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Did you know that skin problems can be signs of hidden parasites-gut imbalances?
And that if you have a skin rash like chronic hives, psoriasis, or eczema, the chances that you have gut parasites are quite high?
In fact, some symptoms of parasites might seem totally unrelated to your skin or gut health. And my many years of clinical experience has proven over time that some people have no gut symptoms at all, even though they have gut parasites lurking under the surface.
So if you’ve wanted to know how to know if you have parasites or “parasite hot spots” to be careful around – this is the episode for you!
Joining me to demystify gut parasites in adults and children is Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS, a clinical nutritionist who helps babies and children with chronic rashes navigate the journey to healthy skin so they can enjoy a childhood free from disruptive skin symptoms. As one of the most trusted pediatric skin-focused nutritionists, Jen is passionate about helping families get to the root causes of the problem through her unique method called Conquer Your Child’s Rashesᵀᴹ.
Let’s dive in!
Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | Subscribe on Android
In This Episode:
- Types of gut parasites
- How often do we see parasites in clients
- How to know if you have parasites — gut symptoms + beyond
- Foods that are “parasite hot spots”
- Are pinworms contagious?
- Perioral dermatitis parasite connection
- Parasite and skin rash connection in children
- Surprising signs of gut parasites in adults
- Reasons why you are itchier at night
Quotes
“I found a study that says that the prevalence of parasitic infections in both adults and children who have chronic hives is 75%.” – Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS
“What I tend to see in adults is like nighttime disturbances: You could have really bad dreams, really stressful dreams, night terrors, nightmares, clenching your jaw, TMJ-type issues…” – Jennifer Fugo, MS, LDN, CNS
Links
Find Jennifer Brand online | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
GOT RASHY KIDS? Register for Jennifer Brand’s free training – http://www.ConquerYourChildsRashes.com
FOR SKIN RASH WARRIOR ADULTS! Save your seat for Jennifer Fugo’s free training (7 Skin Rash Mistakes) – http://www.RebuildHealthySkin.com
Healthy Skin Show ep. 213: Stool Testing Do’s + Don’t’s For Skin Rashes
Healthy Skin Show ep. 306: Parasites, Worms + Skin Rashes w/ Robin Foroutan, RD
Chronic spontaneous urticaria and internal parasites – a systematic review
358: Surprising Skin Signs Of A Hidden Parasites-Gut Problem w/ Jennifer Brand, MS, MPH, CNS {FULL TRANSCRIPT} Jennifer Fugo (00:02.382)
Hello everybody, it is Jen and Jen. We are back for the Ask Jen segment of, I guess this is kind of part of the Healthy Skin Show. We are gonna dive into a topic that I think Jen and I both get asked about quite a bit, which is parasites. And are parasites as big of a problem when it comes to being a chronic skin rash trigger? Is there a parasite and skin rash connection?
As maybe Facebook groups and influencers online make them out to be. So the question really is, do you need to be worried about parasites? And is it possible that you're actually getting some not so great information about them, whether that's actually coming from an online group or even your practitioner? We're gonna discuss that today. Jen, you work with kids and babies.
And I work with adults, so it's really easy for us to share our different perspectives, specifically because we both work with people with chronic skin issues. So Jen, let's talk a little bit first, just like set the stage of this conversation, because I know people are gonna get grossed out. That's what always happens. People find parasites and the topic of parasites to be so disgusting. What are some different types of parasites that you've seen in your practice? Obviously we've got, like two different types in general. You wanna share a little bit about that?
Jennifer Brand (01:30.988)
Well, I would say, and just to level set with what you were saying, and the way I tell the parents I work with about this too, whenever we do have a parasitic finding or suspect gut parasites, you know, the face is like, it's so common, you people think, we live in the United States or whatever modernized country you live in and that doesn't happen here. No, it is so common. It's actually normal. Like we have all of these microbes that are on our skin, inside our body. So some of that is normal and some of it is not. So with kids, it is very normal to have these sorts of things that we don't necessarily want to have happen. And it absolutely can impact what's happening on their skin. Of course, when we're talking about kids, a really common one that comes up is pinworms. So that often also is accompanied by different types of parasites. And so sometimes too, you know, when I'm talking to a client and going through things, working on the skin, doing our deeper dive and getting things going for them. And I see in the history that they have had pinworms. We do some testing and we don't see anything parasitic.
However, it is always something that I want to account for because I know we'll get into this in a little bit too, but some of the testing that we use that I find most helpful for actually getting to the root cause and helping with the skin actually isn't very good for detecting parasites. yeah, so everything comes with a grain of salt. But so, you know, if your child is struggling with chronic skin rashes, and I know we'll get into this today too, I won't jump ahead too much, but there are some other signs that I look for in my clients to help me know if this is something that we should suspect and dive deeper into.
Jennifer Fugo (03:23.012)
Yeah, well, I think too, it's important for people to know there are single-cell parasites. So those are protozoa. And then you have worms or helminths. And so they're different creatures. I think you're right. A lot of times the response from a conventional doctor is like, you live in the United States or you live in Europe. We don't have gut parasites here. And that is not, that's not accurate, and you can easily find news, very current recent news articles showing otherwise. Also, people travel. Like, you know, I'm sure you're in LA. People go down to Mexico for vacations. It's like a weekend holiday for people that live in California, whereas, you know, here it's a little bit of a trek for me, but… it's also pretty easy for me on the East Coast to head down to the Caribbean and different islands there where you could also pick something up. So I think we forget that we are a mobile society now. And obviously that's not the only thing where you can, or places, or essentially only situations that you can pick up parasites. But…
I think worms gross people out the most. I have to be honest, that is the thing that clients, and I'm like, there's a worm, and they're like, my gosh, am I contagious? I have to stay away from people. They kind of freak out, because the idea of having a worm is very admittedly gross. I get it. I've had a gut parasite before. I've probably had a few at this point, but I think it is important to know that. So I want to come at this conversation just saying that I previously held a bias and this was like, I would say about three years ago that because I wasn't seeing a lot of testing that showed parasites, I just assumed that the test was correct and that there weren't nearly as many parasitic infections or over I don't know like I just really thought that it wasn't as big of a thing as a lot of the Facebook groups and such made it out to be. So I even recorded an episode on the Healthy Skin Show where I was like, yeah, parasites aren't really a thing. I'm not even sure if that episode's still up. We might have taken it down because I don't actually agree with that stance anymore at all. So it's OK if you are on that camp, you're in that camp right now and you can always change your mind, right? When we're presented with new information.
I don't know, Jen, if you ever felt that way, but I had to come to the point where I had to admit to myself and to clients, I was wrong about this. There actually are significant issues with parasite and skin rash issues. I would say in my clients, the adult population of those with things like eczema, psoriasis, rosacea, perioral dermatitis, chronic hives, urticaria, dermatographia, the whole histamine overload situation, that… there are probably way more parasite problems than we realize. And I would say, I would say percentage-wise, I realized I just didn't, I didn't share that. I would say percentage-wise, I think I generally suspect a parasite or hidden parasites-gut issue. And I say suspect and we'll explain why. I can't say like, fine, but suspect gut parasites in probably about, like I would say almost like 70% of cases.
Jennifer Brand (06:53.432)
Jen, I would agree with you and I think this is really interesting because I was doing some research on this a little while back for my clientele, know, kids that I work with and I found a study that says that the prevalence of parasitic infections in both adults and children who have chronic hives is 75%.
Jennifer Fugo (07:16.068)
Really? Wow. Yes, please, because we should put that into the show notes. I think people would love to see that. Wow. in general, because you're working with infants, newborns, all the way up to mid-teens-ish, what do you think the percentage is where you start to suspect a parasites-gut trigger?
Jennifer Brand (07:17.846)
I'll remind you, I'll share that link with you. Okay. Yeah.
That's a really good question. I would say, I don't usually think of it in terms of percentages, but it's a really good chunk. And if I had to guess of a percent. And I do have a lot of kids where hives are an issue in the absence of other things that you would suspect would cause them. But that said, I would say probably like close, like up to 80%. There are so many just, know, even when we do the testing and it's not detected on the testing we do, just the signs, the symptoms, family history, often mom knows that she had, a lot of the clients I work with, the parents are very knowledgeable about this kind of approach that we take from the functional perspective, from the integrated functional perspective. They're very knowledgeable about these types of issues. They've had a lot of their own health challenges or on their own healing journeys. They know that they've had some of these things happen. And so that is a clue also because a lot of these things we share with people we're in close proximity with. So if you know somebody, somebody in your family has had issues with parasites and you've been in close proximity with them and you're experiencing some sort of inflammatory, chronic health, anything really for that matter, of course skin stuff, it's definitely something to check out. Also, if you have pets, that's another thing that you definitely want to take into consideration. This is by no means saying that the pet needs to go. I am very adamant I'm going to say that here, your pet is not the root cause of the problem. If your child has IgE, like anaphylactic allergies to pet dander, that's a different story. However,
Jennifer Fugo (09:01.166)
Mmm.
Jennifer Brand (09:19.69)
I will say in a hundred percent of the cases that I have seen over the eight plus years that I've been doing this work where a kid has even, you know, a chronic allergy to the pets, the pets are rehomed and they still have chronic skin issues, so it might be a contributing factor or trigger. But, not the root cause. That said, pets – I've had dogs for a good chunk of the last 25 years – Mmny of my dogs have had Giardia. That's a parasite. Of course, I've been exposed to it, you know. So that's something to consider.
Jennifer Fugo (09:52.867)
Yeah. Well, Jen, they do say don't let the dog lick your face and your mouth areas. I know you have dogs, I have cats. So I've got a whole other problem with the cats, right? Because they have that toxoplasmosis or whatever. But, you know, the general rule is like, don't let the animals lick your face. Don't let them sleep in your bed, which I mean…
Jennifer Brand (10:07.265)
Yes.
Jennifer Fugo (10:19.095)
Our cats sleep in our bed. I mean, there's no way around it.
Jennifer Brand (10:22.634)
I kiss my dog constantly, she sleeps with me, all my dogs have. It's okay.
Jennifer Fugo (10:30.026)
But that's an important point though to share with your practitioner though if you do have pets because that's a potential exposure. And for example, if you live in an area where there is a high rate of hookworms, usually the vets know that, number one. I found that out from a client who has a dog and she's in, I wanna say like Iowa.
I could be wrong about that, but she's somewhere in that like Kansas or Iowa area. And whatever area she lives in is like infested with hookworms. And the vet actually told her that, that like you got to get the dog vaccinated. The ground is just like teeming with hookworms. So a hookworm can latch onto things. And what most people don't realize is that the, well, my dad told me this.
My dad was a surgeon. So he told me that the number one way that people get parasites is actually through their feet, like the bottom of your feet.
Jennifer Brand (11:27.916)
Yes, walking barefoot, yes. Yeah.
Jennifer Fugo (11:31.942)
So if you have a dog or you know a dog owner, you should ask them if they're aware of the areas infested with hookworms. Before you go out, not, listen, I love walking in the grass barefoot as long as you don't have any allergies to grass. But if you are in an area that has a high level of hookworm infestation, that might not be a good idea.
That might be a time and a place where the grounding or earthing or whatever people call that of putting your bare feet on the earth might not be a good idea. And actually, I will share that my husband got a hookworm, the bottom is foot, when we were walking on a beach in Belize on our honeymoon. So it can happen on a beach. It's not just the soil. That was pretty gross. He had to take some pretty heavy-duty medication from an infectious disease doctor when we got back because you literally could see it like squirming around in the bottom of his foot. It was so gross. And then I have also, I've also gotten a parasite through my foot. When we were in Costa Rica long, long time ago, I took my shoes off and was walking through a river to a waterfall.
And probably at that point, that is something hooked on to the bottom of my feet. And that was how I got a at that point. So a lot of people don't realize that you should. Pets are a potential source of this. I think also, and if you want to also share a few yourself, I had another client who was really interesting. He had pretty bad eczema on his arms and his legs. And I was going through his. So this is why case history is so important. If you can't tell that, like that's what we're trying to get to here. Case history is important. I was like, he told me his whole story and I was like, okay, okay. But what happened like 10 years ago, 20 years ago? Like, did you have any incidents where you got really sick? And he was doing, he worked in the Peace Corps in Africa and he was out in a remote village and he would eat whatever he was served.
Jennifer Fugo (13:40.27)
That was just how he was and that's fine. Like that's great. I mean, you are served what you're served. And so he got very, very, very sick at one point, had almost like some sort of allergic -y type response, had to go seek medical care and it sort of passed, but then he came back.
And about a year later, he went hiking or backpacking and camping out in the woods and something happened. He started to get itchy and then the eczema exploded. And so he wasn't even going to tell me what happened when he got sick that in back in when he was in the village in Africa because he didn't think it was pertinent. He didn't have any skin issues after that. Turned out he had loads of gut parasites.
So, and he, by the way, had no GI symptoms, none. He pooped like a champ three times a day, perfect poop, no gas, no bloating, no nothing. So you can't go by having, you can't go, I don't have parasites because I don't have any GI symptoms. I don't have any gut problems to indicate parasites-gut problem. Unfortunately, I've seen it too much where people do not have any gut signs that they may have gut parasites. So what about you, Jen? What are some other potential spots?
Jennifer Brand (15:02.54)
So I do see the same thing you're mentioning. So even without gut issues, a lot of the kids I work with don't have any GI symptoms whatsoever. They just have a lot happening on their skin. And when we start troubleshooting and digging down to find out what's going on, I do find histories. And of course, kids. So it's a shorter history because they haven't been around that long. But often, I find that a lot of the families are international. And so they do go overseas or what have you for extended periods of time. I have several clients that live in India and go back and forth between the US and India. Same Asia, a lot of clients in Asia.
Jennifer Fugo (15:42.701)
Mm hmm. In South East, yeah, Southeast Asia. Mm hmm.
Jennifer Brand (15:47.198)
And then also even Australia, New Zealand. you know, it really and honestly, I don't know if I would say that I find it more prevalent in kids in those areas. I really see it across the board. I just do. And I think, you know, a big piece of that, too, is that kids, I mean, they're on the ground, their hands are in the mouth. There's a lot of oral-fecal contamination, which I know is disgusting, but it happens. And then also parents, you know, changing diapers.
Jennifer Fugo (16:13.719)
It is what it is.
Jennifer Brand (16:17.114)
And everybody's touching things. And again, we all share that with each other. So I think there is a lot of that going on. And something else that when we were talking about pets, and this is just something that I would have mentioned too. I mean, I know from my experience with my dog, I give her a it's a veterinary prescription that is for fleas, ticks, and parasites and worms. Like she takes that monthly. So if my vet thinks that my dog is at risk, well, hello, you know, and I've lived in other states and it's been a similar case. Like you treat your animals for parasites. So what makes us think that we're not susceptible to them as well?
Jennifer Fugo (16:56.378)
Yeah, the other spots that I'll share that I really struggle with this, it drives my husband crazy. I will not eat undercooked pork because you can get parasites from undercooked pork. So if I see pink, I'm done. It's game over. Also, raw or undercooked fish. Sushi lovers.
Jennifer Brand (17:15.702)
I know you're gonna bring up sushi. It's like my favorite.
Jennifer Fugo (17:22.222)
My brother-in-law loves to cook salmon and they like it kind of still almost like gel-looking. It's like a gelled pink inside. I cook it all the way through. I don't care if it's a little dry. I'm not eating worms. I've seen too many videos where there are worms crawling out of the fish. No, thank you.
No, thank you. Not doing it. So I'm really picky about that. Yeah. And aside from if you're traveling and you're in a third world country where you know there could be potential problems, obviously being really mindful of water and ice where you are. So I did want to ask you, Jen, because you mentioned pinworms a couple of times.
Jennifer Brand (18:06.157)
Yes.
Jennifer Fugo (18:14.593)
I don't really see pinworms because I don't deal with kids. Are pinworms contagious?
Jennifer Brand (18:24.256)
Yes, all of those things. I mean, in general.
All of these things are we share them if people were in close proximity with. So yeah, so these things are definitely shared. I remember I was having a conversation with my mom not that long ago about this sort of thing. She read something that I had online about the parasites-gut-skin connection. And so we got into talking about it and she we don't recall that I ever had worms, but my brother did. Sorry, bro, you're listening.
So as a child, my brother had worms, which means we all had to treat ourselves for worms. So, yeah, which isn't a hard thing to do. You know, there are prescriptions that and some of them can be over the counter, but, you know, we're not necessarily talking about that today. But it is really interesting because I.
Jennifer Fugo (19:16.345)
The pinworm chocolate.
Jennifer Brand (19:19.466)
Yes, I was going to say, well, that's what I was thinking. So there's a product. We're not telling you guys to go out and get this. So don't do that. But there is there's like this chocolate. It's chocolate and it has like pinworm medication in it. It's from Australia. And I actually want to say I think it was from Australia. Is it? I forget. But anyway, I want to say that some of the clients that I've had from that part of the world that I've spoken to about this like and in some other countries.
(19:50.011)
Like regular deworming is a regular, it's like a treatment that they do on a regular basis in other countries. And I think that that can be a very good thing to do because again, they are so prevalent and we are just under this impression here that that is not the case and that is just not true.
Jennifer Fugo (20:11.982)
Yeah. And also, I should mention, if you tend to live in an area where you swim in creeks and streams, another red flag, also, not depending on the water treatment, like if you have and whether you have treated water or not, sometimes wells can be contaminated.
Jennifer Brand (20:18.04)
Mm-hmm.
Jennifer Fugo (20:29.346)
Unfortunately, with like blasto and whatnot, some, there was one paper that I had seen a number of years ago that there was issues out at some area on the Pacific Northwest where they were actually finding the gut parasites called blasto in the water. It was just blastocystis hominis, which is a protozoa. And it's kind of hard to get rid of. And depending on where you live, some doctors don't even believe in treating it. They don't think it matters.
I mean, I have plenty of stories from clients where it was actually one of the big factors in their skin case, but like they don't consider the skin problems a sign of the parasitic infection, or the parasite and skin rash connection. So it is what it is.
Jennifer Brand (21:11.512)
And it is documented in the literature. So that's what I find interesting about that too. Yeah.
Jennifer Fugo (21:15.34)
It is, it is. what are some signs that you look for in like babies, young kids? What are some things, some oddball things that you see that might, because obviously we'll talk about testing in a moment, because that's a pretty significant piece to this. But for the case part of it, right, case history, what do you think are some signs and symptoms that jump out at you that you see in your population?
Jennifer Brand (21:42.914)
Probably the primary ones would be, there's so many. Definitely unexplained hives. So random unexplained hives. Random unexplained hives.
Jennifer Fugo (21:55.726)
You talked a lot about the parasites-gut-skin connection on your recent episode of the Healthy Skin Show that came out, I think like a month ago or two months ago, you talked a lot about itchiness. Remember we talked about how that could be a huge factor in driving itch in little kids.
Jennifer Brand (22:00.088)
Yes. It can, absolutely. And that goes back to that study where up to 75 % at least it's basically like at least 75 % of the cases of chronic unexplained hives can be related to a parasitic infection. So definitely unexplained hives. If I know that they've had the pinworms, I might suspect D. fragilis often comes along with that. You know, and then also, of course, taking that comprehensive history has the family traveled, where are they from, who have they been in contact with, do they have pets? So there are a variety of different things that I look for and I would say some of it's symptom-based, some of it is case history-based. And it just depends on, again, all of the findings together. So depending what I see on test results, depending and here's the thing too. So a lot of the types of products that I use for my clients to help resolve these imbalances do have broad spectrum capability. So sometimes if I don't see something parasitic detected, but I suspect it like it might change my course of what I do to address it a little bit. But I do try, especially again, kids crawling on the ground, hands in their mouths, the fecal, know, oral-fecal contamination, I kind of lean towards the side of, because I do, when I actually see it in people, it is like upwards of like 75, 80%. So I kind of just lean towards there might be a parasite versus no, there's probably not, just to make sure that I'm being comprehensive for my clients.
Jennifer Fugo (24:00.314)
Yeah. So what I tend to see in adults is like nighttime disturbances could have really bad dreams, really stressful dreams, night terrors, nightmares, clenching your jaw, TMJ-type issues, itchy bum for sure. If you’re wondering how to know if you have gut parasites, don’t overlook those signs.
I think that's probably the same if a parent came to you with a kid and was like, kid, constantly itches his bum. You'd be like, probably parasites, let's check. So itchy bum for sure. I would also say sometimes I've noticed that people feel like they have bugs crawling under their skin. That sensation that we tend to think, that's something you see in a movie with people who are institutionalized and they're delusional. No, that can be a very real sensation that someone can experience and it does not mean that they are experiencing something that isn't there. It's not always gut parasites. It can also be fungal, but that can be a sign of it. would also say, the other thing I would add to this, which is kind of like a slight aside, is that Demodex mites are also technically a parasite. And we have them as part of our commensal microbiome on the skin, but when they overgrow is where you start to see issues like rosacea, ocular rosacea, doctor.
Goodness, I'll think of it in a moment. Dr. Carly Rose came on the Healthy Skin Show. It's a really highly watched episode here on YouTube where we talked about how if you wake up in the morning with really crusted eyelids, not 100 % in the time, but it's a good chance that you could have a Demodex overgrowth. It could be an eye infection, but that crusting is like their poop because they're crawling all over your eyes. Lashes and eyelids. It's like really gross. The other things that I tend to see are, and this is more anecdotal, so I can't say that there's any data to back this up, but I've seen where clients are failing certain biologic drugs. So for example, Dupixent and Adbry, specifically because they're IL-13 blockers. And IL-13 is a cytokine that's supposed to help the body clear helmet infections. So helmets, remember, are worms.
Jennifer Fugo (26:24.642)
What happens is that when you suppress that part of your immune system, your body now can't clear the worms. And actually, if you look at their warnings for the medication, it'll say, do not use this medication if you have a helmet infection. Please tell your doctor. But then the question I always ask the drug reps was like, well, who?
Jennifer Fugo (26:41.273)
Who tests for this? Who looks for this? Does the derm look for this? Does the family doctor? Most people don't ever get tested for worms. And they're like, well, it's the patient's responsibility to tell the doctor. And I'm like, how would they know?
Jennifer Brand (26:57.061)
Exactly, how would they know?
Jennifer Fugo (27:00.045)
Like what sort of… answer is that. Like just go, it's not the doctor's responsibility. Like that's kind of weird. So anyway, the way this kind of came about was like, had these clients who were on these medications and they weren't working. It wasn't like they were full covered head to toe with rashes still. But like in specific areas, it was still really, really bad to the point where they were having to use like topical tacrolimus. They were using topical steroids still. And even that was like barely keeping it to together I'm like, why are you failing this so badly? Like this doesn't make sense. And so then they found out we dug deeper, did testing and testing showed that they had Helminth infections. So I can't say across the board that that's the reason because like there is no research. I've mentioned it to some derms that I'm very friendly with and they were like, okay, I think I'm probably gonna start to look for this, and I was like, great. But that's one thing. And then the other thing is perioral dermatitis. I don't see it 100% of the time, but I cannot tell you how much it's probably, I would say about 50% of the time, perioral dermatitis has blastocystis hominis hanging out under the surface. I'm not saying I wouldn't say because you have perioral, you have this, but that and actually it was a client's daughter. She was eight and she's like, hey, can you can you do a stool test with my daughter? I'm like, sure, sure, sure. And it showed up with blasto. And she was an eight-year-old with perioral dermatitis. She had blasto.
(28:43.023)
She actually saw a gastroenterologist who said he doesn't treat gut parasites, which was odd to me. And so the pediatrician was like, I'll treat it. And the kid got so much better. What I didn't know was the poor child wasn't sleeping through the night, had night terrors, was going in and waking up the parents, was exhausted.
Having really bad constipation, here you go. This is what was going on under the surface. So I do think it's worthwhile to consider, you know, and I think it is fair the point you make about hives. Urticaria, dermatographia, even if it's like the chronic spontaneous urticaria, like I feel like anything that falls into that histamine bucket where there's just way, way, way, way too much histamine production, you really need to suspect that that could be a factor for sure.
Jennifer Brand (29:33.622)
You know, I'm glad that you brought up the sleep. Did have a client who the skin wasn't the issue. So little girl and sleep disorder, sleep apnea, the night terrors, like awful, horrible night terrors, and a lot of other symptoms going on. And sure enough, we did some testing on her, found parasites, a number of other things also. But yeah, I'm glad you brought that up because I think that is actually really important. And something to consider too, a lot, you know, anybody struggling with their skin can have a lot of trouble sleeping. And so it is one of the things that I hear from parents most often. One of the most troublesome things is the itch, especially at night. There are reasons for that, right? That changes that happen in the skin from a like a physiological standpoint that make the skin leakier and all of that. Also, you know, some of these microbes are more active at night, like including parasites. So it can be kind of difficult and challenging because I think, you know, obviously if your child is struggling with their skin, you know, yes, their skin is troublesome trying to, you know, keep them comfortable using the wet wraps, keeping them moisturized, things like that at night, relying on antihistamines and such, and they're still not able to sleep. We really need to get in there and find out what's happening to solve the problem. A lot of times it can be gut parasites that are playing a role.
Jennifer Fugo (31:03.821)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I thought we were gonna have time to go into how do you get tested for parasites, but we are out of time, Jen. So I think we should do this again and actually just spend the time, because I feel like the testing piece is actually more confusing for most people and we can then spend a lot of time talking about that and some of the diet stuff. So maybe we'll do that the next time.
Jennifer Brand (31:27.468)
I think that's idea.
Jennifer Fugo (31:29.1)
I do, I think it's a great idea, but I hope this gives people a little bit better picture and some better spots to start considering. And I know Jen doesn't want people to be like grossed out by sushi, but like honestly, the number of video, not the dog, not the dog, not the cat, but like the number of videos I've seen online with the worms crawling out of the fish.
Jennifer Brand (31:42.016)
Or your dog.
(31:53.812)
Why are you looking for those videos? Don't look for them!
Jennifer Fugo (31:57.625)
Just show up in my feed. It's so traumatizing. In fact, now when I'm like, I follow somebody that's like big into parasite cleanses, as soon as I see and it looks like food, I'm like, no, we're just gonna move on from this. I can't, I can't do it. Can't watch it anymore because it just grosses me out too much. So, Jen, you work with infants, newborns, young children and up to about 14, 15 years old. You can be found at and you also have a program coming up. You've got a webinar coming up that everybody can access at www.conqueryourchildsrashes.com. Yes?
Jennifer Brand (32:36.694)
Yes, yes, yes, yes. And you can find me. My website is www.jennifercarynbrand.com.
Jennifer Fugo (32:43.897)
Awesome. And if you guys want to grab one of my most downloaded guides, you can go to www.stopmyrashesnow.com. And because the Healthy Skin Show has over 350 episodes, people always ask me, where should I start first? What will be most helpful for me? And so we put those episodes, and they're all shorter, we put them into this guide so that you can get the foundation and understand how to really look at your case from an integrative perspective and then dive into the nitty gritty details based on your diagnosis. So again, you can go to stopmyrashesnow.com and obviously we've got the Healthy Skin Show that is very long running and you can find that every single week here on YouTube. So thanks Jen for joining us. I'm so glad we could do this again and we'll see.
Jennifer Brand (33:33.718)
Me too, thank you. It's always great talking to you and having these conversations, especially on the parasites-gut-skin connection. it is just, I hope it's helpful for people listening. We get the adult perspective and the child perspective and there are some similarities but there are also a lot of differences. it is, yeah, so it's always good to kind of share and get those sides of it.
Jennifer Fugo (33:49.337)
100%.
Jennifer Fugo (33:54.219)
Awesome. Well, thanks so much for being here.
Jennifer Brand (33:56.556)
Thank you.
