How Discovering I Had Parasites Ended My 11-Year Health Nightmare

Welcome to this week’s edition of ‘The Adventure Capitalist’. In this issue, we depart from our regular scheduled programming to share a personal healing journey with you.

Also, this month Cody and I are challenging you to take a 50-mile walk. If you're interested in taking up the challenge, you can learn more about it here.

Here’s what you can expect in this issue:

• An in-depth breakdown of how I healed from a mysterious health issue

• A candid breakdown of the first 100 days of the Trump presidency (and what opportunities are coming from it)

• An assortment of links to get your blood flowing

Let’s dive in!

-Austin

How Discovering I Had Parasites Ended My 11-Year Health Nightmare

I've waited years to write this message. After more than a decade of on-and-off again suffering, I've finally found answers to a mysterious health problem that has confounded not only me but countless doctors. I'm sharing my story in hopes it reaches someone who needs it, whether it’s you or someone you know who is struggling with unexplained symptoms that doctors can't solve.

For the last 11 years, I've battled chronic skin and health issues. My health struggles have manifested mostly as eczema, but other times (often during periods of high stress), my body would break out in full-body hives.

I estimate I’ve spent over $50,000 in my search for answers. I’ve run dozens of tests, and consulted with the best conventional and functional medicine doctors in the world.

My journey of self-experimentation and healing has included:

• Countless elimination diets that surprisingly made things worse

• Holistic protocols with expensive supplements that provided short-term relief

• Pharmaceutical interventions: prescription antihistamines, cortisone shots, and steroid creams that provided temporary relief but had concerning side effects

• Even radical, unconventional approaches like doing Kambo and Ayahuasca

For the last decade, I have experienced seemingly random periods of relief, but after a few months, my symptoms would always come back.

The most challenging part of this journey has been the lack of progress I’ve felt from strategies that have been successful for other people with skin issues. For example, every time I tried an elimination diet, my skin either didn't improve, or my symptoms got worse.

Figuring out what was going on became the most important thing I could do.

In October, I made a radical commitment to doing whatever it took to heal my body. I began waking up at 5:30 am every morning to do healing meditations by Joe Dispenza.

Convinced that some sort of food intolerance must be at the root of these issues, I went 100% Carnivore for two months to see if I could make any progress. I spent hours writing out a comprehensive health diary and putting my symptoms into ChatGPT in hopes it would help me find a diagnosis. Despite minor improvements from going Carnivore, I was still left without clear answers.

Then came a breakthrough from the place I least expected. One afternoon, while uploading an episode of our podcast to YouTube, I stumbled across a conversation between Dave Asprey and Mikaela Peterson (daughter of Jordan Peterson) that stopped me in my tracks.

During the podcast, Dave mentioned something called Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). MCAS is a condition where the body's mast cells inappropriately release histamine and other inflammatory chemicals, causing seemingly random symptoms throughout the body.

Here was the key detail that made me rocket up in my chair: with MCAS, elimination diets often worsen symptoms rather than improving them. Symptoms often appear and disappear mysteriously without apparent triggers. It was like he had read my health diary and was reading back my symptoms.

For the first time in months, I had hope. I started to consume countless podcasts about MCAS and learned more about histamine intolerance, which is one of the main symptoms of MCAS. Every day, I became more convinced that histamine intolerance was at the core of my own issues.

I tracked down a functional medicine doctor in Portland who specialized in MCAS and histamine intolerance. After years of disappointment, I entered this relationship with the new doctor with high hopes, but highly skeptical. I’d tried so many things in the past that when the doctor started to ask me questions that resembled the ones I’ve been asked before, it took everything inside of me to not assume I was going to end up spending thousands of dollars to just be told, “it’s just eczema”.

We ran a battery of new tests, and she prescribed strong antihistamines. I began following a low-histamine diet. It was the most constricting diet I’ve ever had to endure; every meal I ate was fresh meat cooked in a skillet, combined with some low-histamine vegetables.

I told my doctor about my extensive travels in Southeast Asia and Africa. She believed that maybe I'd contracted a parasite during this time that had gone undetected for years. Even though I'd been tested for parasites in the past, she told me she wanted me to get retested because the parasite testing in the US is often incomplete. For decades, it was impossible to get a comprehensive parasite test in the United States. You needed to send the sample to Nigeria, where the labs were capable of detecting parasites that don't get tested for in America.

After sending samples to a highly specialized lab in New Mexico, I received my diagnosis: I had been harboring Giardia and Cryptosporidium parasites, most likely for years. These microscopic protozoa, which I likely contracted during my time in SE Asia, had been decimating my immune system, most likely leading to histamine intolerance and MCAS symptoms.

My treatment protocol has been intensive and multi-faceted:

• A combination of prescription anti-parasitic medications

• Potent essential oil tinctures specifically formulated to clear parasites

• Strict low-histamine diet to reduce inflammation in my body

• Targeted supplements to repair gut damage and support immune function

Three months later, my skin, which has ranged from normal to angry and covered in hives for over a decade, is now 95% clear. The brain fog has lifted completely. I'm sleeping through the night without waking to scratch, and my energy levels have skyrocketed to what feels like 200% of my previous capacity. For the first time in years, I feel like myself again.

I'm sharing this personal journey for one reason: to offer hope and a potential path forward for others. If you or someone you love is battling unexplained chronic symptoms - especially skin issues, digestive problems, or fatigue that conventional medicine can't solve:

1. Consider investigating MCAS and histamine intolerance to see if it matches up with what you’re experiencing

2. Don't rule out parasites, particularly if you've traveled internationally

3. Look into comprehensive parasite testing beyond standard panels. I highly recommend ParaWellness Research (link at the bottom)

4. Trust your instincts when treatments aren't working! Don’t settle for, “This is just the way it is!”

After 11 years of suffering, my answer was hiding in plain sight. Your breakthrough might be closer than you think. Feel free to reach out if you have questions about my experience - I'm passionate about helping others find their path to healing.

Resources:

1. ParaWellness Research - The best parasite testing lab in the country, and you can get tested without a prescription or referral for ~$350.

2. What is MCAS - A comprehensive breakdown by Dr. Bruce Hoffman.

3. Introduction to MCAS with Dr. Tania Dempsey - A great intro podcast. Tania Dempsey hosts a show that has many episodes that might help you.

4. Dave Asprey on Gut Healing and MCAS - Good stuff starts at 5:38.

5. Restorative Health Clinic in Portland - The functional medicine provider I use.

The Adventure Capitalist Podcast:

On this week’s episode, Cody and I debate President Trump's first 100 days in office. We break down the highs and lows with candid insights like the major wins in DOGE, deregulation, falling inflation, and a push for peace, to challenges like messy messaging, tariff rollouts, and the Signal Gate controversy - we cover it all. We also explore what's too early to judge: long-term tariffs, the Department of Education's fate, USAID dismantling, and crypto's future.

🎙️Listen to the interview on Spotify here.

The Lifestyle:

An assortment of links to get your blood flowing.

🌎 Global Adventure:

If you feel like building a business in the U.S. is too easy, try doing it in India. This is a wild story about an American who left the U.S. and moved to India to build a burrito business that now does $23M/year (link)

I'm halfway through "Dark Star Safari" by one of my favorite authors, Paul Theroux. Paul is a madman who's traveled all over the world, and in this book, he goes overland from Cairo to Cape Town. He's shot at, robbed, loses faith in humanity, and regains it all in one book. It's a great story. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a book that will stoke the juices of adventure and travel in your life (link)

💰Wealth, Business, and Life:

This random guy in an ice bath dropped what I consider to be the best definition of discipline I've ever heard (link)

Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase, gives a master class on how to succeed when you're running a pre-product market fit start-up (link)

🚁 The Best of the Best:

If you're a heavy user of ChatGPT or another LLM, take this prompt, enter it, and prepare for some radical feedback. It's one of the most interesting and productive prompts I've found in the last year. (link)

👀 ICYMI

Last week, Cody and I did an excellent interview with a guy named Mike Studeman. Mike climbed the ladder in the Navy to the highest ranks and retired as a Rear Admiral. He shares some fascinating opinions and ideas about what's going on in the world right now, as well as tips that led him to succeed at the highest levels in one of the most competitive sectors on Earth (link)