#141 Set Your New Year’s Intentions with Dr. Doni

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.

Dr. Donnie Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body. But with focused determination, she healed herself. And in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Donnie stress recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists and Experts along with Dr. Donnie, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is how Humans heal.

Hi, I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson, and welcome to How Humans Heal. Not only that, but I want to say Happy New Year. I'm recording today in January 2023, and I'm excited to share insights as we welcome this new year and helping all of you on your health journey. Really, the mission of How Humans Heal is to both give you hope, hope that healing is possible, and also give you the resources to do that healing work. So in episodes of the How Humans Heal podcast, sometimes you'll have episodes from me directly giving you my insight and expertise on specific conditions and and treatment options. And other times, you'll be seeing interviews where I'm interviewing experts and colleagues in specific areas that I feel have been so helpful for me and my patients on their healing journey. And this could be whether you're working on whether it's balancing hormones, whether that's cortisol, thyroid, women's hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. Or this could also be whether you're working on fertility and pregnancy and preventing miscarriages, or. Or whether if you're working with perimenopausal symptoms and you're like, what am I supposed to do with my changing body and all of these symptoms? Or maybe some of you listening are experiencing anxiety, depression, migraines, other kinds of pain and digestive issues. And some of you listening may have found out that you have HPV and abnormal Pap smears or risk of cervical cancer, and you're coming to listen in for how to help become resilient to hpv. And really, ultimately, that's what I teach, is how to become resilient to different kinds of infections, viruses, bacteria, other toxins in our environment. How do we be able to detoxify safely so that we can protect ourselves from toxins, protect ourselves from infections, and help ourselves to recover from various forms of stress exposure. And so this is what I really want to emphasize and clarify is this message that it's possible to recover. Because a lot of times I think we just hear about and become afraid of what we're being exposed to, right? We have to focus on what's happening around us and external to us, whether that's stress, whether that's trauma, even from trauma earlier in your life, whether that's toxins, whether that's infections. And we end up feeling like we're being bombarded and overwhelmed by everything going on and we then we feel stuck. And so I'm here to say, hey, if we start to put the attention on you and helping you to know that healing is possible, that we can help your body to recover from traumatic experiences, we can help rebalance hormones, we can help your digestion heal, we can help rebalance nutrients, neurotransmitters, even genetic expression. For those of you who might know that you have genetic variations like mthfr, these are all topics that I love to cover because I feel that these are the topics that are are not covered by many medical practitioners. And so people feel on their own and alone trying to figure out how can I actually feel good and enjoy my life. And I'm here to say that I believe that's possible. I believe that even when we're exposed to stresses and trauma and injuries and infections, that it's possible to give our bodies the support they need to recover so that you can be feeling at your best preventing health issues and improve your quality of life and your length of your life, which is what's referred to as longevity. So I'm this is my thoughts here in the New Year is all about how to help all of you improve your longevity, which means living more years in a healthy state where you can enjoy yourself and your loved ones doing what you love. So that's what we're doing here and I'm glad that you're joining me and I encourage you to, if you haven't already, to subscribe and make sure that you're going to hear from me with each episode that comes out. You can also sign up for my newsletter so that each week you'll hear from me in the in the email. And that's where I also share the most recent podcast, blogs and other interviews and resources for you. So make sure you also sign up for my newsletter and subscribe to the How Humans Heal podcast. So I'm just going to give you a few thoughts and questions to help you with your New Year's insights and self reflection. Because oftentimes the New Year is such a time of self reflection. I think that's just inherent in the fact that we went from December 31 to January 1 and we flipped the calendar year. Now for many, for many a long time we were always, I was always hearing New Year new you, or you know, new Year new me. And I really see that that's shifting. I don't know if you are observing that as well, that it's not so much about throwing out the old version of ourselves and starting completely over with a new version. It's. I think people are realizing, and I would love to hear from you as well, that it's more a matter of hey, maybe there's, this is an opportunity for self reflection. And we might notice that there are certain things that maybe was true in the past, or experiences or relationships or even jobs or way we were spending our time or our hobbies, things we were doing in the past that we may not want to keep doing and some things that we do want to continue doing or maybe we want to do more of. And then we look into the future and we go, hey, what do I want to have more of in my future? Because ultimately when we become more intentional, when we identify, hey, this is what I'd really like to enjoy in my life or what I'd like to experience, or the way I'd like to feel in my life, once we get really clear about what we'd like to experience and enjoy, then we can, it's more likely that that's going to happen. That's how those intentions and manifestations work. So I encourage you to use this January start of the year as an opportunity to self reflect and to clarify your intentions. Of course you can do this every day or any day of the year, but the new year gives us that extra motivation to do it. And instead of just thinking of a New Year's resolution that might only last a couple weeks because the studies show that most resolutions are very short lived, I encourage you instead to think of it more like your intentions and your values and your passions to get really clear about something that can become true for you over time that's sustainable. That's actually something you can come back to every day and know, hey, this is really who I am and what I'm choosing in an active way. Versus of course we can get so distracted easily with news and events and what other people have going on. So much so that we lose track of ourselves and what our real joys and values and passions are. And so again, just to invite you, this is what I do, is I get my notebook out. This is a self care notebook and I will just write about that. Hey, we have some time to just take, stand back a little bit of a big picture view and think to yourself, hey, what is it that you're really wanting to see, even in terms of your health? You can start with that. What would you like to be different about your health this year or in the coming months? And what would you, what are you willing to do in order to make that come become true? Right. What are you. Because that's the thing. If we keep doing the same thing, likely nothing's going to change. We know that. We know that. I think it was Einstein that determined that, but it's very true, right? If we know if we keep doing the same thing, we're going to get the same result. If we want to see something different in our health, whether you want to have better energy, better sleep, better mood, whatever it is, you want to get rid of hpv, you want to feel better in any way, then we're going to need to make some changes. How do we identify that? But how do we do it in a way where we don't overwhelm you, overstress you? And then I think sometimes what happens is people might decide, hey, I really would like to have a baby, or I would like to get rid of hpv or I would like to, whatever it is, get rid of migraines was my story for a long, long time. I now I've gotten rid of the migraines. So that's good. But if you, then sometimes you feel overwhelmed, like, okay, how am I going to do this? So that's the next step oftentimes is once you know what you're going, then you want to say to yourself, well, how am I going to get there most efficiently, most strategically safe? You know, I don't want to end up causing more harm than I am while I'm trying to reach my goal. Right? And so that's where finding resources and experts who can guide you is so important. Because otherwise, if we all just are having to do all the research and all the learning ourselves, then it's going to take way longer. You don't have to time for that. You have, you want to be able to reach your goal and move on with your life. So you don't, you shouldn't have to become the health expert, the nutrition expert, the stress expert, yourself, especially when you have me here with 22 years of experience to guide you and help you along the way. So then I'm going to be shortening your timeline. I'm going to be helping you be more strategic about achieving your health goals. And that's when I bring experts onto how humans heal. That's always My intention is to help you be more strategic with your health goals. So start to think about that, start to go, okay, I don't have to worry about how I'm going to do it because you know I'm going to be here to guide you so you can just feel more free to say, hey, what really would I like to see with my health? And once you start to clarify that, then all of a sudden things can start flowing. You start to go, oh my gosh. Because a lot of times we're afraid to even have the thought because if we don't think it's possible and we don't know how we're going to do it, we stop ourselves right there. And so I'm saying to you, hey, it's possible and I've got tools to help guide you. So now you have the freedom to start asking the questions and knowing that it's possible. And now you, you started on the path of healing. Now we can go on this journey and you can start to evaluate in a non judgmental way. Right? Again, it's how do we help ourselves heal without stressing ourselves out more. So it's not about being critical of yourself or judgmental. What about what you did or didn't do? You know, sometimes I hear like people say to me, oh, well, I haven't been exercising or I've been drinking too much alcohol or I've been having too much sugar. Okay, that sounds like things that happen with humans, that happens right to all of us. So it's not about being hard on yourself about that. It's about being gentle with yourself and saying, hey, maybe my, the way either it was during the holidays or maybe it was the past six months or the past year, maybe there's been a lot of stress or a lot of different things going on. And so we know sometimes we get off track with taking good care of ourselves. And so it's a time to just say, hey, what have I been doing that was working? What have I been doing that maybe was working against me, me? And how would I like to do? What would I like to do differently? We can always figure ourselves and come up with a new plan every each day we have that opportunity. So it's not about perfection, it's not about being hard on yourself because that's only going to slow you down. So it's a matter of saying, hey, I'm human. I went through the experiences I went through. Now let me see what I can do each day to do a little bit something different. That's Going to help my body recover and heal. Look at what I call your self care routine. I refer to care as C for clean eating, A for adequate sleep, R for recovery activities, and E for exercise. As a way to just break it down a little bit more. Simply to say, hey, how my eating been? And these again would be journal prompts. So you could write, you know, write to yourself, how has my eating been? Or how would I, how do I think? What are my goals there? What would I like to try differently? And you might try something for the next month or three months and then evaluate how's that going for you? Same thing with sleep. How's my, am I getting to bed at a time that I would like? Am I getting good sleep? What kinds of things might I want to do differently related to sleep? Same with recovery activities. In my book Master of Stress, reset your health, I go through all the research and a whole menu of stress recovery activities. Everything from listening to music and dancing to talking to a friend, spending time in nature, spending time with pets and animals and loved ones. And even what we're going to be covering in a soon to be released episode of how humans heal is about sexual activity and intimacy and how we can also consider that a stress recovery activity. So write about those things in your life. How is that looking? Again, non judgment. How is it looking? How's it going? What would you like to see more of going forward then also with exercise, how has your exercise been doing? Where are you starting from? Are you starting from none? Well then let's start with small incremental steps, with everything. I find that patients are the most successful and I know this for myself too, that I'm most successful when I make small incremental adjustments to my self care. If we try to make huge adjustments, it tends to be short lived. Maybe we could do that for a week or two weeks or three weeks, but then we fall off again, right? We. How many people get a gym membership in January and they never go back again in February? Right? It's done already. So, so we don't, we don't want that. That's not gonna help you in the long term. I'm here to help improve your longevity over time. So I need to help you be strategic in a sustainable way. So we need to figure out how to help you exercise in a way that you can keep going. This is something you're gonna wanna keep doing day, day in, day out and week by week. And there's gonna be some weeks that it doesn't happen. But that's okay, then you get right back to it because it becomes your usual way of taking care of yourself. Ultimately, it's in this taking care of ourselves, the way we feed ourselves, the way we choose movement, the way we choose stress recovery activities. The research is so clear that it's in those activities that we do every day that makes the biggest difference in our longevity. When they study people who live the longest, that's what they see. So it has to start there now there's so much more we can do. We can do balancing of hormones. We can do nutrients when you have nutrient deficiencies. We can use herbs that are antimicrobial, antiviral, antibacterial. We can be doing leaky gut healing, microbiome balancing. There's so much else we can do. But it starts with this foundation of how you're taking care of yourself each day. Which is why I created the seven day self care reset. Because I wanted for you to have a tool that you can start with just to get the ball rolling, just to get your, dip your toe in the water, so to speak, and say, hey, how can I start to build this momentum of taking better care of myself? Because from there then you can do blood work and see if there's, if your blood sugar's too high, you can see if your vitamin D is too low. Right. We can do more testing, investigate further what else needs attention. We can measure cortisol, we can measure estrogen, progesterone, we can. These are all tools, tools that I offer in my office to my patients, one on one and in my programs. So if you want to take that next step and do some tests and really see what needs attention, then please contact my office. Let's set up a time for us to meet so I can help you. But first we're going to be like, hey, let's make sure you have this foundation of self care. And I would say that includes making sure you have the most foundational essential supplements too. This would include a multivitamin. Right. So a multivitamin includes B vitamins, a really big complex that has the most active form of the B vitamins to me. And this is again, as a clinical nutritionist, I've been doing this for so long, I would never just take any old multi or B vitamin. If I'm going to buy a product and switch, swallow it and count on it making a difference in my health, I'm going to make sure that it has active form of the nutrients first of all, so my body can actually use these nutrients for what I want that, want them to do. And I'm going to choose a product that's not going to have other ingredients that I don't want. We don't need dyes and colors and fillers and, and, and gums or glues. It's just not necessary. Probably is going to work against your ability to get the nutrients from that supplement. Which is why I don't recommend getting your supplements at like a, the cheapest. Like people think, oh, I'm going to go to Costco and get my vitamins, or I'm going to go to, you know, some other store or pharmacy and just buy whatever supplement is there on the shelf or even Amazon. Sometimes you're not, you're not getting the quality product. We, there are supplement companies that, this is what they do. They make supplements at the highest level of quality that don't have the stuff you don't want and do have the nutrients that can be absorbed and used by your body. That's what I spend my money buying.

It's not useful to take something that is not going to do anything. But so many practitioners don't realize that sometimes even practitioners think that all vitamins are useless. And that's definitely not the case. There's huge volumes of research studies that show that nutrients, of course, nutrients are important. Human bodies run on nutrients. All of biochemistry shows us that. No wonder we have to eat, digest our food and absorb our nutrients from our food so that our bodies can function, so that we can make hormones and we can make neurotransmitters and we can make our brains work and everything runs on nutrients. So that's part of being human. And the thing is, is that even if we have the healthiest diet, usually we're not getting enough of all the nutrients that we need. For example, some nutrients like vitamin D we could get from the sun, but many people are not getting enough sunlight to get their vitamin D. And so you want to be. Then you have to check your vitamin D levels in your blood and take the right amount for you. It's not the same for all my patients. There's a huge variety of different requirements for vitamin D. So I always tell people we need to measure in order for me to tell you exactly what your vitamin D dose is. Same with the B vitamins. Not everybody needs the same amount of B vitamins. It so much depends on our genetics and the way our metabolism works as individuals. So we need to do the right blood work, which is what I guide patients to do, do the right blood work to know Whether you need more B vitamins, maybe you don't need more, maybe you get enough through your diet for your body, right? So it's important to individualize it. And same for all the nutrients and the amino acids. Amino acids come from protein. If we don't get enough protein, we're not going to get enough amino acids. And amino acids are so important for making neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine. These are what help with our energy levels, our mood, our focus and our sleep. I mean those are, that's all what makes us feel good, right? Energy, focus, mood and sleep. That if we don't have enough of the right protein and the ability to digest our protein and absorb our protein to get the amino acids to make our neurotransmitters, we're not going to feel good. And so the way I find out is I measure patients neurotransmitter levels in their urine so I can see where they're deficient and then I can guide them on the specific amino acids to get their neurotransmitters back on track. And then I can heal their digestion, heal leaky gut, help you digest your food, make sure you're getting enough protein in your diet so that you can maintain healthy amino acid intake and healthy neurotransmitter levels. So this is just giving you a little insight into what's possible using nutrition. Which is why I, back when I was doing my pre med degree to prepare for medical school, I started studying nutrition and I was like, this is where it's at. This is where we can transform medicine and our health is by understanding what our nutrient needs as humans and how to get that through diet and supplements in an effective way. And it again, it's not one size fits all. But what you can start with is a really high quality multivitamin. You can start with a really high quality fish oil because fish oil is omega 3, which is not, is an essential oil. It's not something that we are going to get unless we swallow it. And yes, you could get it from eating salmon or other fish, but you also have to be careful because if you eat too much fish that has high mercury, you might raise your mercury level. So it's a matter of getting healthy wild salmon when you can and other healthy wild fish. And then to take your Omega 3 supplement. There is also.

Vegan algae omega, if you're trying to have a plant based diet, but there's still ways to get these omega 3s and then you want to make sure, you get the right amount of vitamin D for you, which is so important, really, it's a hormone that it affects our immune system and so many other functions in our bodies, not just our bones. So these are some of the starting foundational supplements. I also find that most people are low in magnesium. Yes, you can get magnesium from your diet, but we use a lot of magnesium in our bodies for many different biochemical processes and most all of us are not getting enough of it. So oftentimes we need magnesium to help us. And there are several different forms of magnesium with different purposes. So you need to clarify what type of magnesium based on if you need it. For bowel regularity, we use magnesium oxide or citrate if you need it to help calm your nervous system. And for anxiety, we'll use magnesium threonate, which is. And I can put links to my favorite products down below this episode. So you have them. If you need magnesium for sore muscles, we might use magnesium glycinate. So it's using the right magnesium for the right symptom. The symptoms are just telling us that the body needs more of that nutrient, right? So if you're feeling anxious, your body or you're feeling your heart race, your body's basically saying, hey, I need more magnesium in here. And then, yes, you can work to get that in your diet, but you can only eat so many calories in a day. And so that's where supplements, that's why they're called supplements is they are supplement to your diet to make sure you have the right nutrients, but you to know which one in what amount. And by the way, I explain all of this that I'm explaining to you now in the Master Stress Reset your health book. So if you want to learn more, you can either read it or you can listen to the book and get all this information. I just want to share with you like, hey, if you're starting off with the new year and you're like, hey, I want to start supplements, but I don't even know where to begin, then I would say start and I'll put links to my favorite. I even have a foundational packets where all you have to do is grab. There's a morning packet and evening packet and in the packet it has the multi, the fish oil, the magnesium. It also has a vitamin D and it has a probiotic. So all you have to do is take a packet in the morning and a packet at night and you're set. You've got your foundational nutrients there. Now you've got Your, you're doing good, taking care of yourself, and you're taking your foundational nutrients. Already. People feel a difference just from that. I can't tell you. Like, sometimes if people will say, oh, is that really going to make a difference? Try it and see. Because I can't tell you how many patients come back to me within two to three weeks of starting this alone. And already they have better energy, mood, focus, they feel better, they're fending off infections better, all of those things. Then we only need to add the very minimum to address anything else that's out of balance for your body. It's not about just throwing everything at you and overwhelming you. It's about being very precise and strategic to really get the best results. And that's why I think that my patients are constantly feeling better and they quickly move on to a maintenance plan. And I want that for you as well.

Also, I want to have you reflect in your journal notes about, you know, what do you feel like has been a factor for you that has affected you? Right. Like, what are the stresses or traumas that have affected you? Because it's very clear from research that it's stress and trauma exposure of various sorts that makes us susceptible to health issues. Absolutely. The studies are there. It's very clear. And we all see more and more of this online, too. It's when we have stress and trauma that we've not recovered from, if we've not processed the feelings, if our heart was broken and we're not processing the grief and sadness, then it can become a health issue.

If we experience another kind of injury or infection or shame or embarrassment or any of these human experiences, and we don't get the opportunity to work with the therapist and work with her friends and loved ones to feel supported through the process of healing, that's when it becomes a health issue. This is why I find that, like when I work with women who have risk of cervical cancer, it's an essential part of my protocol to say, what is the stress you've been exposed to and how do we help? Let's take some steps to help you recover from that trauma and stress. Because it's only when I help you recover from that stress and trauma, then the immune system starts protecting you from the virus again. Your digestion starts absorbing nutrients again, your hormones start to get back in balance again. And when we're in balance, we feel healthy. We're gonna. Our bodies are gonna be able to protect us from all different viruses, whether we're talking cold viruses, COVID virus, or hpv, ebv, hsv, you name it. When we're in a stable, balanced place, our immune system knows how to protect us. Even if you've been through stress and trauma, we can reset these pathways. We can reset even genetic expression. The studies show this even though stress affects the way our genes express. And that's where we become susceptible to certain health issues that we consider hereditary health issues. But the reality is they're only hereditary if we don't recover from stress. So if you're worried about developing dementia or developing heart disease or diabetes or whatever is in your family history and patients all the time say to me, oh my gosh, I just saw my family member go through this and I want to try to prevent it. What do I do? And I say it comes back to two what you're doing to support your health on a daily basis. Your self care, your foundational nutrients dialed in for your body and identifying the ways that stress has caused disruption in your body. So we can rebalance, even if it's imbalanced microbiome, we can rebalance that vaginal microbiome, we can rebalance that blood sugar levels, we can rebalance oxidative stress, we can address. So these things can be addressed. It's a matter of first identifying where they are for you and then start working on addressing them and get your body to a place of resiliency. Because then people say to me, well, am I going to have to keep doing all of this forever? No, you're, what you're going to do is you're going to create a maintenance plan that you do, you do, your taking care of you and that's what as humans we need that. I mean if you think of a plant, right, A plant needs us to water it and that's in order for it to survive, right? So we need to be able to. And plants also need nutrients or fertilizer. We're the same, we're part of nature as humans. We also need nurturing, we need light, we need nutrients, we need water, we need, we need all of that in order to continue to not only survive but to thrive. And so I encourage you all to just, I hope this stimulates some thoughts for you and some, some more journaling and self reflection to say, hey, what is it that has affected me in my life and what now am I going to choose with intention to change that, to actually make a difference? Because we don't have to be stuck with even anxiety, with fatigue, with, with a predisposition to diabetes or dementia. You don't have to be stuck with that. You can take action to help decrease the symptoms, decrease the need for medications, and actually help yourself get to a point of feeling amazing. And you, I think you might be surprised, and I can't wait to hear from you when you get there. And you're like, oh, my gosh, I actually can't believe that I have transformed my body. Because our bodies are ready to heal when we give them the support to heal. And to me, that's this. You know, you're not like, when we say new year, new you. It's not that you're, you know, making a whole. You're. You're transforming like a butterfly, right? Like a butterfly goes from a caterpillar into a chrysalis into a transformation phase of growing and learning and changing and implementing, and they come out the other side as a butterfly. So how do. How do I help you go through your journey is like what Joseph Campbell calls the hero's journey, or I call the heroine's journey of an adventure of healing. That's your adventure. How do you learn from what you've been through and apply that information so that it can transform you into the person you are meant to be all along anyway, and to know yourself, love yourself. And when we know and love ourselves the most, that's when we get to really have experiences in our lives and with other humans that have this experience of connection, love, intimacy, joy. That's where that happens. So I want that for all of you, and I'm so glad you're joining me and listening in. I hope this has inspired you to think about what your intentions are for this year and to know that it's not about trying to do everything in one day. It's about, this is the path, this is the journey. This is the journey of being you, of being human, and about learning and practicing along the way. So. And by doing that, you know, not only do you. Do you feel better, but you actually decrease your healthcare costs because you're healthier. You also become more productive and able to do what it is that you do in your life or your career. And you get to accomplish what your purpose is in your life, right, by actually feeling well enough and have your brain be able to focus on the things you want to focus on. So I want that for all of you. I'm so glad again that you're joining me here at How Humans Heal. I would love to hear if there's other topics you would like for me to cover. If you have questions you'd like for me to go into more detail about. Please, please write to me. You can email, you can contact my office and you can comment here. And please let me know how I can be better service for you. Because again, this has been my life path as I went through the process of healing from my own health issues and my training in my doctorate degree and all of the continuing education that I continue to do. This is what my life looks like and I totally love and enjoy to share it with all of you so that you can experience the benefits as well. So if you're over there thinking, hey, I want that, but I don't know how to get there, then I'm here to guide you. And I'm happy to guide you. You can either just keep listening into the podcast. You can read blogs, my books. You can also meet with me one on one if you'd like. And we can put a link below for you to work with me one on one so I can guide you individually along the way. And I also have online programs so you can do learning on your own from wherever you are, using video programs so that you can have the information you need to take the next steps for your healing. That's my goal. Thanks again for joining me and I can't wait to see you in the next episode of How Humans Heal. Happy New Year.

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