Hookworm, Hemorrhoids, & Hidden Root Causes of Chronic Gut Issues
Episode 288
This episode of Integrative You Radio dives deep into the misunderstood world of parasites, specifically hookworm, and their role in chronic gut issues like Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and mysterious symptoms like anemia, muscle wasting, and hemorrhoids. Dr. Nicole Rivera breaks down the difference between classic diagnoses and the often-overlooked root causes, sharing real client stories and practical advice for anyone feeling stuck or misdiagnosed. The conversation is honest, a little gritty, and designed to empower listeners to ask better questions, seek out more precise testing, and challenge the status quo in conventional and functional medicine. #IntegrativeYouRadio #RootCauseMedicine #ParasiteAwareness #CrohnsHealing #UlcerativeColitis #FunctionalMedicine #GutHealth #HookwormTruth #HealthEmpowerment #TestDontGuess #WellnessPodcast #RealRawHealing 3 Key Takeaways: Root Cause Over Labels: Many chronic gut issues (Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis, anemia, muscle wasting) may actually be linked to parasites like hookworm—not just the standard diagnoses. Investigating root causes, not just treating symptoms, is essential for true healing. Testing Matters: Conventional stool tests often miss parasites due to how quickly they break down after leaving the body. Blood, urine, and DNA testing can be more reliable for uncovering hidden infections. Empowerment Through Knowledge: Understanding the difference between hemorrhoids and deeper inflammatory issues—and knowing what to look for—arms you with the right questions and helps you advocate for your own health journey. Quotes: “You have to get rid of that more foundational issue before you’re going to be successful with getting rid of the rest.” “I’m not telling you that hookworm is the only cause of Crohn’s or ulcerative colitis, but I am telling you that it is worth it to investigate if that is the foundational reason why you have that condition in the first place.” Find Integrative You Radio On: Website Youtube A
Topics: root, hookworm, hemorrhoids, chronic, issues, integrative, crohn, ulcerative
Key takeaways from this episode
- ## Hookworm, Hemorrhoids, & Hidden Root Causes of Chronic Gut Issues
- Parasitic infections (specifically hookworm)
- Root causes of chronic gut issues (Crohn's, Ulcerative Colitis)
- Limitations of conventional diagnostis
- Advanced testing methodologies
Pull quotes
This is the place where you become limitless. **Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion, around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior.
We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare.
If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place, but buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive. **Unknown:** This is Integrative U Radio.
Transcript
**Unknown:** Welcome to Integrative U Radio, hosted by Dr. Nick Carruthers and yours truly, Dr. Nicole Rivera. This is the place where you become limitless.
**Unknown:** We are covering the latest and greatest topics, of course, in a disruptive fashion, around integrative medicine, mental health, and human behavior. We are also covering how those topics affect the human and family dynamics. We will be sprinkling in some truth bombs for our healthpreneurs so they can join us in our mission to evolve healthcare. If you are health curious and growth focused, you are in the right place, but buckle up, because this is real, this is raw, and this is disruptive.
**Unknown:** This is Integrative U Radio. What is up, everyone? Welcome back to another episode of Integrative U Radio. You got Dr.
**Unknown:** Nicole flying solo today. Um, primarily it's just, it had been a very crazy few weeks, and Dr. Nick and I's schedule has not aligned. So here we are, but you get the real and raw of me talking about one of my favorite topics, which is parasites.
**Unknown:** So here we go, my friends. But this is gonna be a bit of a spin on some of the things that we've talked about in the past, and it's primarily because I think there is a lot, a lot of confusion around the root cause of hemorrhoids and what the symptoms actually look like if you truly have hemorrhoids, and Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Because again, there is a lot of mixed information when it comes to what exactly the symptoms look like with Crohn's and ulcer- ulcerative colitis, and what is the actual root cause. And what I'm bringing to you today is a theme that I have seen over and over in the past decade of my career.
**Unknown:** This is definitely not the only thing that plays a role in someone having an inflammatory bowel condition like Crohn's or ulcerative colitis, but it is something to be investigated. So I wanna preface there is that I'm not telling you that this is 100% what's going on. I'm telling you that it's a possibility, and it is time for you to possibly investigate if that is your root cause, especially if you have embarked on different therapies that are not working. And I'm not necessarily talking solely about conventional medicine, because conventional medicine's approach to inflammatory bowel conditions, autoimmune inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, is usually immunosuppressants, either through pill or infusion.
**Unknown:** If you shut down the immune system, you give any infection or pathogen the opportunity to multiply and not necessarily just stay in your gut, but actually move to other parts of your body that are vulnerable tissues. So that's a, that's a whole, uh, topic in itself. But even if you have embarked on going the functional medicine route, you know, what I find in this industry is that there are certain functional medicine doctors that have a tendency to be a bit more of an expert in certain things. And when they have more of that focus, they will tend to treat for certain things that might not be foundational for that person.
**Unknown:** Meaning, if there is a practitioner that is classified as the functional medicine mold doctor, expert in mold, treats many mold cases, they might say, "Oh, well, you definitely have a mold issue," which most people have mycotoxins in their gut because of the absolute shit garbage food that's being fed to us in the USA. But that doesn't mean that that's the foundational issue. You have to understand is that you can get testing back and it says, "Oh, you have mold, and you have parasites, and you have heavy metals in your gut," but there's still a hierarchy. It's not that they're all doing the same, causing the same amount of problems at an equal magnitude of stress.
**Unknown:** There's gonna be one that's more foundational to the others, and you have to get rid of that more foundational issue before you're gonna be successful with getting rid of the others. So because of the nature of how a parasite works, it's usually the more foundational issue if it's part of your puzzle. So we're gonna talk more about that, but I wanna kind of backpedal here a little bit. So when someone has, uh, i- is suspecting or know that they have Crohn's or ulcerative colitis, there is usually blood in the stool, and it's usually one of the reasons why you seek out the testing, which then finally determines that you have Crohn's or ulcerative colitis.
**Unknown:** You know, some people, obviously, it's stomach pain, stomach cramping, and then a lot of people that I have worked with personally have said, you know, "I had blood in the scool- stool, and I was really scared," and thatYou know, took them down the road of investigating what the heck is going on here. But, you know, they ended up with the diagnosis, which is really just a description of the symptoms without really understanding the root cause. This is just unfortunately the way conventional medicine works. And some of the other things that a lot of these individuals experience, in addition to blood in the stool, stomach pain, stomach aches, food intolerances, is, uh, losing weight, getting thin, and even muscle wasting.
**Unknown:** And so they're then told, "Oh, well, it's because your digestive system is compromised and you can't, um, absorb nutrients and you're essentially malnourished." Uh, half-truth is, is essentially. Everything that I just described is essentially a half-truth. So going back to this idea of hemorrhoids versus, you know, something more, more inflammatory bowel related. When it comes to hemorrhoids, what hemorrhoids actually are I think is important because it will ease your mind a bit.
**Unknown:** Because of course, anytime you see blood coming out of your body, it's scary. But if you see a very bright colored blood coming out, and if it's, if it's coming out in droplets or it's even floating a bit in the toilet water, um, or you wipe and there's some bright red blood on the toilet paper, that's usually going to be a sign of hemorrhoids. And hemorrhoids are when the veins of the rectum become inflamed. So can parasites in your gut, Crohn's disease create inflammation in your rectal veins?
**Unknown:** Of course, especially if you're having trouble going to the bathroom and you tend to have a lot of downward pressure to try to push, push, push to get those bowel movements out. Yes, that can definitely play a role. But the other factor that I think goes not unnoticed, but it's, it's just not necessarily, um, taking a deep dive into it, is that when you have blood in the stool, and it is that bright red blood either on the toilet paper or in the toilet water, that is usually going to be hemorrhoids. And hemorrhoids being vascular can actually be correlated to, uh, different toxins or infections that are inside of the vascular system that could be coming from your reproductive organs or your urinary system.
**Unknown:** Because the vascular complex and the lymphatic complex of your pelvic bowl is actually very much connected to the rectal veins. So some people have run-ins with sexually transmitted diseases. Some women have bacterial vaginosis or yeast infections, um, reoccurring urinary tract infections. And these things can make their way, get picked up by the capillaries and get into the bloodstream, create an inflammation in the lymph nodes of the pelvic bowl, which usually causes people to, you know, hold weight in their legs and their thighs, have water retention in their legs, cankles, et cetera.
**Unknown:** And so the other thing though about what can be in the rectal veins coming from the reproductive organs or the urinary tract can also be chemical toxicities. You know, I was actually just, uh, doing a report for one of my clients, and she had asbestos coming up in her system, but it was actually coming up in her, um, vascular complex of her pelvic bowl. And it turned out that for forty years she used Johnson & Johnson talc powder, pa- like baby powder, which had, uh, has now been taken to court because it had asbestos in it and a variety of other chemical toxicities. When you get into tampons and lubricants and condoms and all of that, those also have a tremendous amount of toxins in them.
**Unknown:** So the moral of the story is, is that if you have what we described as this bright red blood that's coming out, it could have nothing to do with Crohn's, have nothing to do with ulcerative colitis or any other t- type of inflammatory bowel condition. It could solely be because you have inflammation in the veins, and that inflammation in the veins can be from pressure, which can actually go back to you have pressure because all the lymph nodes in your pelvic bowl are clogged because of the toxins or infections that are coming from your urinary system or your reproductive system. So it takes a deeper dive to really understand what the heck is going on there. And yes, of course, things like pregnancy can be a contributing factor because of all the downward pressure.
**Unknown:** But if you developed hemorrhoids through your pregnancy, and it truly was just correlated to the pressure from the baby, the placenta, the amniotic fluid, et cetera, they should go away after the baby is out of, out of the body. It should... You know, it could take a month, two months. But if they don't resolve, it's actually telling you that there were underlying issues and a low level of inflammation already in those veins of the rectum, and the pressure from the pregnancy then was the, the straw that broke the camel's back, essentially.
**Unknown:** So it's, it's a feedback mechanism to say, "Figure out what's going on here." So now let's, let's really get into this idea of Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, blood in the stool, getting thin, muscle wasting, and parasites. Because we're not talking about all parasites. We're talking about a very, very specific type of parasite called hookworm.Oh, God. If you wanna Google it, you'll be fucking horrified.
**Unknown:** It is, like, the nastiest, ugliest, scariest looking parasite. Obviously, it doesn't look like this when it comes out of your body. If you're doing a detox, it looks like this under a microscope. So but, you know, there, there's some pretty intense pictures online.
**Unknown:** Um, but the interesting thing about hookworm is it, it hooks into the intestines because it has teeth, essentially. So it can, it can hook itself by biting down onto certain tissue, which can create ulcerations or internal wounds. What is Crohn's disease, guys? Crohn's is patches of ulcerations throughout different parts of the intestines.
**Unknown:** The difference with Crohn's is that it could be in your esophagus, it could be stomach, small intestine, colon. Ulcerative colitis is, itis is inflammation, co- uh, colon, colitis. So it's, it's telling us that everything is primarily in the colon. Crohn's is just telling us it could be in other parts of the di- digestive system.
**Unknown:** So same, same, guys. It's inflammatory issues with ulcerations throughout different parts of the intestines. And so the nature of this type of parasite is it literally can hook itself by biting down, creating these puncture wounds, if you wanna call it that, and it also feeds on blood. So one of my clients, he was, like, completely horrified, and he was, you know, he was almost, like, a little, um, I don't wanna say upset, but he was kind of like, "Gosh, like, I'm doing this protocol, and I don't...
**Unknown:** And like, I, I don't know why is this still happening. Like, I'm, I'm still having so much blood." And he's like, "But it looks so different, and, and it's, you know, it's, like, these clumps. It's scary." And I asked, you know, "Next time it happens, I need you to send me a picture of it." And essentially, he sent me a picture of what looked like a, um- Wow ... like a b- a blood bubble.
**Unknown:** It w- it was a tissue filled with blood. But it turned out he was passing hookworm that was filled with blood. So this is something that if you don't know what you're looking at, you don't have someone helping you, you don't have someone who- who's there to, to probe and to help you understand what's happening, y- he was looking at it, 'This is bad. Oh, my gosh.
**Unknown:** What's happening?' And I'm like, 'This is perfect. You're actually finally getting rid of the hookworm that is filled up with blood, and your body is passing this and getting rid of it once and for all based off of everything you're doing to heal your body.' All right, guys. We had a little intermission there, you know? Um, that whole, like, the whole work from home life has its perks, but, um, but then when you have small humans running around that, uh, don't understand the concept of work, totally different story.
**Unknown:** So anyway, here we are. We're gonna do a quick, uh, quick little recap, and then piece this together with the other point that I was driving home, which is in relation to losing weight, losing muscle, protein wasting, et cetera. So one of the primary things that, you know, we'll be told is that throughout the, the timeframe of having Crohn's, that it would be, uh, part of your diagnosis that you can become anemic, that you can lose weight, uh, that you can start to have lack of certain vitamins and minerals because of malnourishment. But we have two major things that we need to think about here.
**Unknown:** One is you have a parasite that is consuming what you're consuming. It is also consuming blood. This is going to decrease blood volume, and it is also going to decrease your iron concentrations, which is then going to make you bruise easily. It's going to take away pigment.
**Unknown:** It's gonna make you look pale. It's gonna make you look unwell. And then when it comes to the other factor of protein loss, is that this protein loss is partly because your kidneys are the filters of your blood. So if you have a blood, you have a, a blood-consuming parasite, there is a probability that some of these parasites will go into the vascular system, and the kidneys will try to filter it out.
**Unknown:** Even regardless of that, you're going to have some level of toxins that come from parasites. This is a very common thing that there will be certain toxins given off by parasites. It's like a byproduct. Those toxins are gonna have to get filtered through the kidneys.
**Unknown:** And so you'll have a tendency to start losing protein because your kidneys are becoming compromised, which is gonna cause you to lose muscle mass and also lose weight. In some cases, I've even seen people being diagnosed with rhabdomyolysis, which is a rapid loss of muscle. So there's a lot of different things here that, that are happening. There's a lot of opportunity for different diagnoses.
**Unknown:** Diagnoses from, oh, you have iron deficiency. Oh, you have Crohn's disease. Oh, you have ulcerative colitis. Oh, you have GERD.
**Unknown:** Um, and or, a- and you have hemorrhoids. But it's actually, one, it could be all connected, and two is thatThere's a foundational reason why it's happening, and as I've mentioned, is that I'm not telling you that hookworm is the only cause of Crohn's or ulcerative colitis, but I am telling you that it is worth it to investigate if that is the foundational reason why you have that condition in the first place, especially if you have been told that you're iron deficient or malnourished, or you tend to be on the thinner frame even though you eat a reasonable amount of calories. So big difference between seeing bright red blood in the stool or, I'm sorry, bright red blood on the toilet paper or in the toilet, that could be a sign of hemorrhoids. Hemorrhoids could be associated with inflammatory bowel conditions, but it can also be associated with certain toxins that are in the lymphatic system and the vascular system of the pelvic bowl that are linked back to your reproductive organs or linked back to your urinary system.
**Unknown:** I also mentioned that with pregnancy, if pregnancy induced hemorrhoids, and it's solely due to the weight of the baby or the press-- downward pressure from the baby, they should go away after the birth of the baby. If they do not go away, there might be something more foundational going on. If you have blood in your stool, and maybe that blood is dispersed throughout the actual bowel movement, you see little specks of blood, you see like little tiny clumps of blood, you see mucusy blood, or you're even passing things that look like tissue, they look like a, you know, almost like a balloon of blood. Those can all be signs that you have hookworm in your system.
**Unknown:** And maybe you don't have the diagnosis of Crohn's or ulcerative colitis, but you have stomach aches, and you have stomach pain, and you have stomach cramping, and you have weird fucking bowel movements. All the same shit. So very, very important for you to understand these different things so you feel empowered in the process of knowing how to a-ask the right questions, how to seek out the right doctors, and also that you need a different set of testing in order to really decipher, is this going on for you? So the question you might be posing in your brain is, should I get a stool test?
**Unknown:** So had this conversation just yesterday with a client, and she's like, you know, "Do you think it would be valuable for me to do it?" And like, well, there-- Any type of stool sample that I've ever experienced through your conventional labs that are in network with your insurance, LabCorp, Quest, they are not valuable. There's a lot of other labs that are offering private-- or private labs that are offering testing for parasites. Um, I do use private labs like Vibrant America and, uh, DNA Connections, and they do really, really great things. But the problem that exists with parasites, and this is not talking poorly on any labs by any means, it's really just the nature of how parasites existed in nature, is a lot of times when you go to a vet, if you have a dog or a cat, what they're gonna do is they're going to either do a swab and get some fecal particles and then go put that under a microscope to see if there's parasites, or they're gonna try to get a stool sample and within the timeframe of getting that stool sample within, you know, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes, they're gonna go put that under a microscope and examine it for parasites.
**Unknown:** But the problem with human specimen is that they're asking you to do at home samples. So you might do a day, two days, three days. You know, you have to do more than one day to really even possibly see if you have parasites. But regardless, once a bowel movement leaves your body, and if that bowel movement has parasites in it, most parasite-- not most, all parasites are gonna start to autolyze, break down after they've exited their host.
**Unknown:** So they start to break down within about a half an hour. So if your sample is sitting, then getting shipped off to a lab, and now we're talking weeks later it's finally getting processed, very often they're gonna say, "No parasites," because they have been broken down and what we call autolyzed, and they are unrecognizable through the testing 'cause they're not live parasites anymore. So I don't always recommend stool samples for that reason. I am very conscious of making sure that we're using money wisely in the testing process.
**Unknown:** So I often will run a variety of different blood and urine labs that will help us decipher, is the body reacting to parasites through different markers? And then we also leverage our DNA testing to decipher, is the DNA of certain worms inside of the body, inside of the gut, inside of the kidneys, inside of any part of the body? So our approach is a little bit unique, but it gives us good information that allows us to then customize what we're, uh, doing and the protocol that we're leveraging in order to start eradicating the parasites out. And the beauty of it is I get pictures of my clients passing these parasites out of their body.
**Unknown:** And that's the most important thing, is knowing that what we're doing is actually working. All right, guys. Well, I hope this was insightful, empowering. I really wanna just take a moment to, um, say I know Crohn's and ulcerative colitis are terrible conditions.
**Unknown:** They affect people's quality of life, and I know that a lot of people go through... You know, i-it's like a psychological warfare thinking, "I'm gonna have to live with this for the rest of my life." Um, but I do wanna tell you, you don't have to, um, as long as you can figure out what the root cause is. And now with this information, you can take it a step further to investigate, is hookworm part of the puzzle for you, and what can you do about it? We thank you so much for being an avid listener of Integrative U Radio, formerly known as Integrative Wellness Radio.
**Unknown:** We appreciate all of your support. We love your comments. Please visit us on social media as well as our website to see all of the fun things happening behind the scenes and the new amazing content and courses that is being rolled out on a monthly basis. We hope to see you there.
Related episodes
- The root cause of Endometriosis, bladder issues, and ovarian cysts. Covering inflammation, toxin infections, and psychosomatic root causes. — Did you know that endometriosis typically develops as our bodies' defense against harm to our internal organs? The buildup of tissue will oc
- Is Your Vet Keeping Your Pet Sick? The Truth About Toxins, Food & Fear — Dr. Nicole flies solo to unpack the overlooked root causes behind pet health issues, especially in dogs. She shares personal stories, challe
- Your diagnosis, Your Identity, Their profits — In this no-holds-barred episode of Integrative You Radio, Dr. Nicole breaks down the myth of modern medicine’s obsession with diagnosis. She
- The root of Reflux and Indigestion disorders — Taking a dive into the gut series. Today on Integrative Wellness Radio, Dr. Nicole will be talking about some of the common issues related t
About Integrative You Radio
Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
Further reading
Listen and read the full episode →