If you’ve been in my world for a while, you know that I love optimizing EVERYTHING.

I’ve always been into optimizing my health; however, after going through a significant health challenge, I’m more focused than ever. I now have deep empathy for people struggling with disease and chronic health issues – it’s mentally, emotionally, physically, and financially exhausting.

When I was healing from my health challenge, my friend John Lee Dumas said something important to me. He said…

“Most of us want 100 things, and if you’re Heidi DeCoux, you want 1,000 things. Unless you don’t have your health. Then you only want 1 THING.”

It’s true. Nothing works without your health. You can’t go chasing your dreams and do big, important work in our world effectively without your health.

And it’s true that I have 1,000 dreams, which is why I plan to live to at least 125. 😜

This is me on a beach here in Puerto Rico a few weeks ago (I’m 45, aka the new 30)…

My two best health hacks for everyone… whether you’re healthy or sick, are to rid your body of parasites and to fast.

First, let’s talk about parasites.

Due to the effects of the modern world we live in, parasites plague us all. A lot of common health conditions are a result of parasites, such as fatigue, bloating, excessive gas, constipation, diarrhea, insomnia, teeth grinding, anxiety, depression, joint pain, a variety of skin issues including eczema, and many others.

Fasting and ridding your body of parasites are probably the two fastest, cheapest ways to immediately improve your health, feel better, sleep better, and digest your food better.

How to Rid Your Body of Parasites & Keep Them Out

Use fresh kitchen and bath towels every day.
Ideally, change your sheets twice a week (once a week at minimum).
Eat cinnamon daily. In addition to lowering your inflammation and helping regulate blood sugar, it helps your body clear parasites. I add cinnamon to my coffee every morning. Be sure you’re eating organic Ceylon Cinnamon (which is true cinnamon), not Cassia cinnamon, which contains high levels of coumarin that can damage your liver and harm your performance.
Use a UV light vacuum on your bed once a week. UV kills many types of parasites, plus bacteria, viruses, dust mites, and bed bugs.
Diffuse anti-parasitic essential oils in your home. The most effective ones are clove, eucalyptus, fennel, and white camphor. After doing a decent amount of research and speaking with practitioners, I’ve decided not to use essential oils internally – I simply use them in my diffuser and on my skin. If you do want to use them internally, I highly recommend consulting with a qualified practitioner first. This is a short well researched piece on some of the dangers of ingesting essential oils.
Eat a low-sugar, low-carb diet.
Do a parasite cleanse on the full moon
- This is a simple 3-7 day parasite cleanse you can do over every (or any) full moon.
- For a full parasite cleanse, I’ve done this 18-day one by Dr. Clark twice and will probably continue to do it once a year (in addition to doing little parasite cleanses over full moons).

Why the full moon?

During the full moon, your melatonin levels drop, which causes parasite activity to go up. Parasites are known for their overnight activity, and this gets highly elevated during the full moon.

Tips for Your Parasite Cleanse:

Flushing the parasites out of your body can sometimes be uncomfortable because your body can have a die-off reaction. The technical term for this is Herxheimer’s reaction, named after the German doctor who discovered it. It can feel like you have a cold.

Below are tips for helping mitigate your body’s reaction and for increasing the effectiveness of your parasite cleanse.

Eat an anti-yeast/parasite diet for a few weeks before your cleanse and during your cleanse.
Start your day with a tablespoon of organic apple cider vinegar diluted in half a cup of water (be sure not to take any probiotics within an hour of taking ACV).
Hydrate. Drink a minimum of half your body weight in ounces of water (preferably distilled water, as other types of water generally contain parasites).
Sweat. As your body kills off parasites, their toxic by-products need to be removed from your body. Some of these toxic by-products (like heavy metals) are best removed through your sweat glands. During your parasite cleanse, sweat as much as you can. Exercise, get out in the sun, and, if possible, use a sauna.
If you have access to a bathtub, take as many Epsom salt baths as you can during your cleanse. Get PURE Epsom salt (no additives or oils) and put 1 cup of salt in warm/hot bath water (if you have a large tub, double it to 2 cups). Or, follow one of these fun, effective detox bath recipes.
Get plenty of sleep.
Do a coffee enema (or two!) during your parasite cleanses. Bonus – you’ll get ALL of the added benefits of coffee enemas as well!

My Coffee Enema Tips & Tricks

They’re easier and cleaner to do than you probably realize. I was prescribed them by my doctor when I was going through my significant health challenge, and I had a BIG mental block around doing them (I literally argued with my doctor about it).

Once I dropped my resistance and just did it… it was NO BIG DEAL.

Here are my tips for making it a clean, easy process:

This enema kit makes the process clean and easy.
I follow this simple and effective coffee enema protocol.
I do it in my guest bathroom bathtub. You must hang the solution (it works via gravity), so I ordered these hooks from Amazon and stuck them to my shower wall (shown in the photo below).
For comfort, I lay on a towel and pillow. If you get any coffee on the towel, just wash it right away (or soon), and it won’t stain.
To cool the coffee fast, I add a few ice cubes to it.
Put a little coconut oil on a paper towel and rub it on the part that you put in your bum so it slides in smoothly. Insert it about 3 inches (which is much easier to do than it sounds – I was nervous, but it’s actually quite easy and comfortable).
Be sure the clamp on the tube is all the way closed before you insert the end of the tube into your bum. Adjust the clamp so that it’s in a convenient location – once the end of the tube is in your bum (about 3 inches), you’ll be slowly releasing the clamp to allow the coffee to enter you. When it feels like too much, close off the clamp and wait a minute or two (until you feel like you can take more fluids in). Then repeat.
Set a timer for 15 minutes. You want to try to keep the coffee in you for at least 15 minutes.
It’s best not to do it too close to bed time, or you’ll have to get up to pee a lot during the night.
Based on the research I’ve done, it’s best not to do coffee enemas regularly unless you’re dealing with a specific health issue and advised to do so by a health professional that you’re under the care of. Personally, I’m now doing them only when I do parasite cleanses (which, for me, will be about once a quarter).

Now, let’s talk about fasting.

Fasting is hands down the cheapest, easiest way to improve your health, ward off disease, increase your longevity, and age backward.

Benefits of Fasting:

Allows your body to heal and repair itself
Boosts your immune system substantially
Helps you age backward (it literally repairs your stem cells!)
Helps ward off most diseases
Helps regulate blood sugar and reduces insulin resistance
Improves blood pressure, triglycerides, and cholesterol levels
Boosts brain function & helps prevent neurodegenerative disorders
Boost your metabolism
Helps rid your body of parasites

And did you know when you’re in a fasted state, you can’t get a virus?! 😲

Plus, it’s FREE! It actually saves you money because you eat less.

A BIG important key to fasting successfully….

It’s SUPER important that menstruating women do it differently. I follow Dr. Mindy Perlz’s proven fasting protocols for women.

My fasting journey, along with lessons, protocols, and tips, are all outlined here.

If you found this post helpful and want my playbooks for optimizing your health, business, and life, jump on my email list. I generally send out one email a month (or less) with links to my most popular content and some fun stuff I only share in email. 😉

Cheers to living our healthiest BEST lives,

Heidi

My Two Best Health Hacks