I've been taking 4 Tbsp of DE per day for um, 2 weeks now I think? I haven't noticed any changes of any kind, except maybe my nighttime teeth-grinding has been cured
Hard to know about that, since I'm asleep when it happens
Wanted to chime in on the gas/bloating thing: The first time I took DE (a year ago) I had a cold/flu when I started taking DE. Got the painful intestinal gas thing. This happened two consecutive days about an hour after taking my DE. I stopped taking it until the illness was completely passed. Started taking DE again and never had any problems with it
This time when I started taking DE I didn't have any gastro-intestinal symptoms either.
Haven't seen anything suspicious in the potty, for myself or with the kids (the hubby hasn't reported anything either)
But since 90% of parasite species are not visible to the naked eye, that doesn't bother me. Another mama here (different DE thread though) said her dogs used to get whipworm infections on a cyclical basis every few months, with very obvious symptoms in their stools (diarrhea). She would medicate them and it would go away only to return later. But since she's been giving them 1-2 Tbsp DE on their food every day, they haven't come down with any whipworm infestations. So I'm feeling pretty confident that DE is effective against parasites, although it's possible there could be some species that are impervious to it.
I do wonder about liver flukes and such - ones that take up residence in an organ rather than migrating through the digestive tract where the DE is.