Introducing Marilyn Lindsay of Ashland Colon Hydrotherapy. A trained nutritionist and educator, Marilyn joins local owner Sarah West to support you in your pursuit of optimal health. In today’s interview I speak with Marilyn and Sarah about the expansion of the clinic at The Hidden Springs Wellness Center in Ashland and also the broader implications of optimal health support through colonics.
Hi Sarah and Marilyn. Welcome, and thanks for sharing your time with us today.
Thank you. I am excited to reconnect with our community and to introduce my new team member, Marilyn Lindsay, who brings a background in nutrition and stress reduction to the equation.
Sarah, congratulations on teaming up with Marilyn. Can you tell us about your key reasons for choosing to work with Marilyn?
I’ve had many individuals who have wanted to join my practice as a colon hydrotherapist, but I never got a strong “Yes!” the way I did with Marilyn. After our initial meeting, I knew she was the right fit for Ashland Colon Hydrotherapy. Her grounded, professional and compassionate nature, passion for health, and her background in nutrition, inspired me to bring Marilyn on board. I am impressed with her presence, knowledge, and demeanor. I know she will be of great benefit, not only to Ashland Colon Hydrotherapy and myself, but also to the Hidden Springs Wellness Center and the Rogue Valley.
Marilyn, will you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your interest in working with Ashland Colon Hydrotherapy?
My main background is in education. I have been a teacher, in one capacity or another, my entire career. Five years ago I went back to school to study nutrition. This was prompted by my daughter’s recovery from years of digestive and moods issues after she removed certain foods from her diet. I also noticed that far too many young people were suffering similar health conditions that were not as common in my adolescence. I wondered if there was a larger issue with our food supply that was contributing to this.
I began working with clients in the San Francisco Bay Area after becoming board certified in nutrition. My husband and I would stop in Ashland whenever we drove our youngest daughter to college in Portland, Oregon. Each time we felt a pull to this town. To the people, the arts, the natural beauty and outdoor lifestyle. These are all aspects we love. Ashland felt like a healing vortex to me.
Moving to Ashland has been a very intentional choice for you and your husband. Please say more.
I come from three generations of northern Californians, so I never thought I would leave the state, but I have learned to listen to strong, stubborn desires. In 2017, my husband and I purchased a “retirement” home in Ashland and planned to move here in three years. At that same time I was training in colon hydrotherapy back home, but Ashland continued its pull on me, so I did some research and found Ashland Colon Hydrotherapy. I contacted Sarah to see if she would like to meet with me and discuss the possibility of working together.
Sarah was in the process of making some big changes of her own to accommodate a growing practice. She was in the early stages of expanding her Hidden Springs location from one room to two. What a perfect time for us to meet! I was delighted by our easy rapport. Sarah has a knack for gaining trust and making you feel immediately comfortable. These are important qualities in general, but especially so as a colon hydrotherapist. We agreed that I would join her practice when the construction at Hidden Springs was complete.
It sounds like you both are going to make an amazing team!
Thank you. We understand the importance our relationship plays in creating a healing environment.
Sarah, in addition to having a new teammate you have also expanded and improved your space. Please tell us about it!
I had a vision a year ago to move my practice from my North Main location to the Hidden Springs Wellness Center, and in December that dream came to fruition. For many years there were two locations here in Ashland, one at the North Main office, since 2005, and the other at Hidden Springs since 2015. Now it’s been consolidated to Hidden Springs only, which is located behind the Ashland Shopping Center. It’s a beautiful and convenient location that has many has many adjunct modalities available for an optimal cleansing experience. We have a Far-Infrared Sauna, Detox Steam Bath, Amethyst BioMat, and the Ionic Foot Bath, all which can be added to the colonic irrigation session, or used as a cleanse all on their own.
Sarah, can you please talk about how colonic irrigation can work to support optimal health?
The purpose of colon hydrotherapy is to hydrate the colon, stimulate peristalsis and completely eliminate matter from the large intestines. Colonics have been promoted as a crucial part of the detoxification protocol for thousands of years, and the popularization gained much traction, along with natural foods and alternative forms of healing, in the early 20th century. Now colon hydrotherapy is used worldwide in alternative cancer-treatment clinics, detox and wellness retreats and day spas.
The stories that my clients have shared with me of their personal experiences of transformation have been remarkable. Even after all these years, I am still amazed at the results I’ve witnessed. I believe firmly, more so than ever, in the efficacy of colonics to help assist one in achieving optimal health.
Marilyn will you please share some of your own background and experience that speak to what Sarah is 
sharing?
My introduction to colon hydrotherapy came shortly after I started my nutrition practice. A colleague of mine returned from a six-day retreat at a fasting clinic in the California dessert where she received daily colonics. She described it as life altering. She was glowing. I was curious. Fasting and colonics were mentioned as helpful modalities only briefly in my nutrition training. I wanted more information, so I went to this dessert spa on a fact-finding mission. I fasted for six days and received daily colonics. What I found most fascinating was how each colonic was increasingly productive in the absence of food. In other words, output far exceeded input. How was this possible? Each colon therapist I posed this question to offered a variation of the same answer – build-up over time. The colon is approximately 5 feet in length with ascending, transverse and descending sections. Like most continuously traveled passageways, debris collects. If you add to this the fact that few people have perfect, unadulterated diets, it is easy to understand how food additives, preservatives, stabilizes, fertilizers, pesticides and various other toxins in our food supply are difficult for the body to recognize, breakdown, and remove.
When I left that fasting spa I felt at the height of health. I wondered how I could share this experience with clients in everyday life. I never forgot a woman I met at this spa who was from Germany. She told me that fasting and colonic centers were very common and popular wellness destinations in her country. She was surprised that we had so few in America. “Especially,” she said, “because your food is such crap.” I had to laugh in agreement.
Marilyn, in your past work experience you have worked with both stress management and nutrition management. How do you see both of these playing a role in ones ability to achieve optimal health?
I developed a stress reduction program using biofeedback to show clients the effect that stress has on their health. I worked with these same clients on dietary issues, as both are important, but if a person is extremely stressed, digestion will be impaired, no matter how clean their diet. They must learn to shift their nervous system into parasympathetic mode. Chronic stress can cause any number of chronic conditions including constipation due to impaired digestion. It all ties together.
If the body is starving from a lack of required nutrients, our autonomic nervous system will shift into sympathetic mode and initiate a cascade of stress response hormones designed to get us moving, hunting/seeking food. If we answer that drive by eating more nutritionally depleted food, we do not solve the problem. Instead we may feel a heightened anxiety, overwhelm and an inability to focus in the short-term. More serious health problems will develop in the long run. This is how stress and diet are intricately related.
What are some of your biggest tips in keeping stress down?
We need tools to counter-balance stress because it is everywhere. Knowing our triggers, simple breathing techniques and time management skills are a few helpful tools, but knowing how damaging stress can be to our health is primary. This knowledge prompts us to ask the most important question whenever we are stressed: “IS IT WORTH MY HEALTH?” Because the answer is always “No.” We are then motivated to learn and apply stress reduction strategies before our stress becomes habitual. I absolutely love using biofeedback to demonstrate this connect between stress and health because I see a light go on in people and a commitment to change. We all know stress isn’t good for us, but seeing is believing.
Sarah, how are you seeing your clientele utilize colonics to improve their quality of life?
There are three main categories of people who I see for colon hydrotherapy. First are those who have had or are having a surgery, or medical procedure, such as a colonoscopy. They want to excavate the bowels to prevent complications or avoid constipation, post surgery, due to pain medication. Also in this category are people with physical disabilities or limited mobility, which interferes with their capacity to have regular bowel movements. The second category is people with ongoing digestive issues, due primarily to poor dietary habits and/or high levels of stress that, over time, interfere with normal, healthy evacuation. The third group are people who strive for optimal health, the super athletes, longevity seeking, preventative-minded people who have learned to implement dietary and detoxification practices that maximize their overall well-being. They may come in seasonally as part of an overall maintenance program. This category of clientele is growing, as the benefits of detoxification are better understood.
Marilyn, environmental toxins are playing a larger and larger role in our day-to-day lives. Can you please talk about the experience that this is creating for people?
Yes. I think I sat with my jaw dropped to my chest the first six months into my nutrition training as I learned the degree to which our food supply has become burdened by widespread use of toxic fertilizers, and pesticides. The infiltration of GMO seeds with built-in herbicides is another widespread practice with alarming, as well as, unknown consequences. Factory-farmed animal products contain antibiotic residues and toxins from GMO soy and corn feed.
I’m not sure I would have been able to pursue and sit with this knowledge had I not been personally effected by watching my daughter suffer for five years with digestive and mood disorders that western medicine could not solve. Unfortunately, this is an all too common story affecting untold millions. Such symptoms are the manifestations of a modern food supply gone awry. We eventually found an integrative practitioner who suggested my daughter remove gluten, wheat, dairy, sugar and all GMO foods from her diet. Within days her health improved and eventually all her symptoms disappeared.
The modern world is full of health obstacles and the body needs help removing these obstacles. Fortunately knowledge and acceptance of natural remedies is growing, many with ancient histories such as acupuncture, herbal medicines and colonics. These can be applied to remedy, restore, optimize and prevent. You don’t have to wait until you are sick and suffering.
Sarah in last years interview we talked in-depth about the quality of experience you seek to create for your 
customers. Will you please revisit that for us?
I make each appointment a tranquil, professional and comfortable experience where the person can feel at complete ease to fully let go and relax. I want every client to feel rejuvenated and thoroughly cleansed after their visit, so I give great attention to detail both to the individual and the environment of my office. As the colonic is in process, I hold space for whatever is needed by the individual client. Some like to talk about diet, wellness, and lifestyle, while others like to be in a quiet, meditative space. I meet a person where they are, and strive to be aware what they need for support.
Thanks again for speaking with us. Are there any last thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers?
Colon Hydrotherapy can be a valuable jump-start to an overall detoxification and health maintenance program. Health is a continuum and there is always something to learn. We look forward to sharing our knowledge of digestive health and supporting your pursuit of optimal health.
Learn More:
Ashland Colon Hydrotherapy
635 Lit Way Ashland, OR 97520
www.ashlandcolonhydrotherapy.com
541-201-0500
