HPV Prevention and Protection with Dr. Doni Wilson | Wellness Sherpa with Jenn Payeur

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I'm thrilled to be here with Dr. Donnie Wilson.

Yes, me too.

And thank you so much for joining us today.

Absolutely.

So I'm just going to ask a few questions because I'm somewhat new to your work. I saw you speak, I guess, about four months ago and would love to know, why are you so passionate about helping women with cervical cancer?

To me, it's a lot because I see that there's at least 6,000 women dying every year in the United States of cervical cancer. And oftentimes they haven't even told any anyone in their family. So a lot of times they're going through this treatment process feeling embarrassed about saying anything about it. And in my work as a naturopathic doctor and professional midwife, I've been helping women for 25 years to prevent cervical cancer. So I know from my clinical experience and from my patient cases that it's preventable. So to see that there's women who are suffering with this, when it's something we can do something about, that's what really motivates me.

Okay, so what are some things women can do to prevent it? I have a dear friend who went through it, and I know it's a pretty atrocious process to go through it. So what are some things women can do to prevent this difficult situation?

Well, definitely getting a Pap smear. And I think most women have heard about getting a Pap smear, and the latest guidelines is to get a Pap smear at least every three years from age 21 to 65. I find, though, that I hear from women around the world, even over age 65. So I still think it's something to have in your awareness because you can be diagnosed with cervical cancer after age 65 as well. And the new thing is that when you get a Pap smear test, the doctor should and likely will test for high risk HPV virus. You see, it's only in the past 20 years that we really put together that Cervical cancer is 99% caused by high risk HPV virus. So if we test for high risk HPV virus and we see that it's positive, that already is a screening tool that tells us you already at risk. Let's help your body protect you from the virus before it has a chance to cause cancer different than other kinds of cancers that are not related to a virus. This one, we can actually test for the virus and we can, we can do something about it. Now, when you go to the gynecology office, they're likely to test for high risk HPV, of which there's 13 types, by the way. We talk about HPV as if it's one thing, but really there's over 150 different types of HPV, and 13 of them are associated with cancer risk. So when you get this HPV test in the gynecology office, they're looking for, do you have One of those 13, one or more of the 13 high risk types. And then the doctor, you know, you get your, this, you're waiting for the results and you, you know, you hear from the doctor's office, either everything's negative, or maybe the doctor contacts you and says, actually the HPV is positive. Or maybe there's also, with the hpv, there may be already some preliminary abnormal cells maybe that haven't turned into cancer yet, but they're catching it early. And the thing is, is that at that point, the doctor is likely to say to you, either they now want to do a biopsy, so now they want to do another procedure to double check if it's worse than they think or better than they think, or the doctor will say, hey, it's positive for hpv, but there's nothing they can do about it right now, so come back in six months or a year. So now women are in this situation of, wait a minute, you just told me that I have a virus that can cause cancer and I have to just wait and see, wait until it might show up. Right? So that's when women usually start searching online and find me, because they're thinking, there's got to be something that I could do about this. And they're right. There is so much we can do because the fact is that 80% of us are going to test positive for HPV at some point in our lives.

A lot.

There's a big misconception that HPV is only something that happens in your 20s or, or it's only something with someone with multiple sexual partners are in it. And you don't have to worry after 50, or you don't have to worry if you have a hysterectomy. But these are all myths because it can happen at any age. It can happen even with a single sexual. And so I want to emphasize that even if you've been thinking, oh, it's not going to Happen to me. I want to say it. 80% of us. So it's something to know about and to not. I think we need to stop judging ourselves and stop judging each other about this. Because the fact is, is that we're human. We're going to have sex and we're going to get exposed to hiv. Let's get past that and just say, okay, how do we really realize that our human bodies have the ability to protect us from this virus? Virus. This. It's not that this virus comes in and we can't do anything about it, which is what you might be told by your medical practitioner. They might actually say to you, it's never going to go away. There's nothing you can do. So I want women to know that that's not true. Even if you've been testing positive for more than 10 years, even if you're over 50, even if you're pregnant, you can still take action to support your body to fend off this virus. Right. Because, you know, we can support our immune system. We can support our microbiome. Yep.

And toxic load, stress.

Yes. Right. All this stuff, this is the most common thing I hear when I talk to women and I hear from women from around the world, because women are dealing with this everywhere. It's the same. It's not that there's any better system somewhere else in the world. Women are dealing in this situation everywhere. And they are. When I always ask them is, have you been under an extreme amount or increased amount of stress in the past two years? And they always say yes there, whether it's a divorce or loss of a relationship or loss of a loved one, death in the family or other like car accident or, you know, other crisis that they might have gone through or a stressful job or a pregnancy and delivery that was stressful. But what happens when we're under stress, which happens as humans, we're going to get stressed, but when we're stressed, it depletes our immune system, it disrupts our microbiome, it makes us more susceptible to all kinds of infections, including high risk hpv. And so what we need to do is not expect that we're going to not be stressed, but we need to support ourselves through the stress. What can we do to support our immune system so that it can be protecting us while we're under stress? When we're under stress and when we're exposed to high risk hpv, that it's ready to say, even if that virus shows up, your immune system kicks it out.

So what are two to three things that you teach women because you do online courses.

And we'll talk about that in a minute.

But what are two to three things that you teach women to do to either work with their immune system, work with the stress, whatever it is?

Well, one thing I start with is connecting with your body. Because it's so much of the time where we're in a battle with our own body, and especially when it comes to hpv, it gives a reason of that critical voice to come up and criticize us. Why did this happen to me? What's wrong with me?

There's shame in it too, right? There's a huge component of shame and fear.

And so that ends up working against us because it's more stress and it's perpetuating the environment where this virus exists. So I really find that it makes a big difference. And I do this in the 5 day online workshop that I lead is we right away start with, let's start noticing that voice and learn how to shift that not to. Of course we don't want to, like, resist it or avoid it, but how do we embrace it and how do we shift our mindset and our. The way that we listen to the voices that are coming through for us and how do we shift our healing attention, knowing I can heal this and bring your focus back to that. And then there's nothing I did wrong. It's about being human and how to support myself. So one big step is that mindset shifts and then the next place we go, it has to do with diet changes. Because, I mean, a lot of times women say to me, oh, I asked my doctor if this had anything to do with my diet. And the doctor says, no. And I'm like, absolutely has something to do with your diet. And so sometimes we have to ask ourselves those vulnerable questions and be like, hey, what? How could I? Am I having more sugar than I really need? Because sugar lowers our immune function, increases inflammation, also alcohol drops our immune system, and then there's inflammatory foods, most commonly gluten and dairy. And so if, you know, your diet has been off track and having more sugar, alcohol and inflammatory foods, then that's a great place to start, right? This is just an opportunity to say, okay, I know I've wanted to change my diet, but now this HPV showing up, giving me that, that momentum, that, that reason to change my change.

Well, and I love what you said, Dr. Donnie, about connecting to our bodies. Because, you know, as women, we aren't taught how to connect. You know, we're not taught how to, how to connect to this. And actually it's almost the opposite. It's like, shut it down. Shut it down. Shut it down.

Yeah.

You know, I grew up in the 60s and 70s and my father used to say, don't cry or I'll give you something to cry about. Right. Shut down. And then I played a lot of sports when it was no pain, no game.

Right. Just. Yes.

You get kicked, you get up, you keep going.

And so our signals.

Yes, and I think that's brilliant because that is so critical to the healing process. If we have signs that our body is giving us something's out of balance and we're not recognizing it or we're pushing through it, which often happens, then we're missing a huge indicator that can bring us back to balance.

And it really stands out with this HPV situation because I think as women also, we tend to. In the, in the pelvic area, in the vagina, we tend to kind of like feel embarrassed to think about that, talk about that. So we really can separate. Maybe even also, if someone has a history of trauma, we disconnect from the signals in our body overall and specifically the vagina. And so it's such an opportunity to just say, to connect with your body again, love your body again and support your. Because your body knows how to heal this. Just how can we get in alignment with that healing instead of fighting against it? Exactly, exactly. So it's not something that can happen overnight. It's. That's why I guide women through a three month program to really daily, you know, work through these, these what comes up and how do we keep each day noticing, resetting, and going through that emotional healing? You wouldn't know that healing HPV is an emotional process, but it really can be for a lot of women because there's sometimes also resentment and anger within the process. Ashamed and embarrassment you mentioned. So there's an emotional component as well as this physical component, because there's also what I call all these other susceptibilities to hpv, some of which we just spoke about, like diet and stress. There's also nutrient deficiencies, which we have. Nutrient deficiencies. Our immune system's not going to work as well. Hormone imbalances, blood sugar imbalances, even neurotransmitter imbalances, and definitely microbiome. So the microbiome we usually think of as the gut microbiome, but there's also a microbiome in the vagina. And that microbiome in the vagina shifts during Perry and Postmenopause. So what happens is that microbiome, those bacteria, their job is to protect us from infections, including hpv. But when women go through peri and post menopause and their hormones change, the microbiome shifts and it's not protecting us as well. So I'm seeing a lot of women testing positive for HPV in their 50s because the microbiome shifted and they didn't realize and they didn't know to do something to help because there's things we can do using probiotics and vaginal estrogen to maintain a healthy vaginal microbiome. So we can still prevent HPV from showing up, even postmenopausal.

Amazing. That's really nice to know and important. My question to you is, because of COVID a lot of people are resistant to go to a doctor and you're recommending a pap smear. What, what do you say to women who are very resistant to go do that very simple test?

Yeah, well, a lot of times there's been trauma because if you've had, a lot of times women have had traumatic experiences in the gynecology office and so. And to feel like you're out of control of what's going to happen. So one thing I do do a lot of training and talking about how to shift that experience in the gynecolog one is you can always choose a new gynecologist. You don't have to go if you're not comfortable going to that practitioner, choose another one. And, and then what I find is it really helps to, for you to be knowing why you're going. So that's part of this is, okay, we're going to the gynecologist because I, you know, I'm choosing to get a pap smear because I want to know if there's abnormal cells. I want to know if I have hpv, because if I do, then, you know, you can follow what I just described.

So you're empowering with that mindset versus, oh, I have to do this and have this.

So now it's a shifting into yes and empowered. You're your own health advocate is the way I say it. You're saying, hey, I want this information because if it's positive, then I can take action. If it's negative, then I can be reassured. So it's a different choice than just going in and not knowing what this doctor is going to suggest.

And how often do you recommend every year.

I mean, what it is, is it's right now the guidelines are every Three years. Now, if you have an abnormal, you're going to likely need to go on because once you have an abnormal, path of colposcopy, which is what they call a biopsy. If you have an abnormal, you may be needing to go back every three to six months until you get to negative. Also, if you have two negative HPV tests in a row now, they're suggesting you could even potentially wait five years before the next test. So it's going to depend on your situation, if you've ever tested positive and how long it's been since the last time you tested positive. I think that more than anything, again, I encourage you to become your own health advocate and say, if I have a new sexual partner, that I might have been exposed to hpv, maybe I need to go get tested a little sooner. If I. If I've been negative for several tests in a row, maybe I can wait a little longer. So know your body and know your health history and then you can make decisions from there.

And for young women, what can they do to protect themselves? You said 80% are exposed to this.

Yes.

So as a young person in your early 20s, late teens, what do you recommend?

Well, there is a vaccine. There's the garden cell vaccine. And right now that vaccine covers nine of the 13 types. So it's to know that the vaccine doesn't cover all of the virus types. So yes, your doctor is likely to recommend getting the HPV vaccine. And even in teen years and twenties, and a lot of times women ask, moms, ask me, should I have my daughter get this vaccine? Should I have my kids get this vaccine? And it's important to know that with any medical decision, always look at what are the potential disadvantages or side effects. Yes, always wait, look into that and weigh that, because it's a tough decision. I feel like one of the hardest decisions we make as parents is a medical decision for our child. So just, I can't make that decision for you, but I encourage you to do the research and to know that it's not 100% protective. Right. So so many women contact me and men, I also hear from men around the world because men also can contract high risk HPV and be at risk of cancer. And so many of them have had a vaccine and still test positive. So it's important to note because a lot of people will just say, oh, just everybody should get vaccinated. Well, a lot of people are vaccinated and still test positive. And yes, you can use a condom. That's one way to prevent the Likelihood, because this is a virus that's transmitted by intimate sexual contact, genital contacts. However, even condoms don't completely prevent the transmission. So just know that yes, there's ways we can decrease the likelihood of being exposed to hpv, but the likelihood is we might still get exposed to some. And so to me, my focus is less about exposure and more about how do I help your immune system protect you? Because I have to. By the time you're contacting me, you've already been exposed.

Right.

So I'm like, okay, let's help you. And the amazing thing is when we go through my process of addressing all the susceptibility. So you now build up your shield of protection with your immune system, your nutrients, you understand how to help your body protect you. What I find is that women are not testing positive anymore. They now know they're, they essentially taught their body how to protect them. They've got, they know what they need to do to keep their immune system up, their microbiome working, their nutrient levels handled, their hormones balanced, and they could be in a relationship with someone who's still testing positive, but they're not going to.

They're protected because of keeping every their microbiome and keeping everything.

So to me, that's your best protection plan. It's not about preventing exposure, it's about building up your internal defenses.

Beautiful. Well, where can, can people find you and tell, tell us a little bit more about your class and your course.

Oh, thank you. So my website is at Dr. Donnie is spelled D O N I so you can gO-R-O-N-I.com. i also have a huge amount of resources@clearhpvnow.com so that's probably the simplest one to remember. Clearhpv now.com and I have, yeah, I do a free five day workshop so you can join and I guide you through the beginning steps of creating a plan to get HPV to negative. And then I teach the three month program called say goodbye to HPV where I guide you through all the steps of how am I going to build up my protection to HPV and help you to get that next test to be negative and then help you to know what do I do to maintain a negative going forward. So yeah, they say Goodbye to HPV program and then I also do work with patients one on one. So some people are like, hey, I really want, they want me to guide them step by step and maybe more advanced cases. Some people who've had HPV related cancer before and they're like, I don't want that to happen again. And the conventional medical system doesn't have options.

Yeah, it's not designed for that.

So then I. I work with people one on one, to say, let's make sure this doesn't to you again.

Okay. Well, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you.

Being here and providing this really, really important and valuable information.

Thank you. Thanks, everyone, for listening.

Yeah. Thank.

You.