Mike,
Great Question: very interesting comparison between DE in our bodies and "organic pesticides" in our gardens. Like you pointed to, we
should always be aware of that our attempts toward solving one set of problems can cause a whole crop of other problems.
Before I go into my opinions and what my family does for our health, I'm obligated to put in the
legal disclaimer that I am not a medical professional and am not giving health advice. With that said, because Diatomaceous Earth is sharp on a microscopic level, it does have an effect not only the parasites, but on microbes in our digestive tracts as well. The question becomes, is "cleaning house" an overall beneficial process for my body?
If your garden was overrun with grasshoppers who were destroying your food supply, you would know that something was way out of balance. How bad is too bad?
Two internal issues my family has had real life
experience with are pinworms and candida overgrowth. Both can cause unpleasant symptoms. Both were demanding some type of treatment. We've tried many things over the years for both of these issues, and we've had the greatest success treating our family for both using a combination of Diatomaceous Earth (DE), Calcium Bentonite(CB), and probiotics.
Empty spaces are not natural, so whenever we cleanse something, we try to make sure we are filling any voids with beneficial things. In this case, when we cleanse from harmful microbes (whether bacterial, viral, or parasites), we fill the space with beneficial bacteria in the form of probiotics. Our family's favorite probiotic is actually one we grow ourselves: kefir made from raw cow's milk. We get the good bacteria from the
raw milk, plus additional strands of good bacteria from the kefir grains. (We like making kefir better than yogurt because it's easier and faster.) We just keep the kefir as part of our diet, especially in the winter. We also know we eat some toxic processed foods at different times.
Frequency also plays a part. We believe there needs to be times of rest and detox. We do not take DE with CB every day. We usually hit it hard for maximum 1 month as we continue with the kefir. We then drop the DE and CB until we feel sluggish - usually month on and month off. I can't say
enough about Calcium Bentonite. We I first started taking it, I felt like I was fasting. My body felt great and my mind was clear when I woke up.
So when deciding whether or not to cleanse with DE and CB (calcium bentonite), I recommend people take a quick inventory first. Do you have toxins, including heavy metals and chemicals, parasites, viruses, bacteria (including yeast) and protozoan that you know are causing health problems? Are you trying to lose weight unsuccessfully, have low
energy, or have other specific health issues? Then it's probably worth doing a cleanse and then fortifying your beneficial bacteria population. If you have no health complaints and are not looking for any increases in energy or health, then you probably don't need to bother.
Hope this helps. Blessings.