How Humans Heal

#190 Healing Emotional Eating: A Guide to Finding Peace with Food with Tricia Nelson 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Dec 14, 2023

In today’s episode I interview my friend Tricia Nelson. She is an emotional eating expert, bestselling author and speaker, including a Tedx Talk, based on how she healed herself. She also has her own Heal Your Hunger Show where she helps people break the patterns of emotional eating.

Her website: https://xj108.isrefer.com/go/quit/DW/

Tricia's Emotional Eating Origins

Tricia explains that her emotional eating likely started extremely early, as she has memories of always feeling excited around food. She loved eating, cooking for others, and bonding over meals from very young. When her sister lost weight and called herself an "emotional eater," Tricia initially dismissed it as silly since in her mind, she just genuinely enjoyed all aspects of food.

However, in adolescence, Tricia began gaining weight rapidly, topping out around 50 extra pounds which was really tough. She hated feeling overweight and embarrassed. She tried to deny it at first, but began observing major differences between herself and friends around eating habits. For instance, they would leave half of decadent desserts while she felt intense drive to finish all desserts entirely, even after crossing the point of comfort.

She started frequently overeating significant amounts, like full bags of chips with pints of ice cream, without planning to eat more than a normal portion. This led to feeling painfully over-full and anger afterwards. Still, the cycle continued as the urges overpowered her self-control strengths at the time.

Tricia made consistent efforts from young adulthood into her 30s to try healing her conflicted relationship with food, that she finally accepted was complicated for her. She turned to restrictive diets, intensive exercise plans, various pills and potions, therapy appointments, 12 step programs and more. But the patterns continued and her weight fluctuated up and down wildly - losing large amounts when sticking to plans initially through deprivation tactics, but inevitably regaining the weight each time.

With the help of a mentor, Tricia learned skills to deal with the deep emotions that drove her overeating. This helped much more than short-lived willpower alone. From her own transformation, she developed the Heal Your Hunger Program.

It is a step-by-step program to guide people to change emotional eating patterns from inside themselves instead of strict dieting. The focus helps build sustainable abilities like self-soothing, self-worth, and listening to body signals.

By learning new skills for self-care and tuning into needs, Tricia gained long-term balance around food. Her weight stabilized at a healthy point by addressing root causes. She inspires

hope for overcoming food struggles through overall wellbeing versus extreme restriction that never lasts.

Signs of Emotional Eating

Tricia notes that occasionally overindulging isn't necessarily concerning on its own. However consistent loss of control around food intake coupled with negative consequences sets up an “emotional eating” dynamic.

Major red flags include:

· Feeling extremely frustrated and conflicted about your habitual relationship with food.

· Frequently overeating far past fullness, stomach discomfort or what your mind knows is enough.

· Weight erratically fluctuating up and down over spans as short as weeks or months.

· Requiring different sized clothes on standby to accommodate rapid weight gains and losses.

· Struggling to stick to any healthy eating plan or program for more than days or weeks time.

Overeating exists on a spectrum from mild to severe. For example, overdoing it once on vacation is relatively harmless. But full addiction with severe health and life impacts is the extreme. Figuring out where your struggles land on this range can inform next steps.

Tricia offers a quiz to reveal your specific habits, history and challenges. This helps identify suitable support approaches. However, she stresses self-compassion is essential. Why? Because emotional eating unconsciously starts as a coping mechanism, even when not healthy long-term.

Emotional Eating Roots and Personality

Tricia stresses that emotional eating arises from lifestyle patterns and personality traits at the core - not from a lack of education on nutrition fundamentals as most assume.

Some of these patterns include:

· People pleasing – a strong need to make others happy. It often leads to overgiving - doing too much for others while neglecting our own needs. Over time, overgiving drains our energy and builds resentment. When stressed, it's common to crave sugary "treats"

as a fast way to boost our mood. The thinking becomes "I deserve this because I do so much for everyone else." This people-pleasing trap fuels unhealthy emotional eating.

· Poor boundaries with overdoing – we often go past healthy limits while trying to get everything done. We make long to-do lists and feel we must finish them, even if it becomes too much. Pushing too hard prevents us from recharging properly. Going full speed for too long raises stress. Then we crave quick food energy to help us keep coping with an overloaded schedule. This unhealthy pattern happens when we don't set reasonable limits and listen to signals that we need rest.

· Perfectionism and self-criticism – setting extremely high expectations for yourself. Self-criticism means always judging yourself harshly. These traits lead to anxiety as the inner critic berates your efforts. To temporarily quiet the critical inner voices, it’s common to reach for sugary treats or other substances. This provides short-term soothing and distraction from the high pressure of perfectionism.

For many people, patterns of using food to self-soothe start indirectly from difficult childhood experiences. Trauma or adversity in childhood shapes automatic responses that last through life. Food gives needed comfort when young.

However, this coping habit backfires long-term. Over the years, it can lead to health issues, shame, and low awareness of what inner emotions trigger stress eating. We lose touch with what fuels the behavior when we overly rely on eating to help push through challenges.

Making progress on unhealthy patterns requires self-compassion, not self-criticism. We need understanding for how early life shaped automatic responses, not judgment of current struggles resulting from past wounds. Healing starts with recognizing how innocently coping habits began before taking hold through life.

Cultivating Balance through Self-Care Rituals

Self-care rituals can help create balance around food relationships holistically.

These include:

· Daily meditation to reduce anxiety and connect spiritually.

· Reading personal growth or spiritual literature to positively feed the soul.

· Journaling for self-awareness and emotional healing.

· Light exercise like walking outside daily for activity without adrenal burnout.

· Getting support from others.

Starting healthy rituals builds mental resilience over time. It creates new response paths in the brain for handling stress. This counters the automatic habit to grab quick comfort foods when

under pressure. Those foods may have soothed in the moment before but now mainly cause health problems.

These new rituals are better alternatives to high-calorie, salty/sweet snacks. Things like taking time to meditate, set boundaries, or do emotional healing work. They provide true nourishment long-term versus just a momentary sugar-rush bandaid.

The key is slowly reducing reliance on unhealthy food options while starting to incorporate meaningful self-care habits. Balancing both sides - limiting old patterns and cultivating new wellbeing practices - helps make change stick.

Navigating Social Pressures Skillfully

There are effective ways to avoid peer pressure, especially during the holidays. For example:

· Practice politely saying “no thank you, I’m good” without feeling pressured to provide lengthly personal explanations or excuses.

· Remind yourself persistently that others’ visible surprise or questioning of your choices stems from their own inner mental and emotional processes - it’s not your responsibility to sooth their discomfort or change deep habits in the moment.

· For tense situations, gently complimenting the speaker on their cooking efforts often allows to exit the situation smoothly.

The key is setting healthy boundaries for yourself while respecting others may make different choices.

You always deserve to listen to your body and say no to foods that don’t align with your health, even if others have different habits or opinions. You get to choose what fuels your body in line with your needs and goals.

In short, stand confidently in your own truth and respectfully allow others theirs, even when they question your path. Decline offering foods if your body says no, regardless of another’s perspective or traditions. Select nourishing options serving your personal health journey.

Understanding and Overcoming Sugar Addiction

Tricia explains how regular sugar and artificial sweeteners can be extremely addictive and harmful. She reveals how powerfully they hook the brain and damage health, often quietly without people noticing. Even fake sugars can fuel sugar cravings rather than reduce them.

Tricia created a 5-day “quit sugar challenge” to help break this addiction. It offers step-by-step education, coaching to build resilience, and healthy sweet alternatives that won’t hook the brain.

This enables people with strong sugar cravings to still enjoy delightful flavors. Participants make tasty foods like chocolate pancakes and paleo fudge bars without causing energy and mood swings from blood sugar spikes and crashes.

This program helps change your tastes so you want less sugar. It strengths your inner voice to make better choices for yourself, without doubting your worth. The program quiets the inner critic inside all of us that sabotages our goals. Making this small but powerful shift steadily cuts sugar cravings over time. This allows you to better hear your body’s own wisdom about what healthy foods it needs most.

Going through this short sugar detox program has been shown to help people who eat emotionally to break their sugar addiction. It helps stop cravings and energy crashes related to sugar highs and lows. By clearing sugar from your system for a short period, it becomes easier to tune into what your body specifically needs, rather than just craving sugar. This opens the door to understanding and responding to your unique body’s signals, instead of overriding them with sugary foods.

As mentioned above, emotional eating normally develops early as a coping mechanism to provide comfort or quick distraction from any form of suffering or trauma during our childhood. It is critical for surviving traumatic and challenging experiences we went through while growing up.

At first, emotionally eating sugary foods feels like it gives relief. But for most people, over time it backfires. It becomes an unconscious habit to reach for sugar to feel better, without thinking. Quickly, this can grow into a full-blown dependence on sugar and unhealthy substitutes.

True healing starts with self-compassion. We need to acknowledge that this coping mechanism started innocently before taking over. Looking carefully at contributing factors, like people-pleasing tendencies, allows us to respond differently moving forward. We can consciously choose self-care rather than falling into numbing or depriving habits.

Establishing new rituals like setting boundaries, meditating, emotional healing, and reading uplifting material can slowly override automatic unhealthy drives. With commitment to daily practice, limited backsliding, and community support, whole life transformation happens from the inside out.

Thousands now live free from food obsession through Tricia’s practical, spiritual guidance. Her method helps replace unconscious emotional eating with conscious self-care.

If you would like to learn more about Tricia and how she can help you, you can sign up for her Quit Sugar Challenge. You can also find her on Instagram @tricianelson_ and Facebook Heal Your Hunger.

If you want to learn more about Dr. Doni’s Stress Recovery Protocol® which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™, her proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise, you can read all about it in her book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#189 The 5 Foods to Avoid to Help Your Body Clear HPV 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Dec 7, 2023

Hi, I'm Dr. Doni Wilson, and today I want to talk about HPV—or human papillomavirus—and specifically the five foods to stop eating if you're working on fending off HPV.

The Issue with HPV

Here's the thing: We are most all exposed to HPV virus at some point in our lives. That includes men and women. And certain strains of HPV are associated with cancer risk. So, to find out that HPV is positive, which often happens when women go to get a pap smear, and more often are being tested for HPV and being told that it's positive, it can be quite scary.

My Experience Helping Women

So that might be why you're listening to this video freaking out thinking, "Oh my gosh, I'm HPV positive," or "HPV keeps showing up positive," or even that the HPV is causing abnormal cells on your pap smear or worse. And you feel like you just want to get out of this situation and get rid of this virus as fast as possible. And I understand—I help thousands of women every year to do exactly that in my practice.

What I find is even women who've been following my protocol for months—because oftentimes women who follow my protocol even within three months will find that HPV goes to negative—but sometimes if it hasn't gone away within six months and I go back, and we start digging, and we say, "What is still making this person susceptible to HPV?"

How Dietary Changes Can Help

I'm a naturopathic doctor and midwife, and I've been helping women to address HPV virus for over 23 years. And one of the best ways to do that—to actually help your body, your immune system protect you from this virus—is by making dietary changes.

Now, of course the conventional medical system and most medical practitioners are not trained in nutrition. And so they are not aware of the potential of dietary changes to help your body fend off HPV. But I'm here to tell you and report back to you from all the patients who've worked with me that making dietary changes absolutely can make a difference.

And women every week are coming back to me telling me how their pap is now negative and the HPV is negative. And not only that, but it's staying negative over years, over a period of time. So this is why I feel so motivated to be able to share this information.

An Effective Dietary Protocol

I have a whole protocol that I use in my practice. But today I want to focus on the top five foods that I see make the biggest difference when women are able to take them out of their diet—for at least a period of time until the HPV goes to negative.

#1 - Refined Sugar

So, the first food on that list is really something that's usually an ingredient in foods, and that's sugar. And when I say sugar, I'm referring to refined sugar like a spoonful of white sugar or brown sugar. That's the kind of sugar that we're talking about. I'm not talking about sugar necessarily from natural sugars, say from fruits and vegetables. We want to have some fruits and vegetables in our diet.

But refined sugar can reduce immune system function for hours after you consume it. So if you're having sugar even once a day—a spoonful of sugar or equivalent to that—then it's going to be reducing your immune system's ability to protect you from all different infections, including HPV.

Now just imagine if you're having sugar in your diet multiple different times of day—it's continually reducing your immune function. And a lot of times sugar is in our diet and our beverages without us realizing it.

So I encourage you to take a closer look at the food you're eating—even your protein shakes, even beverages that you think might be healthy. It's worth it to take a look at the ingredients. And if you see sugar, or sugar cane, or sometimes sugar comes in as other names like dextrose and sucrose, these all mean sugar.

If there's sugar in your food—in your sometimes it's in processed food, sometimes it might be food that you're grabbing on the go, or your morning coffee or latte maybe containing sugars—these sugars are reducing your immune function and making you susceptible to HPV, as well as other health issues. So number one is to start really paying attention to sugar and start reducing it in your daily intake.

#2 – Gluten

OK, number two, to me, is gluten. Remember, I've been at this for a couple of decades. And I do very specific testing with my patients to identify issues with gluten—specifically gluten sensitivity. And in some cases, we're also testing for celiac disease if we see severe symptoms and severe signs of gluten issues.

And what I consistently find over and over again, case after case with HPV and abnormal pap smears, is gluten sensitivity. Actually, at least one out of four of us has gluten sensitivity. I think it's actually more common than that.

Humans in general just don't digest gluten very well. Gluten is in rye, barley, spelt, wheat, and anything that has wheat in it—not just whole wheat, but it could be anything made from wheat or rye, barley, spelt has gluten in it.

And so you might be getting gluten again numerous times a day if you're having something made from wheat or containing gluten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. You're getting gluten multiple times a day. And gluten for everyone is inflammatory.

Gluten is known in research to cause something called leaky gut, which is damage to the intestinal cells. And this is really important when it comes to HPV. And you might be wondering why. Because you're like, "Well, the HPV is in the vagina.” It also, by the way, can exist in the anal rectal area and oral area."

But most times we're identifying it in the vaginal area. And yes, there is a connection between your digestion and your vaginal area. So if you're consuming gluten and it's causing inflammation and causing damage to your intestinal cells—that's causing inflammation to circulate around your whole body, including to the vaginal area.

Gluten also disrupts the bacteria in the digestive tract. This is well established in research. And I can share the references. When we have disrupted bacteria in our digestion, it is known to disrupt the microbiome vaginally. And this is another way that gluten makes us susceptible to HPV.

So you'll notice in my language I'm talking about susceptibility to HPV. It's not just about exposure. Remember, most all of us are exposed to this virus, but it only has the opportunity to cause abnormal cells in a certain percentage of the population. What's different about that percentage of the population? Well, one thing could be that those people are more susceptible to inflammatory changes and microbiome changes due to gluten exposure.

And so what I recommend with women who work with me in my practice is we test for food sensitivities and find out if gluten is an issue. And then we start eliminating gluten from their diet, and we start to see major changes in their health—not just HPV—but so many things improve about their health, including their digestion and their skin and their hair and their hormones and their energy and their focus and their sleep.

So much more improves. So, yes, you could just start to eliminate gluten from your diet. I think that is a good place to start. And then if you really want to know more about whether you have leaky gut and are there other foods to avoid, I would recommend doing a food sensitivity panel. And I will put a link to the test that I recommend.

#3 – Dairy

OK, so number three—and this also comes back to the food sensitivity panel and what I see as major food problems for women who are experiencing HPV—and that's dairy products,

including anything made from cow's milk except butter. Butter is usually is OK, but anything else made from cow's milk—from yogurt, cheeses, even whey protein powders—is an issue because of the proteins in dairy, not the sugar.

The sugar in dairy is called lactose, and some people are not able to digest lactose and may experience digestive issues from it. That's not so much the issue for HPV. With HPV, the issue is the dairy proteins—casein and whey. And so if you're consuming dairy products—even if you just have milk in your coffee or even if you just have cheese every so often—it could be an issue when it comes to HPV, because it's inflammatory.

The inflammation dairy causes in the digestion then spreads throughout your whole body. And it makes you susceptible to infections. A lot of times people who have dairy sensitivity also are prone to sinus infections and skin issues, but absolutely can make you more prone to HPV.

And this is a thing, then, with the HPV—which normally our bodies can clear and get rid of—it sticks around longer and it has more chance to cause abnormal cells.

#4 – Eggs

OK, so number four, which I think might surprise you, is eggs. Now, a lot of people don't realize that they're reacting to eggs. And I'm not just talking about egg yolks. I'm talking about egg whites. And the issue is that once leaky gut exists—once the intestinal cells are not as healthy as they should be, which happens when we're exposed to stress and toxins and gluten—we end up with leaky gut.

And then eggs, which we all think are healthy and we eat eggs—a lot of women I talk to are eating eggs almost every single day—the eggs are leaking through the intestinal lining undigested. And that egg protein is then triggering an immune response because the immune system thinks it needs to protect you from this foreign protein. That's what our immune system does. It protects us from a foreign proteins.

So when egg protein comes through, the immune system is busy trying to protect you from it and it's not doing as good of a job protecting you from the HPV virus. So one way to know for sure if you're reacting to egg or egg whites in particular is to do the food sensitivity test I recommend, which is from a lab that I've been working with for many years.

I have cross tested it with other labs. I constantly review other food sensitivity panels. And what I find is that this particular lab gives us the clearest results—the clearest information to know for sure if you need to eliminate eggs from your diet.

Now, I want to make sure while we're talking about dietary changes for you to understand that it's not going to be necessary for you to avoid these foods forever. A lot of people worry, "Oh my gosh, how am I going to avoid these foods the rest of my life in order to protect myself from HPV?" But that's not necessary.

Because once we help your body to heal—once we help your body to heal leaky gut, restore healthy digestive function and microbiome and healthy immune function—then in most cases you're able to add these foods back into your diet.

So I'm not suggesting, that you need to avoid these foods forever. I'm suggesting that these are foods that are common in our diet that are actually making us more susceptible to HPV virus. And if we can identify that specifically for you and eliminate those foods from your diet while we heal your digestion, heal your body, rebalance your immune system—you're going to be better able to protect yourself from HPV going forward, even if you reintroduce those foods to your diet.

#5 – Alcohol

So the fifth food I want to talk about is really a beverage, and that is alcohol. What we discover is that women who drink alcohol on a regular basis are more susceptible to HPV. And I’m talking about any type of alcoholic beverage—liquor, beer, wine, or any other beverage containing alcohol. All forms of alcohol reduce immune function.

if you have one drink a week, it is probably not enough to be an issue, but if you're finding yourself having, let's say, two glasses of wine or having one or two glasses of wine more than once a week, then it could be making you more susceptible to HPV.

And it's when women finally do make the commitment to taking alcohol out of their diet, out of their life for a period of time—sometimes for three to six months—along with doing everything else in my protocol including supplements and suppositories, they finally are able to get HPV to go away.

Again, my goal is to help your immune system learn how to protect you from HPV. It doesn't mean you're going to have to forever avoid alcohol. At the same time, women often report to me that they feel so good without these foods and alcohol and sugar in their diet. They end up realizing, "Wow, I feel so much better. My energy is better, my mood is better, my sleep is better, my skin is better—everything is better! Why would I want to go back to eating and drinking all the things I was eating and drinking before that were making me not feel so good?”

When I guide women to follow a maintenance plan, we figure out what you're going to continue now that you've transformed not only your health related to HPV, but you’ve transformed your life. You become empowered about protecting yourself from HPV-related cancer as well as many other health issues.

At that point you can reevaluate what you want to bring back into your diet and your life—even potentially on an occasional basis—but knowing that you're the one who gets to decide what you're eating. You're the one who gets to decide what you're drinking. And you're the one who gets to be in control of your health and your ability to protect yourself from HPV as well as other health issues.

Thank you so much for joining me. If this video was helpful, I'd be happy to hear about it. Please like and subscribe. And definitely join me for the next video where I'll soon be sharing more tips about protecting yourself from HPV.

If you would like to learn more about how I can help you fend off this virus for good I encourage you to watch my HPV Masterclass here. I will also be hosting a live HPV Workshop soon. You can learn more about it here.

If you are ready to get rid of this virus right away, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12 Week Program here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#188 How Psilocybin Microdosing can Reset our Nervous System with Aya Allison 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Nov 30, 2023

In today’s episode, I’m speaking with coach and educator Aya Allison, who specializes in psilocybin microdosing. We’ll be talking in depth about microdosing—what it is, the science behind it, the latest research in this emerging area of psychedelic medicines, and practical guidance for those considering exploring it as an option.

I’m so excited to be digging into this conversation with Aya, who is extremely knowledgeable and experienced in guiding clients through psilocybin protocols safely and effectively. As a mindset coach and microdosing specialist, she is perfectly positioned to provide the public with much-needed education and support around integrating plant medicines into mental healthcare regimens.

Given the overwhelming crisis of anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric conditions we currently face—not to mention a general disconnection from our true selves and nature at large—I believe we need every tool at our disposal. Psilocybin and other entheogens clearly have tremendous potential for healing individuals and our society as a whole if used consciously. I’m thrilled we get to have this discussion today.

The Growing Interest in Psilocybin Microdosing

First I ask Aya to explain more about the growing interest and use of microdosing she's seen lately. She traces when folks started asking her about tiny doses of mushrooms back around 2014-2015, as underground chatter increased among plant medicine circles.

Lately more and more people struggling with mood problems have been learning about microdosing magic mushrooms to find relief because meds and therapy haven't helped them.

Instead of just getting diagnosed and taking meds with bad side effects, they want to try a natural route of using tiny doses of mushrooms to transform their inner world for the better. Many come to Aya first to learn about this approach and see if it's a fit before moving forward. They have worries about safety, laws, amount to take, and what results could realistically be.

Most of all, Aya stresses the importance of fighting ignorance by equipping these psychologically vulnerable yet curious folks with the best knowledge available, empathic support, and community belonging. Random experimenting without proper plans or watching could risk bad outcomes and waste this healing opportunity.

The Mental Health Emergency

Looking more at why people are considering this, we talk about the total failure of Big Pharma medicine to fix the worsening mental health epidemic with mood disorders, suicide risk, disability, and general disconnect from one's self. This is a crisis everywhere. In America alone,

1 in 5 adults now live with a diagnosable condition; youth depression/anxiety has climbed over 50% since 2020, signaling an alarming future trend if we don't respond effectively.

Yet standard treatments fail most people. Psych meds temporarily reduce symptoms at best before 80% relapse within a year, finding their illness even harder to treat after stopping/re-starting them multiple times. Talk therapy changes thinking patterns but doesn't fundamentally transform someone's core being.

Clearly a giant gap exists between where we stand today and people living fully whole, happy, peaceful lives no longer dependent on substances or counseling to feel sane, self-love, meaning, and fulfillment.

This is exactly the promise of plant medicine like magic mushrooms used wisely under care - to reconnect us with our natural power to heal and feel alive inside. Aya says it helps dissolve the make-believe walls that make us feel separate and sick - so we can remember we are naturally well and whole already.

Aya's Personal Journey with Psychedelics

When asked what called her to explore this view 7 years ago, she shares bravely about her past battles with heavy depression - planted by childhood trauma and running in her family - which regular medicine failed to fix.

Feeling skeptical yet desperate, as a last hope she courageously turned to Ayahuasca, a plant medicine from South America. She describes the shocking rebirth process it caused, making her confront and integrate decades of stored pain and false identities to uncover an indestructible inner light within all people. In an instant, her years-long darkness ended; she felt restored to hope, purpose, freedom and unconditional self-love she’d never known before.

She emphasizes preparation was key - had she not focused seriously on self-care, mindfulness, and processing her emotions enough ahead of time, the journey could’ve overwhelmed rather than freed her. With proper readiness, miraculous healing happens quite naturally. She testifies these plant medicines hold power if someone is called to them. But wise guidance remains crucial for safety.

Her quest for truth and multifaceted healing then expanded more formally into shamanism, nature-based spirituality. As she coaches others through change with plant substances now, she increasingly sees intricate links between mental illness, immunity, digestion, nerves, sustainability, psychology and spiritual awakening.

Micro vs. Macro Doses of Psilocybin

To explain key words she mentioned about dosage levels and experiences, I distinguish between micro and macro doses of mushroom containing psilocybin; share that ceremonial use

often means higher, consciousness-altering macro doses while microdosing means taking sub-perceptual amounts for more subtle mental/emotional benefits over time. She agrees a microdose doesn’t cause a psychedelic effect.

Aya clarifies an actual psychedelic experience kicks in around 2-3 grams of psilocybin. Microdosing is in the range of 50 mg of psilocybin and still results in significant healing of the nervous system.

Everyone’s sensitivity varies widely though based on brain chemistry, setting, mushroom strength, etc, so effects stay quite individualized and deeply personal. One might not notice changes occurring within initially. But the huge combined feedback on how microdosing psilocybin mushrooms improves thinking, emotional regulation, social skills, creativity and brain communication confirms something special happens for most at proper amounts.

It basically fine tunes pathways instead of hijacking them like prescription antidepressants; gently strengthens connections over weeks like bodybuilding rather than suddenly overloading capacity.

Just as higher mushroom doses cause temporary altered states of consciousness by impacting brain chemicals, tiny doses still positively influence critical networks, literally rewiring thought patterns, emotional triggers and habitual behaviors slowly over time for the better. And unlike pharmaceuticals, mushroom ingredients develop no physiological addiction or withdrawal.

Legality Remains Complex

We discuss current policies and regulations concerning growing, accessing and responsible usage of psychedelic containing plants like mushrooms which remain federally prohibited, similarly to how cannabis once was.

It is important to understand one’s regional legal landscape and penalties. But encouragingly, certain locations decriminalized or introduced bills permitting medical access and research.

Overall authorities make psychedelic related cases lowest enforcement priority compared to drugs causing harm. Still banned in the U.S. however, transporting mushrooms across state lines or dosing in public remains completely illegal until policy changes as science compellingly proves therapeutic efficacy.

Which means underground access may quietly thrive in some areas as symbolized by native use rituals for communing sacramentally with nature since ancient times. But political winds now shift as pioneering cities pass laws stopping unjust jailing for personal growing/use. Oregon legalized therapy centers; other states put medical access on legislative agendas. We stand at the genesis of a historic paradigm shift around psychedelic therapies.

Standard Microdosing Protocols

When asked about dosing strategies, Aya shares sage advice she gives people for getting the most from microdosing - like journaling, intention setting, community support or coaching check-ins. Protocol details get debated though across practitioners. James Fadiman who did original microdosing research suggests taking .1g mushroom powder every 3rd day for a month before some days completely off. Compare to Dr. Stametes who likes “stacking” microdoses with bonus lion’s mane mushroom chunks for enhanced benefits.

Aya personally recommends starting with half doses every other day - or full days off if very sensitive - while journaling changes in bodily sensations, moods, thinking, behaviors or dreams. Continue minimum 10-12 weeks before reevaluating extending the cycle. Natural symptoms may signal slightly higher doses needed.

Customizing one’s frequency and amount means attentively noticing subtle feedback in concert with professional consultation. Each person sensitively self-calibrates unique embodiment needs meaningfully this way once properly informed.

Are Psychedelic Changes Sustainable Long Term?

We also discuss doubts whether microdosing induced insights, newfound neural links or behavior shifts last once stopping or dependency develops needing continual mushroom activation. Valid worry; especially when medications often accompany withdrawal symptoms after temporarily subduing symptoms without resolving root causes.

But unlike addictive, toxic medications, Aya assures zero evidence suggests any dependency tendency from mushroom-based psilocybin. In fact the opposite - they powerfully curb addictive patterns! The mushrooms basically reset the nervous system, enabling lasting positive changes, not unlike installing new software.

The authentic self realized or old traumas released remain available within afterwards too, just maybe needing occasional “tune-ups”.

Ultimately they strengthen personal freedom, not replace it. First microdosing trains the brain’s pathways until we pedal freely ourselves feeling more able to navigate life and it’s challenges.

Training Practitioners in Psychedelic Medicine

When asking about her educational initiative for healthcare professionals, Aya describes founding Heroic Wellness exactly for this purpose: to develop legal training systems delivering mushroom assisted psychotherapy properly once policy allows clinical practice.

This work gets desperately needed today; underground options fail ethics standards as demand balloons for healing support with plant journeys. Without proper set, setting and integration

care afterwards however, bad outcomes manifest for the emotionally and energetically sensitive.

The outdated disease label and medication fix model totally misses the multidimensional nature of consciousness. More holistic approaches using plant medicine have the potential to help more people.

Healing unfolds through RELATIONSHIP nurtured by skillfully attuning to complexity of inner landscapes opened during entheogenic experience. Thus proper presence, gentle guidance and compassion creates optimal conditions for awakening - as the best doctors understand too.

Entheogens Explained

After introducing “entheogen,” an unfamiliar word, I ask Aya to define its meaning and why it fits better than “psychedelic” or “hallucinogen” for plant medicines like magic mushrooms or Ayahuasca. She says it comes from “generating the divine within” - implying substances eliciting short yet deeply mystical states of oneness, euphoria, infinity, clarity into Truth behind normal senses. Whereas “psychedelic” suggests escapism without personal integration.

Ancient wisdom cultures prized plant entheogens as sacred portal opening mediums for ritual, divination, adolescent rites of passage, and healing. Careful protocols and reverence prevailed universally, which Aya advocates restoring today.

Hence “entheogen” differentiates compounds occasioning awakening and embodiment rather than just distractive trips as “psychedelic” misleadingly implies for some. It resumes honoring time-tested shamanic respect she argues legalization absolutely necessitates incorporating rather than dismissing.

Mixing Psilocybin Microdosing with Other Medications

Lastly I ask about potential complications or interference augmenting microdoses with existing pharmaceutical prescriptions, over the counter supplements or common health conditions in case safety concerns arise for those interested but using other things concurrently.

Aya reassures hardly any recorded interactions manifest since dosing stays so sub-perceptual, unlike recreational ranges. It won’t impair bodily/metabolic functioning noticeably at tiny amounts either. And given the brain chemical specific effects, psilocybin seem unlikely to worsen side effects, diminish intended benefits of treated symptoms or cause dangerous synergistic reactions with medications.

In fact integration may benefit tapering off unneeded medications under medical guidance. They awaken our inner doctor healing capacities restoring natural balance rather than overriding them as dependencies can. Of course conservative dosing and transparency with one’s doctors stays vital.

Closing Thoughts

In closing, I sincerely thank Aya for openly illuminating the immense potential of mushroom family plant medicines like psilocybin to catalyze radical healing transformations - of both individuals and society collectively. When supported conscientiously by professionals, they provide unprecedented opportunities for healing, connection and meaning for all.

If you would like to learn more about Aya and how she can help you, you can visit her website here. You can also check out Aya’s app here or connect with her on social media at @aya.allison (Instagram). You can schedule an appointment with her here.

If you want to learn more about Dr. Doni’s Stress Recovery Protocol® which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™, her proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise, you can read all about it in her book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Nov 22, 2023

In this episode, I discuss the profound healing power of gratitude while providing practical, evidence-based guidance on how you can cultivate it daily, even in the these modern stressful times. I am a burnout expert and I can guide you to recover from stress while in that mix of stress, and that's one of the key differences about what I teach and what I help my patients to do when I help them to recover from whatever health issue they're experiencing.

Understanding Stress and Its Impact on Health

The various sources of stress we're exposed to—emotional, physical toxins as stresses, infections and injuries—cause the symptoms and health issues we experience. So the best way to reverse those health issues is to reverse the impact of stress.

To do that, we first need to understand how stress is affecting you uniquely. For this, we need to first fond out your stress type.

I developed a quiz called the Stress Type Quiz. I'll put the link so you can take that in case you haven't already discovered your stress type. By knowing your stress type, we can understand how stress is impacting your cortisol and adrenaline levels, which are the stress hormones made by the adrenal glands.

Understanding how stress has disrupted your cortisol and adrenaline, we have one key piece of the puzzle of solving the impact of stress on your system and how we can then optimize cortisol and adrenaline to get you recovered from stress even if you are still of course—most all of us are still in the midst of stress day in and day out because we're humans, and humans are exposed to stress constantly.

Stress is inevitable, but recovering from it is possible. It's not about avoiding all the stress; it's about helping us to recover from stress. But we have to individualize your approach to recovery from stress based on exactly how stress has caused imbalances in your body, mind, nervous system and so on. Understanding each person's unique stress response is key.

Stress causes imbalances in our cortisol levels. And when you have imbalanced cortisol, that's what ends up causing the health issues, and we know that when people have optimal cortisol levels they live longer because they have less health issues. So we all should be aiming for optimal cortisol levels.

The Healing Power of Gratitude

Where does gratitude come into play with this? The way I think about gratitude is it's one of the tools we can use to help us recover from stress and actually one of the cool things about gratitude is that it works for all the stress types. Gratitude is really a healing medicine. It literally is a medicine that you can access within yourself without having to swallow a pill, without

having to pay for anything. You can access it at any moment in time 24 hours a day and anywhere you're located. Gratitude is accessible, free, and available anytime.

There are so many studies showing over and over again that it can help us not just mentally and emotionally, and I'm gonna be talking about that in detail. It can help us on a physical level. Amazingly, there's quite a lot of research on it.

Gratitude helps in both emotional and physical ways. The research supporting gratitude is substantial.

The Science Behind Gratitude

Gratitude helps to stimulate dopamine levels, which gives us the ability to think and make decisions and enjoy. It's also connected with reward and pleasure so we want to have adequate dopamine. Dopamine is key for brain power, reward, pleasure and enjoyment.

· Gratitude also increases serotonin, one of our calming neurotransmitters.

· It increases oxytocin, which is what we usually think of as a bonding hormone or the love hormone.

· I think about oxytocin as one of our anti-stress hormones.

So gratitude boosts our bonding hormone oxytocin, an anti-stress hormone, as well as serotonin. So how wonderful that we can with practicing gratitude boost our anti-stress hormone oxytocin as well as endorphins in general, which are also anti-stress, anti-pain messengers in our bodies. This can be so simple and yet effective.

Gratitude stimulates helpful anti-stress and anti-pain messengers in the body. It's simple yet powerful. You set aside your perfectionism and you get in touch with your intuition—what just comes to you when you think of what do you feel grateful for—because you wanted to be simple, quick and easy, whatever comes to your mind first. What do I feel gratitude for in this moment?

When practicing gratitude, set aside perfectionism. Get in touch with intuition and keep it simple—whatever comes to mind first.

Literally writing it down can actually help, so you can think it, you can have a thought about gratitude, and that's powerful. But then when you write it down it even gets more power toward the effectiveness of gratitude.

Writing down gratitude is also very powerful, even more than just thinking grateful thoughts.

Expressing gratitude and finding more ways to do that and allowing it...I think sometimes we we just weren't taught this, so we end up not knowing how to do it right. We don't really know how to express gratitude well and so it takes practice. We just have to learn how to feel it.

We may not have been taught how to express gratitude growing up. It takes practice to learn how to feel and express it.

Practicing Gratitude

I'm hoping that helps you get a sense of what gratitude can feel like and look like and to see how it can be expressed: to say "thank you, you mean a lot to me and you've made a big difference in my life." And I'm so grateful for the people who have been able to be there to support me in my process.

Gratitude can be expressed by saying "thank you" and appreciating people who have made a difference.

Here are some additional tips for practicing gratitude:

· Write in a gratitude journal.

· Send thank you notes, texts, or emails.

· Verbally express gratitude to people in your life.

· Try a gratitude meditation.

· Consider psychedelic plant medicines which can induce profound gratitude.

· Microdosing psychedelics may also help with gratitude.

I have traveled in different areas of the world to experience different psychedelic plant medicines for—because I'm constantly loving to travel and research other cultures and types of medicine—and in the use of psychedelic medicine such as ayahuasca and psilocybin, one of the main benefits I have experienced is an immense sense of gratitude.

Psychedelic medicines work on our nervous system also as anti-stress medicines to help us reset the stress response and recover from stress and trauma, and one of the ways they do that is by increasing our sense of gratitude.

There have been times when I've been in a psychedelic retreat or ceremony and had experiences of being filled with a sense of gratitude—literally tears pouring out of my eyes feeling like my heart is so open and warm—and literally feeling more gratitude for the people in my life and the patients I've been able to help and the patients that have taught me so much about all of this. I wouldn't have all of this knowledge or experience without the people who've come and trusted me to help them with their health.

If you're ever interested in or called to using psychedelic medicines even in microdoses, I encourage you to check out prior episodes and blog articles about that here, and I'm happy to connect with someone to help you get more information.

I have immense gratitude for those I've been able to help and who have helped me gain this knowledge. And I feel such a huge amount of gratitude for all of you who are listening in, who are joining me here, who are reading my book and practicing these things I'm teaching and benefiting from it—because that's what I love to do.

I love to be able to provide this information so people can benefit, and when people do get to benefit from it I feel a huge amount of gratitude for that connection that we have. I also feel deep gratitude for my readers, listeners and patients who allow me to help them. It's meaningful to make a difference through sharing this helpful information.

I'm here to express that gratitude so that we can all really learn what that's like: to intentionally choose gratitude and benefit from it. So thank you again so much for joining me here at How Humans Heal. If you have not already, I would love for you to subscribe and join my newsletter list so that you hear when the next episode comes out.

I will be here as your stress and burnout recovery expert to help you every step of the way to understand stress—how it impacts us and how you can take steps to recover from stress—and in doing so reverse so many other possible health issues that you might be dealing with.

I intentionally express gratitude and invite you to join me on this journey of learning, healing and empowerment. Please subscribe if you'd like to receive more episodes and information to recover from stress, which can reverse many health conditions.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to heal using Dr. Doni’s Stress Recovery Protocol® which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™, her proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise, you can read all about it in her book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

We also invite you to join Dr. Doni’s New Stress Mastery C.A.R.E. Program. This 4-week virtual experience provides personalized solutions to help you recover from burnout and rejuvenate your mind and body based on your Stress Type®. We start by having you take our proprietary quiz to uncover your unique stress profile. Are you a Stress Magnet? Sluggish and Stressed? Night Owl? Or another one of the 5 types?

Your Stress Type tells us how your body and mind have been impacted by stress. Think of it as your version of "stress mode" or burnout. It's important to know your Stress Type because the way to successfully recover from burnout needs to be customized based on your Stress Type.

Even your SelfC.A.R.E. needs to be fine-tuned based on your Stress Type in order get you all the way to Stress Mastery!

In just 4 weeks, you'll optimize cortisol and adrenaline levels, reduce symptoms by 50% or more, regain mental clarity and productivity, improve sleep quality and heart rate variability and establish healthy lifelong habits.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Nov 16, 2023

In this illuminating conversation, I had the pleasure of speaking with functional medicine practitioner Dr. Traci Potterf about the power of holistic healing for anxiety. She and I have both been helping people with anxiety and burnout in general for many years, so this was a perfect opportunity to see how our approaches align and overlap.

Dr. Traci Potterf holds a PhD in Medical Anthropology and is a functional medicine practitioner with extensive training in mind-body therapies. She describes herself as an "anxiety detective" helping clients get to the root causes of anxiety.

Dr. Traci teaches people to understand anxiety as the body's cry for help, not a personal failing or something you must accept lifelong. Her multifaceted, individualized programs help clients address anxiety through nutrition, lifestyle “makeovers”, stress resilience practices, and nervous system healing.

After healing her own health challenges, Dr. Traci was inspired to support others on their journey to wellness. She is passionate about illuminating the path to joy, meaning, and possibility by merging ancient wisdom, emerging science, and the magic inherent in every human.

Reframing Anxiety as a Health Messenger

Anxiety exists on a spectrum, ranging from tension and muscle tightness to full-blown panic attacks. At the physical level, symptoms may include jaw clenching, gut issues like constipation or loose stools, headaches, insomnia, hormone imbalances, heart palpitations, and more.

Mentally, anxiety manifests as excessive worry about hypothetical future scenarios, catastrophizing, ruminating on negative possibilities, and feelings of being completely overwhelmed.

Our conventional medical system has wrongly pathologized anxiety as a genetic brain defect requiring medication. But humans lived for thousands of years without widespread anxiety disorders. Anxiety is simply the body's smoke alarm signaling that something is out of balance in the inner or outer terrain. The nervous system is saying "ouch" in the only way it knows how.

Rather than immediately medicating to silence the nervous system's signals, we must approach anxiety as a teacher. It provides an opportunity to tune into the body's wisdom and discover what requires healing. Trying to ignore or override anxiety without addressing the root issues provoking it is like disabling a smoke detector while your house burns down.

How Modern Life Impacts Our Nervous System

With our epidemic of chronic stress and toxicity in the modern world, most people now live with some level of anxiety. Here are several contributing factors:

· Diet high in processed foods, sugars, chemicals and industrial seed oils provokes inflammation throughout the body and brain. This impairs cellular functioning, hormone regulation, detox processes, and neurotransmitter balance.

· Dehydration prevents optimal delivery of nutrients and removal of toxins. Lack of structured, energized water also reduces the voltage that powers energy flow.

· Toxins like heavy metals, mold, infections from pathogens like Lyme, and EMFs directly disrupt the nervous system. They derail neurotransmitters and damage tissues.

· Trapped emotions and unprocessed pain or trauma from the past remain stuck in the nervous system and bodily tissues if never addressed. This perpetual loop feeds anxiety.

· Sleep deprivation and constant overstimulation from electronics disrupt natural biorhythms needed for health like cleansing cycles. This stresses physiology.

· Negative thought patterns like excessive self-judgment keep us feeling unsafe and on high alert. The mind perceives threats everywhere.

· Social isolation and lack of community fails to meet our core human needs for belonging and intimate connection. Lack of oxytocin and bonding creates distress.

· Suppression of innate human needs for pleasure, joy, play, and meaning leads to loss of purpose. Without a felt sense of meaning, anxiety brews.

Even with genetic susceptibility based on temperament, we can mitigate these lifestyle and environmental triggers through functional medicine approaches that support the body's innate wisdom.

Principles of Holistic Healing

Healing anxiety requires a truly holistic approach that addresses body, mind and spirit simultaneously.

A foundational piece is healing and nourishing the physical body by removing sources of inflammation, promoting detoxification, and providing the building blocks for recovery.

Eliminating inflammatory foods like sugars, processed carbs, industrial oils and adopting an organic whole foods diet can cool inflammation. Also adopting an organic whole foods diet centered around vegetables, healthy fats and clean proteins and staying well hydrated with clean, filtered water.

Checking for infections, hormonal issues, autoimmunity, blood sugar imbalance and addressing these underlying issues provides support.

Promoting hydration, key nutrients like B vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and using targeted botanicals and nutraceuticals further aids recovery.

Gentle detox protocols help offload toxins and calm inflammation when indicated. Sauna therapy, massage, dry brushing, castor oil packs, and other techniques enhance detox.

In the interview, Traci shares her personal journey of discovering she had mold toxicity, and how recovering from it has helped solve anxiety.

Since anxiety fundamentally represents nervous system dysfunction, we must specifically heal and regulate the nervous system, not just treat the physical body.

Key strategies for regulating the nervous system include:

· Establishing routines aligned with natural circadian and seasonal bio-rhythms. This supports hormonal balance and healthy nervous system activity.

· Optimizing sleep duration and quality allows neural regeneration and tissue repair. Melatonin and sleep hygiene practices boost sleep.

· Reducing stimulation from electronics, screens, excessive noise, and artificial blue light. This calms the hyperexcited nervous system.

· Engaging in play, pleasure, movement, and nature immersion practices. These discharge tension and cultivate embodiment.

· Incorporating research-backed stress resilience techniques like breathwork, mindfulness, meditation, yoga, chanting, and somatic practices. These alter the brain and repattern nervous system responses.

· Processing old traumas and stuck emotions through journaling, therapy, EMDR, tapping, and other energy psychology methods. Safely releasing old pain prevents anxiety.

Anxiety frequently feeds on distorted, negative thought loops and unhelpful cognitive patterns. We can work to reframe anxious thinking by noticing anxious thoughts and cognitive distortions without judgment and developing the observer self.

We can challenge distorted thoughts by asking questions like "Is this definitely true?" and "How do I know this to be fact rather than my fearful interpretation?" This way we can reframe anxiety narratives into more positive mental scripts aligned with self-trust.

We have to be able to release limiting beliefs about our own inability to get well or successfully manage anxiety. We have to realize that we have more strength than we realize.

We can also practice allowing all emotional experiences to flow through without exaggerating their meaning or significance and practicing present moment mindfulness to break identification with anxious thoughts.

Since human beings are bioenergetic systems, we must also address the spiritual and energetic roots of anxiety. Spending time in nature, adopting daily pleasure practices, moving stagnant emotional energy, freeing the body through dance and creative expression, fostering community and intimacy, engaging in spiritual practices, and cultivating meaning uplift your overall frequency.

Honoring the Nonlinear Journey Back to Wholeness

Traci and I also talked about how true holistic living means embracing all facets of being human. This includes sitting with painful or unpleasant emotions when they arise, not just seeking high-vibe states and positivity.

Avoiding our feelings can worsen anxiety. We need full expression of our inner experience and realize the importance of self-compassion when anxiety feels overwhelming. Judging or beating yourself up will only worsen matters. Each person's path is unique and nonlinear.

There will invariably be ups and downs, breakthroughs and backslides as part of the journey. What matters most is continually realigning with your core values and making progress from a place of radical self-love.

Expanding your self-knowledge allows you to create a lifestyle that is sustaining and enlivening for your unique mind-body needs. As you learn how to care for yourself in the ways your system requires, you will no longer need willpower or self-force to make positive choices. Pleasure, meaning, joy and health become synonymous.

Investing fully in your own healing journey, though often challenging, pays exponential dividends. Having compassionate community support and guidance from skilled practitioners accelerates progress through difficult times.

But at its core, healing anxiety means rediscovering your innate wholeness, remembering you are more than your anxiety. When you reclaim your power to shift your inner landscape on all levels, the physical manifestations change as well. You "feel your way free" and unlock possibility for profound holistic transformation.

Dr. Doni’s Approach to Anxiety

I have been helping patients recover (yes recover) from anxiety and burnout for over two decades. Even though we are led to believe that anxiety is permanent, my patients have proven that is not true. I also used to experience severe anxiety myself, and that motivated me to solve it once and for all.

Now I use my proven Stress Recovery Protocol to guide patients to address their mental health issues and burnout based on their Stress Type. I first recommend measuring your cortisol levels at four times of day, as well as adrenaline and neurotransmitter levels.

By knowing the exact imbalances in your adrenal function and nervous system, I can then guide you to address them using amino acid therapy, as well as herbs and nutrients, known to bring cortisol, adrenaline and neurotransmitters back to optimal.

I also guide you to implement my C.A.R.E. Protocol, which involves clean eating, adequate sleep, recovery activities and exercise based on your Stress Type.

To give you a sense of what is involved, here is a summary of Beneficial Modalities for Healing Anxiety Naturally:

Nutritional Approaches

· Eliminate inflammatory foods, such as sugar, gluten, dairy, based on your food sensitivities – here is the test I recommend

· Gut healing to address the gut-brain axis with herbs and digestive enzymes – find my Leaky Gut Program here

· Adrenal support using adaptogens and nutrients – Based on your Stress Type®

· Methylation support to optimize neurotransmitter metabolism – find my Methylation Program here

· Amino acids like tryptophan, glycine, GABA for calming – Based on my Stress Recovery Protocol®

Herbs and Natural Agents

· Nervine herbs like passionflower, chamomile, lemon balm to soothe nerves

· Adaptogens like ashwagandha, rhodiola, ginseng for resilience – Based on your Stress Type®

· Support your cannabinoid system – herbs and CBD

· Nootropics for cognitive support like lion’s mane mushroom and more – Based on your Stress Type®

· Magnesium, l-theanine, omega-3s for calming and mood regulation – Based on my Stress Recovery Protocol®

Body-Centered Healing Practices

· Breathwork, mindfulness meditation, chanting, yoga, and Qigong

· Somatic techniques, polyvagal exercises, breathwork

· Nature immersion and forest bathing to restore

· Trauma release exercises, EMDR, neurofeedback

· Bioenergetic therapies - acupuncture, sound healing, tapping

Lifestyle and Plant Medicine Approaches

· Sleep hygiene, light exposure, digital detox, balancing rest and activity

· Community support, relationships, intimacy, pleasure practices

· Nature immersion, gardening, grounding, ecotherapy

· Creativity, dance, journaling for expression and embodiment

· Psychedelic therapy with plant medicines

I hope these suggestions provide a helpful starting point for those seeking to craft a personalized holistic healing program. Please reach out if you would like guidance assembling your own integrative anxiety relief toolkit. With an open heart and willing spirit, true and lasting transformation is absolutely within reach.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Traci and how she can help you, you can visit her website here. You can also connect with Dr. Traci on social media at @drtracipotterfphd (Instagram) and @Inner Genius Health with Dr.Traci Potterf, PhD (Facebook).

If you want to learn more about Dr. Doni’s Stress Recovery Protocol® which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™, her proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise, you can read all about it in her book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

We also invite you to listen in to Dr. Doni’s FREE virtual masterclass - Calm in the Storm: Research-Backed Techniques for Healing Your Body and Mind.

This masterclass will equip you with a toolbox of techniques and a personalized action plan so you can find inner peace and heal the impact of stress based on your Stress Type. You'll leave this masterclass with research-backed skills to bring calm to the chaos within - and maintain resilience in the face of external stressors. And know next steps you can take to recover.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#185 Beat Burnout and Recover Faster by Knowing Your Burnout Type 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Nov 9, 2023

In this episode, I want to thoroughly cover the signs of burnout, the different types of burnout patterns, and most importantly, how you can recover based on your unique individual burnout type.

I'm passionate about this work because I've been through burnout myself multiple times and had to figure out how to recover. Stress is a part of life - but with the right tools you can feel energized and empowered instead of depleted.

Now I've made it my mission to guide others through the step-by-step process of overcoming burnout and coming back to vibrant health. It's deeply gratifying to help people get their lives back after years of merely surviving.

What Is Burnout?

Burnout is a condition defined as chronic stress leading to emotional, physical and mental exhaustion. The key signs of burnout include lack of energy, anxiety, poor sleep, trouble focusing, and various physical symptoms.

The term burnout has been loosely used for many years, but it has recently been officially defined as an occupational phenomenon by the World Health Organization. However, there is still a stigma attached to experiencing burnout or other mental health issues related to chronic stress.

I want to emphasize that burnout can happen to anyone, at any age, whether you have a job/career or not. All generations go through periods of burnout, but recent studies indicate that Gen Z (born 1997-2012) reports the highest rates of burnout at 91%, compared to other generations.

Why are Younger Adults More Susceptible to Burnout?

There are several potential reasons behind this:

· Going through the pandemic during critical developmental years

· Entering the workforce post-pandemic with less experience interacting in-person

· Fears over job stability and finances

· Tendency to overwork and not establish boundaries

· Less life experience coping with high stress

However, while burnout may be more prevalent among Gen Z currently, it's important to understand it can happen to anyone when stress is unmanaged over long periods without adequate recovery. The chronic stress response takes its toll on the body and mind.

That’s why recognizing the signs of burnout within yourself is so important.

5 Key Areas When Identifying Burnout

1. Energy Level - Do you feel like you have very low energy? Difficulty getting out of bed, needing naps, relying on caffeine to get through the day can indicate compromised energy due to burnout.

2. Mood - Is your overall mood lower? Are you unable to enjoy activities you used to find pleasurable? Do you feel unmotivated, apathetic, sad, or excessively worried? This can manifest as anxiety, depression or other mental health issues.

3. Sleep - Have you noticed your sleep is disrupted? Difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, waking early, or insufficient sleep are common signs of burnout.

4. Focus - Are you unable to focus or concentrate like you used to? Do you experience brain fog, distracted thinking, or an inability to complete tasks? Focus and cognition are impaired.

5. Physical Symptoms - Look out for any of the following physical symptoms as potential signs of burnout: headaches, stomach upset, muscle aches, skin issues, hormonal imbalances, difficulty conceiving, susceptibility to illnesses (HPV positive, abnormal pap), or increased inflammation and pain.

How Chronic Stress Leads to Burnout

When we encounter any type of stressor (emotional, physical, or toxic), our body’s natural response is to release cortisol and adrenaline - our primary stress hormones. This stress response is very adaptive and helpful for short bursts of stress or dangerous situations.

However, when stress is constant, and/or traumatic, and we don’t get adequate recovery, our stress hormones can become depleted or imbalanced. Our adrenal glands that produce cortisol and adrenaline struggle to keep up with the high demand.

Sometimes this is referred to as “adrenal fatigue” or dysautonomia. I prefer to use the term “adrenal distress.”

Over weeks, months or years of chronic stress, this causes the symptoms of burnout to emerge. It looks different in each person based on many factors.

Through two decades of stress research, I’ve identified 5 major burnout patterns that can occur depending on a person’s stress type.

1. Stress Magnets: Characterized by elevated cortisol and adrenaline levels. This is the most classic type of burnout that many people assume is the only version.

2. Blah and Blue: The opposite pattern of low cortisol and adrenaline. These individuals feel unable to handle any more stress.

3. Night Owls: Normal cortisol during the day but high levels at night, disrupting sleep.

4. Sluggish and Stressed: High cortisol but low adrenaline. They feel fatigued and overwhelmed.

5. Tired and Wired: Low cortisol but high adrenaline. Excess nervous energy but crashing.

The reasons these different patterns evolve are quite complex, involving genetics, metabolism, early life experiences, etc. I dive much deeper into the science behind the 5 stress types in my book, Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

How Can We Recover from Burnout?

Recovering requires a targeted approach based on your individual burnout pattern.

One-size-fits all suggestions rarely work for recovery from burnout. This is because diet, sleep, exercise and stress management affect each burnout type differently.

Let’s consider some examples:

· A Blah and Blue stress type needs to exercise less than a Tired and Wired. Too much exercise makes them worse.

· Night Owls require earlier bedtimes, no screen time at night. But Stress Magnets need mindfulness before bed, not necessarily earlier sleep.

· Adaptogens like Rhodiola help blah & blue types but aggravate stress magnets.

This is why I created a free quiz to identify your burnout type based on your symptoms and cortisol/adrenaline levels. You can take it here.

Once you understand your burnout pattern, I can then guide you on the nutrition, sleep, exercise, recovery activities and stress management that will work for your unique situation.

Then you can start to feel better! With the right support, your adrenal glands can absolutely heal and recover from burnout, it just takes strategic care catered to your stress type.

There are some foundational steps that benefit anyone recovering from burnout. I call this the C.A.R.E. protocol:

C - Clean Eating: Follow an anti-inflammatory diet high in vegetables, fruits, clean proteins. Remove inflammatory foods like gluten, dairy and excess sugar. Stay hydrated. Time meals for steady energy.

A - Adequate Sleep: Make sleep a priority. Keep a consistent bedtime/wake time. Limit blue light exposure at night. Create an optimal sleep environment. Nap if needed.

R - Recovery Activities: Build in small breaks during the day. Spend time in nature, listening to music, meditating, laughing, praying, dancing, reading, being creative, cuddling pets. Find things that bring you joy and relaxation.

E - Exercise: Get regular exercise, but modify the duration and intensity based on your burnout type. Some need more energizing exercise, others require gentler movement.

The C.A.R.E. basics give your body the fundamental nourishment and rest it needs to start recovering from burnout. But you can optimize your C.A.R.E. protocol by customizing it specifically for your stress pattern.

In my book I guide you step-by-step on how to tailor your nutrition, sleep habits, recovery activities, exercise routine and stress management to your unique burnout type.

Whether you tend to be a stress magnet, blah and blue, night owl, sluggish and stressed, or tired and wired, you'll discover exactly how to recalibrate your C.A.R.E. protocol to target your imbalances and get back to health.

With the properly tailored changes, your adrenal glands and stress hormone levels can reset. This restores energy, mood, sleep, focus and physical health. You begin to feel like yourself again. Just as essentially, you establish resilience against future burnout. That way if stress ramps up, you're prepared to handle it without plummeting back into burnout.

I'm very excited to teach more on this topic at my upcoming free masterclass "Calm in the Storm: Techniques for Healing Your Body and Mind." This will empower you to master your stress - not by trying to eliminate it altogether, but by understanding your body's needs and patterns.

Stress is simply a part of life. There will always be stressors and even intense "storms" that come along. But once you know your stress type, you gain tools to stay resilient and healthy during these challenges.

You learn how to quickly self-correct when you feel stress creeping up again. That way small issues don't spiral into major burnout. You create lasting habits for thriving through life's ups and downs.

In the Calm in the Storm Masterclass, we'll cover:

· Identifying your unique stress type with warning signs

· Fine-tuning your C.A.R.E. protocol by stress pattern

· Advanced nutrition, supplements and lifestyle tips

· Cultivating daily joy and relaxation

· Rewiring your beliefs around stress

· Creating community for ongoing support

I hope the information today gives you more insight into burnout - its subtle warning signs, different patterns it can take, and how recovery can be tailored to your unique needs.

Please subscribe and continue joining me for more episodes focused on recovering from stress and burnout.

And absolutely reach out to me if you need extra support customizing your own burnout recovery plan. Now that you understand the various burnout types, we can collaborate to create an individualized protocol to restore your health, energy and joy in life!

My team and I can help identify your specific burnout pattern, the root causes, which areas to prioritize, advanced testing you may need, optimal supplements, and personalized lifestyle changes.

With proper individualization, most people fully recover from even years-long burnout. You regain mental clarity, physical vitality and emotional stability. Your body resets and you establish long-term resilience against stress overload.

My own journey fuels my commitment to support you in reclaiming your energy, sleep, mood and health. I hope you feel encouraged knowing there are solutions and you are not alone! Stay tuned for more.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to heal using Dr. Doni’s Stress Recovery Protocol® which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™, her proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise, you can read all about it in her book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

If you are you constantly feeling overwhelmed, anxious, tired, or just not feeling yourself you can join Dr. Doni’s FREE virtual masterclass – “Calm in the Storm: Techniques for Healing Your Body and Mind” where you will get a personalized action plan so you can find inner peace and heal the impact of stress. You'll leave this masterclass with research-backed skills to bring calm to the chaos within - and maintain resilience in the face of external stressors.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#184 Unlocking The Power of Quantum Healing with Dr. Catherine Clinton 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Nov 2, 2023

In today's episode, I'm excited to be speaking with Dr. Catherine Clinton, a naturopathic doctor who has been practicing for over 15 years. She is an expert in quantum healing and quantum biology.

Dr. Clinton's Extensive Background in Natural Medicine

Dr. Clinton has always taken a holistic, natural approach in her practice. She focuses on helping patients understand how reconnecting with nature can support healing from a wide array of health conditions. These include autoimmunity, mental health issues, gastrointestinal disorders, hormone imbalances, infections, autoimmunity, anxiety, depression, migraines, and more.

Even from a young age, Dr. Clinton was drawn to natural medicine and fascinated by the body's innate capacity to heal itself. She decided to become a naturopathic doctor because she wanted to get to the root causes of health issues, not just treat superficial symptoms.

Throughout her career, Dr. Clinton has continued learning about new holistic modalities while also studying ancient healing systems like Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine. She believes we need to honor the wisdom of indigenous cultures that understood the intimate relationship between humans and nature.

Dr. Clinton's clinical expertise combined with her passion for bridging ancient wisdom and modern science makes her perfectly suited to explain the emerging field of quantum biology. She has a gift for synthesizing complex concepts into accessible language for patients and students alike.

An Introduction to the Field of Quantum Biology

So what exactly is quantum biology? In essence, quantum biology examines biological processes through the lens of quantum physics. It looks at how quantum phenomena like entanglement, tunneling, and coherence affect living systems.

Quantum physics evolved out of remarkable discoveries in the early 20th century that revealed the strange, almost mystical world of subatomic particles. In this quantum realm, regular physics do not apply. Particles can exist in two places at once. They can also remain connected over long distances in ways that defy our normal understanding of space and time.

For a long time, quantum phenomena were only thought to occur under tightly controlled lab conditions at extremely cold temperatures. But quantum biology explores how life hijacks these bizarre quirks of the quantum world to enable its amazing feats.

Some key topics within the field of quantum biology include:

· The role of electron flow in facilitating biochemical reactions. Rather than simple games of chance, evidence suggests finely orchestrated energy exchanges.

· How water inside the body structures itself to support health. Certain molecular configurations of water provide an optimal "terrain" for cells.

· The impact of vibration, frequency, and resonance on biological functioning. Our cells and tissues tune into various frequencies that modulate their activities.

· The interconnected nature of physiological systems. The old mechanistic view of separated bodily systems is giving way to models of intertwined communication and feedback loops.

· The influence of our thoughts, emotions, and beliefs on our biology through mechanisms we are only beginning to grasp.

Researchers are discovering that living organisms exploit quantum effects to enable biological processes. Quantum biology reminds us that we are energy beings embedded in a web of energy. It reveals the constant interplay between our external terrain and internal terrain.

As pioneers in this emerging discipline, we must tread carefully to build on empirical science without veering into pseudoscience. Quantum biology holds great promise to expand the boundaries of health and healing for all of us.

The Critical Importance of Structured Water in the Body

One particular area of focus in quantum biology is structured water inside the body. Dr. Clinton has studied extensively the pioneering work of Dr. Gerald Pollock from the University of Washington. His research shows that next to cells and tissues, our bodies contain a previously unrecognized "fourth phase" of water with very unique properties.

This special structured water consists of hexagonally stacked sheets of molecules that form what looks like a honeycomb lattice. Standard H2O has a more random molecular arrangement. But structured water molecules align in a repeating hexagonal pattern due to their hydrogen bonding. This allows it to function in some rather astonishing ways.

For one, the structured water zone is negatively charged. This negative charge enables the seamless flow of energy within the body that powers our every biochemical reaction. In addition, the voltage created by structured water zones maintains optimal cell membrane potential and mitochondrial function critical for health.

Researchers are still teasing out all the roles of structured water, but its importance cannot be overstated. Structured water provides the ideal molecular terrain for our cellular constituents

to carry out their activities. However, certain factors can degrade structured water, potentially contributing to disease.

These include:

· Dehydration - Not obtaining sufficient structured water from regular hydration.

· Poor diet - Eating foods that promote cellular inflammation and oxidation.

· Toxins or infections - Which damage tissues and impair metabolic processes.

· Lack of natural light - Our primary source of the infrared frequencies that build structured water.

· Excess stress - Which causes electron loss, lowering cell voltage provided by water layers.

· Physical trauma - Which can alter water structures in the brain and nervous system.

· Overuse of electronics - These emit EMFs shown to degrade structured water.

Fortunately, there are many simple, natural ways we can enhance structured water levels to support optimal health.

These include:

· Regular hydration with clean, filtered water.

· Eating an antioxidant-rich, anti-inflammatory whole foods diet.

· Exposure to gentle infrared energies from sunlight, heat, or near infrared bulbs.

· Grounding to replenish electrons that maintain the water battery.

· Exercise, since movement generates structuring infrared frequencies.

· Reducing EMF exposure by limiting device time and using shielding.

· Stress relief practices like meditation, yoga, time in nature, and social connection.

By better understanding water as a living matrix that communicates information, we can learn to optimize it in our bodies. This provides the ideal terrain for resilience and regeneration.

Additional Ways We Can Benefit from the Science of Quantum Biology

In addition to water research, many other insights from quantum biology can help optimize wellness when applied properly.

Spending time in nature helps us reconnect and restore depleted energy. The natural frequencies permeating the outdoors entrain our systems. Forest bathing research proves time outside literally alters our nervous system state.

Exposing our bodies to variable temperatures promotes adaptability rather than a static climate. Heat and cold cues build mitochondria and antioxidant reserves. Practices like contrast hydrotherapy leverage these effects.

Allowing circadian rhythms to flow naturally by reducing artificial light at night. Our bodies require dark to initiate key phases of detoxification, brain cleanup, and hormone balance.

Grounding the body helps replenish electrons we lose coping with chronic stress. These electrons increase the negative charge of our water battery. Walking barefoot is free grounding.

Identifying and processing stored emotional traumas. Unresolved grief and pain creates blocks in our bioenergetic fields. Energy psychology techniques clear traumas stuck in the body and psyche.

Cultivating healthy relationships is an antidote to an epidemic of disconnection, which manifests as disease. Loving bonds help satisfy our core need for belonging.

Choosing natural, uncomplicated solutions helps us tend to our inner and outer terrain—the foundation of health. Ancient wisdom recognized that supporting the body's self-healing abilities cures most ills.

Practicing gratitude, compassion and presence may beneficially structure water in our bodies. Positive intentions imprint information fields that surround us.

The more we understand our quantum nature and reciprocal relationship with the unified field of the cosmos, the better we can support wellbeing.

Remembering Our Inherent Interconnectedness is Foundational to Health

At its core, quantum biology reminds us that we are inseparable from the world around us. Air, water, sunlight, earth—we are intimately woven into the fabric of nature. Yet so often we forget just how fundamentally our minds and bodies rely on this interconnectedness.

Many chronic diseases stem from losing touch with our terrain and environment. Yet even small steps to honor our bond with nature, animals, loved ones, and our own bodies and minds can tangible improve our health. We have become experts at manipulating our external world, but often at the expense of internal balance.

Reclaiming health in the modern world requires rediscovering and honoring our bond with nature, each other, and our own deepest selves.

This may mean:

· Making time for grounding activities like gardening, forest bathing, earthing, and contemplative time near water and other natural features.

· Adopting circadian-aligned routines supporting natural biorhythms of activity, waking, eating, and sleeping.

· Developing present moment awareness through mindfulness practices that disentangle us from constant ruminations that generate stress.

· Fostering community and heartfelt human connections that satisfy our inherent needs for belonging and intimacy.

· Slowing down and simplifying some aspects of 21st century life so we can listen to our body's signals about what it needs.

Quantum healing entails rediscovering our wholeness. When we embrace our interconnection with all of life, balance and wellbeing naturally follow. The transition from feeling separate and overwhelmed to feeling connected and empowered holds the key to quantum healing.

Catalyzing Our Own Healing Journeys

No matter one's current state of health, small steps to honor our bond with nature, animals, loved ones, and our own bodies and minds can tangibly improve our wellbeing.

With greater knowledge of our quantum biological nature, we can more consciously direct our mind, body and behaviors in alignment with wellness. We may find ourselves naturally adopting habits and practices that optimize the parameters needed for self-healing.

However, knowledge alone is not enough. We must also cultivate self-trust and self-care. When we view even small positive changes through the lens of compassion rather than criticism, it supports consistency. Our nervous systems do not like pressure and timelines. Patience allows slow but steady progress.

What matters most is refocusing each day on our inner alignment with qualities like love, joy, community, presence, and peace. Our outer terrain effortlessly follows where we lead it from the inside out.

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Catherine and how she can help you, you can visit her website here. You can also connect with Dr. Catherine on social media at @dr.catherineclinton (Instagram) and @Dr. Catherine Clinton, ND (Facebook) for mental health tips and inspiration.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to heal using Dr. Doni’s Stress Recovery Protocol® which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™, her proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise, you can read all about it in her book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

Are you constantly feeling overwhelmed, anxious, tired, or just not feeling yourself? Chronic stress takes a tremendous toll on our mental and physical health. But there are proven techniques to counteract its impact and cultivate calm and resilience - even in chaotic times.

Join Dr. Doni’s FREE virtual masterclass - Calm in the Storm: Research-Backed Techniques for Healing Your Body and Mind.

This masterclass will equip you with a toolbox of techniques and a personalized action plan so you can find inner peace and heal the impact of stress. You'll leave this masterclass with research-backed skills to bring calm to the chaos within - and maintain resilience in the face of external stressors.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#183 Meditation: The Complete Guide to Unlocking Its Life-Changing Benefits 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Oct 26, 2023

In today’s episode, we’re going to fully explore the profound practice of meditation. I’ll explain what meditation is, the vast scientific research validating its benefits, and provide an in-depth guide to incorporating meditation into your daily self-care routine.

Regular meditation practice has been shown to reduce stress, increase happiness, improve health, and transform one's life in countless positive ways. By learning to quiet the mind and be present, you can tap into this amazing mind-body medicine free of charge. So let’s dive deep into the what, why, and how of meditation!

What is Meditation?

Let’s start with the basics – what is meditation? Meditation is the practice of focusing your attention completely on the present moment in order to settle and calm the mind. It falls under the larger umbrella of mindfulness, which involves maintaining awareness of your experience in the here and now.

With meditation, the goal is to clear your mind from its usual frantic pace of thoughts about the past and future so you can be fully present. This creates mental space to process emotions, access deeper parts of yourself, and become more attuned with your mind and body.

On a biological level, meditation induces shifts in your brain waves from the activated beta waves of normal waking life to slower alpha and theta brain wave patterns. Alpha waves are the bridge between conscious focus and deep relaxation where you are awake but very calm and centered. Theta waves tap into the subconscious mind and are restorative for the nervous system.

Other brain frequencies like delta and gamma may also arise during deep meditation. Being able to move your brain waves between these different states gives you greater control over your state of consciousness.

The more you meditate, the easier it becomes to access a meditative state of mindfulness as you go about your day.

The Science Validating the Benefits of Meditation

Now that you understand the state of being meditation facilitates, let’s explore the vast scientific research revealing its profound benefits for both mental and physical health. Study after study continues to show that meditation dramatically improves wellbeing on multiple fronts.

First, meditation has been proven to enhance mental health in significant ways:

· It effectively reduces anxiety and lifts mood. Meditation calms the nervous system and has been shown to be as effective as medication and therapy for treating anxiety and depression.

· It substantially decreases stress levels by lowering inflammatory stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. Meditation returns the nervous system to a balanced, relaxed parasympathetic state to counteract chronic stress.

· It elevates focus, concentration and attention span by producing increased alpha and theta brain waves that optimize cognitive function. Meditators often describe developing a “laser focus” from practice.

· It builds emotional intelligence by helping you observe emotions as transient events in the mind, increasing emotional regulation and EQ.

· It also enhances working memory and increases gray matter volume in brain areas related to cognitive function like the hippocampus and frontal cortex.

Additionally, research has revealed powerful benefits of meditation for physical health:

· It lowers blood pressure by dilating blood vessels through soothing the nervous system, enhancing healthy circulation.

· It reduces heart rate by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, improving heart rate variability and vagal tone.

· It decreases systemic inflammation by lowering inflammatory stress hormones and chemicals, helping resolve inflammatory conditions.

· It bolsters the immune system by increasing natural killer cells, neutrophils, T-cells, and anti-viral proteins that fight infections.

· It promotes deeper, more restorative sleep by facilitating falling asleep and staying asleep, and increasing regenerative slow wave and REM sleep.

· It supports healthy longevity by boosting telomerase, an enzyme that repairs and lengthens telomeres – the protective caps on chromosomes that regulate aging.

· It effectively manages both acute and chronic pain, with meditators requiring less pain medication due to altered pain perception.

Furthermore, the combination of relieving mental stress and resolving physical inflammation means meditation can help reverse challenging chronic health conditions including: heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, cancer, autoimmune disorders, GI issues, chronic pain, depression, neurodegenerative diseases, and more.

For any illness related to chronic stress, inflammation or mind-body imbalance, meditation can be a crucial part of effective treatment and prevention.

Given the wide-ranging benefits of meditation for optimizing mental, emotional and physical health, it’s no surprise research also shows it can significantly increase lifespan. By reducing causes of mortality like heart disease, hypertension, inflammation and stress, studies report meditators have on average a 29% lower risk of early death compared to non-meditators. The

deep rest, anti-aging effects and protective benefits of meditation lead to longer, healthier lives.

When you take into account the full breadth of research, the evidence for meditation is simply overwhelming. This free, accessible mind-body practice has the power to profoundly enhance your relationships, work performance, physical vigor, emotional balance, mental clarity, stress levels, and overall wellbeing. It’s one of the most impactful health habits you can cultivate.

How to Start a Meditation Practice

Now that you understand the incredible science-backed benefits, let’s turn to how you can start experiencing these transformative results yourself through a regular meditation practice. Here are my top tips:

First, get clear on your intention - why do you want to start meditating? What are your goals? Do you want to reduce anxiety, sleep better, gain inner peace, improve concentration, resolve a health condition, or something else? Setting a focused intention will motivate you to persist.

Next, establish a consistent practice time that fits your daily routine – first thing in the morning and in the evening before bed are popular choices. Decide when meditation will work best for you. Block out time in your calendar and treat this window as non-negotiable to build the habit.

Create a designated meditation space in your home that is quiet and tranquil. Light candles, play relaxing music, or use other cues to trigger a calm mindset when entering your practice area. Sit in the same spot daily.

Get as physically comfortable as possible. Sit cross-legged, kneel on a cushion, sit in a chair, or lie down – whatever allows your back to be straight while relaxing any tension. Adjust positions whenever needed during practice.

Start with breathwork for a few minutes before transitioning into formal meditation. Take long, slow deep breaths focusing on the sensation of inhaling and exhaling to activate relaxation responses.

Bring your full attention to your chosen object of focus – either your breath or a repeated mantra. Return your focus gently whenever the mind wanders. Observe thoughts non-judgmentally, letting them pass by without engaging.

Set a timer for your desired practice length when starting out, even if just 5-10 minutes. Slowly build up your meditation time to 20, 30 minutes or longer. End slowly by reconnecting to your body and environment.

Jot insights and reflections down in a meditation journal after each session. Review regularly to see your progress and optimize your practice as needed. Be patient with challenges - difficulties are normal and will pass.

Additionally, explore different types of meditation to find the styles you most enjoy such as walking, movement, chanting, visualization, loving-kindness, or chakra meditations. Take classes, read books, listen to talks, and attend retreats to continually deepen your knowledge and experience.

The key is to make meditation a daily ritual just like brushing your teeth. Regular practice is what delivers the immense mental, emotional and physical transformations, even if some days feel more connected than others. With patience and persistence, you’ll be amazed at the positive life changes that unfold.

Starting and Sustaining an Effective Meditation Routine

To set your meditation practice up for ongoing success, here are some additional pro tips:

Sit daily – Make meditation non-negotiable by practicing at the same time every day, just like brushing your teeth when you wake up and before bed. Skipping days makes it harder to stick to the routine.

Start small – Don’t be intimidated by sitting to meditate for 30+ minutes if you’re new to it. Even just 5-10 minutes daily provides immense benefits. Slowly increase your practice time.

Be consistent – Sit at the same time and in the same space daily to establish your ritual. Moving your meditation time around makes it harder to sustain consistency.

Use guided meditations – If your mind has trouble settling, use an app, audio or video guide to walk you into a calm state until you can enter it directly.

Attend retreats – Deepen your practice exponentially by attending weekend or multi-day intensive meditation retreats offered widely. Immersing yourself accelerates progress.

Find community – Join local in-person meditation groups or online communities to gain inspiration, accountability and support on your journey.

Read books – Dive into the many excellent books on meditation to troubleshoot obstacles, deepen understanding and augment motivation.

Keep learning – Take classes, workshops and trainings from experienced teachers to evolve your practice and comprehension of meditation.

Apply mindfulness – Bring meditative presence into everyday activities like eating, exercising, working and conversing to integrate mindfulness into living.

Be patient – Remember that taming your mind’s tendencies takes time and patience. Persist through difficulties calmly without self-judgment.

Trust the process – Know that inner transformation happens subtly over time with regular practice. Don’t get discouraged early on. Trust the process.

By embracing meditation as an indispensable part of your self-care routine – just like adequate sleep, nutrition and exercise – you’ll be amazed at the positive changes that unfold in your mental, emotional and physical wellbeing.

Actualize Your Fullest Potential Through Meditation

I hope this comprehensive guide gives you confidence in the extraordinary benefits of meditation, and a roadmap to start optimizing your health through establishing a consistent practice. Make meditation a priority and see your stress dissolve, mood lift, focus sharpen, and sense of inner peace expand. Your mind, body and spirit will thank you!

Please reach out if you need any support on your meditation path. I’m excited for you to actualize your fullest wellness potential through this life-changing ancient practice backed by an abundance of contemporary scientific research. You have an incredible inner world waiting to be discovered. So get started today! Just sit, breathe, and be fully present.

If you want to learn more about how use meditation to recover from stress and trauma, and how to heal using Dr. Doni’s Stress Recovery Protocol® which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™, her proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise, you can read all about it in her book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

I hope this overview presented some new possibilities for improving your own mental and physical health or supporting loved ones on their journeys. Please know that healing is absolutely within reach. As we just saw, small steps add up to big transformations over time. You deserve to reclaim your best health and most vibrant, balanced life.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#182 Rewiring Your Brain Using Neurofeedback Therapy with Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Oct 19, 2023

In today's episode, I'm excited to be speaking with Dr. Roseann Capanna-Hodge. She is an integrative and pediatric mental health expert specializing in the field of neurofeedback therapy. Dr. Roseann is the founder and director of the Global Institute of Children's Mental Health. She is also a Connecticut Certified School Psychologist, Board Certified Neurofeedback Provider (BCN), podcast host of “It’s Gonna Be Ok! with Dr. Roseann” as well as founder of Dr. Roseann LLC and creator of the new Neurotastic supplement line.

Dr. Roseann's Extensive Background in Mental Health

With over 30 years of experience working in mental health, Dr. Roseann has dedicated her career to helping children and families improve conditions like ADHD, anxiety, depression, OCD and various learning disabilities. She has always taken a holistic, natural approach in her practice.

Even from a very young age, Dr. Roseann knew she wanted to go into the field of psychology and psychiatry. When she was just 5 years old, a friend of her mother’s asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up. Out of the blue, Dr. Roseann responded “I want to be a psychiatrist.” Of course, later on she realized that psychiatrists focus more on medications, whereas psychologists utilize counseling and therapy. Nevertheless, this childhood premonition set her on a path to becoming an expert in children’s mental health.

Throughout her education and career, Dr. Roseann focused on gaining as much hands-on experience as possible. She actively volunteered and completed internships to refine her skills. She quickly discovered that her passion was working with children and families. Dr. Roseann found that she felt a deep sense of empathy for these clients. She also realized that when children receive the right help, their brains are extremely adept at absorbing positive changes. These changes can then last a lifetime due to neuroplasticity in the developing brain.

Dr. Roseann witnessed countless times how a child’s struggle became an impetus for the whole family to improve their mental and physical health. Once the parents saw improvements in their child from natural solutions, they became much more open to making changes in their own lives as well. In this way, the child’s difficulty actually became an opportunity for growth, change and healing for the entire family unit. This inspired Dr. Roseann to continue refining her integrative techniques to help children thrive and set them up for a lifetime of mental and emotional wellbeing.

An Overview of the Neurofeedback Process

Neurofeedback falls under the umbrella of biofeedback therapies. It takes advantage of the brain’s neuroplasticity or ability to form new neural pathways throughout life. Neurofeedback utilizes technology to train the brain to produce healthier patterns of brain wave activity.

In a nutshell, neurofeedback works like this:

The person is hooked up to a computer via electrodes on the scalp that can detect the frequency of electrical signals from different regions of the brain in real-time. The computer provides instant auditory or visual feedback when the brain produces the desired brain wave pattern. For example, you may hear a pleasant tone or see an animated figure on the screen. This positive reinforcement teaches the brain to repeat these types of beneficial brain wave patterns.

Over time, the brain learns to operate with healthier levels of activity in key areas. This can drastically improve symptoms. Then these healthy changes stick around even after the neurofeedback sessions end.

Some key points about neurofeedback:

· It has been around since the 1960s and now has over 3,000 research studies demonstrating its effectiveness for a wide array of conditions.

· It is non-invasive and has minimal side effects for most people when done properly.

· It creates lasting changes in brain function that persist even after the sessions are complete.

· Conditions that research shows neurofeedback can improve include ADHD, anxiety, depression, chronic pain, addiction, insomnia, traumatic brain injury, concussions, migraines and more.

· It has also been used for peak performance training in high achievers without health conditions.

· Typical sessions last about 30 minutes and are done 2-3 times per week.

· The average treatment plan consists of about 20-30 sessions over a course of about 6 months. But some people need more or less time.

· It can be done in a practitioner's office or through home-based equipment and video sessions online.

QEEG brain mapping is necessary before starting neurofeedback. This allows to see exactly which regions of the brain need to be retrained. Then you can have extremely precise neurofeedback protocols targeting an individual’s specific needs.

Dr. Roseann shared an example of a client she has with chronic Lyme disease. The woman had been doing neurofeedback targeting anxiety, but her progress had plateaued. So Dr. Roseann ordered a follow-up brain map. She could then see that one specific area of the brain was still highly over-activated. Though this region was tiny, it was likely contributing to the stuck point.

So Dr. Roseann modified the neurofeedback protocol to focus intensively on calming down just this one small dysregulated area. On a follow-up visit shortly after, the client already reported noticeable improvements in her anxiety levels.

The brain is incredible in how specific interventions can create cascading benefits throughout the whole system. It is ideal to identify a practitioner who specializes in your particular condition to optimize the results.

The Keys to Successful Mental Health Recovery

Neurofeedback, while extremely powerful, is not a magic bullet on its own. We also need to learn new behaviors and lifestyle habits to replace ingrained patterns that contribute to conditions like anxiety or poor focus.

A regulated brain doesn’t automatically know what to do. We need both top-down training of brain activity itself with neurofeedback, along with bottom-up adjustment of daily habits.

For example, empowering parents with tools and strategies to improve their children’s focus or mood struggles. Relying solely on medications fails to provide these behavioral change tools. Similarly, neurofeedback alone also will not necessarily teach new behaviors.

We need to address the bi-directional relationship between brain activity patterns and ingrained daily habits. We need both aspects to see a lasting mental health transformation.

We also need to build a lifestyle that will support our brain and nervous system including:

· Stress management skills like meditation, breathing exercises, spending time in nature

· Counseling and processing trauma, grief or difficult experiences

· Prioritizing bonding time with loved ones

· Identifying and enforcing proper boundaries

· Cultivating hobbies and activities that bring joy and relaxation

· Learning to protect our nervous systems from excessive stimulation and input

· Letting go of negative thought patterns and self-criticism

Without these behavior changes, it’s all too easy to fall back into dysregulation and reactive states, even if the brain has been retrained. The brain-behavior connection truly goes both ways.

Nutrition is another element that we need to address. Factors like blood sugar balance, hydration, gut health and food sensitivities play a major role in mental health.

Magnesium is one especially important compound for the brain and nervous system. Unfortunately, chronic stress depletes magnesium reserves quickly. Magnesium supplementation can provide fast improvements in focus, anxiety, sleep quality and more in those with deficiencies.

It is also important to address factors like gut inflammation, infections and environmental toxins in order to resolve mental health conditions at their root. Mental health is not simply a

matter of inadequate neurotransmitters or faulty brain wiring, though those do play a role. We must look at the whole system to facilitate true healing.

The bottom line is that mental health recovery requires consistently making ourselves and our self-care a top priority. Unfortunately, chronic stress has almost become normalized and expected today. Yet this level of strain on our minds and nervous systems is clearly unsustainable.

Even small but regular actions can add up over time to bring our nervous systems back into balance. This is protective against inflammation, cognitive impairment, emotional reactivity, immune dysfunction and so many other effects of excessive stress. Starting with as little as ten minutes a day of breathing exercises, yoga, meditation, journaling or other calming practices can work wonders.

When we model this type of self-care and stress resilience for our children and loved ones, it provides them permission to also take time to recharge and reset. Our close relationships thrive when we are fully present. Making self-care non-negotiable ultimately allows us to be more available for others.

We also need to view even small steps in a more positive light. Our culture often focuses on perfectionism and rapid transformation. But in reality, it’s consistent tiny changes, when done with patience and compassion for ourselves, that enable us to climb to new heights.

You Are Not Defined by Your Diagnosis

A diagnosis does not have to define our futures. There are countless reversal stories of conditions like autoimmunity, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression and more in people who were willing to believe in the possibility of change and take ownership of their own healing journeys.

A diagnosis provides important clues about where to focus our efforts. But it is not permanent or all-encompassing. We can decide how much power we give it over our lives. We always have the opportunity to learn more about what our bodies and minds might need to restore balance and function.

We need to reconnect with what our symptoms are trying to communicate. From this place of curiosity and compassion, we can then seek the right support to explore our root causes and the multifaceted steps to genuine healing.

Next Steps to Begin Your Own Healing Process

If you would like to learn more about Dr. Roseann’s neurofeedback programs and supplement line, you can visit her website here . You can also tune in to her podcast here. Her NeuroTastic supplements are available online here. You can also connect with Dr. Roseann on social media at @drroseann (Instagram) and @Dr. Roseann (Facebook) for mental health tips and inspiration.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to heal using Dr. Doni’s Stress Recovery Protocol® which involves optimizing cortisol and adrenaline levels using nutrients, herbs and C.A.R.E.™, her proprietary program to support clean eating, adequate sleep, stress recovery and exercise, you can read all about it in her book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

I hope this overview presented some new possibilities for improving your own mental health or supporting loved ones on their journeys. Please know that healing is absolutely within reach. As we just saw, small steps add up to big transformations over time. You deserve to reclaim your best health and most vibrant, balanced life.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#181 Fending Off Viruses to Get Back to What You Love 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Oct 12, 2023

In this episode, I want to help you be prepared to fend off viruses so you can get back to doing what you love faster. This includes cold viruses, flu viruses, COVID, and other viruses causing issues like sinusitis, laryngitis, bronchitis—any inflammatory issue in the upper respiratory tract or lungs.

Especially now, during cold and flu season, these are the things I make sure I have on hand when traveling or at home. I want to prevent catching a virus, but also help my body fight it off quickly if I do get sick. Here are several reasons why:

First, I want to recover faster to resume my usual daily activities. When you feel congested, have a headache, sore throat and are tired, it’s hard to do your normal routine even from home. I want to recover faster to spend time with loved ones. When sick, I can’t be around my granddaughter or go to dance class. I want to get better to do what I love.

Also, I want to try to prevent needing antibiotics or steroids if possible. Antibiotics disrupt gut bacteria, causing leaky gut and susceptibility to other health issues. It’s better to avoid them unless the infection is bacterial. Steroids like prednisone disrupt blood sugar, metabolism, immunity and adrenal function. If necessary, we need them, but better to avoid side effects using natural anti-inflammatories to heal faster.

My third goal is to prevent the next infection. Catching one virus makes you prone to more. Patients tell me they get infection after infection spending winter sick. I want you to recover fully the first time to avoid getting sick again. This includes what to do after to prevent the next infection.

So, our main goals are:

· Recover faster to resume daily activities and time with loved ones

· Avoid antibiotics and steroids if possible

· Prevent the next infection

Recognizing the First Signs of Viral Illness

It’s important to pick up on your own body's typical first symptoms that a viral illness is starting to take hold. Common early symptoms are sore or scratchy throat, sneezing, congestion, feeling feverish, and fatigue.

When these symptoms first appear, it's a sign your immune system is ramping up and fighting off an infection. The earlier you take notice and start to support your body, the milder the illness will be. Delaying just a few days allows the virus to proliferate and prolongs recovery time.

Some people may not show obvious early symptoms however. If your immune system is sluggish, the virus can multiply for days before you feel sick. In this case you can take immune-enhancing supplements preventively when you know you have had viral exposures. This compensates for a slower immune response.

How to Take Action at the First Sign of Illness

Pay attention to symptoms—your body’s first signals. Think back to when you last got sick—you likely had less sleep, more stress, sugar and alcohol. Immunity decreases, infections increase.

We tend to go into denial, wishing we won’t get sick despite a sore throat and congestion. It’s better if we notice the symptoms quickly so we can act fast. Take action at the first inkling of illness, even if exposed to someone sick. Delaying worsens and lengthens it.

When sick, immediately prioritize how to get more rest. At the first sign, cancel plans saying you caught a virus and need to heal. Then care for yourself using these steps to recover faster.

Get some sun for vitamin D, even 10 minutes helps. Sauna with red light therapy is great. Light signals aid immunity. Have remedies on hand versus ordering when sick. Start immediately at first signs. Quick action is key to shorten recovery time. Contact my office if you need help with dosing.

Choose healthy foods—chicken soup, bone broth, chicken, turkey for protein. Salads, veggies, fruits contain antioxidants and vitamins. Avoid dairy and gluten which are inflammatory. Consider pre-made organic soups if you don’t feel well enough to cook. Protein shakes work well—pea or bone broth protein.

Eat small meals every 3-4 hours, even if appetite decreases. Stay hydrated.

Avoid sugar and alcohol which decrease immunity. Get outside for some sun if possible, Sleep more because your immune system works while you rest. Cancel plans, focus on healing. Then get back to a normal routine faster and avoid spreading your illness.

Understanding Viral Symptoms and Fever

When your immune system creates congestion, it’s in an effort to get rid of the virus. Sneezing and coughing is also to move the fluid and virus out. Sore throat is inflammation, which is your immune system fighting the infection.

Fevers help— viruses can’t survive high heat. If you feel feverish or have a 99-100 degree fever, that’s good. Rest and allow yourself to be hot to help your immune system. Take a hot shower or bath and sleep to heal.

Stay hydrated to prevent high fevers. Drink water with sea salt for electrolytes and herbal tea, not caffeine, sugar or alcohol which decrease immunity.

With rest and heat, most fevers stay around 100 degrees to kill viruses. If 103-104 degrees or higher, reduce it. Children’s temperatures over 102-103 need attention. Hydration helps. A lukewarm washcloth (not ice cold) can lower a high fever.

Monitor fever to know if you need medication. Using herbs and nutrients first may prevent the need for medications. If fever disrupts sleep or you have signs of bacterial infection, use fever-reducing medication as needed in addition to natural remedies.

Bacterial infections cause higher fevers and yellow/green phlegm. A little green phlegm in the morning is normal from laying down. All day green phlegm or coughing it up indicates bacteria. Then consider antibacterials or antibiotics.

Try herbal antivirals first to avoid antibiotics if possible. If improving with natural remedies, keep at it. If not, use antibiotics. Natural approaches can be supportive if antibiotics are needed.

The first steps when sick are:

· At first signs, cancel plans to rest and heal

· Stay hydrated with water, herbal tea (avoid sugar/alcohol)

· Take hot baths/showers and nap

· Monitor fever under 100 good, if 103-104 reduce gently

Choosing the Right Supplements and Dosing

Next is choosing the right supplements. Everyone is different, and there are thousands of options. Prioritize the most important. Experiment to see what works for you. Have your favorites on hand.

Some love oregano oil, olive leaf is great. Mushrooms like shiitake, maitake, reishi are excellent for immunity. Use in cooking, in tea or capsules.

Strategic combinations are best, with the most effective ingredients in one product vs. many bottles. I’m more likely to take 1-2 products consistently than juggle many.

Herbs and nutrients metabolize within hours, so frequent dosing matters—morning, midday, evening, bedtime. One dose per day only helps briefly.

What to take

I always have silver on hand. Silver liquid or nanoparticles of silver in water help against viruses and bacteria. Squirt in mouth/nose, swallow, use topically.

I also take Hesperidin. It’s a plant-based natural antihistamine. Synthetic antihistamines have more side effects. When sick, the immune response increases histamine—causing runny nose, sneezing, sore throat. Antihistamines reduce this, not inhibiting immunity. They allow better virus/bacteria defense by reducing congestion where bacteria can grow. Plant-based hesperidin requires frequent dosing.

Immune Support by Nature Empowered contains vitamin A, C, zinc, astragalus, elderberry—antiviral and immune supportive herbs. Take morning, midday, evening, bedtime.

Immune Support Plus contains vitamin D, NAC and quercetin. NAC helps recover faster and thins phlegm. Quercetin is also anti-histamine and anti-inflammatory. If you might get sick, take Immune Plus 1-2 times a day. Increase dosing if ill.

Add silver, hesperidin if sick. Consider extra vitamin A for immune boost—up to 50,000 IU twice or four times daily for a week or two. It is directly antiviral for respiratory tract/lungs.

Vitamin C – use frequent smaller doses. 500 mg four times daily is better than 2,000mg at once which can cause loose stool.

Vitamin D optimize before illness, increase dose when sick.

Take bromelain or Sinatrol containing bromelain and berberine if increased coughing, congestion, or ear plugging from inflammation. Bromelain is anti-inflammatory. Berberine fights bacteria. Take 500-1000mg of bromelain 2-3 times daily.

If bacterial signs—yellow/green phlegm, high fever— berberine helps avoid antibiotics. Take 500-1000mg twice daily. Keep going with natural remedies, use antibiotics if needed. Natural approaches help antibiotics be more effective.

Seeking Medical Care

While most viral illnesses can be supported at home, it’s important to seek medical care in the following circumstances:

· If fever climbs over 102-103°F - use cooling techniques and stay hydrated to keep it in a safe range

· If phlegm becomes yellow/green - this can indicate a secondary bacterial infection that may need antibiotics

· If chest congestion and breathing difficulties develop - immediate medical care is needed in this case

· If illness lasts longer than 10-14 days without improvement - further care may be needed for complete recovery

If asthma, pneumonia, or acute breathing distress occurs, or very high fevers develop, it’s important to promptly seek medical help. Otherwise, implementing these natural treatments at the very first signs of viral illness often allows fast recovery without needing medications.

Individualized Programs for Optimal Results

Every person has a unique body makeup and reacts to illnesses and supplements a little differently. While my protocols work very well for most people, I recommend connecting with me if you need help personalizing your approach.

My team can advise on advanced testing to pinpoint your needs, optimal dosing, priority supplements, and diet and lifestyle adjustments specific to your body. Custom tailoring the virus recovery plan is important, and guidance is available.

You should tune into your body's signals as soon as viral illness threatens, and immediately supporting your immune system's efforts with the natural tools we mentioned. Early action is vital and can dramatically shorten sick time and prevent complications of viral infections. My goal is to help you partner with your body for a quick and complete recovery.

I put together a Cold and Flu Recovery Guide, which you can download for free here.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to heal so that you can fend of infections better, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my New 14-Day Detox Program here. In the Detox Program I teach you to connect with yourself, and use mind-body tools, such as biofeedback, to process emotions.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#180 The Power of Healing Stories with Casey Hibbard 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Oct 5, 2023

In today’s episode I'm interviewing Casey Hibbard. She is the founder of the Rebuilding My Health website and podcast. She is a journalist who became a storyteller about health and healing. Now she shares the healing stories of many, while looking for the common denominators of healing amongst those stories, to be able to inspire and support others along the way.

Casey’s Healing Story

After being a journalist and a corporate writer for a long time she began having health issues after the birth of her son. It started with digestive issues and progressed to fatigue and weakness, joint pain, brain fog, vision loss and even autoimmunity. She was not getting answers from the conventional medical framework and decided to go outside of conventional medicine and finally found her underlying health issues’ causes.

This helped her identify that she suffered from small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, leaky gut, food sensitivities, H pylori, candida parasites, her pancreas wasn't working well, she had many different infections like Epstein Barr and others. And so, she started a healing process, which took a few years of addressing the underlying causes of her health issues, peeling back the layers and almost immediately went on an anti-inflammatory diet and saw symptom relief within days!

She started working on her gut infections, balancing her microbiome, did some toxin work and detoxification and she slowly started to get better and better, even to the point where her autoimmunity disease was gone.

This painful process inspired Casey to start telling other people's stories where they were overcoming and reversing conditions that many people think are not reversible or fixable. She decided these stories should be shared so other people going through the same issues could benefit and find hope in them.

Common Health Issues and Their Underlying Causes in People’s Stories

Having experience interviewing has been critical in knowing what questions to ask in order to uncover healing stories. Almost like an investigative process, to get to the most relevant part, you need to really get to the points that are important for understanding what the original causes are and what's going to help them heal.

It’s super interesting and fascinating to come across all these different conditions and diagnoses. Many times there are common themes of what the underlying causes are and what people are doing that is working to make them feel better. You can probably break it down to four or five different major things.

Number one would be diet changes and almost everybody in their stories say they start feeling better within days. It's not like it’s a one-size-fits-all diet. There are certain things that help over and over like avoiding gluten, dairy, and sugar, but other than that it can be pretty individualized when you talk about food sensitivities.

Food is definitively a huge factor in our health. We are what we eat, and our health will most likely be determined by it. Food can be our medicine but, depending on what we're eating, it can also be a major source of inflammation and illness.

This is so interesting because it gives some sense of control over illness. People realize that they are not hopeless and that they can make changes to their diets that will eliminate inflammation and pain. Again, this is really, very individualized, and the person has to find which foods cause inflammation in their system. Probably 99% of the stories have a diet element where they saw change because of food changes.

Another common element in healing stories is gut healing. There are stories where people have greatly reduced anxiety, eliminated infections, and even treated rheumatoid arthritis by optimizing their gut bacteria.

It is not just how well you are digesting and absorbing your nutrients, but also the health of your gut bacteria. Our gut bacteria has influence all over our bodies including our nervous system, hormones, brain, vagina, etc. The gut is interconnected with everything else. If you have imbalance in the gut, then autoimmunity is more likely, viruses are more likely, anxiety, depression, skin issues, etc. When we heal the gut everything else gets better.

A third common element in healing stories is toxins. There are so many cases of people healing from dementia, degenerative diseases, neuropathy, depression, even seizure disorders, by detoxifying their bodies and their environment.

So many practitioners are not used to people recovering from these conditions because they are not addressing these underlying causes.

Doctors are maybe giving a medication to prevent the progression, but in the healing stories, people often say, “no I'm not taking that as an answer, I'm going to do whatever it takes to heal.” Then they end up transforming their health.

It’s definitely inspiring for other people going through the same problems.

It all Comes Down to Stress

In many stories there is a point where stress comes up. There is almost always a stressful triggering event like they got a divorce, or had a death in the family, or moved, or lost their job, or sometimes all of these things happening all at once. Sometimes it is sustained stress from a relationship, or work, or whatever.

Often people describe having to recover from stress in order to heal and many cases they healed after they resolved the stress exposure. It is surprising how many times people say, “I did all these other things, but I didn't really heal until I got out of the stressful situation”.

We have to take a look at how stress has affected us. For example, toxins create stress in the body also, so detoxifying is part of getting rid of a source of stress. And then stress of all types (whether toxins or psycho emotional stress) affect digestion so the more we heal the gut, the more we're helping the body recover from stress.

We need to be proactive in helping our bodies recover from stress. So, we take out the stressful foods, we take out the stressful toxins, we help our body with gut healing, and rebalancing hormones, and nutrient deficiencies, and supporting our adrenal glands, and balancing our cortisol and adrenaline, and so on, and we ultimately end up healing.

The Healing Process is Not a One-Size-Fits-All

It is critical to be able to get access to a practitioner who understands what we are going through and can support us in our own healing process. Healing needs to be individualized.

The diet changes are not one-size-fits-all, the gut healing and what needs to happen is not the same for everyone. Even the adrenal healing is not the same for everyone. Finding a practitioner and the testing that's going to give us the information we need, can really make the difference in a successful protocol.

The standard medical system has led us to believe that we need to address separate health issues one by one. People aren't necessarily looking for the whole healing journey. They're usually looking for how to fix digestion or autoimmunity. It turns out that no matter the diagnosis, what is required is a healing journey.

It is also important to have help with where to begin. How do you go through diet changes, gut healing, detoxification, adrenal recovery so that you end up getting all the way to an overall healthy state? That is also where an experienced practitioner can make a difference.

So many people have seen 20 doctors before they decide they need to look outside the standard medical framework in order to get some answers. That process ends up leading people to feeling empowered and educated by doing their own research and trying to find someone who can really help them heal.

The most supportive practitioners help people by letting them know that they are present to guide them through their process and that they will help them to not be stressed by the experience. Practitioners need to help educate their patients and guide them in accessing the information they need in order to heal.

People nowadays are their own health advocate and they're the ones making the lifestyle changes and decisions. Practitioners should give their patients the information that can help them along the healing path to hopefully make it more efficient and successful.

You Are Not Your Diagnosis

Sometimes what can happen in the conventional medical system is there's a diagnosis made and then the person feels kind of stuck with that diagnosis. It’s important to understand that a diagnosis is not permanent; it can change.

With almost all of the chronic illnesses, the diagnosis can be reversed. There are tons of autoimmune reversal stories, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, Lupus, MS, and more. It is so inspiring to see that happen.

People can then step back, rethink and say, “hey is this really the definition of myself or my life or who am I really in this life?”

Your medical diagnosis doesn’t have to define you. The diagnosis can change and at the same time there's an important level of acceptance too. It’s important to reconnect and recognize what your body is trying to tell you and what you need to do to help your body heal.

There has to be belief. A belief that it's possible to heal. That you're going to take the necessary steps and have that outlook in life that anything is possible. That mindset is super powerful across many healing stories.

Sometimes people can be overwhelmed and asking themselves “how am I going to do this” and yet at the same time sometimes it's these small changes that add up to big changes in the long run.

Some of the simple stuff can be the most powerful, like the anti-inflammatory diets can be super powerful and then people say the joint pain is gone or the brain fog is gone. When they start to see progress, and they realize it’s something that they can do, a huge mindset change happens.

Also, simple things like implementing the acronym C.A.R.E., starting with clean eating and adequate sleep, recovery activities and exercise. Those are things that we can do every day and they can have a huge impact on our health.

We lose track of all this because we get very distracted with all the external messages and to do lists, and we put ourselves last, and we can lose sight of the importance of the foundational daily activities and how essential they are for us and our well-being.

Once you start feeling better, you realize what your body needs in order to maintain that feeling and it becomes a lot easier to keep this new lifestyle. Sometimes all we need is a little bit of inspiration from others to remind us what they're doing and that we can do it too.

If you want to reach out to Casey and learn more about how her healing stories can help you, please make sure to check out her Rebuilding My Health website. She is also on social media as @rebuildingmyhealth (Instagram) and @Rebuilding My Health (Facebook). You can also check out her Rebuilding My Health Radio Podcast.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to heal so that you can be better and more present in your relationships, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my New 14-Day Detox Program here. In the Detox Program I teach you to connect with yourself, and use mind-body tools, such as biofeedback, to process emotions.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#179 How to Help Your Body Clear HPV 0

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Sep 28, 2023

In this episode I'm going to be covering how I guide women to get HPV virus to negative and keep it negative. I feel is extremely important for women around the world to know that it is possible to support your body to clear HPV.

What is HPV?

HPV is the human papilloma virus and it's a very widespread virus. Most all of us will be exposed to it at some point in our lives, and it’s associated with risk of cancer - cervical cancer, vaginal cancer, anal cancer, oral cancer and in men, penile cancer.

More and more women around the world are finding out that they're positive for the HPV virus. I think that the standard medical system is not doing enough to help these women to address this virus and prevent it from causing abnormal cells.

Right now, what's happening around the world is medical practitioners will do a pap smear to test for abnormal cells on the cervix, which is important because this way we can identify abnormal cells hopefully before they turn into cancer. Then, if severely abnormal cells are present, practitioners will remove the abnormal cells or remove the area where the abnormal cells are located.

The issue is that these procedures don’t kill the virus so it can continue to cause abnormal cells over and over again. Many women are going through years of addressing abnormal cells caused by HPV without practitioners being able to help them prevent it.

This is really upsetting to me because for more than 20 years I have been helping women address this virus and get it to negative so it stops causing abnormal cells.

Through many years of practice, I have been able to identify a protocol based on what I find to be effective at successfully helping women eliminate the virus and be free of the risk of cancer caused by HPV.

You Need a Strategic Plan to Get Rid of HPV

What I find helps is to make a very clear and strategic plan. A plan that can guide women out of the state of stress that is caused by HPV and into a heroine’s journey of healing and supporting their bodies to protect them from the virus.

We know that the human body can fend off HPV. This has been shown and proven. So, what I find is helpful is to start with the question: why is it that for some women their body is not fending off the virus? And when we ask that question, we start to uncover susceptibilities. These susceptibilities are leaving women vulnerable and if we don't address them, the virus can remain positive for years.

Studies show that having a diagnosis of HPV increases the level of stress for women. This is because there's so much misinformation and lack of guidance around this virus. Women are then stuck in a state of fear and stress, and that stress actually ends up increasing the risk of cancer.

What we need to do is understand how stress impacts us each as individuals so that we can then reverse those effects.

For me, the best way to identify susceptibilities is to think about it in terms of how stress, trauma, and potentially abuse in a person's lifetime has then had an impact on their mind and body, which is then leaving them vulnerable because of the imbalances caused by stress.

If we can identify those imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, and other effects of stress, and address them, we can rebalance and give the body what it needs to heal. Then the body can fend off HPV. I've seen this in my patients time and time again.

What Are the Common Susceptibilities to HPV and How Stress and Trauma Play a Role

Let's start with stress. When we're exposed to stress and trauma (even from our childhood and not just psycho emotional stress, but also physical stress, toxins, infections, injuries, etc.) we are exposed to a whole cascade of reactions in our bodies.

We do have a healthy stress response system that helps protect us from stress, but the issue is that often we're exposed to ongoing stress and so our stress response system never gets a break. We are living in a constant state of stress or what I call stress mode. We're going from one thing on our To Do List to the next. We have work, we have family responsibilities, we have financial responsibilities, we go from waking up in the morning to going to bed at night and we hardly have a chance to do any kind of stress recovery.

What happens in that situation is it disrupts our stress hormones (our stress hormones get stuck either too high or too low) cortisol and adrenaline. These hormones are made by the adrenal glands and what happens is our adrenal glands go into a state of dysfunction which has a negative influence on our bodies.

If cortisol or adrenaline are either too high or too low, your body is experiencing it as if you're still in that stressful situation because the hormones are reflecting a stress response. So, in order to heal we need to get the cortisol and adrenaline back to optimal and effectively erase all traces of the impact of stress on your stress hormones and your physiology.

If your cortisol and adrenaline remain too high or too low, it can cause other disruptions in the body which then also make you susceptible to HPV.

For example, digestion can get disrupted by stress and cortisol or adrenaline imbalance. We can develop something called leaky gut where our food is leaking through the intestinal wall and triggering food sensitivities and inflammation. We end up not digesting our food well, not absorbing our nutrients, which leads to nutrient deficiencies, weakening our immune system and our body’s ability to fend off HPV.

This also results in imbalances in the gut microbiome, and we know now from research that there is a connection between the gut microbiome and the vaginal biome. When there’s an imbalance in the vaginal microbiome, bacteria and yeast can overgrow, inflammation increases, and this all increases the risk of HPV.

In addition to disrupting digestion and vaginal health, stress and imbalanced stress hormones can also disrupt our other hormones including estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA. This also leaves us susceptible to HPV.

Thyroid and insulin function can get disrupted by stress, leaving us susceptible to HPV. Imbalances in our blood sugar levels can increase the risk of HPV as well as other health issues.

Irregularities in the menstrual cycle (irregular periods, heavy periods, and fibroids) caused by stress can lead to anemia from heavy bleeding. Anemia can be due to iron deficiency, B12 and/or folate deficiency. All of these nutrients are important for helping to fend off HPV.

Also our neurotransmitters become depleted when we ae under stress. Serotonin and GABA (our calming neurotransmitters that help us counterbalance stress) become depleted which means we're even more affected by stress. Dopamine can also be affected by stress.

Toxins as a stress are an issue because they can disrupt the digestion and microbiome, and also decrease antioxidants in the body, overwhelming liver detoxification, which can also affect the way that we detoxify estrogens, adrenaline and other toxins. In this way, toxin exposure makes us susceptible to HPV.

Other infections including COVID can make us susceptible to HPV. There's now research showing that the COVID virus, which most of us have been exposed to, can increase the risk of HPV related cervical cancer.

Any trauma and abuse we might have been through makes us susceptible to HPV. Particularly narcissistic abuse has been shown to increase risk of HPV related cancer, so if you have any kind of history of abusive relationships whether in childhood, in your work environment, or in your intimate relationships, that also increases the risk.

How to Recover from Stress to Get Rid of HPV

We can recover from stress. It is not about getting to zero stress. Some stress is necessary and even healthy for us to function. It’s about giving your body the support it needs to recover from

stress. To do that we need to first identify how stress has affected you uniquely, we need to figure out what it is for you and what we can do to help your body recover.

The first step is to do some testing that we can get from standard labs and blood work. We just need to be able to know exactly which test to order which is what I guide women to do in order to help them identify nutrient deficiencies and hormone imbalances.

From there we're going to need to use some specialty tests if we want to know if there is leaky gut and food sensitivities, or if we want to know cortisol and adrenaline levels throughout the day. Then we can address them very specifically. The treatment is different for high cortisol than for low cortisol for example, so we need to know what's happening for you specifically.

A good way to start is with my stress type quiz. In this quiz I guide you through questions that help us discover your imbalance of cortisol and adrenaline, which is what I call your stress type.

Now, if you really want to know exactly what your cortisol and adrenaline are up to, you're going to want to do a urine and saliva test through my office. This way we can identify your exact levels and then I can help you to get those levels back to optimal. In doing so we effectively eliminate any traces of the impact of stress and we support your body to clear HPV, as well as many other health issues.

What About Supplements and Natural Remedies for HPV?

The strategic plan to get rid of HPV plan includes natural substances in addition to recovery from stress. There are a number of nutrients and herbs that support the immune system and others that are directly antiviral. Some of them you've probably heard about but the issue I find is that most women who come to meet with me are not taking clinically effective doses to get HPV to negative.

So, what I do is guide you to determine the best doses for you. Because of my background and my experience, I know which substances and doses are going to be most effective. The important thing here is to individualize it for you. Otherwise, you’ll keep trying and trying, not getting anywhere, feeling more frustrated, and HPV will still be there.

Sometimes it does require that you persevere, that you put yourself into this vulnerable state of prioritizing yourself and looking at the routines in your life and what is your body telling you. We have to learn to listen to the signals our bodies are giving us and have awareness also for our thoughts and our emotions.

This is why I also encourage women to learn mind-body techniques even as simple as breathwork, biofeedback, guided imagery and meditation, because we can use these tools not only to be anti-stress signals to your body, but also to guide your body in the direction you want it to go. We change from a state of fear and stress to a state of being empowered and in charge of our health. I call this the heroine's journey.

If you are dealing with HPV and you've been trying everything you can find and you're looking for more solutions to get this virus to leave you alone, whether you currently have abnormal cells or not, whether you have mild, moderate, or severe abnormal cells, or potentially even cancer cells, I can still help you to get this virus to stop and to go to negative, so you can move on with your life.

Just imagine if we could actually decrease the rates of cervical cancer from third most common cancer to off the list. I believe that it's absolutely possible to decrease risk of all different kinds of cancer associated with HPV by implementing this approach, thinking it through, using the science and the clinical information to help more women get rid of this virus for good.

If you are ready to get rid of HPV for good, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here.

To learn more about my approach, listen in to the HPV masterclass, available now.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to heal so that you can be better and more present in your relationships, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

To know your Stress Type, which is your unique cortisol and adrenaline levels based on how stresses have affected your adrenal function, you can take the quiz I developed. You can find the Stress Type® Quiz in the book and on my website.

Then, if you’re ready to start rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, to help your adrenals reset after stress exposure, you can start by ordering this home test kit. And you can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Online Program to guide you here.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my New 14-Day Detox Program here. In the Detox Program I teach you to connect with yourself, and use mind-body tools, such as biofeedback, to process emotions.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#178 Conscious Communication for Couples with Dr. Jessica Higgins 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Sep 21, 2023

In today’s episode I'm interviewing Dr. Jessica Higgins. Jessica is a Licensed Psychologist and Licensed Professional Counselor. She holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and a M.A. in Counseling Psychology. She is also a certified Dream Builder Coach and Life Mastery Consultant.

Jessica offers an integrative and comprehensive blend of psychology and coaching. She specializes in helping couples shift and transform their ways of relating, guiding them on a path from confusion and heartache to clarity and authentic connection.

She is also the founder and creator of Connected Couple, a comprehensive, research-based, transformational, relationship program. This program helps couples at any stage in their relationship or marriage.

Today we talk about how to achieve new levels of success, meaning, and aliveness in our relationships.

From a very young age Jessica had an inclination towards people, and by the time she was in junior high she knew she wanted to become a psychologist. A few years later, after going through her own relationship struggles, she started to go deeper in her own personal journey and felt very inspired and motivated to help people have access to more relationship principles that cultivate lasting love and long-term intimacy.

Healthy Relationships Have Health Benefits

Studies show that being in a healthy relationship or having a companion in life can actually improve our longevity.

Attachment is the emotional connection that we form as infants with our main caregivers. According to this attachment theory, the healthier the bonding and relationship we had with them the better our relationships with other people will be throughout our lives.

There are also FMRI studies that show how someone holding the hand of a loved one, like a significant partner, will experience less pain, so there's a sense of resilience when we can have that partnership. There is also evidence of better recovery rates in hospitals when people have significant partners with them. There are so many benefits physiologically and psychologically that we experience from being partnered. From cradle to grave we are wired to need this bonding. It is as necessary as breathing - we need connection.

How Relationships and Intimacy Can Trigger Past Trauma

We all have an attachment system, meaning the way that we are going to think about others in the world and how people are going to respond to us. It is affected by whether we feel safe and

our needs are met. It's intellectual, so our mental thinking and our beliefs, but it’s also physiological, like our nervous system, as well as emotional.

So, it's really this whole triad in the working model and that gets developed at a very young age. Zero to three are the formative years and it's the relational imprint of you. This comes through the patterning of how people responded to us, if our caregivers were responsive, if they showed up for us when we cried, if they were attuned and available, etc. Or maybe they were overwhelmed or under unfortunate circumstances if there's been abuse in the family lineage.

So, if we fast forward, people can have insecure attachment tendencies in adulthood if they didn't get exposure to consistent care givers in childhood. One of the ways this may show up is by being protective. They turn away from relationships, rely on themselves, and not reach out to others for help. When caregiving was inconsistent, another possibility is to be more anxious in relationships and doing more double checking for connection, such as saying “Are we still good, is everything stable, are you still with me?” That’s a hypervigilance tendency.

For both of these attachment styles, the studies and medical findings show that there's a lot of activation. It doesn't look like it on the outside. It can look a little indifferent, but what's happening inside the person is the heart rates increases and all the physiological symptoms of stress. So, it doesn't feel relaxed and calm and secure when connecting with another person.

It’s interesting to notice that these activation responses don’t occur with all relationships. It tends to occur in our most intimate relationships. The nervous system sees our close relationships as necessary for survival, so one might say the nervous system is going to respond similarly to being chased by a bear.

The nervous system might get triggered just as much if, for example, your husband is giving you a look and is upset with you and having an issue with you. So, that threat happens when we are deeply committed, and we get vulnerable, and if the stakes are higher, like having children together. Whatever it is that intensifies that connection is going to affect our nervous system and our attachment system gets more activated. That’s when those previous insecurities might emerge and we might be surprised by them.

Stages of Intimacy

There are various stages in the development of intimacy. The first stage is the romance stage or even referred to as the honeymoon stage, and it's highly fueled by neurochemicals, like dopamine and oxytocin. They get us in that super excited high and we tend to over romanticize, and project and imagine who they are, but we really don't really know them yet.

After 9 to 18 months we enter into the second stage, which is the power struggle stage. This is the place where we are like, “oh, that's how you do that?” or feeling the upset of the differences. At this stage we’re working on how we understand each other, how we learn what we're both feeling, and how we can work together. But oftentimes many of us don't know how to do conflict very well. Conflict feels threatening, and all these things are emerging, and it can be difficult to sift through.

Navigating The Complexity of Conflict

One of the biggest traps we can fall into is when we might have certain expectations that aren’t being communicated clearly.

So, for instance, say there's a heated discussion. Partner A grew up in a family where there was a sense of connection. During a disagreement, it might get a little charged or people might yell but they all know they love each other so they're going to repair to get to a better place. Then there is Partner B, whose family is a group where they’re not going to say anything hurtful and they're not going to speak in any tone that has any ounce of upset. They might pause before talking to be more regulated, or sometimes maybe they don't come back, and they don't talk about things at all.

We have to recognize these very different orientations to know how to address a conflict. There are 7 to 8 irreconcilable differences that every couple has. That could be ‘the spender’ and ‘the saver’, ‘the planner’ and ‘the spontaneous one’, it could be ‘the social one’ and ‘the introvert’, or it could be ‘the one that's on time’ and ‘the one that's always late’. We have to be able to see all these differences when we're living life together and be willing to works towards communicating our needs and trust our partner will do the same.

How to Be More Curious When Conflict Feels Like Criticism

The core of most disagreements is that people don't feel heard, and then they aren’t feeling like they're able to collaborate and work together for a win-win.

It is very common for us to describe the thing that we do not like and hope that our partner will be able to interpret and understand what we are feeling and needing. But that's a lot of decoding that most of us do not know how to do. If it's not a clear signal most people are not going to give what you’re asking of them.

It's not an easy thing to access, but if we can slow down and say “I wonder what he/she is feeling” or “I wonder what he/she needs right now?” because it's not about him/her criticizing me, it's about there's something happening for him/her that he/she wants and I’m not actually hearing it. So, we could prompt our partner to uncover what might really be at the core of it with questions like, “Well what's this about?” or “Can you tell me about what you're wanting?” or “How does this have value for you?” and then hopefully this will reveal the real feeling underneath the perceived criticism.

When we express the feeling that is driving our usual first commentary, our partner – if they are the right partner -- will want to show up for that. No one is interested in showing up for a negative critique, but if we can understand what the other person needs, we can then pivot

towards that. That's where the win-win starts to come in, but that's hard to get at when we don't slow down and identify and reveal, and then start to work with those deeper layers.

Regulating Your Body can Have a Huge Impact on Having Regulated Relationships

If we can support the nervous system to feel more regulated, then we can have access to have more productive conversations.

Also, if there's past experiences or trauma and we haven't experienced safety in these types of conversations, then it makes perfect sense that there's going to be a lot of activation around perceived conflict.

There's a concept in psychology and neuroscience where our nervous systems are constantly harmonizing and picking up information from the people around us. So, if the tone of voice changes or the facial expressions and nonverbals being perceived, we might not know why, but we'll feel the agitation of that before we have an intellectual understanding of why. We could just start to feel things ratcheting up and we might not even have a real awareness around what's really happening. That’s where the importance of slowing down comes in, even to allow the nervous system to get regulated before we get into those conversations.

How to Deescalate and Find Clarity

Jessica finds it is helpful to create a new cycle together because that's going to create more safety and more connection in the communication. Oftentimes we're aware of the secondary emotions, the tendencies of how we might perceive our partner, but that doesn't get at the deeper layer of what is actually happening and the core of why we reacted that way. And so, we really have to work on slowing down to get to understand the deeper layer.

When we can get to a place to just say “Oh, I’m acting this way because I feel nervous or scared” and here's what I'm thinking, here's where I want to go, or here's what's happening internally for me.

Historically, couples wait too long to access therapy as support. But you don’t have to start there. If the conflict is at a low level, if the charge on a scale from 1 to 10 is like a 3 or 4, start with journaling to unpack these difficult emotions. Keep digging deeper. The first layer will most likely be writing about why you believe you are in the right, but then you should keep writing. Why did it make you feel like that? Did it remind you of something else? If you would like to get a good journal and start doing this this you can find one here.

Often times even just by having this unfiltered space where no one else but us can dictate what is going on, we can start to soften. This is because we are making ourselves feel heard and starting to come closer to the truth of why we are reacting in a certain way. And once you get closer and practice more with peeling back those layers and getting to that vulnerability that you were hiding, you can see yourself more clearly, and that maybe you were acting out of fear. Then the next step is learning to share that vulnerability with your partner.

When your partner responds kindly and openly to your vulnerability is when real intimacy can be built. If the charge is higher on the scale, and there is also a backlog of problems, that’s when it’s probably time to seek additional support.

How Can We Change Patterns Individually to Get Unstuck Together

If we realize we want to make a change in our own lives, but we shy away from that change or delay on these types of conversations, while it might feel less conflictual in the moment, it can cause more difficulty in the long term.

There's a term in psychology called differentiating in which we can hold on to ourselves when our partner is doing something different or even disagrees with what we’re doing, and we can tolerate some of that discomfort and it can actually be highly attractive. So, we should look at change as something that has the potential to be very positive not just for the individual, but for the relationship as well.

When you are hiding yourself for the perceived continuation of the relationship, that can start to resemble something closer to enmeshment or codependence. In healthy interdependence, we do rely on each other, but we can also nurture and listen to our own development and our growth.

If we can do a little preparation before these conversations that we know might cause some defensiveness or tension, and if we can understand what we're needing or what that deeper request is or desire or what's not working, then we will most likely have much more productive and understanding conversations with our partners.

If we can make a reveal of vulnerability and/or a request in a vulnerable way, those conversations are going to happen in a much more productive and efficient way.

The Importance of Unconditional Positive Regard for Yourself

Our attachments exist on a spectrum. We are not purely anxious or avoidant. So, it can take time and difficulties in relationships before we are ready and have the history to see where we need healing.

As you start to get more curious about yourself, you can start to accept what your own patterns are. As you practice this more, you can realize when you are starting to act on a recurring pattern and choose to change it. That decision to change is a scary step into vulnerability, and what you have to remind yourself in those moments, is that no matter what happens with this person, you will always have your own back.

Even if that person doesn’t choose you after you show them vulnerability, that’s okay because you are showing up for that part of yourself that's scared and feeling anxious about being rejected or abandoned. You can say to yourself “I hear you, I see you, I got you.”

You will know you are with the right person if these signals or bids of vulnerability are met with a softening and a reciprocal tenderness.

Vulnerability is a Risk, But the Reward Can be Beautiful Beyond Measure

If you are parenting and you are taking the opportunity to work on these tough and sometimes scary emotions, you will be modeling these steps that are critical for authentic connection and bonds. Children in turn get to see that and it can shift their future relationships and their experience as a human.

Being vulnerable is the same as being brave, and can have a ripple effect into future generations, positively affecting the way people build relationships in the future.

In neuropsychology there’s this idea that we have to ‘name it to tame it’, so even just recognizing the intensity of the emotion and giving space for it (even if it's not resolved right at that moment) will help us start to regulate, and then we're in a much better position to deal with it. But if we're not willing to name it, a lot of things can happen and we will do all types of things to hide, to avoid, and to suppress.

A lot of injuries happen in relationship and so when we have the tools for healing, it has profound impact on cultivating repair and resilience and health and all the good things.

If you want to reach out to Dr. Jessica and learn more about how she can help you, please make sure to check out her website’s Shifting Criticism guide: https://drjessicahiggins.lpages.co/shifting-criticism-for-connected-communication/.

She is also on social media as @drjessicahiggins (Instagram) and @EmpoweredRelationship (Facebook). You can also check out her Empowered Relationship Podcast.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to heal so that you can be better and more present in your relationships, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

In the book, I describe what I refer to as SelfC.A.R.E. based on your Stress Type. C stands for Clean Eating, A for adequate sleep, R for recovery activities, and E for exercise. I share the research behind how C.A.R.E. works in a daily routine to help us process stress and overcome trauma.

To know your Stress Type, which is your unique cortisol and adrenaline levels based on how stresses have affected your adrenal function, you can take the quiz I developed. You can find the Stress Type® Quiz in the book and on my website.

Then, if you’re ready to start rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, to help your adrenals reset after stress exposure, you can start by ordering this home test kit. And you can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Online Program to guide you here.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my New 14-Day Detox Program here. In the Detox Program I teach you to connect with yourself, and use mind-body tools, such as biofeedback, to process emotions.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#177 Becoming Resilient to Stress by Implementing SelfC.A.R.E. 0

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Sep 14, 2023

In this episode we're going to be talking about something that I consider to be the foundation of health and healing. This is what I refer to as C.A.R.E.™ or sometimes we refer to it as SelfC.A.R.E. I'm going to be describing what it is and the method that I use with my patients because it's one of the simplest things we can do for our health. In fact, it's so simple that we often overlook it.

It's when we start paying attention to C.A.R.E. that we can really create a major change in our health. This is true whether you're dealing with fatigue, anxiety, depression, burnout, menstrual cycle related symptoms, fertility issues, digestive issues, hormonal issues, autoimmunity, allergies, sleep issues, infections of all different types (skin infections, sinus infections, bladder infections, viral infections like EBV, HPV and even long COVID symptoms). They all improve with these foundational steps.

You can start working on your C.A.R.E. today. It’s not about perfection, it's about connecting with yourself, listening to your body, and getting to know what your body needs from you in order to heal. This is an individualized approach to your specific body needs (it's not one-size-fits-all). I will give you the guidelines here and then I want you think about how you can implement C.A.R.E. as an individual.

What is C.A.R.E.?

Self-care involves activities that I have been reading and writing about over the years. Specifically, what does it mean to take good care of ourselves and our bodies. And one day I realized that these activities fit this acronym C.A.R.E.

These are activities that you can do on a daily basis. The C stands for Clean Eating or eating in a way that matches your physiology and supports your health. The A is for Adequate Sleep. Just like eating, sleeping is essential for us to be able to recharge and reset. The R stands for Recovery Activities. This is a whole menu of possible activities that help us counterbalance stress. And E is for Exercise. We all need to exercise at our own pace to match what our body is able to do and benefit from it.

As a practitioner I am always observing and looking for patterns amongst my patients. This is how I was able to identify C.A.R.E. was common in patients that were successful at recovering from stress, improving their health, and maintaining their resiliency to stress over time. This is also the foundation of naturopathic medicine.

I will also share with you how to individualize your C.A.R.E. based on your Stress Type, which is how your body is uniquely affected by stress. I talk about all of this in detail in my latest book: Master Your Stress Reset Your Health. In the book you will find hundreds of references related to C.A.R.E., which researchers have been studying for decades.

Clean Eating

Clean eating is about eating in a way to support your health. I was originally trained as a nutritionist, so I see food as medicine. Our bodies need macro nutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fats) as well as micronutrients and vitamins and minerals to function and survive. And we need to get these things from our food because our bodies can’t produce them. So, it's a matter of really honoring food as this source of nutrition and life for us instead of just eating mindlessly. We want to start eating mindfully and choose our food with intention and gratitude.

The simplest way to start eating a healthy diet is to make sure you are having a relatively equal percentage or balance of protein, carbs, and fat. I see a lot of diets out there where they go a little bit too extreme with macronutrients, like the ketogenic diet that's very high in fat or the carnivore diet that's very high in protein. These diets can actually make us feel worse because they are extreme. Even a plant-based diet can make us feel worse. There are times when more extreme diets are appropriate, but I really encourage you to work with a practitioner who can help you so that you don't find yourself feeling worse following a certain diet.

We must make sure we are getting enough nutrients from our diet. Anytime we go to an extreme with our bodies we can create more stress. What our bodies need is predictability, consistency, and stability so that's what we want to create with our eating. We want to have predictable meals that are the amount of food that we can easily digest. It is when we digest our food that we absorb the nutrients. So, we want to have consistency in the amount and the timing of our meals. Usually our bodies do well when we feed them in 3 to 4 hours intervals throughout the day. If we go too long between meals it can disrupt your digestion and create stress responses.

I also find that it is best to stop eating at least a couple of hours before we go to bed. This means you would have at least 10 hours without eating if you are sleeping adequately. There can be some health benefits to temporarily or occasionally extending your overnight fast to between 12 and 16 hours but it's really important to modify your daily activities and make sure your body's ready for that so I don't encourage it or recommend it for everyone from the beginning. The first thing we want to do is eat to balance our blood sugar and create predictability in our body, so that our stress response can calm down.

If we go back to macro nutrients, I find that it’s best to make sure that you have at least 20 grams of protein and no more than 20 grams of carbs with every meal. Protein can be found in animal products (beef, chicken, fish, turkey, etc.) and also in legumes (beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, etc.). And then we want to have some carbs from healthy high fiber sources like vegetables and fruits. Then you have the healthy fats in things like avocados, nuts and olive oil (for high temperatures use avocado or grapeseed oil instead) for salads and salad dressing.

We also want to be feeding our gut bacteria, but we don't want to over feed them either. Whatever we eat and whatever we digest is going to determine what is feeding our gut bacteria. If we eat too large of a meal or we're under too much stress and we are not digesting our food well, that undigested food is going to over feed our gut bacteria. When our gut bacteria are overfed is when you start to notice bloating and gas and bowel changes and all kinds of other symptoms. It is also possible to overfeed our good bacteria by having a large quantity of fruit and vegetables in a single meal. It's much better to space our meals and to pay attention to our bodies signals on how much food can you have at one sitting that you can digest well.

Digesting well also has to do with mindful eating. To set aside time to eat, to take breaths to signal your Vagus nerve that it's time to eat, to chew your food well, to have a calm environment for eating, etc. This way you're allowing your digestive signaling to happen, to get the best ability to digest your food. You can support your digestion with digestive enzymes that make it easier for our bodies to process food and absorb all the nutrients. You can get a good supplement for this here.

Clean eating also has to do with eating organic whole foods, avoiding processed foods, avoiding pesticides on your food and any other kinds of artificial sweeteners, fillers, preservatives that are just not necessary and even toxic. It is best to eat whole foods that we cook ourselves or maybe go to restaurants where they are paying attention to making sure we're not eating things that our bodies don’t need and that are bad for our health.

If you are under a lot of stress and you are constantly suffering from bloating, gas, abdominal pain, constipation, or diarrhea you may have developed leaky gut. If you have leaky gut and food is leaking through your intestinal lining and it's triggering an inflammatory response that food is no longer a healthy food for you. It is now an inflammatory food. The most common inflammatory foods are dairy and gluten, but it can happen with things like eggs, almonds, bananas and many other foods. So, it is better to assess for leaky gut and food sensitivities, and to identify the highest reactive inflammatory foods. Then we can go through a process of healing the leaky gut and so you can get back to eating a wider variety of foods. If you want to know your food sensitivities, you can order a home test here.

Adequate Sleep

We need at least 7 hours of sleep. One of the first things that happens when we don't get enough sleep is our immune function decreases. When we're sleeping a lot of good stuff happens. Our immune system is helping to protect us from infections, it's helping ourselves to repair, there's a process called glymphatics which is a process of clean out in our brain. All this is not happening if we don't get enough sleep.

We need to look at both quantity and quality of sleep. Also, we need to look at our circadian rhythm. Are you sleeping when it is dark outside? Maybe you have to work a night shift that

affects your circadian rhythm. This increases our risk of different health issues so it's important to know and to support your body through that.

We sleep in cycles of about 90 minutes. We go through a process of deepening our sleep as time passes until we reach the deepest sleep stage. We spend a percentage of time in each sleep stage and then it starts over again. It's best to be able to complete several sleep cycles in a row because each time we create the subsequent sleep cycle we spend more time in the REM sleep stage and the studies show that when we're in this deep sleep stage is when our brains and bodies get the most rest and repair.

When it starts to get dark our bodies start producing a hormone called melatonin. Melatonin is a hormone that's signaling all kinds of repair in our bodies. If we don't have enough melatonin our risk of developing health issues will increase, so we need to let our bodies produce this hormone by turning off all lights when it’s time for bed.

There is this concept called sleep hygiene. I talk about this in my latest book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health and in my Blog too. I think about sleep hygiene in terms of our five senses.

For sight we have to analyze if there is enough darkness in our room when we sleep. Maybe you need to get blackout curtains or cover any other lights like phones or chargers or alarm clocks that may be generating light through the night. Also it is best to avoid any late night light exposure, especially blue light exposure from electronic devices because this is signaling the brain that it's not time to sleep yet and this is going to inhibit your melatonin. Also, take a look in your bedroom and see if there is clutter as there's studies that show having a cluttered bedroom can affect our sleep.

For smell I think of dust. Take a look in your bedroom and see if it needs to be cleaned. Is there dust in there that could affect your breathing while you sleep. Dust can also be the source of allergies so for a good night sleep it is best to have a clean bedroom.

For hearing we want to be paying attention to any noise that can disrupt our sleep. There are also certain sounds that can benefit our sleep. If you're having trouble sleeping you can actually use sounds like white noise or pink noise to help with calming your nervous system.

For touch think about the fabrics and materials you are in touch with when you sleep. Maybe you need softer sheets or a new mattress. Also, I always recommend buying organic sheets, blankets, pillows, and mattress. We have to make sure we have a comfortable environment for a better sleep. This includes the temperature in your room. We sleep better when there’s a slight lower temperature in the room. You can still be under a blanket but it’s better for quality sleep if the room temperature is around 67 to 69 degrees Fahrenheit.

For taste we go back to eating. Making sure we don’t eat 2 hours before bed and making sure our last meal is not too large. It's a matter of keeping your blood sugar balanced so you don't want to eat too many carbs too close to bed because you're going to have a spike in your blood

sugar and when your blood sugar drops it can wake you up. I wrote a whole separate book called Natural Insomnia Solutions where I go into the detail about how to help with sleep issues so if you're struggling with sleep, I recommend you definitely get that book and work through it. You'll see a big difference in your sleep.

Recovery Activities

There is a long list of recovery activities that help our bodies recover from stress. I am going to talk about some of the most common here. Research shows that these activities can help bring cortisol and adrenaline levels back to optimal, and that's exactly what we want. We are constantly exposed to plenty of activities that disrupt our cortisol and adrenaline levels. What we lack is activities that help correct and counterbalance those effects, so I encourage you to look at this almost like a menu and choose what interests you.

It's about choosing something that you're curious about. Maybe there are things you do already that you can continue to do, or there are things that you've been thinking about doing but you can’t find the time. If this is the case, I encourage you to say, “OK it's time to bring some recovery activities into each and every day”.

I want to start with gratitude. Anytime we practice gratitude and just allow ourselves to feel grateful for the things that are happening in our lives, people in our lives, pets in our lives, experiences, etc. When we go into a state of gratitude it increases our anti stress hormones like oxytocin, and this helps us to recover from stress. It can be as simple as journaling about what you feel grateful for or thinking about it before bed or when you wake up in the morning. If you would like to start journaling to practice gratitude you can get your SelfC.A.R.E. notebook here.

Sometimes just being in quiet can help us reset from stress. We are so used to having a TV on, the radio on, people talking to us, etc. We're just used to constantly having something going on and so it takes intention to stop and set aside some quiet time for ourselves. It's amazing what can happen when you have that quiet time, so I recommend you create that for yourself.

Meditation and mindfulness are also great for stress recovery. There is so much research on the health benefits from these activities. Some people can be kind of afraid or confused about how to do meditation, so I encourage you to just start simple. You can start with 5 minutes. Meditation is really about becoming more aware of your thoughts and becoming the observer in your own body. So much of the time we're just immediately responding to sounds and triggers and what's going on and what's next that we lose track of our ability to be the observer of our own experience.

I think about it as simply taking a couple minutes to just breathe and allow yourself to notice the sounds, the feelings in your body and your thoughts but without reacting, just be with them. It’s about a greater awareness for our thoughts and our feelings and our body in each moment. Meditation and mindfulness can make an amazing difference with healing not only our nervous system and our brain but our whole body.

Breathwork or any kind of deep breathing can have a huge impact on stress recovery. There are a lot of books and videos out there on how to use breathwork for healing. Also, Yoga has a lot of research on how yoga can help us recover from stress. And Yoga involves mindfulness, breathwork and movement. Very intentional movements and positions of the body that help us just be present.

Spending time with pets has also been shown to increase the release of oxytocin which is an anti-stress hormone and we start to go into stress recovery mode. Also, spending time in nature has shown a positive impact on stress recovery. Even if you're looking at pictures of nature without even going outside. I really encourage you as much as you can to get outside first thing in the morning. Just a 5-10 minute walk is enough. Then in the middle of the day another 5-10 minutes just to be able to observe nature. Now you're combining mindfulness with your time in nature to observe the plants and the sounds and the colors and the smells. Our human bodies respond to all of these things, and they help us recover from stress.

Listening to music or playing an instrument, singing, dancing, spending time with our friends and family, laughter, sex and intimacy, reaching out and just talking to someone who you care about or working with a therapist and being able to talk about your experience as a human in your life are all activities that can help us recover from stress and trauma. There are also many plant substances that help us recover from stress, including psychedelic medicines.

Find more information on many of these forms of stress recovery in episodes of How Humans Heal.

Exercise

Exercise is one of the activities that has the greatest ability to improve our resilience to stress. When we are exercising, we're preparing our body for stress exposure both in terms of creating a healthy response to stress and a healthy recovery from stress. That's one of the reasons why it's so important to find ways to integrate exercise into your life and into your daily routine. On the other hand, we have to make sure we don't overdo it because if we go too intense or for too long, we end up increasing our cortisol levels and that works against us in terms of our health. So, it's important to exercise but to listen to your body and to be aware of what's the right amount and intensity for you and even what time of day is best for you to exercise.

For example, we know that with exercise there's strength training which is anaerobic exercise and cardio which is aerobic exercise, and we need both. They both help us to become resilient to stress and recover from stress. You can choose from so many different activities but it's important to choose activities that match your body, your current activity level and also your interest. I encourage you to choose something you enjoy and that you like to do so it is easier to integrate into your daily routine.

If you are just about to start to exercise, I recommend you start small, you can start with 5 minutes a day, then work up to 10 or 15 minutes a day. The study showed that we can get the benefits from exercise even in short periods of time, and then you can potentially repeat that in a couple different times in a day to add more time to your exercise routine.

For those of you with joint hypermobility like me it's important to be really cautious with exercise and not overdo it because you're more likely to get injured than the average person. Even if it's Yoga you might have to do a little bit less than other people. One of my favorites is Pilates because it's helping me to gain strength and correct my body posture and position for my joints, which I find to be really helpful for the symptoms of joint hypermobility.

Again, the important thing with exercise is to know where you're starting, there's no reason to try to push yourself beyond what feels good to you. Always listen to your body during and after exercising. If you feel too tired and exhausted that means you overdid it. Also, make sure you're staying hydrated and that you have enough protein and enough sleep for your body to be able to recover.

Implementing SelfC.A.R.E. According to Your Stress Type

Your stress type is how your body is affected by stress, specifically related to cortisol and adrenaline levels. What I found in my research is that we don't all react to stress in the same way. We don't all have high cortisol and high adrenaline. So, it's important to know what's happening with your cortisol and adrenaline levels because your cortisol and adrenaline levels will influence what's the best C.A.R.E. for you.

What I find is when you fine tune your C.A.R.E. based on your stress type you're going to benefit even more from it. To find out your stress type you can do the stress type quiz right on my website. You can also find the stress type quiz in the book Master Your Stress, Reset Your Health.

It's a quiz that you can do in less than two minutes, and it shows you what is your stress type out of the five most common stress types: stress magnet that tends to have high cortisol and adrenaline at some point or all day, sluggish and stressed who has high cortisol with low adrenaline, tired and wired that has the high adrenaline with low cortisol, the night owl who is like a stress magnet but they have high cortisol and or adrenaline at night, and blah and blue that has low cortisol low adrenaline all day or part of the day.

Once we know your stress type, we can then use nutrients and herbs to bring your cortisol and adrenaline back to optimal. C.A.R.E. helps you get your cortisol adrenaline back to optimal and it helps you keep your cortisol and adrenaline at optimal going forward. To me the ultimate goal is for a good health is resiliency, is our ability to be exposed to stress and still do things we love, whether that's traveling or different sports or activities or being a parent or grandparent or building a business or project. We want you to be able to do these activities while being resilient to stress so that it doesn't have a negative impact on your life.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma have affected you and how C.A.R.E. can help you recover so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

If you’re ready to start rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, to help your adrenals reset after stress exposure, you can start by ordering this home test kit. And you can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Online Program to guide you here.

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol. Keep in mind that 50% of people with leaky gut, have zero symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to do the food sensitivity panel I recommend.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my 14-Day Detox Program here. The Detox Program includes a gluten-free, dairy-free meal plan, along with a protein shake (the protein shake is included), as well as videos to guide you every step of the way. This detox program includes a plant based or bone broth based protein powder. One of the key things we do in the 14-day detox is help you to understand how to integrate C.A.R.E. into your life so you can then continue on that path going forward so you can be your own best health advocate.

If you are interested in how C.A.R.E. can help you fend off HPV, you can find my HPV Recovery Guide here. If you would like more help getting HPV to negative, and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for the upcoming 5 Days to Heal HPV Workshop here (We start Monday September 18th at 7PM Eastern Time) or my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here.

If you would like to start journaling as a recovery activity you can get your SelfC.A.R.E. notebook here. This is the perfect tool to keep track of your C.A.R.E. as you're working on integrating it and fine tuning it to really create a self-care routine that's going to work well for you over time.

You can also subscribe to my newsletter, where you'll receive a newsletter from me every Thursday with the latest episode and additional resources and tools for your success with achieving optimal health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

Be sure you sign up and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode of How Humans Heal. I love having you here with me and I would love to hear from you on other topics you'd like to learn more about.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#176 Natural Alternatives to Pharmaceuticals with Dr. Lindsey Elmore 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Sep 7, 2023

In today’s episode I want to introduce you to Dr. Lindsey Elmore. She is a pharmacist (PharmD) and wellness expert. She's also a speaker, author and podcast host. She specializes in helping women to take full ownership of their health from wellness in the physical body, to stability in mental health, to robustness of spirit, to freedom in finances.

Today we talk about what options there are for people who may want to try a more holistic approach for their health instead of the medications that pharmaceutical companies produce and commercialize.

After suffering from an injury to her anterior cruciate ligament, Lindsey ended up attending an acupuncture session which opened this whole new world of homeopathic and holistic medicine for her. She then started accumulating knowledge about traditional Chinese medicine, started going to integrative medicine forums, hanging out with shamans, and learning more about indigenous medicines.

Lindsey eventually got a reputation of knowing as much about alternative medicine as western medicine. She became very practical about the integration of the two because she believes that to embrace natural medicine does not mean to deny western medicine as they are not mutually exclusive.

Do Pharmacists Get Training on Natural Approaches vs Drugs?

So, pharmacognosy is the study of plants as medicine and if you back up 150 years, a pharmacist was nothing more than someone who was there to put the medicines together using herbs and natural substances from plants that proved to work for certain illnesses. They understood the application of plants as medicine.

In our modern world this is not so much the case. Now you have to go out in search of it and that is because the division between western and alternative medicine became very bold after the Flexner Report came out about 100 years ago. They basically dismissed any kind of medicine practice and even schools that were not based in drugs and surgery.

Nowadays, if a doctor does only prescriptions, it is most likely because they don’t know any better.

There is no medicine out there, even the over-the-counter ones or supplements, that does not have any side effects. Over the counter medications can cause significant harm and have major drug interactions so be sure to know your medicines and know your pharmacist. Your pharmacist should be able to talk to you about your medications and to teach you about the safety of those medications and the alternatives out there.

There are so many alternatives to prescription drugs and surgery out there that are less invasive and have less harmful side effects. It is the responsibility of your health care provider to let you know what they are.

How To Navigate This World of Alternatives to Conventional Medicine and Drugs

You can start with anything you would like to try to get healthier. Sleep 20 more minutes each day, get up and get your circadian rhythm kicked off by going out into the sun first thing in the morning, lifting weights, eat one plant based meal, increase your water consumption, meditate, etc.

Lindsey names eight root causes of disease: stress, toxins, allergens, infections, dysbiosis, nutrient excesses and deficiencies, sedentarism, lack of sleep and then there’s the sociogenomics. One place to start is with stress. There's no disease that stress does not make worse and no disease that stress does not cause and so it's really important that we figure out how to mitigate our stress by intentionally crafting safety for ourselves.

The harder situation comes when you’ve been doing everything that you’re supposed to do to feel good, but something is still wrong and that's when you start getting into things like lab tests, blood work, allergen testing, hormones, or maybe some more sophisticated interventions like imaging, but we have to start with the basics.

Going back to stress, it’s not about having zero stress. Some amount of stress is necessary and even healthy. It's about how do we help ourselves recover from all the stresses and toxins that we're exposed to. We need to start simple with lifestyle changes that can allow for that space of recovery.

What About Choosing the Right Probiotics and Rebalancing the Microbiome?

One of the most popular ways to feel better and healthier recently is getting the right probiotics and addressing the microbiome. There's so much research now helping us understand how important these hundred trillion bacteria living in our gut are to our health.

The microbiome is so critically important, we cannot live without our microbiome. Our microbiome helps us to metabolize foods, extract energy from complex and digestible sugars, they also ferment our dietary carbohydrates and fibers to produce what are called post biotics, it uses our food to produce vitamins, it helps with mineral absorption, and they also metabolize our bile acid which helps us to regulate our cholesterol levels.

The microbiome has this huge metabolic function. It also has a protective function where it creates layers for our immune system to be educated as well as to provide a barrier function for bad bacteria to be kept away from our system.

Our microbiome can also help us turn genes on and off. It strengthens the gut barrier, it changes fat deposition, it influences our growth, it influences changes in the body.

We also have this really important system called the gut-brain axis. We have this interplay between good bacteria and bad bacteria, good viruses and bad viruses that are just part of how we educate and train our immune system. The gut-brain axis modulates our response to stress, mood behavior, it governs our food cravings, it manages our circadian rhythm, etc. The gut-brain axis plays a very important role on our mental health. The microbiome is critically important for brain development in early life, and it also helps with the education and regulation of the immune system.

Between birth and age 3 the microbiome goes through a maturation process and this maturation process is very important. This is why it’s critical not to over sanitize our children because this leads to allergies, chronic disease, immune disorders, etc. Early in life the microbiome is teaching the immune system how to operate correctly, then later in life the microbiome and the immune system continue to communicate, and this is what helps to balance out pro and anti-inflammatory responses.

We are getting more and more sophisticated in our knowledge of different strains of bacteria and what they do in our bodies. We can look for a specific strain that reduces cortisol or one that helps with constipation or one that helps with digestion. We get to be very specific about what's the intended end point for what we hope to happen by taking a specific supplement.

We now have all of this research and new information about how important the microbes living in our bodies are to our health. There are more and more products being developed to support balancing our microbiome and benefit from it. And the products we choose will depend on what we are looking to achieve, not everybody has high or low cortisol, not everybody has constipation or digestive issues, or anxiety. We're on the path of becoming way more specific when it comes to choosing the right product for the right purpose.

When Taking the Wrong Treatment Makes Things Worse: Bacterial Overgrowth

Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth as well as small intestinal fungal overgrowth is very important to address. Many people are told they have IBS or heartburn and given a medication that doesn’t actually resolve the issue.

When someone has chronic heartburn or gastroesophageal reflux for example, they tend to take antacid medicine, but this medicine is not safe to use for long periods of time because it depletes our bodies from nutrients, it affects bone health, it affects your ability to digest. You actually need acid in your stomach to correctly digest food. So, this is not a real solution to this problem because again with drugs you are not addressing the root cause of the problem; you are just treating the symptoms.

What is typically happening with heartburn is a small intestinal bacterial or small intestinal fungal overgrowth, and as a byproduct of the bacterial/yeast metabolism, they generate hydrogen gas, and this gas is going to be forced to go upwards and will bring with it the gastric juices.

The problem is sometimes people already have an overgrowth of bacteria and they start supplementing with probiotics and prebiotics and they get sicker. It's worse because there were already too many bacteria. What we have to do is work to bring the microbiome into balance so that we have the correct distribution of good and bad bacteria.

If you know you have a small intestine bacterial overgrowth, it’s important first to use a prokinetic to make sure your bowels are moving well. Then use digestive enzymes to make sure you are digesting well. Then you can work on restoring your microbiome.

If you would like to learn more about what you can do to balance your microbiome you can watch Episode #169 of How Humans Heal here.

Naturopathic vs Conventional Medicine Approach and Pharmaceutical Companies Abuse

A good analogy to understand the difference between a naturopathic or functional medicine approach and conventional medicine and drugs is when a western medicine doctor walks into a room that is flooded he says “Oh my gosh the room is flooded, let me mop it up” and a naturopathic doctor or functional medicine practitioner walks into the room and says “Oh no the room is flooded, let me turn off the faucet”. And so, we're trying to look at where the faucet is to turn off versus just mopping the floor because mopping is not going to do anything.

Everybody's looking for magic but what we really need to be looking for is our simple, down to earth, grounded decisions that we make each day that will ultimately lead us to finding the miracle that is being healthy and being well. We have to stop looking for the magic pill.

This whole concept of evidence-based medicine being the only kind of medicine and the only way to inform guidelines and the only way to practice is simply not true. There are so many conflicts of interest between pharmaceutical manufacturers and the evidence they produce. If you send in a paper to the New England Journal of Medicine and they send it out to 10 people for peer review and they send it back and say yes, this is good enough to be published it gets published. The problem is nobody is required to go back to the pharmaceutical manufacturers and actually verify that the data that they presented in the paper is factual.

Take valdecoxib for example. Merck outright knew that valdecoxib was causing massive amounts of heart attacks and they did not care. They lied about the data, got it published in journals and now fast forward we know that thousands of people died from the side effects of it.

We need to have a much higher transparency in evidence-based research if we are going to live in a society where we live and die by treatment guidelines. The people that write the guidelines cannot be the same people that are doing the research for the pharmaceutical companies and manipulating the data in order to say this is what we recommend.

We have to be able to rely on the fact that we are going to get actual tangible information out of pharmaceutical manufacturers or we're simply putting patients at risk for harm.

We don't have governmental oversight of drug pricing, and this generates a problem because pharmaceutical companies can charge whatever they want. And a lot of times the medicine could be a natural substance and then pharmaceutical companies will just add colors and fillers so that they will be able to patent the substance and probably raise the price on it.

There's a lot of ways that these companies go about manipulating patent laws in order to keep drugs on patent. An example of this is the antidepressant citalopram where pharmaceutical companies made a simple chemical manipulation of the extraction to change the name to escitalopram, which is the S-enantiomer of citalopram. Another example is the pain medication oxycontin, where the Sackler family convinced the FDA to allow onto the label that oxycontin was non-addictive and had an effect that lasted 12 hours vs other drugs that lasted less hours.

We have to do the research ourselves; we have to go deep into the factual data before taking any drug. We have to educate ourselves and become more aware and learn more whether through a pharmacist or health care provider before even bringing the substance into our home. We need to be empowered owners of our own health.

If you want to reach out to Dr. Lindsey and learn more about how she can help you, please make sure to check out her website. She is also on social media as @lindseyelmore (Instagram and Facebook) and @doctorlindseyelmore (Pinterest/TikTok).

Her functional medicine wellness platform is called Wellness Made Simple where you can find many resources to improve your health.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to recover so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

In the book, I describe what I refer to as SelfC.A.R.E. based on your Stress Type. C stands for Clean Eating, A for adequate sleep, R for recovery activities, and E for exercise. I share the research behind how C.A.R.E. works in a daily routine to help us process stress.

To know your Stress Type, which is your unique cortisol and adrenaline levels based on how stresses have affected your adrenal function, you can take the quiz I developed. You can find the Stress Type® Quiz in the book and on my website.

Then, if you’re ready to start rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, to help your adrenals reset after stress exposure, you can start by ordering this home test kit. And you can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Online Program to guide you here.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my New 14-Day Detox Program here. In the Detox Program I teach you to connect with yourself, and use mind-body tools, such as biofeedback, to process emotions.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#175 Birth Control Pills: How They Affect Our Health and What To Do About It 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Aug 31, 2023

In this episode I'm going to be talking about birth control pills (also known as oral contraceptive pills) and the information that I feel is important for everyone to have, especially those of you who are considering taking the birth control pill or are already taking a birth control pill. This topic is important because a lot of this information is often not shared by the providers who are prescribing these pills. It's really necessary to understand everything before you make any decision about what to take for your health.

One of the things I want to talk about are the risks related to taking the birth control pill, including risk of HPV related cancers (like cervical cancer) and nutrient deficiencies associated with the use of “the pill.” I also want to help you understand how it's possible to feel good and balance your hormones and ovarian function naturally if you have reached a point in your life where you don’t want to take the birth control pill anymore.

It is estimated that more than 10 million women in the United States alone are taking the birth control pill. These are prescription medications, and they are synthetic hormones. When these pills are made, they're made with chemical versions of estrogen and progesterone. You can get a birth control pill that's only a synthetic form of progesterone, but most people take what are called combined formulas that contain synthetic estrogen and synthetic progesterone.

When we make a hormone synthetically it signals to our bodies, but it doesn't signal exactly the same as natural hormones or bioidentical hormones. So, I want to emphasize that when I'm talking about birth control pills, I'm referencing synthetic hormones and the risks associated with those types of hormones versus bioidentical or natural hormones, like naturally produced estrogen and progesterone, or bioidentical estradiol, for example, or estriol, and progesterone formulas that are sometimes used for fertility and perimenopause.

Our bodies recognize bioidentical hormones. They know exactly what they are and they know how to respond to them in a healthy way. When we take a synthetic hormone, it can have a slightly different effect in our bodies and that's why there are side effects and risks associated, especially with longer term use.

If you're taking synthetic hormones on a short-term basis, the risk of health issues is lower and as the length of time increases, the risks increase. Sometimes you may need a birth control pill for a short period of time and that may not be as concerning. It's also known that the risks tend to decrease the longer you are off the birth control pill.

Why Are So Many Women Taking Birth Control Pills?

What I find in my practice is that for most women (I would say definitely greater than 50%), the pill is not just being used for birth control. They're more often prescribed by gynecologists for regulating the menstrual cycle in some way.

Most women, when they go in to see a gynecologist, it’s usually to get help with irregular menstrual cycles or maybe perimenopausal symptoms, PCOS or endometriosis, or perhaps you have PMS symptoms or even PMDD, higher anxiety or depression and fatigue, bloating, severe cramps or heavy bleeding and acne during your period. All of these symptoms can happen because of hormone imbalances related to the menstrual cycle. And often times the first thing a gynecologist or other practitioner will prescribe is a birth control pill.

What the birth control pill does is it takes over for your ovaries. It literally turns off the ovaries, so your ovaries are not making estrogen and progesterone on their own. You are relying solely on the synthetic estrogen or progesterone that you're swallowing in the birth control pill. This is why if you miss a dose, you could have breakthrough bleeding or other symptoms like headaches, nausea, etc. because these hormones are signaling to your body every day.

Birth control pills can regulate the menstrual cycle, decrease bleeding, pain and acne for a lot of women, which can help them keep up with their daily life. At the same time, it’s absolutely false to think that the only option to help with menstrual related symptoms is to use a synthetic hormone pill.

There are a lot of things we could do to help with those symptoms and support your body naturally to address them without necessarily having to use a synthetic hormone pill. Now, if your priority is to prevent pregnancy at this point in life, maybe the birth control pill is a good option, but there are also other options for contraception that don’t require to take a synthetic hormone. I’ll discuss them more later in this episode.

What Are the Risks of Long-Term Use of Birth Control Pills?

Nutrient deficiencies:

Birth control pills can end up depleting our nutrients. This is especially true of some of the B vitamins like B2 or riboflavin, B6, B12 and Folate or B9. All those B vitamins can become deficient with use of birth control pill. Also, vitamin C and vitamin E can become deficient. Minerals like magnesium, selenium, and zinc can also be affected. This is why it is important to take a good quality multivitamin if you are on the birth control pill. If you would like to learn more about high-quality multivitamins, you can watch Episode 167 of How Humans Heal here.

One of the ways to know if it's a high-quality multivitamin is to look at the ingredient list. Look at what form of folate is in the product. We want it to say “Methyl Folate” (or 5MTHF) instead of Folic Acid. If the label says Folic Acid, it's not a high-quality product. Then look at the B12, if it says Cyanocobalamin, it's not a high-quality product. It should say Methyl Cobalamin instead. This way you know you're getting active forms of the B vitamins. If a company is putting in those active forms of B vitamins in their products, they're much more likely to be a professional grade company that's invested in getting the nutrients that you need.

It's also important to be doing regular blood work to identify nutrient deficiencies. And it's important to do the right tests to get the correct information. That’s why it's so important to

have a practitioner who can guide you. I guide each of my patients on how to get the correct blood work and what the results mean. For example, it's not that helpful to only measure folate in the blood - we need to be measuring homocysteine.

HPV and Cervical Cancer:

Furthermore, I believe that one of the connections between HPV risk and birth control pills is related to the nutrient deficiencies. In cases where HPV is persisting and resisting treatment, I recommend doing blood work because I often find nutrient deficiencies exist. When you have low antioxidants and low B vitamins, that already increases the risk of HPV related abnormal cells and cancer risks. So, an important preventive step you can take is to make sure you're meeting your nutrients needs and monitoring your blood levels.

There are many studies connecting birth control pills to cervical cancer risk. One study in particular shows there's a 10% increased risk of HPV causing cervical cancer with less than five years of birth control use, and a 60% increased risk for five to nine years of use, and a doubling of the risk with 10 or more years of use.

If we talk about hormonal IUDs, there is also an increased risk with cervical cancer whereas the copper IUD does not have that risk, so the risk does seem to be related to the synthetic hormones. There are studies where the researchers try to identify exactly what's happening – there are multiple mechanisms besides the nutrient deficiencies where these synthetic hormones also are signaling to the immune system locally and the way that our body manages cells even at a local level on the cervix.

Cardiovascular Issues:

Birth control pills are also associated with increased risk of certain cardiovascular issues including heart attack, stroke, as well as blood clots in general (like DVT which is a blood clot in your leg). I really want you to know the associated risks so that you're monitoring for yourself and deciding intentionally, is this a risk that I'm willing to take?

One of the things that increases the risk of stroke with birth control pill use is having an MTHFR gene variation. If you want to know more about this gene variation you can watch Episode 29 of How Humans Heal here. MTHFR is a gene variation that affects our ability to activate folic acid into folate and it already carries a risk of stroke, so when combined with a birth control pill it elevates your risk of stroke even more.

How To Promote Healthy Ovaries Function After Having Taken Birth Control Pills

So, what I encourage you to do is weigh out all the information against the reasons why you’re taking the pill, and what would be the criteria for yourself for how you will decide when you want to stop using the pill.

Then you will want to make a plan for how you're going to prepare your body for coming off the pill, so that you can transition to healthy ovary function. You want to be addressing the

negative effects of the pill and start addressing your health in general before you stop the pill so that when you stop, you have a safety net there for yourself. You want to create a healthy environment so when you stop the pill your body is ready and your ovaries are ready to start functioning again.

When our bodies overall are functioning at our best, that's when our ovary function is going to be at its best too. Our ovaries can pick up on so many signals from our environment, like any kind of stress signals. We should be especially careful with new diet plans, whether that's intermittent fasting or a ketogenic diet, or if you're going to do some more exercising.

Exercise and diet are important for healthy ovary function but if we overdo it, that can also inhibit our ovary function. If we fast for too long, or we aren’t eating enough, or we are exercising too intensely, it will decrease signals to the ovaries and then the ovaries are not going to ovulate or produce hormones as optimally.

We need to focus on optimizing what I call your SelfC.A.R.E. C is for clean eating, A is for adequate sleep, R is for recovery activities, and E is for exercise. This is the foundation of health in general, but definitely the foundation for healthy ovary function, including fertility.

Clean eating includes things like managing your blood sugar levels, eating protein every few hours and identifying inflammatory foods. If you are experiencing inflammation issues, I suggest doing a food sensitivity panel that I use in my office. It is my favorite because I can see any sensitivities to dairy proteins, gluten, eggs or other foods that you may not even realize like almonds and bananas for certain people can be inflammatory.

When we ingest inflammatory foods, that inflammation affects our whole body, including ovary function. I can't tell you how many cases of women have come into my office where we identify the inflammatory foods and we start healing the digestion, healing leaky gut, balancing their biome, and all of a sudden, the ovaries start working better.

One of the key hormones to balance when it comes to optimal ovary function is cortisol. Cortisol is our main stress hormone and if cortisol is too high or too low, it inhibits healthy ovary function. So that means we need to know what your cortisol function is up to - we can measure cortisol morning, midday, evening, bedtime through the urine or saliva and we can see what is your cortisol up to.

Is it too high at certain times of the day or is it at too low at certain times? And wherever it is then we can use the correct herbs and nutrients to get it back on track again. If you would like to know if your cortisol and adrenaline are out of balance you can do a home test that you can order here.

I describe this in my latest book: Master Your Stress Reset Your Health. In this book I describe how to individualize SelfC.A.R.E., how to know what's happening with your cortisol as well as your adrenaline levels according to what I call your Stress Type. If you would like to know which stress type are you so you can start recovering from stress you can take the Stress Type Quiz here.

This even helps with perimenopausal symptoms, and it helps with postmenopausal as well. So even once the ovaries calm down and they go into menopause, we still need your adrenal glands to be functioning optimally because now you're even more reliant on your adrenal glands to help you feel good.

It's also important to have optimal neurotransmitter levels so this is serotonin and GABA and dopamine. It may come as a surprise that chemicals in the brain have anything to do with optimizing your ovary function, but they are incredibly interrelated. Neurotransmitters can also be measured in urine, and I offer those tests through my office, and you can then balance your neurotransmitters using precursor nutrients.

It can be scary to think about coming off the pill, as a doctor and as a woman, I completely understand this fear. What I can tell you is from my experience and from my patients’ experience, it's absolutely possible to help rebalance and prevent menstrual related symptoms with natural approaches, nutrients, and herbs without having to rely on synthetic hormones.

What Are Some Contraception Alternatives to The Birth Control Pill?

My recommendation for non-toxic alternatives includes the nonhormonal copper IUD and the fertility awareness method, which includes tracking your ovulation and menstrual cycles so you can either avoid sexual activity or use condoms in the time frame where you are most likely to conceive. You can also measure your basal body temperature on a daily basis where fluctuations determine when you able to conceive.

I will host a future episode for those listeners who are interested in learning more about how to conceive.

I hope this episode has been helpful for you and understanding birth control pills more and understanding their connection especially to HPV and cervical cancer risk, as well as some of the other conditions that we talked about today.

I invite you to reach out if I can be of more help or if you have any questions, and definitely if you are in a situation where you're working on fending off HPV.

I've been helping women with their health now for over 23 years. I'm a naturopathic Doctor, as well as midwife. I love helping women with understanding their bodies and what they can do to support their bodies to be as healthy as possible, as well as to prevent things like cervical cancer.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to addressing HPV, including why healing leaky gut is essential, you can find my HPV Recovery Guide here. If you would like more help getting HPV to negative, and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for the upcoming 5 Days to Heal HPV Workshop here or my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my 14-Day Detox Program here. The Detox Program includes a gluten-free, dairy-free meal plan, along with a protein shake (the protein shake is included), as well as videos to guide you every step of the way.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma have affected you, in terms of your cortisol and adrenaline levels, and how to recover so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

To know your Stress Type, which is your unique cortisol and adrenaline levels based on how stresses have affected your adrenal function, you can take the quiz I developed. You can find the Stress Type® Quiz in the book and on my website.

If you’re ready to start rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, to help your adrenals reset after stress exposure, you can start by ordering this home test kit. And you can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Online Program to guide you here.

You can also subscribe to my newsletter, where you'll receive a newsletter from me every Thursday with the latest episode and additional resources and tools for your success with achieving optimal health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

Be sure you sign up and subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode of How Humans Heal. I love having you here with me and I would love to hear from you on other topics you'd like to learn more about.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#174 Menopause and Women’s Health Later in Life with Dr. Tori Hudson 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Aug 24, 2023

In today’s episode I get to introduce you to my friend, colleague, and mentor Dr. Tori Hudson. Dr. Tori Hudson has been in practice as a Naturopathic Doctor for almost 40 years in Oregon. She is a nationally recognized naturopathic physician, speaker, educator, researcher, clinician and the first woman in the United States to become a full professor of naturopathic medicine.

She is also the author of the Women’s Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine: Alternative Therapies and Integrative Medicine for Total Health and Wellness, and has served as a Medical Director, Associate Academic Dean, and Academic Dean at the National University of Natural Medicine (NUNM). Most recently, she has released her new book: The Menopause Companion.

In addition to founding and running her own clinic, A Woman’s Time, Dr. Hudson is the founder and co-director of the Naturopathic Education and Research Consortium (NERC), a non-profit organization for accredited naturopathic residencies. She currently serves as the program director for the Institute of Women’s Health and Integrative Medicine.

Dr. Hudson also co-founded Vitanica, a supplement company offering formulations based on her decades of clinical experience.

Today we talk about women's health later in life and how we can help women in new ways using a naturopathic approach and natural medicine.

How Has Women’s Healthcare Evolved Over the Last 20-25 Years?

There's been a considerable shift in menopause management. Specifically, the rise and fall, and rise again, of menopausal hormone therapy.

Natural medicine started to gain more recognition in the late 80s’. Dr. Michael Murray was very influential in bringing to light the botanical medicine research out of Europe and other parts of the world. Dr. Tori attributes to him the initiation of an awareness of the world of botanical medicine research and the influence it has had on naturopathic practice and the development of integrated physicians. The shift began in using supplements to both reduce the risk of disease and treat disease.

Women's health in particular is seeing an immense expansion of options, which can be fantastic, but also more confusing to navigate.

People are now able to research different approaches online and they're able to access different practitioners. So, women are more likely to say “I want something different” or “I don't just want a cookie cutter suggestion”.

Today, patients are more informed and have more opportunities to be informed. They come more often with their own thoughts, ideas, and opinions. Most the time that can lead to a collaborative process of determining their treatment plan.

Women today have a lot more tools to help themselves. They have new ways to get what they need from their healthcare providers, and they have a lot more ability to question if they really need a treatment or procedure.

Dr. Tori loves when a patient comes in and asks for a second opinion. Recently, she had a patient asking her if she really needed a particular surgery for her bladder and she was able to reassure her that surgery was the necessary next step.

Naturopathic doctors are trained to recognize the value of conventional medicine and how to incorporate that into a natural approach and a naturopathic medicine context. It’s important to recognize that every paradigm has its strengths, and every paradigm has its weaknesses.

That’s what is unique about the modern naturopathic physician - we can really help patients navigate the best opportunities for their healthcare.

Naturopathic Medicine as an Individualized Approach for Menopause

Perimenopause starts at least a decade before the period ends and then comes post menopause. So, for women living till their mid-80’s it’s really most of their lives.

It’s a lot of years of our lives to be navigating hormone shifts, and potential symptoms and health issues, and women really do need help navigating that. Especially because there's still not enough research, and the information that is available is not always consistent and can be confusing.

Dr. Tori reminds us that there's rarely a one size fits all approach, which is the beauty of naturopathic medicine. We try to individualize the approach for each person. If there are 10 different women who have hot flashes, there's going to be some recommendations that are common for them all, but there's also the nuance of suggestions that match for the rest of their health.

So, hot flashes occur in a context of: does the patient have arthritis, what's their risk for diabetes, do they have high blood pressure, what's their risk for Alzheimer's? There is the quality-of-life issues which can be fairly simple to resolve, and then there's the disease prevention issues and the disease treatment issues which need to be addressed.

A naturopathic doctor should help you look at the big picture and then help gather the information to help you make the best decisions possible about what to take and how to support your health.

Navigating The Ladder of Intervention in Women’s Health

Dr. Tori’s new book outlines what changes might be happening in your body, how to ask the right questions of your health care provider, what might be problematic in the world of tests and treatments, and more.

She compares it to a map, as opposed to a strict sequence. There are many options for how to get on from point A (where you are starting) to point B (feeling better). This is important because we are all coming to the table with a different set of cards, and we may all have similar pathways to navigate, but at the end of the day, each of our approaches needs to be individualized.

It is tempting to talk to other women and hear a particular intervention that worked well for them, but your menopausal journey will probably look very different from your friends’ or even your family members’ journey – and what may have worked well for them, may not have the same impact for you.

It's great to share stories and share experiences with other women, but no one else’s experience will be your exact prescription.

That’s where the ladder of intervention becomes helpful. On this ladder you can consider where you are starting and what makes sense in your case. Consider what symptoms you are experiencing, what your family history predisposes you to, your own medical history, and what you’ve already tried to help you see where you should begin.

The beauty of this process is to determine the most minimally invasive intervention we can introduce that will lead to the intended improvements. It’s not just a hierarchy for all circumstances, as in we do not always start on the first rung of the ladder. Each person or situation will have their own hierarchy.

Maybe you’ve already been implementing diet and exercise but still experiencing night sweats, or hot flashes, or have osteoporosis. In these cases, we move up the ladder of intervention to see what steps are needed to produce the necessary changes.

Multitasking Herbs for Menopause

Since our body is an ecosystem, symptoms do not usually occur in the singular. Taken together, the totality of symptoms can provide a more complete picture of what herbs might be most helpful.

Dr. Tori refers to these combinations as twofers, three-fers, and four-fers. For instance, if a woman is experiencing hot flashes we will also ask, is she struggling with her mood, does she have achy joints as well, or is she experiencing memory issues.

Then we look for herbs or formulas that will cover the most issues for a specific patient. Black Cohosh, for example, has by far more research than any other single herb, but that doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone. Maybe curcumin will be the remedy for someone who has hot flashes as well as joint pain.

Better Understanding of Hormone Replacement Therapy

Is hormone replacement therapy right for you?

Women are often hesitant about hormone replacement for one reason or another, as it can feel drastic. There's newer research that's helping us, even as providers, become more comfortable with hormone replacement therapy.

If you have been following a treatment plan, and you’ve tried herbs and formulas that can help with perimenopausal symptoms, but you’re still experiencing night sweats or vaginal dryness and your symptoms are not improving, then we can start talking about some form of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

It's important to understand the benefits and the risks of menopausal hormone therapy. Age will be one of the most important determining factors. How old is the patient, when did she become menopausal, does she have other coexisting health issues or what other coexisting health problems does she have, and what are her risks for what Dr. Tori calls the big three: Osteoporosis, Heart Disease, and Alzheimer's Disease.

Additionally, there are three buckets of information that are important to evaluate: what are your quality-of-life issues, what diseases are you at increased risk for, and what conditions or diseases do you already have. All of that informs the decision making on the benefits and the risks of menopausal hormone therapy.

If you're within the first ten years of your last menstrual period, less than 60 years old, you haven't had breast cancer, a stroke, or clot, or DBT, then the risks of hormone replacement therapy are negligible. There are a few other risks to consider, like fatty liver, but those are the fundamental considerations. From there we can determine whether menopausal hormone therapy is safe for that person.

The risk of breast cancer from going on menopausal hormone therapy is very low if you’re in the group just described. In fact, it is much more likely to get breast cancer if you drink alcohol every day, smoke, you don't exercise and you're overweight.

There are very few women for whom systemic menopausal hormone therapy is actually contraindicated. There are cautions on delivery methods, for instance if you have a gallstone, we shouldn't give oral hormones, and if you have fatty liver or elevated triglycerides, we shouldn't give oral, but we can give transdermal hormones instead.

It’s important to work with a practitioner who understand all the options, delivery methods, and ways to customize your dose based on your health.

What About Local Estrogen for Vaginal Health?

Vaginal estrogen can be a miracle worker for some women. Vaginal estrogen for the purpose of local vulvovaginal problems doesn't increase the risk of anything if it's done properly.

Typically, it is prescribed for local dryness, itching, irritation, painful sexual activity, and/or leaky bladder. In these cases, it’s often a waste of time to attempt vitamin E, moisturizers, or lubricants. You can skip up the ladder of intervention to vaginal estrogen since it is still very minimally invasive.

There are, of course, still instances where caution should be exercised, for instance if breast cancer is or was present. In that case, a non-hormonal option would usually be the beginning recommendation. But even gynecologist societies and menopause societies say you can use tiny doses of vaginal estrogen safely in a breast cancer patient for vaginal symptoms in many cases.

A low dose of vaginal estrogen has also been found to be helpful for women who tested positive for HPV and have abnormal cells on their pap smear. With vaginal estrogen, you're improving the vaginal biome and that means you can prevent bacterial vaginosis or vaginal infections. We're finding that the vaginal biome and the species of lactobacilli living in the vagina help fend off HPV as well.

Vaginal estrogen gets you a healthier ecological environment and balance of microorganisms. A healthy vaginal biome relies on healthy estrogen levels in the cells.

We might first notice vaginal dryness most acutely during sex, but vaginal dryness can be an indicator of other health issues and affect more than just your sex life. Local estrogen can be a preventive medicine that can help with vaginal dryness and a range of other health issues as well.

The dryness and discomfort put you at an increased risk for vaginitis, urinary tract infections, possibly HPV, bladder leakage, and overactive bladder. You can prevent those things from happening most of the time by using a small dose of vaginal estrogen twice per week. So, it's not just for sexual comfort, it's related to your overall bladder and vaginal health as well.

What Are Some Good Supplements for Menopause and Women’s Health?

As we mentioned before, Dr. Hudson co-founded Vitanica, a supplement company offering formulations to support women’s health. Some of my favorites are:

Black Cohosh: The most effective formulation I’ve ever come across for hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms.

Chaste Tree Berry: An herb that supports ovulation and helps with symptoms of premenstrual syndrome, breast pain associated with the menstrual cycle, infertility, and perimenopausal menstrual changes.

Slow Flow: A formula of herbs and nutrients for heavy menstrual bleeding.

CCDG Blend: Tried and true for HPV cases, CCDG contains curcumin, coriolus mushroom, DIM and green tea, all in one.

Cranstat Extra: Herbal and nutrient formula for bladder infections.

Candidastat: To support a healthy biome and prevent yeast overgrowth.

I’ve been working with these formulas for 23 years (Dr. Doni speaking), and I’ve seen time and time again how helpful they are for women. That’s why I recommend them in my practice.

As always, I am here and would love to help you wherever you are in your health and menopausal journey. I’m licensed to help with hormone replacement therapy in several states. Please feel free to reach out with any questions so we can get started on improving your life and your health, together!

If you want to reach out to Dr. Hudson and learn more about how she can help you, please make sure to check out her website. Also be sure to check out Dr. Tori’s new book, The Menopause Companion, to learn more about how to navigate this process of perimenopause and post menopause, from finding the right practitioner or set of practitioners who can guide you along your journey, and the right questions to ask to take steps in the best direction.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to addressing HPV, including why healing leaky gut is essential, you can find my HPV Recovery Guide here. If you would like more help getting HPV to negative, and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for the upcoming 5 Days to Heal HPV Workshop here or my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my 14-Day Detox Program here. The Detox Program includes a gluten-free, dairy-free meal

plan, along with a protein shake (the protein shake is included), as well as videos to guide you every step of the way.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma have affected you, in terms of your cortisol and adrenaline levels, and how to recover so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

To know your Stress Type, which is your unique cortisol and adrenaline levels based on how stresses have affected your adrenal function, you can take the quiz I developed. You can find the Stress Type® Quiz in the book and on my website.

If you’re ready to start rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, to help your adrenals reset after stress exposure, you can start by ordering this home test kit. And you can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Online Program to guide you here.

You can also subscribe to my newsletter, where you'll receive a newsletter from me every Thursday with the latest episode and additional resources and tools for your success with achieving optimal health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Aug 17, 2023

In today's episode we talk about gluten. What it is, the symptoms that it can cause (and how it may be involved in health issues you may be experiencing), how to know if it's an issue for you, and what to do about it.

Gluten has been something that I've been researching and learning about for more than 20 years. When I was in my training at Bastyr University in the 90s, it wasn’t well known that gluten could cause so many health issues. At the time, I, myself was dealing with health issues, including severe allergies and migraines, and I was trying to figure out the cause. I really wanted to understand how my diet and the food I was eating were influencing my health, and so I tried every diet and did every kind of test on myself to try and figure out the cause of my health issues.

It wasn’t until after having graduated from Naturopathic Medical School that I finally did a test that was able to identify that gluten was an issue for me. And so, I started avoiding gluten and immediately started feeling better. My allergies decreased, the migraines lessened, and I started to feel better in general, so discovering that I have a sensitivity to gluten really helped me.

As of now, I have been avoiding gluten for over 20 years and have helped thousands of patients to discover that gluten is an issue for their health as well. I became an expert resource on the topic of gluten and gluten sensitivity, lecturing at professional conferences across the U.S. and being interviewed by the media on numerous occasions.

In the process, I learned so much more about the trouble that gluten can cause. And in helping my patients I discovered that it is not just important to identify gluten as an issue, but also how to recover from gluten exposure. This is important because many patients come to me saying they are already avoiding gluten, but they haven’t started to feel better yet, and so it’s key to know how to do a full recovery from gluten in order to reset your health and to heal.

What Is Gluten?

Gluten is a protein that is found in certain grains, including barley, rye, spelt and wheat. This protein acts as a binder in recipes, to hold foods that we make with these grains together, and to make them chewy, like the dough in the process of making bread for example. Without gluten, the dough would just crumble and fall apart easily.

Gluten is made up of two smaller protein molecules: gliadin and glutenin. I find that it's helpful to understand that these protein molecules are made up of amino acids, just like all protein. When we ingest protein, in general, it is broken down by our pancreatic enzymes into amino acids which can be absorbed into our bodies.

The issue with gluten is that humans, in general, are not able to completely digest gliadin (in gluten) and the related prolamins (from wheat, barley, and rye) due to their high glutamine and proline content. That means that when we consume gluten, some amount of it will not be digested, and can become a trigger to our immune system.

It's also important to know that there's a whole spectrum of possible reactivities to wheat and gluten, and to understand that we don’t all react the same. A person’s immune system might be more reactive to gliadin than glutenin, for example, or vice versa. Some people may be equally reactive to both. Others may be more reactive to wheat, which is a larger molecule than gluten. It can be helpful to understand exactly what is triggering your immune system so you know what to avoid specifically.

When Is Gluten A Problem?

Anytime we eat a food that we don't digest well (like a larger amino acid chain or protein molecule) it has the potential of causing health issues, especially if that undigested food is able to get through the intestinal lining to where our immune system exists, ready to protect us from foreign substances. Our immune system picks up on proteins (remember that viral proteins, like all proteins, consist of amino acids!) and triggers an inflammatory response to attack the protein.

This is what can happen with gluten, because we don't digest it well, and because gluten itself opens spaces between intestinal cells, and gets through to where our immune system thinks it needs to protect us from it.

Our immune system releases cytokines (which are inflammatory molecules) to try to protect us. Cytokines are important because they help us heal but if our intestines are being constantly bombarded by gluten and cytokines, there will be constant inflammation, and this can end up causing damage to our cells in the long run. Damage to the intestinal cells is called intestinal permeability or leaky gut.

For most people, eating gluten occasionally is not a problem. It is more likely to be an issue when we consume gluten all the time. If we're not paying attention, we could even be exposed to gluten in every meal. Some people may be having gluten for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Gluten is often added to products and recipes, even when we don't realize it.

Besides the grains mentioned above, gluten is added to condiments, recipes and packaged foods that we wouldn't even think would have gluten in them. Some breads, for example, may even contain 10 times more gluten (as an added ingredient) to make them fluffier and chewier.

In fact, in the United States we're exposed to more gluten than anywhere else in the world because of the “added gluten” in products, intended to increase sales of these foods.

If you are wondering why gluten is such an issue now, it's because we're getting so much more exposed to it than ever before. Additionally, there are other factors, such as that most wheat,

especially in the United States, is grown with exposure to a pesticide called glyphosate. Glyphosate is know to damage to the intestinal cells. When you combine the negative effects of glyphosate with the increased exposure to gluten, it makes sense why we are seeing an increase in gluten-related health issues.

What is Celiac Disease and How is it Different from Gluten Sensitivity or Wheat Allergy?

Let’s start with wheat allergy. A wheat allergy is when your immune system is creating IgE antibodies to wheat, similar to when someone is allergic to peanuts. Someone with wheat allergy is likely to develop symptoms within minutes to hours after eating something containing wheat. The symptoms include itching, irritation and swelling of the mouth and throat, hives, itchy rash or swelling of the skin and nasal congestion. This is different from Celiac disease.

Celiac disease (CD) is a chronic digestive and autoimmune disorder that damages the small intestine. The disease is triggered by eating foods containing gluten. Celiac can cause long-lasting digestive problems and keep your body from getting all the nutrients it needs. It is an autoimmune condition meaning your immune system is not only trying to protect you from gluten (gliadin), but also from your own intestinal cells. It is thought that at first the immune system is reacting to gluten, and then begins to attack nearby proteins, including an enzyme in intestinal cells called transglutaminase enzyme or tTG. This process ends up damaging the intestinal cells, causing severe leaky gut.

About 2% of the population is considered to suffer from Celiac disease. There is a genetic correlation for this disease. We have been able to identify that people who have the genes that are called HLA DQ-2 and HLA DQ-8 have an increased risk of Celiac disease. Those people also have an increased risk of non-Celiac gluten sensitivity.

Non-Celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS or gluten sensitivity) means a person has a reaction to gluten but doesn't have the autoimmunity condition, so the immune system is not attacking their own cells. It is much more common than CD and is thought to occur in at least 6% of the population. Both CD and gluten sensitivity have a lot of health issues associated with them.

What Are the Symptoms of Gluten Sensitivity and CD?

One of the most common symptoms, especially in children, is a stomachache. GERD/reflux, gastritis, nausea, bowel changes, and abdominal pain are all associated with gluten sensitivity and CD. Headaches are also common. So, if you get a lot of headaches paired with digestive discomfort, you could be suffering from gluten sensitivity.

At the same time, it’s important to consider that only about 50% of people with Celiac disease and gluten sensitivity have digestive symptoms. Many people come in saying they do not have digestive issues. In fact, with gluten issues it is much more likely to have neurological symptoms, like anxiety, depression, neuropathy, or other neurological issues. The inflammation is going from your digestion straight to your nervous system.

Other symptoms include fatigue, brain fog, decreased focus, memory loss and sleep issues. Not only that but gluten can cause aches and pains whether that's joint pain, muscle pain (that might be considered fibromyalgia), and can cause nutrient deficiencies because of the damage to intestinal cells.

When we have damage to our intestinal cells, or leaky gut, we're not going to be able to absorb the nutrients from the foods we eat, so we become more likely to have nutrient deficiencies. The most common deficiencies are iron, vitamin D and B vitamins. It may go as far as developing anemia. So, if you have anemia or iron deficiency, you could be suffering from gluten sensitivity. It also can cause canker sores, skin rashes, menstrual issues (including fertility issues), and perimenopausal symptoms.

One of the most common issues I find related to gluten is that it increases our risk of infections of all different types - viral infections, bacterial infections, and yeast infections. If you're getting recurrent infections, whether that's sinus infections or bladder infections, vaginitis, skin infections, eye infections and even persistent HPV, it can all be related to gluten.

How Can You Know if You Have Gluten Sensitivity or CD?

At least one in four people are thought to have some degree of gluten sensitivity. So, how do we test for it? How do we know if we are sensitive to gluten?

For Celiac disease, the standard way to diagnose it is with an intestinal biopsy so, you would need to go into the gastroenterologist to have an endoscopy and biopsy. With the biopsy, they're looking for damage to the small intestinal cells caused by the autoantibodies.

There is a blood test that shows anti-gliadin antibodies and antibodies to tTG. These tests are part of a Comprehensive Celiac Panel, and can give a sense of whether Celiac exists, but for an official diagnosis of Celiac disease it is necessary to do the biopsy.

For non-Celiac gluten sensitivity, the standard is to avoid gluten for a period of time (usually at least three weeks) and monitor your symptoms. If you feel better when you eliminate gluten fully from your diet, then you could have gluten sensitivity. Then you can try re-introducing gluten to your diet and see if you feel worse to confirm if gluten is affecting you.

What I find really helps to identify gluten sensitivity is an IgG and IgA food panel. Not all IgA and IgG food panels are as accurate at identifying reactions to gluten, so I recommend using the lab that I have tested and found to provide the most accurate results. You can order this test through my office here. It's a finger poke so you can do it from home anywhere in the world and mail it in. With this test, we can also check for other food that your body may be reacting to – it tests for 96 foods.

It is also possible to test for gliadin antibodies in a stool test. The stool test that I recommend to my patients is called the GI Map from Diagnostic Solutions. It is a highly sensitive test for gliadin antibodies in the stool and can identify if your immune system is trying to protect you from gluten.

These tests can be helpful even for someone who's been avoiding gluten as they can tell you if your system is still trying to protect you from it based on your current diet. If this is the case, you may want to take a closer look at your diet so you can identify if gluten is sneaking in somehow.

What Is Leaky Gut?

Leaky gut is a short way of saying intestinal permeability. The mucous lining of our intestines is designed to absorb water and nutrients from our food into our bloodstream. The intestinal cells are lined up next to each other and our body grows new intestinal cells every day. Those intestinal cells can be damaged by stress, injuries, medications, toxins, and gluten. When the intestinal cells are not as healthy, the intestinal lining allows undigested food to “leak” through, causing an inflammatory reaction by our immune system.

When we're under a lot of stress, our body is not able to keep up with making new healthy intestinal cells, leading to increased intestinal permeability or leaky gut. Other causes of leaky gut include surgery, physical stress, lack of sleep, exposure to toxins (like pesticides and toxins from gut bacteria), eating non-organic foods, alcohol, caffeine, and gluten.

Gluten causes damage to the intestinal cells by triggering the inflammation that we mentioned. It also increases a substance called zonulin which is a protein that signals to open the spaces between the cells. So, gluten is literally signaling through zonulin to cause leaky gut. Then it gets through to the other side of the intestinal lining and that's where our immune system is hanging out waiting to protect us.

So, the immune system triggers even more inflammation. And that inflammation doesn't just stay in the intestinal area, it can go anywhere in the body which is why it can cause such broad symptoms. It goes to our nervous system, our joints, our skin, etc.

That inflammation then overwhelms our system, causing more stress. So, not only does the stress from our external world make us more likely to have leaky gut and a reaction to gluten, but gluten and the inflammatory response cause more internal stress. And so, it becomes this vicious cycle or snowball effect where it compounds, and you end up with more and more health issues.

By doing the food sensitivity panel that I mentioned we can get an assessment of the degree of leaky gut that you may have. To me, that is the real question – is leaky gut mild, moderate or severe.

Gluten can also disrupt our microbiome. We've discussed the importance of the gut microbiome in prior episodes. Microbes living in our body are important for maintaining our health in general, our immune system, our nutrient absorption, our neurotransmitters production, etc. If you would like to learn more about how important our microbiome is and how you can get yours back to balance, you can watch Episode 169 of How Humans Heal here.

Are Gluten Sensitivity and HPV Related?

Through many years helping people with gluten sensitivity, and also helping people with HPV, I have been identified a pattern. Gluten causes leaky gut, and it disrupts the gut microbiome. A disrupted gut microbiome leads to a disrupted vaginal biome, and this causes vaginal inflammation. Vaginal inflammation and a disrupted biome increase the risk of HPV.

Also, gluten and leaky gut cause nutrient deficiencies. We know that nutrient deficiencies increase risk of HPV and abnormal cells, and decrease immune function, so it is not able to protect us optimally.

Yes, we can work on healing leaky gut, rebalancing your biome, addressing nutrient deficiencies, and supporting your immune system to protect you from HPV. But if we don't take gluten out of your diet, it's just going to recur. It will happen again and again, and that's why I spend so much time in my programs and working with patients to help them successfully eliminate gluten from their diet and fully recover from gluten sensitivity.

If you have tested positive for HPV and are ready to get it out of your life for good, I encourage you to join me for an upcoming 5 Days to Heal HPV Live Online Workshop. You can learn more and sign up here.

Gluten and Autoimmunity

There is also a correlation between autoimmune diseases, such as Hashimoto’s, and gluten sensitivity. When there’s a reaction to gluten and the immune system starts to protect you from gluten, it can also begin to attack nearby tissue.

That’s what occurs with Celiac disease and tissue transglutaminase (tTG). Similarly with Hashimoto’s, the immune system starts to protect the person from their own thyroid cells.

Research shows the relation between gluten sensitivity, leaky gut, chronic inflammation, disrupted microbiome, and disrupted cortisol levels all leading to a likelihood of developing autoimmunity diseases.

So, if you're dealing with an autoimmune condition, then I would say it’s important to take a look at gluten sensitivity as an underlying cause.

How Can We Recover from Gluten?

Step one is avoiding gluten, and that's an important step. I have so many resources on helping people avoid gluten I have developed over the past couple of decades. I have written about gluten and how to avoid it in all of my books. I've created recipes and menu plans because I want you to have support. It doesn't have to be a difficult thing if you have the right support.

I also like to emphasize that it doesn't need to be an overnight change. You don't have to be stressing yourself trying to avoid all gluten by tomorrow. I wouldn't try to do that. I would look at it as a learning opportunity. Start by finding replacements for common foods in your diet.

It’s also important to know that most gluten-free products still contain carbs and sometimes more carbs and more sugar than the products containing gluten, and so you don't want to just switch from a gluten filled product to a gluten free product and end up disrupting your blood sugar levels. That's not a good idea either.

What we want to do is use this as an opportunity to go more toward a balanced diet where you're having adequate protein, adequate healthy fats and a nice balance of healthy fruits and vegetables, which, by the way, are already gluten-free. We have a lot of food options available that naturally don't have gluten in them. We just need to remind ourselves to choose those foods instead of those containing gluten, or high carbs and sugar.

I can help you to start shifting your diet so you have the support you need. I have many programs that help people with this every day. The Stress Warrior Program, for example, including my Stress Remedy 21-day meal plan, that guides you on exactly what to eat for a healthy gluten-free diet.

The next step is healing leaky gut. You need to help your body rebuild your intestinal cells. Yes, our body grows new intestinal cells every day but when your body has been constantly bombarded with gluten, and if you've developed severe leaky gut and a disrupted microbiome, then it's going to take some time for those intestinal cells to heal.

Often patients tell me they have been avoiding gluten for years, but they still don’t feel good. I find that is most often because they have not adequately healed leaky gut. Healing leaky gut involves getting the right enzymes, nutrients and herbs to help your body digest your food better and grow back new healthy cells, decrease inflammation and reestablish a healthy microbiome.

If you want to learn more about my protocol to heal leaky gut, you can watch my FREE Heal Leaky Gut Masterclass here. If you are ready to fully heal, you can join my Leaky Gut Online Program here. It includes a food sensitivity panel and support to address your results.

Step 3 is to address nutrient deficiencies. It's important to do the right blood test to identify if you have iron, B vitamin, vitamin D, and/or other nutrient deficiencies. These tests are not usually included in standard blood work, but they are tests I can help order so that you get the right information. When you get the right nutrients back into your body and into your cells, you’ll be able to fully recover from gluten exposure and improve your health overall.

The last step of gluten recovery is to fully reduce inflammation. Remember that gluten is triggering so much inflammation through your whole system, and even if you're avoiding gluten, that inflammation may still exist, especially if you have leaky gut.

To decrease inflammation, we need to look at the food sensitivity panel and see if there are other foods in addition to gluten that may be causing inflammation. By avoiding the highly reactive foods, while taking steps to heal leaky guy, you can drop inflammation levels for good. Taking anti-inflammatory herbs and enzymes can help speed up the process. And, of course, we need to address imbalanced cortisol levels in order to fully resolve inflammation.

It's about developing a strategy that is unique for your body and the symptoms you are experiencing. We need to understand your health issues and do the right tests to find out what your body needs and how to support it in the best way possible.

For those of you who have more severe reactions to gluten, including Celiac disease, and you feel restricted by having to avoid gluten so strictly, and if you potentially have other types of autoimmunity, you may want to consider something called helminthic therapy. This is something that I can talk with you about and help you with as well as it has been shown to reduce severe reactivity to gluten.

Personalize Your Recovery From Gluten

I want to emphasize that not everyone has to avoid gluten 100%, and not everyone has to avoid it forever. We really have to take it on a case by case basis, and understand how is it reacting in your body, and how it has affected your health, and then help you recover fully.

As I mentioned, stress of all types can trigger leaky gut and gluten sensitivity, as well as autoimmunity, and then gluten causes more stress from within the body. Stress then disrupts the HPA (hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis), adrenal function, and both cortisol and adrenaline levels. A perpetual cycle of stress ensues. This is why I consider recovery from stress to be so important for reversing health issues.

If you want to learn more about how stress and trauma have affected you, in terms of your cortisol and adrenaline levels, and how to recover so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

To know your Stress Type, which is your unique cortisol and adrenaline levels based on how stresses have affected your adrenal function, you can take the quiz I developed. You can find the Stress Type® Quiz in the book and on my website.

If you’re ready to start rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, to help your adrenals reset after stress exposure, you can start by ordering this home test kit. And you can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Online Program to guide you here.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my 14-Day Detox Program here. The Detox Program includes a gluten-free, dairy-free meal plan, along with a protein shake (the protein shake is included), as well as videos to guide you every step of the way.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to addressing HPV, including why healing leaky gut is essential, you can find my HPV Recovery Guide here. If you would like more help getting HPV to negative, and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for the upcoming 5 Days to Heal HPV Workshop here or my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here.

To read more blogs about gluten and leaky gut, you can find them here.

You can also subscribe to my newsletter, where you'll receive a newsletter from me every Thursday with the latest episode and additional resources and tools for your success with achieving optimal health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

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#172 How Dance Movement Therapy Can Help Us Heal with Chauncey Harrison 0

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Aug 10, 2023

In today’s episode I'm excited to introduce you to Chauncey Harrison. Chauncey holds a license in Creative Arts Therapy, specifically specializing in Movement Therapy. Additionally, she has completed her Masters in Social Work and is working towards her License in Social Work.

Chauncey’s passion is helping people recover from severe and persistent mental illness, substance use disorders, mood disorders, trauma, and interpersonal issues through creative arts therapy. Her therapeutic style is to meet clients where they are and use a strength-based approach to empower clients.

She is collaborative throughout the therapeutic process, working with clients to achieve their goals by using both verbal and non-verbal (dance, movement, art, and drama) tools to help them recover.

Today we talk about dance movement therapy and how this type of therapy can help people process emotions and recover from stress and trauma. I especially enjoyed talking with Chauncey based on my experiencing both a researcher of stress and as a dancer. I have found dance to be an amazing medicine for me.

Psychotherapy That Goes Beyond the Mind

Psychotherapy can be more than just working on the mind. A lot of times what people experience in terms of mental health support ends up being focused on the mind, and being aware of our thoughts, versus what could be stored in our body. There is a connection between the body and the mind, they are not two separate things. We are whole beings in body, mind, and spirit, and when one of those is not aligned, or is out of balance, the others will be affected too.

It's a beautiful practice to look into our thoughts and understand them. That’s an important part of therapy, in general. In today’s modern world it’s unavoidable to be bombarded with so much information that it can end up being overwhelming. Our minds are always racing with new thoughts that we sort of forget that we are living in a body. So, it’s important to take the time to return to the body. To unwind and practice mindfulness focusing on the body. When you're returning to the body it can be a practice of mindfulness in itself of bringing you back into the present and what's really going on and tuning in.

Your body really does keep the score. It really is aware. It's where we store emotions and so tuning into that can be an incredibly impactful and empowering tool for people to start to understand and work on this connection to the body. It can really help bring back more clarity and connection to a full integration of self.

Many times, we are not able to really listen to our body with compassion and to create healing from that place. There can be real disconnections between the mind and the body. People are

surprised when they find out that our bodies can be part of therapy. This can also feel incredibly vulnerable because typically we've formed more unconscious ways to defend ourselves with our words. It feels more exposing for many people to be considering what our body has to say, so trust is such a huge part of the work here.

How Does Dance Movement Therapy Work?

Part of what we're doing in dance movement therapy is 100% play. There's a lot of therapy in play. There’s also a lot of exploring what’s possible and trying to expand the full range of movement. That's huge for people. A lot of times people are really quick in their movements, or quite indirect in their movement, and they stay in a very small kind of sphere. In that case, we can start playing with what it’s like to feel bigger. To expand that sphere and expand in the space where we’re moving.

This also impacts our experience as humans and the ways that we relate to one another. If we're always relating in one movement repertoire, it can be limiting. Typically, it's helpful to have a full range of movement options. We might not even be aware that we're just moving in that one repertoire.

Dance and movement have been around since ancient times. It has been used for entertainment, storytelling, religion, and healing. There's so much research on how healing it is to our nervous system to move in general. Many people can relate to the experience of being in a bad mood and going for a walk and starting to feel better, or going to the gym and feeling less angry about that issue was bothering you, or having a little dance party in your room and realizing it's not that big of a deal. This has to do with the release of endorphins and neurotransmitters that are activated by that movement.

There is a lot of people where stillness is really present in the movement, where it feels really painful to move. And dance therapy is about meeting people where they are. You don’t have to do a specific amount or way of movement. It’s about being present and listening and observing how things develop without any kind of judgement. And then to maybe explore and just start playing with it and expand it when it feels appropriate. It's about following what someone is bringing into the space and really watching and seeing what's appropriate for them.

You can get these insights into a person's patterns simply by looking a little bit more closely to what's going on with their response to the movement. And there is so much restoring movement too, whether it's memories or what it brings up for you in that moment.

Certain movement patterns that have been more codified can be restored in people's bodies, energizing or relaxing them for example. Movement plays so many different roles in our lives.

Is Dance Movement Therapy a Kind of Somatic Therapy?

Somatic therapy, sometimes known as body psychotherapy, is a therapeutic approach that places importance on what we experience in the mind and the body, as well as the connection between the two.

Again, with dance therapy, it’s very important to meet the person where they are and where they are coming from. Certain diagnostic labels can be really helpful, and sometimes not so much. It’s about exploring feelings and emotions through movement while not being attached to a specific label.

And as we mentioned before, mind and body are one whole thing, and they influence each other. If someone is suffering from gastro-intestinal issues because of anxiety, it's real. A lot of our emotions reflect in our stomach. This shows us how mind and body are connected. It proves that we can feel emotions on a physical level.

Sometimes people are led to believe that something's only “in their head” or they’re making it up and it’s not real. If you feel it or experience pain or discomfort of any sort, it's real. We have to acknowledge and validate that, because it’s a crucial part of the healing process.

We have to be able to connect with our feelings and emotions and how these relate to what we feel in our bodies. A lot of the time we suppress our emotions. We aren't taught how to have awareness for them and how to just be present to be able to process them or just be present with them. If you want to learn more about this you can watch Episode 165 of How Humans Heal - Emotional Healing: A Pathway to a Better Life here.

Part of what dance movement therapy and creative arts offers is this nonverbal processing of feelings and emotions. You may not even know what you’re feeling, and it could be very uncomfortable, but we can start with a sensation and maybe we can put that into an image. What would this image look like? Can we draw it on a piece of paper? Is there a sound that goes with it? And this can be so helpful to process our emotions and get more information about what they are related to.

This can make people feel vulnerable, even just asking for help can feel vulnerable, let alone trying to listen to what your body wants to tell you. We don't know what we're going to find out, so it feels vulnerable in that way. The important thing to keep in mind is that this is a process that is unique to each individual and that everyone has a different pace and process.

It’s about going at your own pace and discovering little by little what your body is trying to communicate. It's not like you will come out of the first session in shock and lose track of your original existence. You’re discovering information slowly and then you can integrate that information into your daily life. It’s about providing a safe space and empowering people to tune in and listen to their bodies and connect with themselves.

Dance Movement Therapy and Yoga

The body has so much information for us, we just have to learn how to listen and access it. Some of Chauncey’s original connection to dance therapy was through yoga and what it did for her. And yoga is a form of movement that is used for healing not just on a physical level but a mental and emotional level. It’s also a way to experience the mind and body connection.

There are so many different types of yoga and different ways to enter the practice. For some people it could be through the physical practice and for others through reading the books and doing self-study or meditation. It’s always about what moves you and what speaks and resonates with you and where you are in life. Speaking about movement, some of the movements and postures in yoga can create a space for a lot of healing and release.

There’s so much research now backing up just how impactful yoga is for health, not only mental but also physical, including reducing inflammation for example. It’s not just about flexibility and balance. With all this neurological research, we also have a lot more proof of the mirror neurons and the impact of them. In dance movement therapy, there’s this technique called “mirroring” where you bring someone else's movement into your body, so that you're sharing the movement together and it’s so impactful.

There’s definitely some overlap between yoga and dance movement therapy but there are also beautiful differences in those practices. There are a lot of dance movement therapists who are yoga teachers and there are a lot of yoga teachers that seem to have a dance background or a dance movement therapy background too.

Using Dance Movement Therapy to Treat Chronic Illness and Pain

We know dance movement therapy can help with anxiety and depression, but it can also help with physical pain and trauma. As we mentioned, the body and the mind are connected and there are many chronic illnesses that can be traced back to unresolved trauma and stored emotions. Using the movement therapy lens, there might be unresolved traumas and things held in the body. Someone can come in because they think they’re depressed and then there's a lot more that we're unpacking and we're looking at during therapy.

Likewise, if someone comes in with a chronic illness or chronic pain, they can process and explore and find out what the source of the illness is through dance movement therapy.

So often in the mental health field what people hear is that there's a chemical imbalance and that they need medication, not to say that medications aren't sometimes appropriate and necessary and helpful, but it’s important for people to know that there are other tools that they can use to heal. It’s about opening up the possibilities for people so they don't feel stuck.

Whether it's through movement therapy, talk therapy or a mix of both. There are also art therapists, drama therapists, music therapists, etc. There are many creative arts therapists out there, it’s a matter of finding what works for you. And there’s research behind all of these different techniques that show how they are all therapeutic and can help us heal.

Recovery from stress and trauma can help with so many health issues, including anxiety, depression, fatigue, pain, digestive issues, autoimmunity, and recurrent infections, as well as HPV, and can help decrease risk of cancer, heart disease, dementia, and more.

If you want to reach out to Chauncey and learn more about how she can help you, please make sure to check out her website or her Instagram @refresh.psychotherapynyc. She and the other clinicians in her clinic offer both in-office and virtual sessions.

if you want to learn more about how stress and trauma affect us, and how to recover so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

In the book, I describe what I refer to as SelfC.A.R.E. based on your Stress Type. C stands for Clean Eating, A for adequate sleep, R for recovery activities, and E for exercise. I share the research behind how C.A.R.E. works in a daily routine to help us process stress. And why it’s important to choose C.A.R.E., including movement/exercise, that matches for your body.

To know your Stress Type, which is your unique cortisol and adrenaline levels based on how stresses have affected your adrenal function, you can take the quiz I developed. You can find the Stress Type® Quiz in the book and on my website.

Then, if you’re ready to start rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, to help your adrenals reset after stress exposure, you can start by ordering this home test kit. And you can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Online Program to guide you here.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do without affecting your daily routine, you can check out my New 14-Day Detox Program here. In the Detox Program I teach you to connect with yourself, and use mind-body tools, such as biofeedback, to process emotions.

For the most comprehensive support to recover from stress and trauma, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#171 Joint Hypermobility Syndrome: How to Get Out of Pain 0

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Aug 3, 2023

In today's episode we're going to be talking about joint hypermobility. This is a topic that's important to me both clinically and personally because I was diagnosed with it a few years ago. What I find is that joint hypermobility is much more common than previously suspected, and there is so much we can do to help with the symptoms of pain, anxiety, fatigue, and more.

Joint hypermobility is sometimes referred to as joint hypermobility syndrome (JHS) or hypermobility spectrum disorder (HSD). It shows up a little bit differently in each person and is not well known by practitioners, which means that many people with hypermobility have seen numerous practitioners without receiving a diagnosis.

When they do receive a diagnosis, they are often told that “there is no cure,” which can make it seem as though there is nothing that can be done to help. That is simply incorrect. I’ll be sharing more why that is my perspective in this episode of How Humans Heal.

First, it is important to understand the various potential symptoms of hypermobility, so that you can start to understand how they are interconnected and unique to each person. That will also help us to understand why the approach needs to be individualized as well.

Mainly I want listeners/readers to know that I’m here as proof that it is possible to feel good, to be out of pain, and to thrive even when you tend toward joint hypermobility.

What is Joint Hypermobility?

Joint hypermobility is considered a connective tissue disorder. Connective tissue involves our skin, joints, ligaments, tendons, and fascia. Hypermobility syndromes are associated with joint instability and chronic pain. If you or someone you know has been experiencing joint pain and/or muscle pain for long periods of time, this is something to consider and to talk with your practitioners about, especially those who are experts in hypermobility, so they can help guide you.

Although it has been improving in recent years, still there is very low awareness for joint hypermobility amongst practitioners. I believe that is for two reasons: 1. it's a relatively newly identified condition. It was first described in 1967; 2. It’s considered to be a rare condition, otherwise known as a “zebra”in medicine, meaning that if someone comes in with joint pain, practitioners are more likely to think of the most common causes for joint pain before thinking of hypermobility syndrome. Research indicates that about 3% of people have joint hypermobility, but I actually think it's higher than that and is more common than we realize.

Now, joint hypermobility may or may not be part of another diagnosis called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) which includes joint hypermobility, with unstable joints that dislocate easily, as well as stretchy skin, easy bruising, wounds that are slow to heal and leave wide scars, hernias and organ prolapse. There are thirteen different types of Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, some of

which involve the blood vessels and digestion. To be diagnosed with EDS requires a genetic analysis to identify collagen-related gene variations.

The important thing is, if you feel joint pain or discomfort, you should start taking action now, regardless of it being hypermobility syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. You have to start taking steps to protect yourself and prevent it from causing further health issues.

To me the awful thing is that so many people who are diagnosed with joint hypermobility or with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome are told it's a genetic condition and that there’s nothing they can do, or that all that can be done is manage the pain.

To me, that is unacceptable. As a naturopathic doctor, and as someone with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, I can tell you there are so many things that help me feel better, and that help me prevent symptoms and health issues associated with hypermobility. There's so much you can do about it. I'm not saying that there's a cure, but by understanding it and by being proactive, you can get yourself out of pain and prevent health issues associated with hypermobility.

How to Know if You Have Joint Hypermobility

Our joints and a lot of other parts of our body are made of collagen. Collagen is so important for joints, bones, ligaments, tendons, blood vessels, intestines, and more. We all make collagen slightly differently. If the way your body makes collagen makes it a little more stretchy, then you may have very flexible collagen and hypermobile joints. But remember, it's a spectrum so not everybody with hypermobile joints can do extreme movements. The best way to identify if you have joint hypermobility is to do a Beighton score test, which is a nine-point scale related to range of motion of joints in the body. The higher you score, the more flexible your joints are.

The Beighton test starts with evaluating if you can touch the floor with your hands with your legs straight; this gets you one point. Next is evaluating if you can hyperextend your elbows. If your elbows can extend beyond making your arm look straight, then you get one point for each elbow. Same thing with your knees, so when you stand if your knees bow backwards, that's hyper mobility of the knees, and that's one point on each knee. Then there's the fingers - a classic is to measure if your thumb can reach all the way to your forearm and another is if you're little finger can point back more than 90 degrees from your hand, these are one point each.

And there are other signs too. If you notice other joints that can move more than other people's or they move out of position easily (or dislocate), that's also a sign that you may have joint hypermobility.

What Are the Symptoms Related to Joint Hypermobility?

Anxiety: There are other symptoms that can be related to joint hypermobility like fatigue, anxiety and even depression. Anxiety is highly correlated with hypermobility, research shows that 70% of people with hypermobility have anxiety, and people with anxiety are likely to have joint hypermobility as well.

Neurodivergence: Hypermobility is also correlated with depression and what's called neurodivergence. Neurodivergence is associated with differences in social preferences, ways of learning, ways of communicating, and ways of perceiving our environment. It is often associated with autism, ADHD and Tourette's syndrome. Neurodivergent individuals may be more sensitive to our environment emotionally, chemically, and physically. The nervous system is more sensitive and perceptive, and that can relate to being in chronic pain.

Chronic pain: The reason for pain is caused by joints being slightly out of position, triggering muscle spasms and fascial restrictions. With hypermobility, it is harder to identify where our body parts should be in space because the joint range of motion is greater. Our nervous system also has a different perception because our joints are more flexible and it’s not so clear when motion should stop, making it less likely for our joints to automatically or naturally be in an optimal position. We have less of an internal guidance system. Luckily it is possible to learn proprioception (where your body parts are in space), and by practicing body position and posture, we can prevent joint dislocations.

For someone who has collagen that's not so stretchy, this is easier because their joints are not allowing for further movement. If you have hypermobility, your joints will not tell you where to stop and so we have to train ourselves to know where our body is healthiest in space in order to decrease our pain and other symptoms. Muscle strength can also help keep our joints in place.

Bruising & Palpitations: Now, with joint hypermobility, and especially with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, you could have symptoms of easier bruising, palpitations, and/or a heart murmur, such as mitral valve prolapse (which is when the heart valves do not close properly between each beat, allowing blood to flow backwards).

Digestive Issues: You may also experience issues with the digestive tract, like constipation or diarrhea, and it may be considered IBS or irritable bowel syndrome. You may be diagnosed with IBD, which is inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn's disease or other forms of colitis. Hypermobility also makes it more likely that you will have Celiac disease or gluten sensitivity.

Dizziness: Joint hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome can also be associated with dysautonomia. Dysautonomia is a disorder of autonomic nervous system function. The autonomic nervous system is in charge of involuntary functions, such as breathing and our heartbeat. It also has to do with our response to stress. Dysautonomia involves an imbalance in the sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) parts of the autonomic nervous system. It can cause dizziness, fatigue, and weakness, especially when under stress.

It can also be related to POTS, or postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, which is a condition in which a reduced volume of blood returns to the heart and brain after standing up quickly. When you have hypermobility, you have very flexible collagen, and this makes it harder for your blood vessels to get the blood to your brain, so you feel dizzy for a few seconds until your body can catch up by increasing your heart rate. It can make you feel like you are going to faint, or actually cause you to faint.

Symptoms from Stress: Also, stress makes all these symptoms harder to manage. If you've been under a lot of stress, maybe going through a loss or stress at work, or stress in your relationship, or trauma of some sort, then your autonomic nervous system will be affected and not work smoothly. The sympathetic nervous system carries signals that put your body's systems on alert, while your parasympathetic carries signals that relax those systems.

We need a balance of the two. We need our bodies to be able to do a stress response and protect us from danger, but we also need our bodies to be able to turn off the stress response and go back to calm. When we're under constant stress, our bodies have a harder time flexing between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. That's when the autonomic nervous system starts having a harder time, and we start becoming more susceptible to infections (HPV, EBV, etc) and toxins, especially for those of us with hypermobility.

Mast Cell Activation: Another issue related to joint hypermobility and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is mast cell activation syndrome or MCAS. Mast cells are present throughout our bodies and secrete chemicals during allergic reactions, histamine in particular. Symptoms include episodes of abdominal pain, cramping, diarrhea, flushing, itching, wheezing, coughing, lightheadedness, rapid pulse and low blood pressure. Mast cell activation (and histamine) can also be related to headaches, like migraines, as well as neuropathy, symptoms of vulvovaginal pain, vaginitis and urinary/bladder pain. Autoimmunity, like rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis, and other inflammatory conditions, like ankylosing spondylitis and SAPHO, are also related.

MTHFR and Methylation Issues: A recent study associated hypermobility with MTHFR gene variations. MTHFR is the gene that manages the conversion of folic acid into folate, and folate is the active form of vitamin B9. Of course we all need B9 along with all the other B vitamins to help us in so many processes, including having healthy connective tissue. If we don't have enough folate, and if we don't have healthy methylation, this is going to affect the way our body creates collagen.

If we know that MTHFR is associated with hypermobility, and we know that not having enough folate and effective methylation affects your connective tissue, then we can do something about that. We can make sure you have adequate folate, and we can make sure you have effective methylation, in order to help protect your connective tissue and prevent pain and other health issues.

If you want to learn more about this, I encourage you to go listen to Episode #145 of my podcast: Efficient Methylation and its Impact on Our Health as well as my Free MTHFR Masterclass.

What Can We Do to Help Our Bodies if We Have Joint Hypermobility?

It is possible to help your body rebalance and correct where it needs help. To me, it's about understanding your biochemistry, and understanding your body's tendencies, and giving your body what it needs to heal and rebalance, which usually comes in the form of dietary changes, nutrients, supplements and herbs.

A lot of people feel stuck with their symptoms and the need for medications. With joint hypermobility, the main issues are joint and muscle pain, so one of the first treatments recommended is a pain medication, like non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). While offering temporary relief, they have a lot of side effects and can't be taken long term, plus they're not really solving anything, in fact, they might be making things worse, so that's not really a solution. Neither are steroidal drugs for pain as they also have negative effects on our bodies. Additionally, medications prescribed for hypermobility symptoms, such as anti-depressants and benzodiazepines, create dependency and have withdrawal symptoms.

To me, it's not enough to tell people with joint hypermobility that the only option is pain management. There is so much more that we can do. There are ways to manage pain by actually decreasing inflammation and using natural substances that don’t have side effects. It is also possible to start helping your body alongside the use of medications when you are working with an expert who understands the interactions and is able to guide you.

Physical therapy, massage therapy, myofascial therapy, acupuncture and exercises for posture and strength (such as Pilates) can help reduce the symptoms. It is important to make sure the practitioner or trainer understands what joint hypermobility is and the special needs that your body has because when you have joint hypermobility, you are more likely to suffer from injuries.

The approach needs to be completely different. It’s not about increasing flexibility or increasing intensity too much. And It’s also NOT going to help to stop exercising all together. It IS about doing the right type of exercise, in the right amount and frequency, for your body.

For me Pilates has been extremely helpful. It helped me to learn joint position and posture, and to gain strength without causing injury. Ballroom dancing also helps with posture and strength.

Myofascial release therapy has been hugely helpful as it can release the restrictions in the connective tissue. If you want to learn more about myofascial release therapy you can watch Episode #166 of How Humans Heal: Myofascial Release Therapy - Bringing Your Body Back to Alignment. Also in Episode #170 you can learn about how to get rid of joint and muscle pain using natural remedies.

Acupuncture and especially acupuncture that's using electrical stimulation can also help address the trigger points and motor points in the muscles, so it is a great option too.

Paying attention to your body, your posture, and your strength every day is a must if you have joint hypermobility. You can’t just get a massage once a year or go to physical therapy only if you get injured. You have to have a weekly plan to help relieve the symptoms and prevent injuries. If you don't keep up with that routine of managing your body and your joints, that's when you are more likely to find yourself in pain and at a greater risk of injuries.

Dietary changes to reduce inflammation, testing for food sensitivities, healing leaky gut, addressing the gut biome are all things that can help. If there is leaky gut and imbalanced gut biome, you have a source of inflammation from within your gut, and that's causing inflammation through your whole body which is going to increase your likelihood of pain.

Our biome is so important. It's not just about having a bunch of bacteria or probiotics. It's about having the right balance and how these bacteria communicate with our immune system and our nervous system. If you would like to learn more about how to balance your microbiome you can watch Episode #169 of my podcast: Getting Your Microbiome Back on Track.

It is also essential for anyone who has hypermobility to measure your cortisol and adrenaline levels. Hypermobility makes it more likely that your nervous system and adrenal gland function are disrupted by stress. It's more likely that you're going to have neurotransmitter imbalances, and either too high or too low cortisol and adrenaline, or what I call the stress types (the five most common disruptions of cortisol and adrenaline).

That's what I wrote about in the Master Your Stress Reset Your Health book. If you want to find out if your cortisol and adrenaline are out of balance, you can order my home test kit here. You can also take the Stress Type Quiz online and sign up for my Stress Warrior Program to guide you to optimize your cortisol and adrenaline (adrenal health) here.

We also need to do specific blood work so we can understand exactly how hypermobility is affecting you and if you have nutrient deficiencies. If you have hypermobility and inflammation and nutrient deficiencies, it could snowball into various health issues. This is why we need to look at the big picture, see the interconnections, and then guide your body through the steps to heal and prevent more health issues.

The best treatments for hypermobility are from what I would consider a naturopathic approach. It has to do with giving your body what it needs to heal in terms of food, nutrients, plants, herbs and other natural approaches. We need to make sure you are consuming adequate amounts of protein – learn more about that here. We can support the body to heal itself by working on the root causes of problems and solving them.

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol. Keep in mind that 50% of people with leaky gut, have zero digestive symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to do the food sensitivity panel I recommend.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here. If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here.

You can also subscribe to my newsletter where you'll receive a newsletter from me every Thursday with the latest episode and additional resources and tools for your success with achieving optimal health.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#170 Getting Rid of Joint and Muscle Pain For Good with Dr. Josh Levitt 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Jul 27, 2023

In today’s episode I get to introduce you to my friend and colleague Dr. Josh Levitt. He is a Naturopathic Doctor who graduated from Bastyr University like me and also holds a degree in physiology from UCLA. He is also the author and creator of several popular books and is a clinical preceptor for the Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Levitt draws upon the science of both conventional and natural medicine and artfully combines the two into a “best of both worlds” treatment strategy. He employs a unique blend of nutritional therapy, herbal medicine, and physical medicine to treat a wide range of common and complex medical problems.

Today we talk about musculoskeletal health, especially what people experience in terms of joint pain and not only why they're experiencing joint pain, but also the frustrations navigating the medical system related to joint pain and joint issues.

His interest and passion in helping people with their musculoskeletal health, and pain in general, comes from being a surfer and skateboarder as he was growing up in Southern California. Being in casts and braces of various sorts and going through lots of X-rays and lots of broken bones he developed an early interest in orthopedics and musculoskeletal health. Later in life, after going through a very serious skin infection while travelling through Europe, he discovered a new world of natural and herbal remedies and was instantly drawn to the naturopathic health world.

Conventional Medicine vs Naturopathy. Are They Mutually Exclusive?

Like so many things in life, health and medicine exist on a spectrum. Within that spectrum there are different domains, you have nutrition and herbs, and surgery and neurosurgery, medications, laughter, community, love, gratitude, etc. There is a long list of things that qualify as medicine in that context and conventional medicine and naturopathy should not be seen as mutually exclusive. In Naturopathy, the philosophy is to use the lowest amount of force that's necessary in order to promote healing. That is just one way of looking at medicine and what it means to heal. Using the least invasive or the least forced therapies for what a person needs is what Dr. Levitt uses in his approach to treating orthopedic and musculoskeletal health issues.

What Are Some of the Most Common Joint or Muscle Issues?

The most common complaint in primary care offices across the country is low back pain. We can go from there and say low back pain, mid back pain, and neck pain. So, pain in or around the spine is a big one. A common diagnosis is a bulging or herniated disc. It might be causing sciatica, and it might be degenerative disk disease in the neck or back. These kinds of spinal complaints are the things that people might go to an orthopedist for, but also might go to a chiropractor or an acupuncturist or a naturopathic doctor.

Other common causes of joint pain are rotator cuff problems in the shoulder, tennis elbow or carpal tunnel syndrome in the upper extremity, hip pain, knee pain, foot pain, and plantar fasciitis. There are so many different diagnoses in musculoskeletal category, but they all relate to people who have something that hurts and are looking for a way to heal.

What Is the Conventional Medicine Way to Treat Joint and Muscle Pain?

There's a very like predictable pattern of prescriptions that happen for people who are in pain. It starts with over-the-counter pain relievers or anti-inflammatory medications. It goes up from there to injectable forms of those drugs, to steroidal medications and corticosteroids, to some kind of surgical intervention. That's just a very common and predictable pattern we see in conventional medicine.

A lumbar fusion, a microdiscectomy, a laminectomy, an arthroscopic knee surgery, or a full-blown knee or hip replacement. There are hundreds of thousands of surgeries being performed in this country on spines, necks, backs, knees and hips that are outright unnecessary or totally inappropriate, and that's a tragedy.

In naturopathic medicine there are so many options and tools that could prevent the need for medications and even surgery. Why use such a powerful invasive tool when another less powerful, less invasive, less toxic, less forceful intervention would do the trick?

A knee replacement in the appropriate patient and circumstance is a beautiful thing. In fact, it's almost miraculous, but only when done on the right person in the right situation. If you do it on a person who doesn't need that level of intervention, that's almost criminal.

When we look at people who are in their 40s who do not have back pain and take MRIs of their backs, you will find that 40% of them have bulging discs in their lumbar spine. Same with knees with meniscus tears or chronic degenerative meniscus tears in the knees - 40% of people have those and their knees feel great. And then you go up every decade from there - in their fifties it’s 50%, in their sixties it’s 60% of people who are feeling good have evidence of degenerative problems in their spine and/or joints.

As soon as they feel some kind of pain and they go to a doctor they get that MRI and then the pain is immediately linked to that degenerative problem. This is simply not true. There are other things that can be causing the pain and they need to be evaluated. For example, excessive inflammation, muscle tension, strength versus flexibility imbalance, fibrosis, and also the psycho-emotional part of it. When we address these things comprehensively people get better and can avoid the need for medications or surgery to heal.

What Is Inflammation and What’s it’s Role on The Body?

Inflammation is named after fire in Latin and so inflammation and fire are really similar. We need them both. Fire is very important, as we know we use it to cook and we use it to stay

warm. Fire is part of our lives, and when it's contained and controlled it's great but when fire escapes the fire pit or the candle, you have a big problem. It becomes maybe one of the most destructive forces in nature. Inflammation is very similar; people think of it as bad and want to suppress inflammation, but it is absolutely fundamental to healing. It’s our body’s response to help us heal. But just like fire, when that inflammation is excessive, it becomes destructive. It can be a major driver of chronic disease and painful syndromes.

If you get stung by a bee or stub your toe, you want an inflammatory response to start the healing process. You just want it to be normal and not excessive, because that's when it starts to be a wildfire. Our diet, physical activity level, stress exposure, environmental toxins, and lifestyle in general are all factors that affect our body’s ability to produce a controlled inflammatory response. Then if a person is having an excessive reaction that persist, we can use therapeutic herbal medicines to get it back to normal.

Herbal treatments and diet changes are a long run fight. The person needs to understand that dietary changes, supplements, herbs, and nutrients are going to make that person less likely to have problems in the future.

Now, if someone shows up with a knee the size of a grapefruit, they will need to feel better right away because they are in terrible pain and that’s where conventional drugs might work.

But it’s also proven that when you suppress inflammation aggressively, like with steroids or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, especially for extended periods, the problem will be worse over the long term. They will be more likely to require more medication and more interventions over time. It's like winning the battle but losing the war.

There's a parallel in fever. If we suppress the fever, we will feel better, but so will the virus or the bacteria and it will likely take us longer to heal. It's very similar with the inflammatory response.

What Natural Tools Do We Have to Drop Joint and Muscle Inflammation?

There are many natural remedies to drop inflammation that can avoid the need for non-steroidal or steroidal drugs that work for joint pain:

1. Curcumin: This is the active ingredient in turmeric. When you dry the turmeric root and put it into a powder, about 2% of that powder will be curcumin. Curcumin targets many of the different actors inside the inflammatory cascade and modulates the inflammatory response in a very powerful way. This herbal medicine is extremely safe, very well tolerated and powerfully effective. It also has a quite broad dosage range. You can go very high without getting yourself in trouble.

2. Boswellia Serrata Frankincense: This is made of a resin from a from a tree and it is also anti-inflammatory. It targets inflammation in a different way than curcumin and can work in

resurfacing cartilage and improving the integrity of cartilage surfaces that have been damaged by wear and tear.

3. Bromelain: This is an enzyme that is extracted from pineapple and it's antifibrotic. It’s the active ingredient in meat tenderizer so when you sprinkle meat tenderizer on a piece of tough gristly meat it chemically digests fibrin in that tough steak and makes it more tender, and so bromelain does the same thing in your body, it gets absorbed and will have a fibrinolytic effect in your body and that's a good thing when you have fibrin or fibrosis that's restricting blood flow, nerve activity or range of motion inside of a joint.

4. Magnesium: In terms of addressing the muscular part of the pain, there's a lot of things that can be done like acupuncture, stretches, strengthening exercises, etc. But if we talk about what can you take orally for muscular pain, magnesium is very effective. Magnesium is not an herb; it's a mineral and it is a very important for physiology for all kinds. It works by decreasing muscle tension and increasing muscle relaxation. Specifically, magnesium glycinate or malate are the types that will work best for muscular pain and not so much other forms of magnesium like citrate and oxide.

Magnesium can be used topically too in the form of lotion or Epsom salts because it absorbs through the skin and can work for muscle relaxation or healing injuries.

Another good resource for someone that has for example joint hypermobility and tendency toward pain is acupuncture with electrical stimulation. This is a procedure in which mild electric currents are applied to certain spots on the body and can control pain and other inflammatory symptoms. Myofascial release therapy can also be very helpful in combination with these approaches.

Also, cannabis in the form of CBD and THC is a good resource that is being used in recent years to treat muscle tension, pain, and inflammation. It can be used both topically in which case it doesn’t give you that psychoactive component, just the anti-inflammatory and antispasmodic effect. There’s a lot of literature for cannabis being used to treat all kinds of different medical problems so it is a good alternative when used in the right patient in the right circumstance.

What Else Can Be Done to Avoid Going Through Surgery?

If you have tried the all the natural methods described here (diet changes, addressing stress, using herbs and nutrients, stretch and exercises, physical therapy, acupuncture, etc.) and you are still in pain, you might want to consider going to the next step.

There are other tools out there for treating joint and muscle issues before you go through surgery. For example, prolotherapy, stem cell injections, PRP (which is platelet rich plasma injections), hyaluronic acid injections are all regenerative therapies that are absolutely resources to try before surgery.

Unfortunately, these things, generally speaking, are out of pocket expenses in most places and can cost thousands of dollars, so we have to evaluate about whether or not these treatments fit into our budgets.

What About the Psycho-Emotional Part of Pain?

Physical pain can have a psycho-emotional source. You have to be able to really ask yourself what is going on in your life now that can be triggering that pain. This becomes very clear when you start taking a closer look at what is going on in your life, what is happening and what emotions are coming up in this process of analyzing it.

We’ve talked about the spectrum between alternative or natural medicine and conventional medicine, and the spectrum of inflammation and here again, the body and the mind are not two different things, they are the same thing, they are part of this big spectrum called the “human body.” And so, it's impossible to have a physical malady, arthropathy, a degenerative meniscus tear or a bulging disc in your spine without having a psycho-emotional and even spiritual component to it. We are physical, emotional, and spiritual beings and so any impact upon any of our systems will affect all of the others as well.

There can be blockages or restrictions or suppressions from other things in our lives that can affect various parts of our body and they will manifest as pain. When you have a problem in your knee or your back it hurts, it's just pain and pain is a messenger. It's a messenger that tells us that something is wrong and that that our behavior needs to change, because if we don’t then something worse is going to happen. This change could mean changing something in our posture, physical activity, diet, stress exposure, toxins exposure, nutrient deficiencies, and the psycho-emotional part of our lives.

The problem is that very often those behavior changes can be counterproductive if we do not go through the pain of understanding the process we need to go through to really heal. If we just shield ourselves away from the pain either in a psychological, physical, or structural way, we could end up perpetuating the problem.

A lot of the work that needs to be done for musculoskeletal pain, especially chronic, ongoing long-term pain, is to help patients understand that in most cases, it's not dangerous; it just hurts. This is hard because pain feels dangerous; it feels scary, but we need to be able to pull back from that and really own the pain in order to heal.

If we take the time and the space to just be curious and present, and instead of being in fear and running away from pain, stay with it and learn from it, and listen to our body, it can be very liberating and it can show us what we need to do in order to start the healing process.

If you want to reach out to Dr. Josh and learn more about how he can help you, please make sure to check out his website Upwellness or find him on social @drjoshlevitt on IG and @upwellness on TT.

To find highest quality supplements mentioned in this episode, you can go to Dr. Doni’s online store.

To understand my approach to helping people recover from inflammation and pain, you may want to start by reading my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health. In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected your cortisol and adrenaline levels. It’s by knowing your Stress Type that we are able to know which herbs and nutrients best match what your body needs in order to heal. You can also take the Stress Type Quiz online. And if you’d like help implementing my Stress Recovery Protocol, you can follow my Stress Warrior Program online from anywhere in the world.

If you’re interested in a safe and effective body, mind and spirit detoxification that will actually make you feel better and that you can do even while keeping up with your usual schedule, you can check out my 14-Day Detox Program here. In the Detox Program I teach you to connect with yourself, and use mind-body tools, such as biofeedback, to process emotions while balancing your blood sugar levels, dropping inflammation, and avoiding toxins. It’s the perfect reset that you can start at any time.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

#169 Getting Your Microbiome Back on Track 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

-

Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

Download this Episode

Jul 20, 2023

In today's episode we're going to be talking about the gut microbiome. Why it's important, how to know what's going on with your microbiome and how to optimize it.

The microbiome consists of microbes that are both helpful and potentially harmful for us and our bodies. Most of these organisms are symbiotic, meaning they and us benefit at the same time, but some are pathogenic, which are those that cause trouble, produce toxins, and increase inflammation.

When we are healthy, both symbiotic and pathogenic microorganisms coexist without problems in a perfect balance and without causing us to get sick. The problem comes when this perfect balance is disrupted, causing our metabolic and immune function to be negatively affected.

That’s why it is so important to identify and to get your microbiome back on track.

Today we will focus mainly on the gut biome, although it is now well known that it is important to have a healthy balance of microbes in all different areas of our bodies, including the skin and vagina. They all relate back to the gut, so let’s focus there.

What Is the Gut Microbiome?

I'm thinking that a lot of you probably have heard about the gut microbiome, also known as the biome or the gut microbiota. Essentially, it's referring to the microorganisms that are living in our digestive tract.

This group of microbes living inside of us fluctuate on a daily, weekly and monthly basis based on our diet, physical activity, medications we take, toxins exposure and stress exposure.

The important thing here is to try to have a healthy balance of this microbes as much as possible. When there's a healthy balance, the good bacteria counterbalance the potentially harmful bacteria. When our microbiome gets out of balance, it’s either that there are not enough good bacteria, or too much of the potentially harmful bacteria. And that’s when health issues start.

Research is showing that if the gut microbiome gets out of balance, it can increase the risk of many health issues including infections (bacterial, yeast, and viral), autoimmunity conditions, metabolic disorders, even weight gain, anxiety, depression, menstrual irregularities, PCOS, endometriosis, fertility issues, osteoporosis, kidney diseases, heart disease, diabetes, and dementia. Having a healthy balance of microbes in the gut is essential for our health.

What Is This Gut Microbiome Doing for Us?

As you might suspect from the various health issues that I just mentioned, the microbiome communicates and supports our immune system and help protect us from infections and autoimmunity (which is when our immune system gets confused and starts trying to protect us from our own self) so, by having a good balance of microbes in your gut, you're helping your immune system stay on track and protect you.

These microbes also communicate with our nervous system via the Vagus nerve and other mechanisms. These guys are sending messages to our brain and our nervous system, they're communicating about what's happening down in our gut, they can cause us to crave some kinds of foods in order to feed them. They can affect our mood, our memory and our focus.

They also make certain nutrients like B vitamins (including activating B12), vitamin K and short chain fatty acids (which are protective to the colon). Furthermore, they participate in making neurotransmitters such as GABA and can influence the production of serotonin and dopamine in our nervous system. What we're learning from research is that they help us recover from stress and toxin exposure!

As you know I specialize in how humans are affected by stress and what we can do to recover from stress, and so I would say that optimizing the microbiome has a huge impact on our stress recovery.

How Do We Maintain a Healthy Microbiome?

So, we now know they're important, but how do we take care of them? It’s like having a pet, you must know how to feed them and how to take care of them so that they can be healthy.

What we eat is what feeds our gut bacteria. Of course, they're living in our gut so what we swallow is going to influence them and what's going to feed them potentially. Our gut bacteria can ferment foods what we as humans are unable to digest, like fiber or complex starches for example. They can ferment fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds.

Foods and fibers that feed our microbiome are called “prebiotics.”

Fructooligosaccharides in garlic, onions, leeks, asparagus, artichokes, kale, dandelion, as well as bananas, contain the highest amount of prebiotics, or super food, for our gut bacteria.

It’s important to know that it's possible to over feed your gut bacteria!

In fact, I would say that it is much more likely to overfeed your bacteria than to underfeed them. I see a higher percentage of patients with overgrowing bacteria rather than with too few bacteria. Going back to the pet analogy, we have to know how to feed our gut bacteria correctly.

Symptoms of overfeeding your gut bacteria include bloating, gas, cramping, bowel changes, weight gain, and burping. Consuming prebiotics in excess or eating too much fermented foods (yoghurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, kombucha, etc.) can cause overgrowth.

We want that optimal amount and balance of good and bad gut bacteria, so just be aware and cautious and listen to your body. If you are consuming a lot of prebiotics, high fiber foods, fermented foods and you start to feel bloated or have bowel changes or gas, or even if you have infections (sinus, bladder, vaginal) or joint pain, inflammation, headaches, skin rashes, these are all symptoms that you may be overfeeding your gut bacteria.

How Can You Know if You’re Overfeeding Your Gut Microbiome?

What you can do is a stool analysis. For many years we have had stool cultures. The culture is when you send in a stool sample into the lab and they allow it to grow over several days. The problem with cultures is that some bacteria are anaerobic, so they don’t grow in a lab environment.

Then, about a decade ago, they came out with a DNA analysis of the gut bacteria. This is DNA sequencing so no matter whether the bacteria are alive or not, they can identify them based on their DNA. This is a much more accurate way of knowing which bacteria are thriving, or overgrowing, in your microbiome.

There are now consumer versions of these stool tests that you can order online and send in your stool sample. They may make suggestions in terms of how to change your diet to feed the bacteria that are too low, and not overfeed those that are too high.

It's important to consider that, while making certain diet changes can help, I have not found that decreasing or increasing specific foods is an effective solution to adjust your microbiome (and I have tried it with hundreds of patients). That is because many of the same foods that feed the good bacteria, also feed the bad bacteria. It doesn’t work to manipulate your diet, in terms of eating specific fruits or seeds, in order to make minor adjustments in your biome.

A much better approach is to choose a variety of foods in your diet.

If you’re eating the exact same foods every day, it is more likely to cause an overgrown of bacteria (or yeast). In that case, increasing the variety in your diet and eating other kinds of fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds each day, or alternating through the week, will help to improve the diversity of bacteria because you’ll be feeding a greater number of types overall.

When it comes to our gut microbiome, we want diversity. There are over 1,000 bacterial species that have been identified with about 160 species being found living in the gut of any individual so we don't want to just feed certain ones.

Now, if your gut microbiome is really needing more help and you have symptoms of overgrowing bacteria, or a health issue related to the gut biome, then some additional steps need to be taken. There is a clinical stool panel called the GI MAP that I find has helped so many of my patients by showing exactly which bacteria, yeast, protozoa and/or parasites are present, so we can tailor a specific protocol to address them.

I can order this test through my office for you and then we can see who's living there in your gut. It will also tell us if there is inflammation (calprotectin) or antigliadin antibodies, and how well are you digesting your food. We can see quite a lot about your digestive system in this type of clinical stool panel, and from there I can get way more specific and design a strategy for you so we can get your biome back on track.

What Can We Do to Rebalance Our Gut Bacteria?

When we're constantly under stress, we don't digest our food well, and this will cause an imbalance in the gut bacteria, let alone many potential health issues. If our food is not digested well, we're not going to be able to absorb the nutrients, so it's not going to feed us, and instead it's going to overfeed the bacteria and other microbes.

So, how do we support our digestion? Well, we can start by taking the time to slow down and consciously eat. Take your time and sit down, breathe, chew well, etc. This way you are sending signals to your Vagus nerve communicating that it's time to make enzymes and digest.

You can also take pancreatic enzymes if needed to help you digest food while your system is healing. This is something that will show on the stool panel. Also, if you're not making enough bile, we can support bile production for fat digestion. If you're not making enough stomach acid (hydrochloric acid) we can add that to help with protein digestion. We can support the digestion of your food in many different ways, including herbs that stimulate digestion or even just eating plants that are bitter (like arugula), which help with digestion.

If there's overgrowing pathogenic bacteria, referred to as “dysbiosis,” I would guide you through a protocol of using antimicrobial herbs that are effective at addressing the bacteria that are overgrowing, without wiping out all your good bacteria. That's a very specific protocol that I developed and tested over the years and one that works for the majority of patients.

In addition to antimicrobial herbs, I also recommend using probiotics that contain the bacillus species (such as Megaspore), which I consider to be the traffic directors of the microbiome. These bacteria are able to rebalance your gut biome by supporting the good guys and telling the overgrowing or pathogenic bacteria that they need to go.

Once we get the balance back then we can shift our strategy to maintaining the balance by eating a healthy, balanced, and diverse diet, along with potentially using a maintenance probiotic, which is going to contain lactobacillus and bifidobacterium in the range of 25 to 50 billion per day.

It’s important to consider that when trying to rebalance your gut microbiome, it’s better to do it slowly. An aggressive change can cause the pathogenic bacteria to release toxins as a defense mechanism, and this can make you feel worse. Starting with very low doses of bacillus and antimicrobial herbs and listening to your body in the process is key to a good outcome.

It's also important to think about the environment. If there’s leaky gut, unhealthy cells, and inflammation, then the good bacteria will not thrive, so we need to be paying attention to making it a happy, healthy environment for the healthy bacteria and microbes to live in.

What Are the Causes of a Disruption in the Microbiome?

One of the main causes of dysbiosis, and one that I have been helping a lot of patients with through the years, is leaky gut. With leaky gut, the foods we eat “leak” through the intestinal lining because the intestinal cells have become damaged and there is more space between the cells.

When undigested food leaks through the intestinal lining, the immune system responds in an effort to protect us, which leads to inflammation that can spread throughout the body. At the same time, the intestinal cells are not able to absorb nutrients from the foods we eat and, of course, our microbiome is disrupted.

A poor diet, overconsumption of alcohol, smoking, stress and exposure to environmental toxins are all factors in developing leaky gut. The best protection is a healthful diet high in natural fiber and low in added sugars and processed foods.

Another cause of dysbiosis is taking some types of medications like antibiotics, antacid medications, such as proton pump inhibitors, and many other medications. These meds will kill both good and bad bacteria, so we need to counteract this effect by taking the right probiotics. This is also why it is important to avoid the use of medications whenever possible.

Stress is a major factor in the disruption of our microbiome. Stress includes psycho-emotional stress, trauma, as well as physical stressed and injuries. If you know you've been under stress, you're going to want to be proactive to help your microbiome to recover.

We also know that gluten (in wheat, rye, barley, and spelt) disrupts the bacteria and decreases the levels of various kinds of healthy bacteria. If you're consuming gluten, and even if you don't have gluten sensitivity or celiac disease, there's a chance you're disrupting your gut bacteria.

Also sugar, refined carbs, processed foods, non-organic foods, a low-fiber diet, pesticides, artificial sweeteners, artificial flavors and colors added to foods, all cause gut biome disruption.

Exposure to toxins, such as toxins in our environment, our food, water, air, and exposure to mold toxins (such as if you’re living in a water damaged building), all affect our digestion and they affect our microbiome.

When it comes down to it, our gut biome is potentially being disrupted every day. It’s by raising our awareness, and being mindful about what we eat, and how we recover from stress, that we are able to keep our gut microbiome optimized.

What Are Some Products Out There That Can Help Rebalance the Microbiome?

There is another new stool panel that not only tells us about the balance of bacteria in your biome, but then also offer custom probiotic formulations based on your results. So if you're low in certain strains of bacteria, then that's what they're going to put in your individualized probiotics. That company is called Flore and I can help you with that through my office if you're interested in trying that out as a way to re-optimize your gut biome.

There's recent research that's identifying individual strains of bacteria and how they specifically help us with our health. I think we're going to see more and more products, such as supplements or beverage products, that contain these specific bacteria based on research that shows how they're potentially beneficial for our health.

For example, there's one type of bacteria called Bifidobacterium 1741, which is considered a “psychobiotic” because it’s been shown in research to help with stress recovery, specifically to bring cortisol down. So, in terms of the Stress Types I identified, this would be especially helpful for a Stress Magnet, or Night Owl, or Sluggish and Stressed type, who have elevated cortisol levels. If you want to find out your Stress Type, you can do my free online Stress Type Quiz here.

Bifidobacterium 1741 has also been shown to help with mental health in terms of cognition, focus and memory. This type of bacteria can be found in products like Zenbiome - Zenbiome Cope and Zenbiome Sleep.

There's also Bifidobacterium 35642 which has been shown to modulate inflammation. This would be especially helpful for someone who is experiencing a lot of inflammation and pain. Zenbiome Dual contains both Bifidobacterium 1741 and 35642. https://doctordoni.com/product/zenbiome-dual-60-capsules/

There's also quite a lot of research on the bacteria related to the vaginal biome and how it is completely related to the health of the gut biome. This is so important because if you're having vaginal symptoms or recurrent vaginal infections, like yeast, BV, or HPV, we know it is important that we heal your gut biome in order to help heal the vaginal biome and prevent those infections from happening.

If you want to learn more about the vaginal biome related to the gut biome you can watch Episode #168 of How Humans Heal here. If you’re interested in a probiotic that is specifically formulated to support a healthy vulvovaginal microbiota you can find one here. And another here. https://doctordoni.com/product/ortho-biotic-womens-30-capsules/

More examples of specific oral probiotics to benefit areas of the body and for certain purposes are: * Bifidobacterium HU36 - shown to help with carotenoid and the skin. https://doctordoni.com/product/sereneskin-30-capsules/ * Lactobacillus rhamnosus DR7, which has been shown especially to be helpful for mood and stress recovery or bacteria that has been shown to help with our neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine.

*Bifidobacterium BPL1 which has been shown to help with weight gain around the waist.

One more approach that is being used, especially in cases where there is the need to control an infection called Clostridium difficile, or C. diff (which is a pathogenic bacteria that a lot of times is hard to treat and get rid of) is something called a “fecal transplant.”

A fecal transplant is a procedure to collect feces from a healthy donor and introduce them into a patient’s gastrointestinal tract. Research shows that a fecal transplant can restore healthy bacteria in the lower intestine, which can help control C. diff and keep it from coming back. In some cases this can be more effective than antibiotics for keeping C. diff in check.

Still, even after using a specific probiotic, or having a fecal transplant, we will need to come back to rebalancing and maintaining the overall population and diversity of bacteria based on what we eat and supporting healthy digestion.

How to Integrate Microbiome Optimization into Your Overall Health Plan?

No matter what, I think it's important to keep in mind that we need to take into account all of the root causes of our health issues.

Yes, we can take a bacteria-containing supplement, and we can learn to consume an optimal amount of prebiotics to feed our biome, and all that can help, but we also need to work on our recovery from stress and anything else that was thrown out of balance by stress.

We need to ensure optimal cortisol levels because cortisol determines the signals to our digestion. We need to optimize hormone levels such as insulin and blood sugar levels, thyroid, as well as leptin and the sex hormones. We need to address nutrient deficiencies and toxins.

We have to address all the underlying causes to really shift the imbalances permanently and achieve our best health and resilience to stress going forward.

If you really want to heal there needs to be a whole protocol put into action for your specific body. This is why I encourage you to refer to my overall stress recovery protocol because I'm addressing all the potential imbalances, not just the microbiome. Yes, the microbiome is hugely important, but we have to also think about all the other potential imbalances along with it because then everything can help maintain resilience together.

So, as you can see, there are many solutions - many ways to help you rebalance your microbiome. I've worked with some of the most challenging and complex cases - people who were put on the most strict diets and worked with many other practitioners - and I've helped guide them back out of it to heal their digestion, optimize their biome and help them feel better. That's where I get my confidence to say it's possible to get your microbiome back on track again.

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol. Keep in mind that 50% of people with leaky gut, have zero symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to do the food sensitivity panel I recommend.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here. If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here.

If you want to feel better by rebalancing your cortisol and neurotransmitters, start with this home test kit. You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here.

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health. In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

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#168 MATURE CONTENT - Improving Your Pelvic and Vaginal Health with Dr. Betsy Greenleaf 0

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

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Additional Resources:

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sign up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program (https://doctordoni.com/leaky-gut-program) where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here (https://doctordoni.com/ddpp/hpv-guide/).

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here (https://drdoni.lpages.co/hpv-12-week-program/).

You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here (https://doctordoni.com/stress-program).

Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health (https://doctordoni.com/master-your-stress/). In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online (https://doctordoni.com/quiz/stress-quiz/)

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here (https://doctordoni.com/work-with-me/)

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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Jul 13, 2023

In today’s episode I get to introduce you to my friend Dr. Betsy Greenleaf. She is the First Board Certified Female Urogynecologist in the United States. She is also a Distinguished Fellow of the American College of Osteopathic Obstetrics & Gynecology, a Premiere Women's Health Expert and a Motivational Speaker.

Dr. Betsy was in private practice for almost 20 years and now she's building online experiences for women to heal themselves in the urogynecological area.

Urogynecology is the area of medicine that covers the diagnosis and treatment of conditions that affect the bladder, reproductive system, and rectum, including pelvic floor disorders. Urogynecologists can be urologists or gynecologists trained in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery.

Today we talk about urogynecology and general pelvic and vaginal health.

What is a Pelvic Organ Prolapse?

A uterine prolapse occurs when the muscles and tissue in your pelvis weaken. This allows your uterus to drop down into your vagina.

Our pelvic organs are open to gravity because we don’t have bone structures at the bottom of the pelvic floor. All we have is muscles and ligaments, and those ligaments are not even that strong, so anything that causes a lot of pressure, and the pelvis can rip and tear those ligaments.

Then the uterus may not stay up where it's supposed to be, or the bladder, or the rectum, and then those three organs that are very close to each other and lean on each other can end up pushing each other out.

Most commonly women who've had long and difficult pregnancies or have given birth to a large baby or multiple babies are at risk of a prolapse. Also, women who are chronically constipated, or do effort constantly like lifting heavy objects or gymnastics, or even people with asthma attacks or chronic bronchitis where they're hard coughing all the time, all these things are going to put a lot of pressure on the pelvic floor.

How is a Pelvic Prolapse Treated?

Surgery is an option that has been around for long, using the mesh as in hernia surgery, but they found out overtime that when you put mesh in the pelvic floor it doesn't work as well as it does when you put it in for hernia and there were some women who ended up developing problems over the years, so unfortunately there's not great surgery for this. Furthermore, these surgeries have shown to not be permanent so once you've had one surgery you're at higher risk

of it dropping again and having to get another surgery. Some non-surgical options that are available include a device called a pessary which folds up inside the vagina and they just wedge in place so they can hold all the organs.

Another option is prevention by strengthening the pelvic floor. Here is where Kegels which involve tightening and then releasing the muscles in your pelvic floor to strengthen them. We start losing 8 to 10% muscle mass every decade of our lives so if you don't start strengthening those muscles it's definitely going to be a factor of prolapse risk. Other exercises include sitting down and putting a ball or pillow between your legs and squeezing your knees together.

Physical therapy can help too. It is important to start this therapy as soon as possible. For example, in France when women give birth they automatically get put into a physical therapy program after birth and not surprisingly France has the lowest rate of incontinence and prolapse.

What About the Relationship Between the Pelvis and the Microbiome?

There’s now something called next generation sequencing where we can swap the vagina and we can see everything that's there and so we're getting a better understanding of what's going on with the microbiome of the vagina. With this advanced testing we're discovering other bacteria and so the exciting part about this is that women can now understand why some conventional treatments are not working for some issues. What they're finding out with these newer tests is that there's many more bacteria that are interacting in our bodies.

In Dr. Betsy’s case what happened was she was getting chronic yeast infections and the yeast medicines were not working. Then she started looking into the gut microbiome testing and finally found out that her gut was filled with yeast. So, a lot of times when you're someone getting vaginal symptoms it's really a symptom of a larger problem going on with the microbiome of the gut. So, in this case we need to balance the gut out to get the vagina healthy.

What’s even more interesting is that scientists are finding that there's this like microbiome connection between the vagina and the brain through the vagus nerve. So, if the bacteria in the vagina is off that is going to dampen our sex drive and a lot of women are going to their doctors thinking if they don’t have a sex drive it must be hormonal, but it may be a microbiome issue.

We have also seen evidence of more problems with infertility when the microbiome in the vagina is off.

It really is exciting because it gives more treatment possibilities, it helps us to see and so women don't have to be just struggling with infertility, low libido, or chronic infections, when we can actually be detectives and identify the imbalances both in the urovaginal area and the gut.

There are also natural ways to rebalance the microbiome in the vagina. We want the healthy bacteria to stay there and get the bad bacteria out. One way of doing this is balancing the PH in the vagina. The vagina is naturally very acidic and so in a very high acidic (3.5 to 4.5 acidity range) the healthy bacteria thrives, and the bad bacteria doesn't. One of the products that’s out there is Boric Acid. Boric Acid will balance out the vagina whether it's yeast or bacteria.

Are There Good and Bad Products to Use Vaginally?

When it comes to cleaning, plain water is the best option. If we want to use soaps or other products, we should definitely look at the ingredients and stay away from sodium lauryl sulfate which can be very irritating and polypropylene glycol that is in a lot of woman's products that is a mucosal irritant. And avoid fragrances, dyes and detergents. Also, it’s a good idea to avoid the use of lubricants because they can throw off the PH balance in the vagina.

There are also some products out there that promote acidity in the vagina like lactic acid products, the only thing is if you have a milk allergy you kind of want to stay away from lactic acid. Also, there are some vaginal probiotics that come in suppositories that are over the counter that promote healthy bacteria growth.

When it comes to vaginal douching we have to be careful because if you have a bacterial infection douching can spread that bacteria into the uterus, the fallopian tubes and into the abdominal cavity and that can make you really sick.

The best thing to do to promote vaginal health is to also address your gut health as there is evidence that these systems are connected. The more you improve your gut health, drop inflammation, and get your digestion working as well as your gut bacteria the more you’re going to see a positive impact in your vaginal microbiome and overall health.

We can also see how the gut health is related to HPV, when you have a persistent HPV case one of the first things to do is to get your gut health and gut bacteria on point, this will in turn improve your vaginal acidity and microbiome and make it harder for the HPV virus to thrive.

What About Regenerative Medicine for Pelvic Health?

This is something that's changing every day. We're coming up with new options and treatments that could be done at home or at practitioner’s offices.

There’s PRP which is when platelet-rich plasma is injected where stem cells multiply and grow new younger tissue. PRP can regenerate the vaginal tissue. This procedure works by stimulating stem cells to grow healthier vaginal tissue. There’s also laser or light therapy to rejuvenate tissue using devices in the vagina that work on light energy, penetrating the tissue and making a little hole. Then the body reacts to heal that hole and it floods it with growth factors. There’s radio frequency therapy using sound waves to generate heat to cause the tissue to regenerate. We're kind of entering this world where anything that's being done for rejuvenation purposes cosmetically is now being applied to the vagina and other areas of the pelvic floor too.

Doing all these things in combination can give people better results because they work on the tissue in different ways.

If you want to reach out to Dr. Betsy and learn more about how she can help you, please make sure to check out her website or her Instagram @drbetsygreenleaf_.

You can also check her upcoming Happy Vagina Rally which is an online women's summit where 40 speakers will be talking about vaginal health, general pelvic health, HPV, hormones, hair loss, gut health, bladder health, energy levels, etc.

If you’re interested in learning more about my approach to healing HPV you can find my new HPV Recovery Guide here.

If you are tired of this virus and are really committed to erasing it from your life forever, you can sign up for my Say Goodbye to HPV 12-Week Program here.

If you want to work on your gut health and microbiome you may want to sing up for my Heal Leaky Gut Program where I teach you how to heal leaky gut with my proven protocol. Keep in mind that 50% of people with leaky gut, have zero symptoms, so the only way to know for sure is to do the food sensitivity panel I recommend.

For the most comprehensive support, even with the most difficult health issues (physical or mental), it is best to meet with me one-on-one, which is available to you no matter where you are in the world (via phone or zoom). You can set up a one-on-one appointment with me here.

We're here to help you!

Connect with Dr. Doni:

HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/STRESSWARRIOR

Weekly Wellness Wisdom Newsletter: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/WWW

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Books and Resources:

Order My New Book: https://www.amazon.com/Master-Your-Stress-Reset-Health/dp/1953295576

Stress Warrior Book (FREE)

Stress Warrior Stress Resiliency Facebook Group (FREE)

HTTPS://FACEBOOK.COM/GROUPS/STRESSWARRIOR

7-day Stress Reset (FREE)

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HPV & Cervical Dysplasia Guide (FREE)

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Personalized Solutions:

If you’d like to meet with Dr. Doni one-on-one for your health, request a Health Breakthrough Session: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/BREAKTHROUGH

To get an idea of more comprehensive options, read about Dr. Doni’s Signature Consultation Programs: HTTPS://DOCTORDONI.COM/SERVICES

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are product links and affiliate links and if you go through them to make a purchase I will earn a commission at no cost to you. Keep in mind that I link these companies and their products because of their quality and not because of the commission I receive from your purchases. The decision is yours, and whether or not you decide to buy something is completely up to you.

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#167 Breaking Myths About Folate and Folic Acid 0

Jul 7, 2023

In today's episode I'm going to be talking about the vitamin known as folate or vitamin B9. Like the seven other variations of vitamin B, vitamin B9 is used to convert food into fuel and support healthy skin, eyes, hair, and blood cells.

During pregnancy, some form of vitamin B9 is needed to ensure the baby's proper brain, skull, and spinal cord development to prevent birth defects.

Folate is also important for the detoxification process carried out in the liver as well as for protecting our DNA.

The reason I want to cover this vitamin is because I find that there's so much confusion about it and so many of you are trying to figure out whether you need more or less folate. Also, how to navigate gene variations related to folate to make sure that you can prevent health issues that are associated with those gene variations.

Folic Acid vs Folate

One of the first confusions is about the difference between folic acid and folate. A lot of times you'll find that the word folic acid and folate are used as if they're the same thing when they are not. Folic acid is a man-made or synthetic nutrient, so it's not found in nature naturally occurring, whereas folate (which is also in biochemistry referred to as methyl folate METHYL) is the form that's found in nature and in our bodies.

Methylfolate is active folate, which is the precise enzymatic form available for immediate cellular absorption and energy release. Although it has a similar end function to folic acid, choosing this efficient and ready-to-use form is a much more effective option for people who have difficulty converting food into fuel.

Our bodies know how to use and process folate naturally. We have a certain degree of ability to turn folic acid into folate within our bodies but it's our gene variations that determine how well we can do that. Depending on your genetics you may have a 10% to 80% decreased ability to turn folic acid into folate.

Folic acid is used to fortify different foods. It's a synthetic substance that's added to man-made foods. If you think of bread and cereal, you might see on the ingredient list folic acid as they're using the synthetic form. Sometimes multivitamins and B complex or prenatal vitamins or even protein shakes or other processed products might have folic acid as an ingredient. Using the synthetic form of these nutrients is oftentimes less expensive than using the natural form.

The natural form called folate or methylfolate is found in all green vegetables like spinach, broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, etc. Meat products also have this natural form of the nutrient, like liver and other forms of meat. You can also find it in sunflower seeds and some forms of beans and peanuts for example.

How To Measure Folate in Your Body

Depending on your genes, your body may have a better or worse ability to turn folate acid into folate. If you want to know your folate levels, blood work may be misleading because they show both the synthetic and the natural form under the name folate.

For a more accurate measurement of how much active folate you have in your body we need to either do a specialty test (there are labs that do specialty tests to identify your actual active folate levels) or do a test for something called homocysteine because homocysteine is a metabolite in our biochemistry that uses folate. So, if we measure the homocysteine, we can get a sense of if our bodies have enough folate, too much folate or not enough.

Another way to get a sense of this is to check your methylmalonic acid because methylmalonic acid tells us your B12 metabolism and B12 levels and how well your body is using the B12. I want you to know this because I want you to know that there’s people like me who have a lot of additional training to understand all this biochemistry and nutrients and can help guide you to optimize your homocysteine your methylmalonic acid and your folate and the use of folate in your body. So, I don't want you to feel like you're on your own with all of this.

Folate and MTHFR

MTHFR is a type of gene mutation that lowers the efficiency of the MTHFR enzyme. When you have MTHFR your body cannot properly convert folate into methylfolate. By disrupting the natural metabolic pathway, MTHFR blocks usable methylfolate from reaching the cells.

Inadequate methylfolate levels can have a wide variety of negative effects on the body, particularly those that affect the cardiovascular and nervous systems. During pregnancy, a lack of methylfolate can also have serious impacts on healthy fetal development.

Fortunately, there are several folate replacements available that can largely make up for deficiencies that are caused by MTHFR. Folic acid and folate can be cheap, but methylfolate tends to be the most effective option when it comes to treating the unique needs of MTHFR and giving the body an enzyme it can directly act upon.

It’s important to know that there are other factors affecting your body’s ability to turn folate into methylfolate whether you have MTHFR or not. This is what I refer to as your stress recovery. Depending on how well your taking care of your body and helping your body recover from various stress exposures determines the influence of your genes on your health. People with MTHFR might assume that there’s nothing they can do about their folate levels but there is. This depends on many factors that we will discuss today.

What Affects Our Ability to Use Folate Besides Genetics?

If you have a gene variation but if it's not expressing, then it is not affecting your health. But there's factors from our environment or what I refer to as stress that affect our ability to metabolize folate. Any kind of emotional or psycho-emotional stress in the present moment or even in the past or accumulated stress will influence your cortisol and adrenaline levels. When those levels get out of balance your ability to utilize folate gets hindered.

Also, any kind of physical stress (whether you have an injury, infection, nutrient depletion, etc) can affect your ability to use folate effectively and it also affects your genetic expression.

Those same stresses affect the enzymes that work with folate and our methylation or ability to use our B vitamins. Folate has to get together with B12 and all the all the other B vitamins and they do what's called the methylation cycle. If you want to learn more about methylation you can watch episode No 145 of How Humans Heal here.

So, our ability to use our B vitamins is affected by emotional and physical stress and that's why I talk about stress recovery because it really determines your ability to optimally use folate. Also, with stress recovery you can optimize your cortisol and adrenaline and you can optimize other functions in your body so that you can really get the most out of your folate from your diet.

Another important factor in how your body is able to benefit from folate is your nutrient intake and nutrient deficiencies. If you have nutrient deficiencies because you are not eating healthy or do not take any supplements to help your body with nutrients, you could have a deficiency in folate.

Also, some medications like birth control pills or methotrexate (which is a medication used to treat autoimmunity), some antibiotics, metformin for blood sugar issues, anticonvulsant drugs, etc. can all cause a deficiency of folate even if you're eating enough folate. These block the metabolism of folate. If you're taking any of these medications it’s important that you talk to your practitioner so you make sure that you are taking the right tests and the right form of folate.

Your ability to use folate is also affected by inflammation in the body. The main determinant of inflammation in the body is your diet. If you're consuming foods that are more inflammatory to your body, then your ability to use folate could be affected. To know which foods are inflammatory for your body you can do a food sensitivity panel. With this home test you can see which foods you need to reduce or avoid to reduce inflammation in your body. Also, if the digestion system is inflamed or if leaky gut is present there will be an imbalance in gut bacteria and this influences your ability to use folate and absorb nutrients in general.

Also, exposure to toxins, toxins from our environment, food, water, home toxins like mold, heavy metals, etc. all affect our ability to adequately use folate. If you would like to know more about how to detoxify your body, you can check out my 14-Day Detox Program here.

How Much Folate Do I Need?

The common confusion is people will find out that they have high homocysteine levels and then they're thinking they need to take more folate. But then very often people will contact me and say but I felt worse when I took folate. Why? Well we have to dig in and figure out what's blocking your ability to use that folate effectively. When you feel worse in any way when you take folate it tells me there's a traffic jam in your stress recovery and your inflammation and your digestive health, your toxin levels, your nutrients, we got to go through systematically to figure that out and address whatever we see and as we address those factors then your body will start using folate again.

It's not that you need more or less, it’s about getting your body to work in the right way to absorb just the right amount from your food and your supplements. We need to break up the traffic jams that are preventing your ability to use it effectively.

There is a dietary recommendation, everyone needs a certain amount of folate. The standard dietetic recommendation is 600 to 800 IU of folic acid, I convert that to methyl folate and that's the bare minimum. That's not taking into account your individuality, your individual genes your individual stress exposure and your individual imbalances. So, we need to figure out what is the right amount for you.

This is why I would say it's such a high priority to fully understand your potential gene variations and understand where to get the right information so you can figure out what's the right amount of folate for you. Now, keep in mind the right amount of folate for you could change from year to year if your hormones change, if your environment changes, if your job changes, etc. That’s why I think everyone should have their homocysteine levels checked in their blood work at least once a year.

You may or may not know if you have a MTHFR gene variation. Either way, you can still get your blood work for homocysteine and methylmalonic acid and you can work on identifying the factors that might be decreasing your ability to use folate efficiently. You don't have to do an MTHFR gene test but if you do an MTHFR gene test what I think is important to know is that this is just one piece of information. It can be very validating to get your genes tested and to have that information but at the same time it can be overwhelming. What is more important is to identify the ways in which you can support your body to use folate efficiently like stress recovery, detoxification, reducing inflammation, food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies, etc.

The thing is we're all unique humans, we're all going to have some genetic variations and these genetic variations are not life threatening and actually have the potential to benefit your health because once we see where the genetic variations are we can address them using nutrients, diet, stress recovery, hormone balancing, etc. We can use many tools to help address those gene variations and to even potentially influence genetic expression.

If you want to learn more about this you can listen to my FREE MTHFR Masterclass here.

If you want to run a test not just for MTHFR but for all your genes I can guide you on which test to do for that and then I would suggest meeting with me to help guide you through that.

If you're looking for products that contain methylfolate you can look in my website and online store because I have a multi vitamins and B complexes and prenatals and protein shakes that contain methylfolate so you can be sure you're getting a product that has the right form of folate in it.

If you want to feel better by rebalancing your neurotransmitters, you start by addressing your cortisol and adrenaline levels with this home test kit. You can also sign up for my Stress Warrior Program here. Also, if you want to learn more about how to recover from stress so that you can get back to feeling your best, you may want to read my book Master Your Stress Reset Your Health.

In the book, I also share the quiz I developed to help you identify how stress has affected you specifically by knowing your Stress Type. You can also take this Stress Type Quiz online.

If you want to go through your specific case with me and improve your health (mental or physical) you can set up a one-on-one appointment here.

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