Thyroid Triumphs and Gut Healing

Introduction

[00:00:00] Detective Ev: Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Health Detective Podcast. We are going fully live for the second time with this podcast now on thyroid triumphs and gut healing.

It’s amazing because we’re like 260 something episodes in. Then we finally realized we can do this live and have some fun with people, make the guests and myself even more nervous as we’re doing these things. Totally fun way to do the podcast, right?

How this works, if you’re tuning in for the first time live, these episodes will naturally be coming out before the audio versions of it. So, let’s say you clicked on this right now and you’re like, wait a second. I don’t feel like watching a full hour on Facebook or YouTube. Totally fine. Just wait a week and then we will have the audio version of this released.

But today we have a cool topic. Lindsey nailed both main topics that people love on this show. They love anything hormonal, including thyroid and they love the gut health. So, I expect this to be a nice and popular one.

If you are going to be following along live, I’ll probably say this a couple of times today, just as people come in and out, you can ask questions on these live podcasts. But Lindsey and I will go by ourselves for a good amount of the time and then maybe if people are asking questions 30 minutes in, I’m happy to take from the audience.

We have Lindsey Akenclose with us. Here is her bio really quickly.

Thyroid Triumphs: Connecting and Sharing Knowledge

Her inspiration and purpose to becoming a certified health coach and launching her new business is for helping other women overcome issues related to thyroid imbalances, which is related to her personal journey as we’ll talk about today, and the importance of gut healing as well. She became super passionate about functional health and learning to advocate for herself when she discovered her own health issues related to the thyroid and gut.

As she began her healing journey, she realized that women are truly left in the dark and misinformed about such important issues. (I’ve seen this actually in my family, unfortunately.) She no longer wanted to see other women suffering the way she did unnecessarily. So, her passion for this knowledge turned into motivation to launch her own business in functional health.

Her business is still very new, but she’s excited to start connecting with women all over and share as much knowledge as she can to empower them to advocate for themselves and take ownership of their own bodies so that they don’t have to continue suffering like she did.

Welcome to the show my friend.

Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Hi everybody.

Detective Ev: The reason that I said I understood this, despite being a bearded male, is my mom actually dealt with Grave’s disease. And we did not get a proper diagnosis for her until seven years after the first symptoms started, despite her going to the doctors all the time, despite her going to the hospital all the time because of what she was dealing with.

I definitely have seen this. And I’ve got to find the study because I keep referencing it on the show, but I think this needs to be validated.

Thyroid Triumphs: Testing TSH

There are studies showing that women are more likely to get told it’s in their head when they present certain symptoms at a doctor’s office. It does happen to both males and females, but women are more likely to have that happen. It’s a shame.

Lindsey, how we like to start off the show always is I like to dive into people’s stories, then we can dive into the topic of the day, the business. I’m sure that’s going to come in naturally with your story anyway. But my first question always is, what did your initial symptoms look like and when did they begin for you?

[00:03:15] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: I wasn’t aware of my symptoms until I had my baby. You have a baby; people say it’s postpartum depression. It’ll go away; you’re fine. But it was about a year after I had him. I saw my doctor and said, okay, it’s been a year. What is wrong with me? I thought postpartum goes away in a few months.

She said, we could refill an antidepressant for you if you think that would help. And I said, but I’m not depressed. It’s weird because my symptoms were severe depression and anxiety. I was waking up every single day crying and just dragging my butt out of bed. But at the same time, I’m like, I’m not depressed. I don’t know if that makes any sense.

We tested my thyroid and everything. Of course, the doctors only test TSH. At the time, I didn’t know that was the marker for thyroid, and I didn’t know that marker doesn’t really test the function of your thyroid. When we got all my results back, everything was fine. I carried on like, whatever. I’ll be fine; it’ll go away.

Thyroid Triumphs: Experiencing a Variety of Symptoms

Two years, I finally had two people suggest that I go to a naturopath. Because my depression, I would say I was suicidal. But the reason I didn’t act on it was, I don’t know, maybe I wasn’t fully suicidal, but I had those thoughts, it was bad.

And the anxiety, I couldn’t even function in public. There were days that I would go drive somewhere to meet up with people. I would park and go, no, I can’t do this, turn around and go home. So, I guess those were my top two symptoms.

And then a lot of the gut stuff, the bloating, IBS, the cold intolerance, freezing cold in the summertime. Gosh, it feels like a lifetime ago. So, I’m trying to think of all the symptoms I had. I had everything – the dry skin. What else is there?

[00:05:36] Detective Ev: You got the hair, maybe? I don’t know if that was there at all.

[00:05:38] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: The hair loss. Yeah, everything. But I guess because of my top two symptoms, the anxiety and depression, that’s why I was like, okay, something’s not right.

[00:05:50] Detective Ev: I have dealt with depression, but I wanted to dive into that more, actually. The anxiety thing is so tough to describe to someone if they haven’t been through that because it’s like how can you drive to the place and not show up?

I’ve done that exact thing. I actually, unfortunately, through no fault of their own, was getting in trouble with my parents in my teenage years because we lived really far from everyone. They had no problem driving me to my friend’s house. But we would drive like 20 minutes to go to a friend’s house.

Thyroid Triumphs: Encountering Anxiety

These people were nice enough to drive me there, go back, and then pick me up later. So, it’s an hour and a half trip in a night to go drop me off on a Friday. But I’d get to my friend’s house, and I didn’t tell them that I feel really weird and need to go to a doctor. I would make something up, not really making it up, I was just only telling one of the symptoms, like my stomach would hurt really bad. Now, really, I had a bunch of stuff going on, but I would tell them the stomachache is the reason I couldn’t go out.

And my dad started catching onto this, that this happened every time. But God bless him. He knew nothing about anxiety or mental health. And so, he keeps thinking that something’s going on with my friends, that I’m not telling him and I’m just wasting time. So, now of course that’s creating more stress.

But people don’t get it. You can want to do these things, you want to live your life, but all of a sudden, these symptoms come, hit you like a brick wall. And it’s like, dang; I can’t go do this.

The thing I wanted to touch on, not that it didn’t make sense, but it’s so unique for everyone, I’d love to touch on it more. You said you had this experience where you’re waking up, you’re crying, you’re diagnosed with the depression, but you aren’t feeling depressed. It doesn’t have to make sense to anyone. I’m just curious what does that mean for you? What does that mean, you weren’t depressed though?

Thyroid Triumphs: Struggling with Depression

[00:07:21] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: I think because, knowing who I was, I’m just a happy-go-lucky person and I still got through the day doing what I like to do. So, I still worked out, went and did things I enjoyed. I’m like, I’ve never been depressed before. Why am I waking up like this?

[00:07:40] Detective Ev: Okay. So, it was almost like these forced physical symptoms were happening despite your mind’s still allowing you to live like this, otherwise, normal life. Okay. Got it. And yeah, everyone experiences depression really differently.

When I was younger, I was told by a counselor, eventually, that I had depression. I thought I couldn’t have it when I was younger, just because I could get out of bed every day. And I had this notion that everyone has to lay in bed all day. No, depression can be experienced totally differently.

And the fact that you had those suicidal ideations eventually, again, not everyone has to act on it, man. I don’t want to misspeak, but I think even people with depression, we know that we shouldn’t be feeling that way. It’s just that it can become so real for certain people that unfortunately they do end up acting on it, not realizing that really what should be happening is we should be treating the depression, not acting on these thoughts that somehow rationalize themselves. They make us think that, oh yeah, I actually do feel this way, or I’ve always felt this way. And you’re like, what? No, I haven’t. I didn’t feel this way before this.

So, you end up going to some naturopathic doctors based on the recommendations of friends. That’s awesome. Some people will never get that recommendation.

Thyroid Triumphs: Observing Improvements

Did the naturopaths, were they able to help at all initially? I feel like they were probably able to move the needle a little bit. Maybe they didn’t get you to where you needed to go, but I’m curious what the experience was like there.

[00:08:58] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: As soon as I walked in there and told her what was going on and that someone told me to come in and see you to get a full panel of thyroid tests, she said, yep. So, we did it.

Of course, you go in, you do your clinical indicator score test, which was fascinating. It’s this big list of symptoms and you rate them. My labs, sure enough, my thyroid, I was completely hypothyroid. Then she put me on a plan with the medication. I forget the name of the protocol, but it’s to give your thyroid a kickstart. We increased the medication every single day and I had to test my temperature and all of that.

I noticed within a week the difference. I went back to her, went through that list of symptoms, and I couldn’t believe how much had improved within, I think, it was a month or so I went back to see her. I was like, wow! So, that was the problem. I really wasn’t depressed.

[00:10:05] Detective Ev: Yep. I think that’s what’s happening to a lot of people.

Because depression’s real, anxiety’s real but there’s so many causes that it’s almost tough to say. So, were you depressed or was it a thyroid issue manifesting as depression? Then as we dive even deeper on this podcast today, was it really a thyroid issue or was it other things going on that led to those symptoms?

Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Exactly.

Thyroid Triumphs: Considering the Whole Person

Detective Ev: And this is why, if it’s your first-time hearing about FDN you wouldn’t know this, but even if you’re a regular FDN person/practitioner/listener you’ll get this and appreciate this.

This is why we don’t really treat the symptoms or give out any diagnosis. I’m not a doctor; I can’t do that anyway. But the point is, it’s never just one thing. It’s, look at this cascade of stuff that ended up leading to something that is a very typical diagnosis.

A lot of people get diagnosed with depression and anxiety, but is that the “root cause” for you? No. And even the seemingly root cause probably wasn’t the root cause. It’s not to be confusing, it’s just, this is why we need to address the entire person and their lifestyle and not really worry about these specific things per se.

So, you’re on the medication, it’s going well; that’s awesome. And we’re all for that at FDN. Yes, we do functional stuff, but we also don’t want people to suffer if you’re dealing with suicidal ideations. I think that’s a wonderful thing that there’s a medication that can take you out of that or at least help significantly within a month. That’s a wise choice.

Now we’ve got to dive into the part of, how do we actually get to the place where maybe we don’t need the medication anymore, we can feel even better. Were you getting there with the naturopath or was that more of a person that gave these specific protocols that got the needle moving, but it didn’t lead you to where you wanted to go? Every naturopath’s different. So, what did the next part of the work look like with them?

Thyroid Triumphs: Revealing Gut Infections

[00:11:47] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Honestly, it’s peeling the layers on the onion. Eventually, the medication stabilized, and I started getting symptoms showing again, or some of my symptoms I still had were still persisting. It was the big symptoms, the anxiety and depression that really leveled out.

I was like, okay, this is great. But now, we had to go to that next step. What’s going on in my gut? The medication is not a magic pill. It does help. My naturopath was honest with me and said, most likely I’m going to be on the medication for life. Again, that is the medical model. They will say that. I don’t want to go off the medication because it works for me. But I also, again, I had all these other issues going on.

I did a GI MAP.

[00:12:45] Detective Ev: Oh, with the naturopath?

[00:12:47] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: No. Oh, sorry. Back it up. I’ve done so many things. This is like now seven years in. I’d only just finished FDN last summer.

I ended up hiring a totally different hormone coach before I started FDN and went through her program. It was a four-month program, so that’s where I did the GI MAP and the DUTCH test.

Then I found out I had H. pylori because I was having so many gut issues now. It was like, okay, I think my thyroid’s fine. But my gut now, I was bloated and gassy. Oh, it was awful. Food sensitivities, I couldn’t eat anything no matter what I ate. So, that revealed some gut infections.

Thyroid Triumphs: Addressing Traumas

[00:13:33] Detective Ev: I could be totally wrong, it’s a curious question. Do you think that you had those symptoms while dealing with the anxiety and depression, but they almost got put on a back burner, or were they really just new manifestations of new symptoms?

[00:13:44] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: I believe I had those symptoms all along. Yeah, all the little ones. They’re not a big problem when you’re trying to take care of the real problem that was affecting the way you live. It was frustrating because I felt like I hit a wall with my naturopath. She couldn’t help me anymore.

But I didn’t know what was happening. I also had a ton of stress, major stress in my life that I wasn’t addressing. And when I finally realized my nervous system was part of it, I had to do all this healing from emotional trauma, past traumas, and the present trauma I was going through as well, just going through a divorce with a baby, all of that.

I ended up going to different programs to heal that trauma. That’s another thing too. It almost caused more symptoms, but then eventually healed my symptoms because there was just a lot of crap that needed to come out.

[00:14:51] Detective Ev: I would never wish this on someone but the benefit to the people that you’ll end up working with and are working with and the community that gets to hear this. This is such a perfect story in the world of FDN because this is how it goes, right? You have this thing that kind of rocks your world. You’re like, where the heck did this come from? I felt, I thought, pretty good before this. And now you go on the journey.

Thyroid Triumphs: Eradicating H. Pylori

It’s so weird because it’s so unique for everyone with what they deal with.

But the journey is so stereotypical. It’s like, all right it starts here. Western medicine can only help so much. Now I move into my first thing with natural. And maybe it doesn’t work in the way that you wanted it to, but it moves the needle enough that our hope is re-inspired. And we’re like, all right, wait a second. We got something going here. There’s got to be more to this. There is no way I can know all about it just from going to a naturopath. What else is there? And you start diving into different practitioners and programs.

I know that you said this was literally going back seven years, so I don’t expect you to remember this stuff perfectly. But I am curious, because you already had mentioned H. Pylori and stuff. When you did the hormone test and the stool test with that practitioner, do you remember some of the big findings that came up at that time that were really essential for your healing?

[00:15:55] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: It was probably the H. pylori because with my naturopath, I had treated SIBO. I tested SIBO-positive twice and went through that protocol. And I was like, hey, this still isn’t working. So, when we found H. Pylori, that practitioner was like, that’s your underlying cause to your SIBO. Okay, great. And then it healed all the imbalanced bacteria and the candida.

That was another thing too. I had really high candida.

[00:16:24] Detective Ev: So, how did this all lead to you becoming an FDN practitioner? Because that was only, like you said, last summer.

Thyroid Triumphs: Desiring Certification

So, seven-year journey and you decide to finally go do this. I’m sure some of the motivation is to continue improving your own health. That’s a lot of the motivation for people having gone through the FDN course. If you’re going through the course, you also have in the back of your head, as obviously ended up being true for you, I want to go do this as work. I want to go help other people.

It’s cool because we all work with a bunch of clients. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to become practitioners. So, when did you decide that you actually wanted to help other people with this instead of just be a client?

[00:17:01] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: I was posting so much on my personal Facebook and Instagram just to spread awareness about what I was going through and how I overcame certain things. And I thought about it for probably a good two or three years. I was like, I need to do this for work because, for one, going through this personally, I really want to help people. Because I see it every day, just women walking around suffering, and they don’t need to be. But at the same time, when I’m posting on my social media, I felt like people weren’t taking me seriously because I didn’t have a couple letters behind my name.

[00:17:45] Detective Ev: Yep. You don’t even know what the letters are, but you just throw in a couple there.

[00:17:48] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: You’re not a doctor, so what are you talking about? So yeah, it just became motivation. I was so passionate about just telling people. Sometimes it was unsolicited advice, I admit. But I’m like, you guys, I can help you. I know what’s wrong.

Thyroid Triumphs: Championing Health Support

[00:18:04] Detective Ev: Lindsey, let’s be honest. Again, this is all part of the stereotypical journey. The unsolicited advice phase is huge. As soon as we get into the studying and the certification, now it’s mom, dad, brother, sister, listen up. You guys need to know what’s wrong with you. And they’re staring at you like, I didn’t ask for this. I want to eat my apple pie on Thanksgiving. Shut the heck up.

Then we learn. We just learn through these phases that we go through on this journey. But I totally get that because when we do, especially having the experience that you did. The hypothyroidism thing is not particularly uncommon. It’s certainly not normal, just like all these other symptoms, but it’s not uncommon.

And so, when you have certain things like mental health stuff, like both of us have experienced. I had some cystic acne stuff. You had the hypothyroidism. When you have things that are that prevalent in American society, and many of the Western societies too, and you walk around in a Walmart or a supermarket, you’re like, it’s overwhelming. And you almost feel like, at least in my experience, the only way to cope with it is to say I’m doing something about it.

Like I’m actually out there doing a podcast or working with FDN or helping my own business because otherwise it feels like, you almost feel upset. It’s not depressed, but it’s upset, like I can’t see all these people suffering and not at least try to be some light. They can do whatever they want.

Thyroid Triumphs: Uncovering More Healing Opportunities

We had people commenting too. Ryu Ken said, “Good morning.” Good morning to you, my friend.

We also had Jo Pate say, “it’s amazing how much the thyroid impacts us without even realizing it.” Yes.

Tracy said, “mental health is truly a personal journey. Those who deal with depression/anxiety do deal with it so differently.” Yep.

Jo said “Wow!” to the seven years. And then Ryu said, “no time like the present”, talking about the career stuff. Absolutely.

With that said, you go through the FDN course a year ago, this is a little fresher. What’s cool is, a year ago, we would’ve already have implemented – you got four lab tests when you went through the FDN course then, correct? That’s included in tuition back then?

Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Yeah.

Detective Ev: I didn’t know when you started versus when you completed. Sweet. Then you would’ve gotten the GI MAP, some hormone testing, all the fun stuff.

Now you’ve been on the journey for a while and there’s always room for improvement. I’m curious. What showed up on the labs when you were going through FDN? Because you’ve done a lot of stuff. Did H. pylori I show back up? Did you have any other infections? Or were they looking pretty good at that point?

[00:20:24] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: It was interesting and almost disheartening in a sense because I’ve just done all this work, healing.

I get my GI MAP back, and now I’ve got high bacteria, the commensal. And I think I had E. coli on there. I was like, what the heck? Why do I have E. coli? What is happening to me now? High candida still. I was like, what is with this candida? All my hormones were still really tanked, which I just knew.

Thyroid Triumphs: Reframing Disappointments

Oh, I’m trying to remember all the labs we did, but yeah, they weren’t great. They weren’t terrible, but they weren’t great. I don’t think I had H. pylori anymore. That was done.

[00:21:13] Detective Ev: You feel better today than you did seven years ago, right?

Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Yes.

Detective Ev: Okay. Then the good news is, and I think this is actually a fair perspective though, because I appreciate your transparency. Yes, it can be disheartening when we’ve been on these journeys for a while, and we get some lab results back that are not where we wanted it to be.

I’ll never forget that. I was scared when I got my hormone results back, 21 at the time, in the exhaustive phase. However, I was doing better than 99% of my friends because they were all 20, 21. It wasn’t hard to beat them, right? Just don’t drink alcohol to excess every weekend and I’m already winning. Let alone I’m eating organic, I’m doing all this stuff, and I got these tanked hormone results. So, initially it was disheartening.

But then I talked to my mentor, Brandon Molle. He helped reframe this in the sense that he said, Evan do you feel better than you did a couple years ago? Which is the same thing I just asked you. And the answer for both of us is yes. So, he said, great news. We can do stuff about this stuff that just showed up on the labs and you already feel better. So, man, how much better can you feel? That’s a really good way to actually put it.

Thyroid Triumphs: Focusing on Joy

And so, one of the things that you get in the FDN course, someone just tuning in that might not know anything about us, you not only get these lab tests included in the cost of tuition, but you’ll also get your results and recommendations sessions. There’s multiple with your mentor. I’m sure your mentor was able to help out a little bit once you were going over stuff with them. Did they get you on a protocol, some things to start feeling better, a little right away?

[00:22:39] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Yeah. Honestly, because I had been through so much already and done all the supplements and all that, I wanted to keep it really simple.

And my mentor at the time, she was lovely. I loved her because she was more about the nervous system and just embracing the joy in life and kind of focusing on that. Focusing on joy rather than what’s the next supplement I need to take? What’s wrong with me? I need to do this and this. So, I really was at a point where I needed to just relax and breathe.

[00:23:19] Detective Ev: This part is not necessarily stereotypical for everyone’s journey, but I do hear this a lot because I dealt with the same thing, right?

We find some stuff that works, we learn about the supplements, the labs, and that can become a unique obsession in and of itself. And it’s cool. There are worse obsessions in the world than lab tests and supplements for sure. But you can almost see where the trauma’s exposing itself. You took that same type A personality that might have led someone into these disease states beforehand and now we’re just doing it with functional medicine.

Thyroid Triumphs: Alleviating Burdens

So, it moves the needle a little bit, but you’re stuck, and then you end up where I was at. You’re like, I’m doing better than 99% of people. Why do I feel worse than 90% of people? This isn’t adding up. And that sounds like that’s been a really cool part of your journey maybe over the last year especially.

Has there been significant improvements ever since you started focusing on the nervous system stuff? And what does that even look like? What does that mean to someone that doesn’t know? How do you work on the nervous system?

[00:24:17] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Absolutely.

It’s sometimes hard to explain it, but really it was getting rid of all those burdens in my life. A relationship I was in ended; that was huge. Just having my own space and being able to think about myself for once. Because growing up with a narcissistic mother and being married to a narcissist, then being in a next relationship that felt like I was just trapped all the time, that was a lot of stress.

I think it just alleviated so much. It’s not that I need to be sitting and meditating for 30 minutes a day, I don’t need to do that. I really just need to find the joy in life. And I find joy in very simple things, and pleasure. That is my new journey right now – pleasure. Hands down, find the pleasure in everything in life.

[00:25:15] Detective Ev: The relationship thing really can’t be overstated enough. I had back-to-back experiences, so it was quite profound.

Thyroid Triumphs: Evaluating Relationships

This is not a condemnation of the other person. Certain people are just incompatible. You try things and it doesn’t work. That’s fine. It’s a good person though.

But I was with someone, and my skin looked really good beforehand. I got my acne under control. That was always a big thing for me. And the longer I was with them, the worse my skin got despite us both being super disciplined on the food side. You just think it’s like coming back, you don’t fully under understand it.

Then I didn’t realize it until I started dating my now fiancé, Maddy. I can get away with so much stuff, like eating “cheat foods”, quote/unquote, or staying up later than I should, and the skin looks better than ever before. So, you realize the people that are in your life are a huge part of this.

At best, it’s just an incompatibility, at worst it’s downright abusive, right? That’s going to be the extreme version. That takes a toll; that affects our health. And similarly, when we’re in love with someone and it’s fun, we can be ourselves and there’s not an abusive aspect to it. You can almost get away with other things because there’s so much joy coming from that side that it’s fun. It’s like you can trade it off for some stressors in other areas.

I’ll share these comments actually. These are great things here. Jo said, “trauma can be a missing piece.” Yes. And I feel like that exposes itself more and more the more you do the labs and the supplements. Because if you start getting stagnant after doing all this, maybe it can be that.

Thyroid Triumphs: Exploring the Throat Chakra

Then we had Tracy say something too. “Finding joy in life is huge. It’s there. Just look for it. Your mind will lead your body to a much better place with that focus.” Absolutely.

So, not that we have to get too technical, too sciencey, but I know someone’s wondering this today, Lindsey. If they’re new to this stuff, maybe someone that clicks on the podcast just because of the title and they’re just like us – you, seven years ago and frankly me, around that seven, eight-year mark too. We’re just starting out, so we’re on Dr. Google, we’re on Dr. YouTube, searching stuff. And maybe this is the first podcast that they’ve clicked on regarding their thyroid issues and gut health.

They’re wondering, all this is great, this is cool. We’re talking about trauma, but we’re also talking about postpartum depression and thyroid. Can we explain, how does this all relate? How is it that a relationship that maybe isn’t ideal in any sense, can lead to a thyroid type of symptom? So, how does that work?

[00:27:33] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: That’s getting really deep. The thyroid is a blocked throat chakra – your throat chakra. Which made a lot of sense for me because I think back, did I use my voice growing up? Was I allowed to use my voice? No. Just now in my adult years, I’m learning to speak up for myself. That just led me to go a little bit deeper into that side of things to figure out why and how I can heal from that.

 I lost my train of thought. Now I forgot what your question was.

Thyroid Triumphs: Taking One Step at a Time

[00:28:18] Detective Ev: That was fine. I was talking about how all of this connects practically, but also spiritually as you were mentioning and alluding to.

What I’m trying to do is connect for someone that, they just got the thyroid thing, they clicked on this podcast because they’re like, dang, I don’t know what’s going on. I’m trying to figure this out. And now they’re listening, they’re 30 minutes in. They’re like, okay, this is really cool. I’m getting this to some degree, but maybe they don’t understand yet how a trauma, spiritually or biochemically, can lead to the manifestation of a thyroid symptom or bad gut health. That might be confusing to them.

We’ve already actually talked about, I don’t know if you have anything to elaborate on, but that was the spiritual side. And then there’s a very practical side. We could talk about the HPT access. There’s a lot of things there. However, you want to take it is fine with me.

[00:29:05] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Yeah, I just like to keep it simple because I know how overwhelmed I was when I first started.

So, it’s really just taking that first step. Don’t think too much about the big picture and the end goal. It’s really just let’s focus on today. And I think that’s one of the big things that led me into wanting to help people because I want to be able to simplify it for women and not have to go through what I went through.

Because I feel like I took extra steps that I maybe didn’t need to take and spent extra money I didn’t need to spend. Now that I know, yeah, back up the bus. Let’s just take it one tiny little step at a time.

Thyroid Triumphs: Starting with the Gut and Stress Reduction

[00:29:51] Detective Ev: Okay. That’s a fantastic point then. Because if you could go back and let’s say we’re at the point at least where we have the symptoms, right? Because I’m sure if you could go back even farther, you’d prevent it all to begin with.

Let’s assume the person has symptoms, otherwise they wouldn’t listen to this. You have a seven-year journey at this point. There’s medication involved, there’s multiple practitioners, multiple doctors, so there’s a lot of great stuff in there. And then obviously there’s stuff that you would avoid knowing what you know now.

So, that’s my question. If you just got the symptoms today and started feeling this stuff, what is the approach that you would take knowing what you have now after seven years of learning, studying, and being through it – maybe some advice for people that are out there dealing with the same thing. They just got the symptoms and diagnosis of the postpartum depression or something similar.

[00:30:36] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: If they’ve already got the diagnosis, I guess depending on whether or not they’re on the medication, I would say if I could go back, I would focus more on the emotional aspect rather than the diet and stressing out about what I was eating all the time because that really is huge.

Definitely I think my thing is, once you get the diagnosis, the GI MAP, definitely for sure. Let’s take a look at the gut because the gut is all related to everything. So, I would start there, a GI MAP, and focusing on the stress reduction and the emotional health for sure.

Thyroid Triumphs: Discerning the Culture

[00:31:25] Detective Ev: And just so people know how realistic that is, I just left the country for the first time, recently; went to Italy. Now Italy has the third longest life expectancy right now. I think it’s about 80 something years, but third longest life expectancy in a world that has almost 200 countries, if not over 200. I forget.

This is hilarious; I always mix up the amount of bones in the human body with the amount of countries that the world has. Don’t know how that happened, but it might be 195 then for countries. Either way, that’s impressive to be the third longest in life expectancy.

We went there and I noticed there’s ashtrays on every table even at the little breakfast places we’re at. I’m like, what? How many people smoke here? I looked it up. Twenty-five percent of the population still smokes in Italy. These people all eat at 9:00 PM, super late, huge, heavy meals filled with tons of carbohydrates, stuff that many of us in America would recommend, again, certainly the smoking we’d all agree on would not be done. Yet these people are outliving us.

And I was trying to figure out what’s going on here. There was a couple of things not necessarily related to the emotional stuff. One was they walk like crazy because there’s huge staircases on the hills. I was dying; and I feel like I’m in shape and I was still dying. So, that’s probably one thing. But the other thing was they were, all over the country because we went around the whole coast, some of the nicest people you would ever meet. Everyone was so kind, so friendly.

Thyroid Triumphs: Examining Mental/Emotional Connections

When we thought we were going to get taken advantage of as tourists, it was actually someone just doing something nice for us, going out of their way when easily they could have gotten money out of us. So, my point is, I wonder how much of that life expectancy, despite some very terrible habits in certain ways, is from that mental state that they’re in. Everyone’s just being nice.

You go to New York City; everyone wants to fight you. I’m walking down the street and everyone’s just kind to me and helping me out, even as someone who’s not from the country. So, I wonder how much that plays into life expectancy, just being calm, nice, and happy all the time.

[00:33:17] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Huge. Yeah. They’re sleeping good. They have low stress. Yeah. It’s huge. And the connection, that sense of community, we don’t have that here. People are lonely. We’re lonely.

[00:33:29] Detective Ev: The food’s so dang good too. I just had a theory that maybe they just want to die. They want to keep eating because it’s so freaking delicious. So, they want to stick around.

Now you have gotten into business for yourself. I know in your bio you proclaimed that it’s still new. Totally fine. We’ve had people on the show with 10-year-old businesses, we’ve had people that just started last week. It doesn’t matter to me. My question is though, have you started working with any clients at all?

[00:33:56] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: I have worked with one.

[00:33:57] Detective Ev: Oh, awesome. You’re great. I love your transparency with everything. This is where I’m at, this is who I am. I think that actually is more relatable to people than anything.

Thyroid Triumphs: Declaring the Ideal Client

[00:34:05] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: People do come to me for advice and I’m always happy to just share what I want to share without charging people money at this point. But I’m not doing any protocols for these people. Just trying to guide them.

[00:34:18] Detective Ev: Okay, cool. That changes my question a little bit then, just as fine.

My question is then, who is your ideal client now? If someone is listening and just found you very relatable. That’s what’s so special about this show is we can have 200 other practitioners on. Someone today will listen and just relate to you for one reason or another. They’re like that’s my person.

Who is your ideal client now that you’re doing the business side? What would they look like? Are you willing to work with a variety of people or is it mainly people with the thyroid stuff?

[00:34:47] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: My niche originally was with postpartum women, so that’s where I’m aiming towards. I don’t like to just focus on such a small group because the thyroid affects everybody, whether you’ve had a baby or not. But just because of my own personal experience with anxiety and depression, I want to hopefully relate to other women who are suffering with those symptoms.

So yeah, the thyroid, the gut for sure because they go hand in hand.

[00:35:26] Detective Ev: Makes sense to me. I figured it’s just always good to get some directness with it, just so people, they’re listening, and they almost need permission sometimes to reach out to someone. Should I reach out? Do they want to work with me? I feel like you’re a totally nice, cool person.

Thyroid Triumphs: Connecting Authentically

[00:35:41] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: I just get random people reach out sometimes and it really just warms my heart. Because I’m like, oh, you felt comfortable enough to just reach out to me.

You’re not a burden because I’ve been there. I know what it feels like to feel like you’re a burden, and I don’t want anyone to ever feel like that. Even if you just need to get something off your chest, I am here.

[00:36:03] Detective Ev: That’s awesome. Hey, as long as we’re balancing it to make sure we’re not taking on too much, cause we can’t pour from a cup that’s empty. That’s beautiful.

And I think the time to do that is when we’re starting off with stuff, right? You might get some clients out of it, but that’s not even the reason that you’re doing it. It’s just sometimes you have really authentic conversations that are learning experiences. It helps them, and it helps you. And yeah, every now and then you’re talking to someone and you’re just like, we totally click. I’d love to help you with the lab side.

So, as someone who is so interested in the trauma side and the emotions all behind this, how does your coaching look? And I get that you’re just starting off, that’s fine, but you still have an idea of what you’re going to be doing. I know you’ll utilize the labs, but do you do anything directly to help them with the trauma side or is that something you refer out to? I’m not sure if that’s one of your specialties or not.

[00:36:49] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: I would have to refer out for that, definitely. That’s not something I’m trained to do.

Where to Find Lindsey Akenclose

[00:36:54] Detective Ev: So Lindsey, with the last several minutes here, not that we need to fill the full thing. First thing I want to know is where can people find you if they’d like to reach out to you or work with you?

[00:37:04] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Yes. I’m on Instagram at lindseylee.health. I’m still just getting started and I’d love to see more followers and would love to start engaging a little more on my Instagram. That would be amazing.

[00:37:20] Detective Ev: Actually, we’re sharing it on the screen. And then of course if you’re just listening on audio, no worries at all. We’ll have that in the show notes for you guys as always. So, that’s where people can reach out.

I really love this trend. Instagram has become such a thing. I cannot tell you how many people, like, it’s a good percentage of people that come on the show, just shout out their Instagram before their website even. I think this just makes sense, right? We even do that with FDN. Literally, we shout out the @fdntraining on the podcast to just go to our Instagram and DM us there. We’ll talk; let’s just have a conversation.

With all that said, I think it is time for our signature question on the Health Detective podcast. Oh, don’t worry. It’s not anything. For those on audio, her eyebrows went up. Oh crap, what’s this kid going to hit her with now? Nothing crazy. It’s simple in principle, but I think it always gets people to think a little bit and reflect for a moment.

Thyroid Triumphs: Encouraging Complete Testing/Analysis

The question is just this. If we could give you a magic wand and you could wave it and get every single person in this world to start doing one thing for their health, so just to be clear, you could literally get them to start doing one thing, or you can force us all to stop doing one thing, what is the one thing that Lindsey would get them to do?

[00:38:30] Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Go to the naturopath and get a full panel of thyroid tests.

[00:38:34] Detective Ev: Nice. Alright. And I gotta throw in there, you could do that technically through FDNs. But people could also, if you don’t want to pay a bunch extra, you can get that right online. I think what’s great about your recommendation though, is you’re going to need someone who can analyze that dang test. Just because you ordered it doesn’t mean that you know how to analyze it. Get a little bit of both. That is fantastic.

Lindsey, thank you for coming on today. I know it seems simple to you because you’re not the one interviewing all these people, but I love your transparency. I love you coming on and just being like, yeah, I just started my business; I got the one client. That’s relatable to people. And I feel like sometimes individuals like you are the people that actually end up getting the best feedback on this show.

No one’s ever gotten negative stuff. It’s just some people get a ton of positive feedback from our audience flowing in, and I think you’re just a really relatable individual. It is so clear that your intentions are genuine and that you are in this solely to go help other people.

Conclusion

We’re glad to have you as a part of FDN and thank you so much for sharing your story today. We’re glad you’re doing better.

Lindsey Lee Akenclose: Thank you so much. It was fun.

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