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Finding Your Root Cause Through Stool and Organic Acids Testing

Struggling with gut health issues like bloating, gas, constipation, diarrhea, loose stool, abdominal pain or discomfort, heartburn/reflux, indigestion, IBS, IBD, SIBO, candida, or food intolerances or sensitivities?

  • As a gut health coach, I can help you navigate your gut health journey, help you select and interpret stool and other functional medicine tests and educate you on holistic options for getting back to optimum gut health.
  • As a fellow gut health sufferer (I have autoimmune IBS/SIBO), I understand the frustration and difficulty of sorting through all the information available out there and can help you pinpoint the options most relevant for you and that have worked for my clients.
  • If you’ve seen a gastroenterologist and they haven’t found anything wrong or are only offering prescription medications to help you manage your condition, I can educate you about all the other viable options.
  • Set up your free 30-minute Breakthrough Session with me to talk about your issues and tell me what you’ve already tried, and I can let you know if I think a 3- or 5-session gut health coaching package would be useful for you, or set up an individual 60-minute consultation if you want to pay appointment by appointment.

Dealing with Autoimmune Conditions or Thyroid Issues?

  • Having reversed my own Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, I have knowledge and experience I can share with you, as well as experience helping clients with a variety of autoimmune conditions.
  • While you may not have obvious gut health issues, research has shown that intestinal hyperpermeability (AKA a leaky gut) is a necessary precondition to autoimmunity (the others being a genetic predisposition and an antigen, like food or toxins that are causing a sensitivity and triggering an autoimmune reaction). I can help you figure out what pathogens, toxins or diet/lifestyle issues may be at the root of your autoimmunity through targeted stool and other functional medicine testing.
  • Seeing a rheumatologist or endocrinologist is a good first step for getting a diagnosis, but if you want to get at the root cause of your autoimmune diagnosis and work to reverse your autoimmunity, and if desired, get off of steroids or immunosuppressive drugs, I can work with you towards that goal.
  • Set up your free 30-minute Breakthrough Session with me to talk about your issues and tell me what you’ve already tried, and I can let you know if I think a 5-session coaching package would be appropriate for you, or set up an individual 60-minute consultation if you want to pay appointment by appointment.

Struggling with Mental Health Issues?

  • Are you dealing with anxiety, depression, OCD or other mental health issues and suspect they may have a physical origin? More and more research is connecting gut health issues, nutritional deficiencies and inflammation with these conditions. I can help you select and interpret appropriate functional medicine tests to get at the root cause of your issues and educate you on protocols to address those root causes.
  • I can educate you about lifestyle interventions to help with the purely mental side of your issues, or refer you to appropriate other modalities that are most likely to help you.
  • Set up your free 30-minute Breakthrough Session with me to talk about your issues and tell me what you’ve already tried, and I can let you know if I think I can help you.

Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off or with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes?

  • Are your blood sugar numbers (fasting glucose or hemoglobin A1C) starting to creep up towards or into the prediabetic or diabetic zone?
  • Do you feel hungry soon after eating (a sign of insulin resistance)?
  • Have you tried to change your diet or lowered calories but either not been able to sustain your efforts long-term or didn’t see any weight come off?
  • Do you crave carbs and sugar?
  • Do you wanting to reduce or get off medications for things like high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes?Lindsey Parsons' photo
  • I have helped many clients establish a sustainable, long-term, healthy diet that will allow them to lose weight and sustain weight loss while still enjoying sweet things and eating a reasonable amount of all the macronutrients (carbs, fat and protein).
  • I can help you identify relevant blood and urine tests to uncover missing nutrients that may be impacting your blood sugar regulation or gut pathogens that may be triggering your cravings.
  • I can help you identify lifestyle factors that can help improve your blood sugar regulation and even out your cravings.
  • Set up your free 30-minute Breakthrough Session with me to talk about your issues and tell me what you’ve already tried, and I can let you know if I think a 12-week health coaching package would be a good fit for you.

Other Ways to Engage With Me

What does a gut health coach do?

As a specialist in gut health coaching, I

    • take a full medical history and help you select lab tests you can order yourself that will help uncover the root cause of your gut health, autoimmune or chronic health issues;
    • help you understand what the results of the tests mean about your health
    • educate you about natural solutions to overcome digestive problems like IBS, IBD, gastritis, GERD and chronic diarrhea or constipation, including diet and supplement protocols used by MDs, naturopaths and other practitioners for similar situations;
    • teach you how to reverse autoimmune disease naturally;
    • teach you natural solutions to stabilize thyroid hormones naturally;
    • help uncover obstacles to weight loss and teach you how to lose weight without dieting or counting calories;
    • uncover nutrient deficiencies that may be impacting your energy levels;
    • teach you how to reverse prediabetes and diabetes;
    • identify cortisol issues that could be impacting your blood sugar, energy or immune system;
    • help you identify obstacles in your life that may be preventing you from getting better and help you implement lifestyle changes to get better;
    • help you identify lab tests and interventions that are best requested by a gastroenterologist, primary care physician or other specialist;
    • and most importantly, work cooperatively with you to try to solve your health problems.

How is what you do different from a doctor or dietitian?

    • As a health coach, I am not permitted to nor do I diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
    • What I do is work with you to educate you, have hours to spend in preparation and follow-up to our appointments;
    • Spend a full hour meeting with you each time;
    • Follow-up via e-mail 3-4 weeks after every appointment;
    • Respond to your e-mails within 24 hours (except weekends and holidays);
    • Listen to your concerns, come up with alternative solutions and be flexible in response to your reactions to various interventions;
    • Have the time and space to continue to educate myself on your issues, think about them, and work ceaselessly to try to help you overcome them.

My Story

Lindsey ParsonsStarting in my early 20’s, I started having mysterious digestive issues, which I finally identified as lactose intolerance, for which I started taking lactose digestant pills. Then later it was an unexplained cough, which was finally diagnosed as acid reflux. So I went on years of proton pump inhibitors meant for only short-term use (Prilosec, Prevacid, etc.). I also took repeated courses of antibiotics as so many women do! And I got food poisoning twice while living in Costa Rica. Bloating and poor stool quality became a regular occurrence after meals. Then in my 40’s, I was diagnosed with three autoimmune conditions: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis (a condition where your body attacks its own thyroid gland and slowly destroys it), ITP (a condition where your body attacks the platelets in your blood leading to a low platelet count), and B12 anemia (where your body can’t digest B12 in the stomach and intestines). I had clearly destroyed my gut microbiome through all those medicines and was desperate to find a solution.

Doctors had no insights to offer about my digestive issues and just wanted to monitor my Hashimoto’s and wait for it to slowly eat away at my thyroid gland until I had to go on synthetic thyroid hormone medication. Um . . . no — not acceptable! My digestive were also getting worse (bloating, discomfort on elimination), and I started having stomach pain every morning upon waking.

I started experimenting with an elimination diet, and discovered that taking gluten and dairy out of my diet and adding in some psyllium husk fiber cleared up my coughing, stomach pain and digestive issues . . . for a time. I was also finally able to link the acid reflux to dairy – I was not only intolerant to lactose but also intolerant to casein, the protein in dairy products. After years, I was able to stop taking proton pump inhibitors without any more acid reflux or constant coughing.

But after a time, I started having digestive issues again and I still hadn’t addressed my most serious condition, Hashimoto’s, so I undertook a protocol for Hashimoto’s. After 6 weeks of the protocol, I brought my thyroid antibodies from 103 to 15! And in my most recent test, my antibodies were completely normal! With the help of a functional medicine doctor, I also learned the name and treatments for my digestive issue (SIBO) so that I could treat it naturally when it reappears. And most recently, I’ve seen a reversal in my platelet counts indicating I’ve reversed my ITP as well! And I’ve been tested for post-infectious IBS and had positive anti-vinculin antibodies, so I know that my SIBO is going to be recurring (which is is about once a year or so) and likely came from a food poisoning episode.

This experience has taught me that not only are health problems that the traditional medical system can’t solve solvable, but that sometimes we have to take things into our own hands, and do some careful detective work with our diets that can at times be difficult and confusing. My 5 years of advocacy work around healthy school food for children also helped me understand that sometimes you have to go against the system (the school system, the processed food system, the traditional medical system) to see powerful changes and improvements.

That advocacy work also led me to understand the important link between sugar and many health conditions, including weight gain, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and cancer. As I tackled my thyroid issues, I also was finally able to give up almost all added sugars in my diet while not feeling deprived or cutting calories at all and finally and easily lost the belly fat I had been carrying around since the birth of my oldest son. 

After informally coaching a friend, and within 3 weeks helping her reverse pre-diabetes and break a binge eating disorder that she had had since she was a child, I knew that my next career would be in helping others overcome their health issues or lose weight that won’t come off.

Are you struggling with weight gain or mysterious or “untreatable” medical problems? Sometimes you need an advocate in your corner. To help you problem solve, to keep you accountable, to sort through the mountains of nutrition information, supplements and programs everyone is trying to sell you. My weight loss protocol is about eating real, whole food and changing the composition of what you eat without ever even thinking about a calorie so that you can break the cycle of insulin resistance and lose weight. It’s not extreme and doesn’t involve completely giving up any of the food groups! And when you’re done, my goal is help you maintain new habits for life so you never have to pay for another program or diet product, or worry about your weight at all!

Are you struggling with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes? I have a protocol developed by a national expert to reverse it – my first pilot client went from an A1C of 6.6 to 5.7 (from diabetic to the lowest end of prediabetic) in 11 weeks.

Are you struggling with a gut health issue or autoimmune disease? That’s my specialty!

Taking the first step is scary but I want to make it easy, so I give you a half hour free to get to know you, listen to your issues and hear how they’re impacting your life and health. Then I’ll share about health coaching and you can decide if it’s a good fit (no pressure if it’s not!) It’s a free half hour so you have nothing to lose. So if you’re ready to take the first step, you can schedule a free Breakthrough Session anytime online. I look forward to getting to know you!

Or if you’re not ready yet, sign up for my newsletter so we can stay in touch.

Blog

As featured on Feedspot as #18 of gut health blogs on the web (of top 80)!

Could Low Stomach Acid Be to Blame? A Deep Dive into Hypochlorhydria

Adapted from episode 134 of The Perfect Stool podcast with Lindsey Parsons, EdD, and edited for readability. Hypochlorhydria is the official term for a deficiency of stomach acid, which is hydrochloric acid (abbreviated HCI). If you don’t have enough stomach acid, you can’t digest food properly or absorb nutrients, because hydrochloric acid is essential for prompting the …

Reversing Gut Disorders Through Clinical Hypnosis with Dr. Ali Navidi

Adapted from episode 133 of The Perfect Stool podcast with Dr. Ali Navidi, a licensed clinical psychologist and co-founder of GI Psychology where he has helped develop innovative treatments combining Clinical Hypnosis and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for patients with GI disorders and chronic pain, and Lindsey Parsons, EdD, and edited for readability. Lindsey:    So I’m curious how, …

The Gut-Gene Axis: Unlocking your DNA to Solve Chronic Health Issues with Jenna Weeks, ND

Adapted from episode 132 of The Perfect Stool podcast with Jenna Weeks, ND and Lindsey Parsons, EdD, and edited for readability. Lindsey: Thanks so much for being with us. Dr. Jenna Weeks: It is a gift and a pleasure to be here today. Lindsey: You’ve got a beautiful backdrop there of the nature, and I wish I …

How to find out more . . .

If you’re interested in taking the next step to getting back into great health, you can set up a free, 30-minute breakthrough session. You can share with me about the health challenges you’ve been facing, and I can let you know if that’s something I can help you with and what that would look like.

Schedule a Breakthrough Session Now

If you’re not ready to talk yet, feel free to e-mail for more information or sign up for my newsletter!