Gut and digestive health

Gut health

Gut and digestive health

Reflux, bloating, food reactions and chronic digestive symptoms, evaluated in Lafayette, Indiana.

Call (765) 471-1100 How care works

Suppressing acid is not the same as fixing digestion

Reflux is treated almost universally by reducing stomach acid, and that does relieve the burning. It also reduces how well you absorb B12, iron, magnesium and calcium — which is why long-term acid suppression and nutrient deficiency travel together so reliably.

Bloating, irregular bowels and food reactions get labelled irritable bowel, which names the symptom and explains nothing.

We look for what is driving it, and treat the cause where there is one to treat.

Conditions we treat with this

Dr. Turner has written about each of these — his own pages, restored from the practice's earlier site.

Chron's Disease

This is an autoimmune inflammatory bowel disease. But just because you have it does...

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Food Allergies

The existence of food allergies is mostly considered bunk by mainstream allergists, except they...

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Heart Burn

I wanted to tell you about a natural cure that I found recently.

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PICA

Getting Fat and its Relation to Cribbing and Pica.

Learn more

Why it is done this way

Suppressing acid is not the same as fixing digestion

Long-term acid suppression and nutrient deficiency travel together very reliably.

Reducing stomach acid does relieve the burning. It also reduces how well you absorb B12, iron, magnesium and calcium.

Bloating and irregular bowels get labelled irritable bowel, which names the symptom and explains nothing. We look for what is driving it.

What we test

What we look at

Reflux and heartburn

Including what long-term acid suppression is doing to your nutrient status.

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Bloating and IBS

A label, not a diagnosis. Frequently there is something underneath it.

Food reactions

Testing where it is informative, and elimination where it is more so.

Nutrient absorption

Poor digestion shows up in the blood long before it shows up as a gut complaint.

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The gut-thyroid link

Autoimmune thyroid disease and gut problems occur together often enough to look for both.

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Chronic inflammation

Where the gut is driving symptoms that appear entirely unrelated.

How it works

How care works here

Functional medicine is not a different set of drugs. It is a different order of operations: measure first, then treat what the measurements actually show.

  1. 01

    Step 1

    1. A long first visit

    We take a full history — symptoms, timeline, diet, sleep, stress, medications, family history. Most patients have never been asked these questions in one sitting. This is where the pattern usually shows up.

  2. 02

    Step 2

    2. Testing that goes past the standard panel

    A normal thyroid panel is often just TSH. A normal hormone panel is often nothing at all. We test the full picture — thyroid antibodies, free hormones, nutrient status, inflammatory and metabolic markers — so the treatment plan has something real underneath it.

  3. 03

    Step 3

    3. A plan you understand

    You get your results explained, not filed. What is out of range, what it means, what we are going to do about it, and what should change and by when.

  4. 04

    Step 4

    4. Re-test and adjust

    We re-measure. If the numbers moved and you feel better, we hold. If they did not, we change the plan. Treating on symptoms alone is how people end up on therapy they do not need.

Who this is for

Digestive symptoms are frequently upstream of complaints that look unrelated.
  • You have taken acid-reducing medication for more than a year.
  • Bloating, reflux or irregular bowels have become routine.
  • Foods you used to tolerate now cause symptoms.
  • You were given an irritable bowel label and no explanation.
  • You have an autoimmune thyroid diagnosis, which travels with gut problems more often than not.

If none of that sounds like you, call anyway — we will tell you honestly whether this is the right service.

Common questions

Do you treat IBS?
We treat the symptoms that get labelled IBS, and we look for the cause rather than accepting the label.
I have been on acid reflux medication for years.
Then it is worth checking B12, iron, magnesium and vitamin D, because long-term acid suppression reliably depletes them. That is a lab draw, not a debate.
Do you do food sensitivity testing?
Where it is likely to be informative. We are candid that some commercial sensitivity panels are more marketing than medicine.
Will I need a colonoscopy?
If your symptoms or your age call for one, we will tell you and refer you to a gastroenterologist. Functional medicine does not replace appropriate screening.

Or ask us to call you

The office is open Monday to Thursday. Send this and someone will call you back — a sentence about what is going on is enough.

Please do not send personal health information through this form. We only need enough to call you back.

Stop managing it and start explaining it

A first visit covers the history and the testing worth running.

Call (765) 471-1100