Meet Carol
Experience, Compassion, Competence
Everyone is different. We want to know what your struggles have been, what has helped or not helped you in the past. We will guide you with information to help you understand why weight loss can be so challenging. We’ll share knowledge of ways to proceed for success. You’ll have choices because you need to be on a path that feels right for you.
Carol Rowsemitt, PhD, RN, FNP-BC, FOMA
Board Certified Family Nurse Practitioner
Certificate of Advanced Education from the Obesity Medicine Association
Fellow Obesity Medicine Association
I love what I do. For almost 20 years, I’ve been helping people lose weight and keep it off on the Central Coast of California and now in Rhode Island as well. I was introduced to this area working with Dr. Thomas Najarian in his Los Osos practice. Dr. Najarian is responsible for ground-breaking work in inventing new medical, non-surgical approaches to weight loss. I worked with him to design approaches to thyroid treatment that make sense for many who struggle with symptoms of low thyroid which often accompany weight loss attempts.
With a bachelor’s in chemistry from Boston University and a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Utah, I came to nursing with an unusual background. After deciding to change careers, I received my bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing at the University of Utah, with an emphasis in diabetes care. In my years as a biologist, I worked in ecological physiology, studying how animals detect and respond to environmental changes such as day length, temperature, and food availability to determine when to breed or what time of day to be active. This background is highly relevant to thinking about the biological forces which drive us to eat as well as preventing weight loss with insufficient food.
Carol has worked with fellow nurse practitioner Kris Dilworth, co-founding Diabetes Wellness Center, where she spent several years working in diabetes management and education. She then joined Dr. Najarian at his weight loss center in Los Osos. After he retired, she started her own practice in San Luis Obispo County, always working with a supervisory physician.
The foundation of her approach to patients is understanding the challenges people face trying to lose weight and keep it off. Carol follows the scientific literature in this field and participates in Obesity Medicine Association twice-yearly conferences where she is known as “The Thyroid Lady” from her presentations to the group and persistent interest in explaining an ecological view of thyroid. She and Dr. Najarian published two papers in the online journal, Thyroid Science, providing an explanation of why they believe that most of the health care community does not interpret thyroid lab values appropriately, particularly for weight loss patients. (See Thyroid page on this website.)
She is accepting new weight loss patients, as well as with people who have thyroid disorders with or without weight issues. Many providers pay more attention to thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) than to any other factor when evaluating thyroid. Carol assesses a variety of lab values as well as listening to your report of symptoms to determine how to evaluate and treat thyroid problems.
Carol N. Rowsemitt, PhD, RN, FNP-BC specializes in weight loss in Rhode Island and is in practice in Lincoln. she is also licensed for telehealth in Florida - https://flhealthsource.gov/telehealth/ )