few months. He’s feeling supercharged physically and mentally and ready to tackle some big tasks he’s been putting off for a few years. At 42, he’s back to running sub-6 minute miles on his daily run.

My stepfather’s afternoon naps are few and far between these days, where just a few months ago they were a daily habit. His good mood is evident in everything he does and says. He has worked up to walking 3 miles each day while carrying 24 lbs. of weights and has been shedding pounds and inches.

For myself, I feel remarkably emotionally stable, able to ride out the ebbs and flows of life without stressing about things I cannot change. Now, in my third year of steady workouts, I’ve seen my body tighten and sculpt more in the last few months than over the last 2 years — without changing anything in my routine.

So, the three of us have each experienced a physical rejuvenation and positive mental and emotional effects from our new state of wellbeing. We each feel physically fitter than before, more energetic and capable, and happier. We’ve even noticed increased sex drives (well, I can’t speak for my stepfather here!).

It has taken 6 months to manifest, but I’m very pleased at the results from our parasite cleanse. Dr. Clark recommends repeating the cleanse annually, and as my husband has already requested to do this, I am happy to oblige. I might even cleanse my kids — and maybe even my cat as well!

Click here to see how you can get a parasite cleanse kit and cure yourself of parasites, too.