How to Succeed at Healing Your Gut

Welcome to The Perfect Stool: Understanding and Healing the Gut Microbiome. This is your host, Lindsey Parsons, and today I'm gonna be talking about how to succeed in healing your gut. But before I get into the meat of it, if you haven't yet followed or subscribed to the show, be sure to do so. And if you wanna get transcripts of the podcast, pop over to my website, HighDesertHealthCoaching.com, and sign up for my newsletter. You'll also get my free ebooklet, Finding Your Root Cause Through Stool and Organic Acids Testing, when you sign up. And if you haven't yet done my quiz on which stool test would help you get to your root cause, you can find a link in the show notes and take that. Now onto the show. So recently, a potential client asked about my success rate in helping clients deal with their gut health issues. And being a data-driven, evidence-based person myself, I really wanted to give a clear, honest answer. Which I didn't have at the time. But after thinking about it for a while, I realized that an answer to that question is quite complex, but it seemed like the kind of question I would ask of someone I wanted to work with and have asked of many of my guests with less than satisfying answers, especially as it pertains to functional medicine approaches to various gut health conditions. And after working with clients for a few years now, I understand why. But being a hardcore data nerd who loves creating and playing with databases and spreadsheets and running queries and working on statistics, I thought, I need to find an answer to that question. And in thinking about how to give a fair, honest answer, I realized that I'd have to understand and label what went wrong when I didn't succeed in helping someone, which led me to the whole concept of how to be a good client or patient, which will ultimately help you guys in fixing your gut health issues, which is why this could be a helpful podcast for you and not just a giant advertisement for my services because I'm truly not that shameless. So what I overwhelmingly discovered as I went through the data on my prior and current clients was there were concrete reasons why I wasn't able to help some of the people I've worked with. So let's start with the first and biggest reason I wasn't able to help the biggest chunk of people, which was about 40% of my former clients, excluding people who are still in progress. And that was lack of follow-through on the part of the client. So looking over the list of names, I see some who only set up one appointment, and maybe that was 'cause they were working with another practitioner who wasn't adequately addressing their complaints. And, or maybe I resolved their complaints and they never told me about it, but in any case, they just weren't, didn't keep on working with me. And when I followed up with them, they didn't let me know how things were going or respond at all, or even tell me if they had followed through adequately on my recommendations. So in reality, some of them may have been doing better, but I don't know. Another subgroup of that 40% came to me in very fragile health and with very complex health issues like years-long chronic fatigue, debilitating, very advanced Crohn's disease, mold illness, multiple autoimmune diseases, or breakdown of multiple body systems. In that group, many were unable to follow through with my recommendations due to their fragile health or being on the conventional medical roller coaster and not wanting to mix what I was recommending with their doctor's treatments, or having an adverse reaction to something I recommended. When it comes to gut stuff, this can happen often when you're dealing with long-term dysbiosis, especially when it involves H. pylori or Candida. And unfortunately, if someone only signs up for one appointment, when that happens, they often disappear rather than coming back to try something different. And sometimes the body needs to be ready to handle the killing of bacteria or yeast, and we need to address detoxification ahead of time, or go more slowly, or try a different product. But if a client doesn't communicate with me about what's going on, or come back to see me, or persist in, in trying new approaches, it's hard to help them. So when you have longstanding complex health issues involving multiple body systems, sometimes there are multiple false starts before you find what's going to work, or if you're in a lot of pain, that kind of thing. So communication with your practitioner and persistence are really key in finding solutions. I personally am 100% committed to finding solutions that are workable for my clients and in changing directions or in trying something new if what we're trying isn't working. But you have to be completely honest about what you can and can't do and how you're feeling. Another subgroup of the people I would describe as not following through are people with complex conditions like IBD who weren't willing or able to make the dietary changes I recommended or follow supplement protocols that I educated them about. This occurs for different reasons, from having an eating disorder or just, you know, lack of willpower around food, taking vacations, issues with family, and just other life things getting in the way, or maybe a lack of faith that dietary changes are as important as they are, or feeling like they already tried things even though they really didn't give them a good try, or not being the person who is most committed to their care, which has happened in cases where spouses or parents have approached me about helping their loved ones. Another subgroup of the non-follow-throughers were people with really high, high anxiety. And I've had a few people who fit this description, and because of their anxiety, they found it hard to follow my advice because of fear of side effects of taking a certain, or really any supplements sometimes, or being too attached to the, the conventional medical paradigm and not trusting that alternative treatments were safe or effective, or when it came to gut stuff, they trusted my advice but weren't willing to try out my advice when it came to other health issues. And almost everyone who sees me has other health issues, usually precipitated by gut health issues. So I do have a good bit of experience at this point with some of these other issues. And when someone has anxiety, if they're not already on an SSRI, I usually try to start them with amino acids to bring up serotonin levels, and that can calm them a bit before dealing with their gut issues, because that's an area where you can have a pretty quick impact. And once you've brought down the anxiety, then follow-through is much easier for people with the gut health stuff. But sometimes I can't get that far with a client because their anxiety is standing in the way, or maybe they feel nauseous on the first thing I suggest, you know, I don't see them back to, to give them a second thing. Finally, there's one more subgroup in that 40% of people who didn't follow through, and that's the folks who, for whatever reason, disappear and don't use up the appointments they paid for. And I have to say, I'm really sad when that happens. And I usually follow up 3 or 4 times with people to see what happened over time and ask why they disappeared. And I know that sometimes there's major life issues going on that need to be addressed before they are ready to address their health issues. But I also imagine that sometimes there's a mismatch in my approach and in people's expectations, which is a shame because my approach is totally flexible. If you come to me and wanna work primarily through diet changes to address your issue, I'll do my best to help you do that. If you're open to and willing to take supplements, as most people are, I'm also willing to teach you about that. If there's a limit on the number you can take at one time, I will do my best to keep it to the minimum and, you know, do things in sequence. But at minimum, when I suggest a protocol, speaking up for yourself, and when I say I, really I or any other practitioner suggests a protocol, speaking up for yourself and advocating for what you're willing and able to do is important in being able to help you. Sitting quietly, then leaving and never saying why doesn't really help anyone. So I personally have no ego invested in my client's treatment. All I care about is helping you get better. So if you think we're going in the wrong direction or you can't comply for whatever reason, I am all ears about changing it, and any good practitioner should be. So to summarize, the lessons I can impart to you from the folks who haven't followed through are: 1. Before signing up with a practitioner, count the cost. Are you at a point in your life, mental health, and medical care where you can follow the recommendations of an alternative healthcare practitioner, make hard changes to your diet and lifestyle, afford natural supplements to address your condition, and stick with them long enough to know if they're working? Number 2, can you advocate for yourself and speak up when things aren't going well, or do you just give up and switch to another provider when things get hard or overwhelming or you can't follow through? And number 3, does the practitioner that you're seeing have a flexible approach, or are they focused on one solution to everyone's problems? So back to the question of success rates. Pulling out the people who didn't follow through, I was able to come up with a list of people who came to see me for gut health issues and followed through with my recommendations. And I calculated that 82% of those people had their gut health issues completely resolved or significantly improved, including things like diarrhea and soft stool, constipation, bloating, gas, stomach and intestinal pain and cramping, excessive burping, IBS, SIBO, Candida, H. pylori, and ulcerative colitis. The ones where it didn't resolve only saw me for 2 or 3 appointments. I'm not really sure how their gut health is doing, but in the short time we worked together, we weren't able to resolve it. Or in another case, it was— it's sort of still in progress. Following our final appointment, but it was a case of IBD, and I find that those are pretty tricky and require a lot of trial and error to bring into solid remission. So as I mentioned before, most people come to me with more than gut health issues. I calculated the percentage of people who had other significant health issues and it was 83%, and those included things like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, eczema, psoriasis, rashes, autoimmune diseases of all types, including Hashimoto's, rheumatoid arthritis, MS, POTS, spondyloarthritis, and dermatomyositis. Joint pain, chronic fatigue, low energy, extreme food sensitivities, incontinence, prostate issues, frequent urination, frequent urinary tract infections, brain fog, type 1 and 2 diabetes, hormonal imbalances, gum inflammation, arthritis, sleep issues, nasal polyps and congestion, excessive allergies, headaches and migraines, asthma, COPD, mold illness, rashes, infertility, dizziness, heart issues, and osteoporosis, just to name a few. Now, some of these things are related to the gut and can be dealt with through dealing with gut health issues, but others of course, are not. So I don't claim that I can help people with all of those issues. But of the folks who followed through with my recommendations, half of the people with other issues saw resolution or improvement of at least one of them, including things like headaches and migraines, dizziness, joint pain, depression, anxiety, fatigue, food sensitivities, inflammation, including in the gums, psoriasis, frequent UTIs, sleep issues, blood sugar dysregulation, hypothyroidism. And then for the people who had autoimmune diseases, a remission or a decrease in symptoms of autoimmune diseases like Hashimoto's, rheumatoid arthritis, and dermatomyositis. And in some cases, I help people identify potential health issues and recommended tests to have their doctors run that led their doctors to diagnose and treat issues that were underlying some of their health complaints. So if you're considering looking for an alternative or functional medicine practitioner, I'd give you these pieces of advice. First, if you haven't yet seen your primary care physician or a gastroenterologist about your complaints, that's the first place to start. Go through the conventional medical system first because it will be covered by your insurance if you have it, and rule out any physical issues and give you a diagnosis. It's a lot easier to work with people when you know what they have, but don't let that drag out too much. If you've gone through that system without any positive results, or you've been told there's nothing else they can do, or you've been put on a medication for life that you'd like to get off, that's when it's time to seek out an alternative practitioner. Then look for someone with expertise who is evidence-based, meaning they don't latch onto every new unproven woo-woo thing out there. You know, if you hear one woo-woo treatment they're considering, then that's a red flag that they're not, you know, evidence-based. You want someone who uses peer-reviewed studies to make treatment decisions and who charges reasonable fees for their services. But you do have to understand that most of us who are in the field of functional medicine and coaching are self-employed, meaning that we have to set aside money for payroll taxes, for our benefits, and we spend a lot more time with you than a doctor. So for me, that means an hour with a client and then typically an hour and a half to 2 hours in preparation and follow-up for that 1-hour appointment. Not to mention checking in with you every few weeks to see how you're doing and giving you email support whenever you need it. So just keep that in mind when you think about what an hourly or program fee is, cuz you're getting a lot more service for your money. And really you should think of it as an investment in your health because that's what it is. Because without your health, you have nothing. Nothing else in life is enjoyable or even possible when you feel miserable or in a constant state of anxiety about your health. Now, if seeing an alternative practitioner is completely out of your league financially and you need to try to self-treat, here are a few pieces of advice. First of all, do one thing at a time and follow through for a reasonable amount of time. This applies to diet, this applies to supplements. So for example, if you're gonna try an elimination diet, if you have serious health complaints or autoimmune issues, I'd recommend a very thorough elimination diet like the Autoimmune Paleo Protocol and spending at least 30 days on elimination, then systematically reintroducing things. If you have more minor health complaints, you may get away with a smaller set of foods to eliminate and test, but say gluten, dairy, soy, Processed food, sugar, caffeine, alcohol, nightshades, and processed seed oils are some of the big ones that you'd need to eliminate and test. And the part where people tend to get sloppy on elimination diets is usually on the reintroduction because they're so tired of deprivation, they just start re-eating their old diet. But I wouldn't recommend that. Even if you don't feel significantly better when you're eliminating, you may forget how bad you felt before, and only on reintroducing systematically foods will you realize what you're sensitive to. But if you end up only eating 3 foods by the time you're done with an elimination diet, then you've probably gone too far and you don't wanna keep eating like that indefinitely. And you likely need to address gut issues beyond what you're eating. So second, if you have significant gut issues like excessive bloating or soft stool, constipation, etc., it's not likely that just diet changes alone is gonna solve them. Although I have seen people on pretty bad standard American diets eliminate those problems when they started eating in a healthier way. But if you're already eating a pretty healthy diet, like you have plenty of fruits and vegetables, you're eating organic and pasture-raised meats and wild-caught seafood, you have sufficient fiber in the form of whole grains, root veggies, beans, lentils, and you use healthy oils like olive, avocado, and coconut oil, and your diet isn't too high in carbs, especially white flour and sugar, and you're still having issues, then I wouldn't say a basic diet cleanup is likely to take care of your issues. If you determine that you likely have SIBO or Candida, then you could try and find or put together protocol or find a product online or products in a health food store to treat your issue. Just don't listen to every single podcast out there and throw everything but the kitchen sink in, because sometimes I find people on 30 different supplements, and when it's like that, it's impossible to determine what's useful and helpful. At most, try 2 or 3 carefully selected things, introduce them one at a time, and just be careful if you take any kind of antimicrobial that you can have a die-off or Herxheimer reaction, which can feel like the flu as parts of dead bacteria and yeast flood your system. If you get really sick, you should stop taking those supplements, let your body process it out before continuing. Typically, herbal treatments for SIBO are relatively quick, say 6 weeks, maybe double that at the, at the most. H. pylori takes a couple months typically to eliminate, and then you should retest. Whereas something like a bad case of Candida can drag on for 6 to 8 months. So don't give up if you're, if you're trying something for it. And of course you have to do, you know, diet changes at the same time. And then finally, if you aren't getting anywhere and you want a little guidance but can't sign up for a whole program of support, know that most practitioners will do one-off appointments, including myself. And for me, that includes follow-up support via email to see you through whatever program I recommend. And if you think that gut health testing will help you know better what to do or what you have, you can of course take my gut health quiz that will help you determine which gut health or functional medicine tests are most appropriate for you. And you can find a link for that in the show notes. And as always, I'll include links for signing up for a free 30-minute breakthrough session if you want to talk through what's been going on and see if what you have is something I can help you with based on what you've already tried, as well as a link just to sign up for a single 1-hour consultation. But I just hope that you all, you know, persist in trying to be as good clients or patients as you can for whoever you're working with so that you can see your way through to a solution. Because I do believe that most gut health issues have solutions and that you can get better and that whatever terrible state of affairs you've been living with does not need to continue indefinitely, that there are solutions. And I know this from my own life and from that of my clients. So I just wanted to give you, you know, that encouragement and hope that you can find a solution to your problems. So that's all for today, and here's wishing you all the perfect stool.