Women In Wellness: Dr Doni Wilson On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Better Sleep Hygiene: There are many ways to improve sleep but today, especially with the push for work-from-home during the pandemic, you may find the distinction between relaxation and work slipping. It’s okay, it happens even without a work from home mandate, but let’s change that. If you have the option, then keep your bedroom a place that is naturally associated with rest and relaxation (not work), and to prioritize getting at least 7.5 hours of sleep each night.

As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Doni Wilson.

Dr. Doni Wilson, ND, CPM, CNS, is a health visionary, researcher, bestselling author, and international speaker. Through her research and clinical experience, she developed her Stress Recovery Protocol, which takes stress management to the next level by utilizing epigenetics to individualize the optimization of cortisol, adrenaline and neurotransmitters. Dr. Doni earned her doctorate degree in naturopathic medicine from Bastyr University where she also completed her residency. She is also a certified professional midwife, a certified nutrition specialist, and has degrees in both nutrition and science. For more than 22 years, Dr. Doni has helped thousands of patients overcome health challenges that are considered irreversible.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

My father is a pharmacist and the intention was for me to follow in his footsteps and go to pharmacy school after I graduated with my science degree. When the first day of pharmacy school came, I had a strong feeling that it wasn’t the right decision for me. I wanted to study medicine that uses food as medicine and to help people who aren’t being helped by the standard of care. I found that in naturopathic medical school.

I also trained to be a midwife, and as part of that training, I studied how stress affects women in labor, especially women with a history of abuse. What I found through this research is that what helps labor progress most efficiently is an optimal amount of stress hormones, not none. While we often wish we could have zero stress, that is actually not optimal for our bodies or our health.

So when I graduated, finished my residency, moved to New York, and started seeing patients traumatized by 9/11, I had the thought that they too need help to re-optimize their stress hormones. I kept on researching cortisol and adrenaline — our stress hormones — found a way to test them, and effective ways to rebalance them, even after severe stress. I started publishing articles and giving lectures at professional conferences — in the U.S. and internationally.

Meanwhile, I was suffering from debilitating migraines. No matter where I turned, no doctor, pill, nor specialist could solve my seemingly unrelenting pain which made me feel defeated, exhausted, and overwhelmed. At the same time, I felt ashamed to tell anyone because I felt I should be able to solve them, which pushed me to continue my research. Through years of implementing what I discovered on myself, including amino acid therapy to balance my neurotransmitters, identifying gluten sensitivity and leaky gut and how to recover from them, as well as adrenal distress, I was able to decrease the frequency of the migraines. But it wasn’t until I diagnosed myself with hypermobility and toxicity from flame retardants, and addressed those issues successfully, while also experiencing an emotional-spiritual transformation, that I completely stopped my migraines.

Now, I am so grateful for the migraines because they led me to develop my Stress Recovery Protocol which identifies how stress uniquely affects each individual (what I refer to as Stress Types) and then uses epigenetics to reoptimize health. It’s about finding out how stress has specifically affected you and your body. We can do specialized testing to find out what is out of balance, and then use diet, stress recovery, nutrients, herbs and other natural approaches to rebalance what was disrupted by stress exposure. I help people of all ages understand their bodies and what they can do to feel their best and how to be healthy while stressed.

I am now the bestselling author of five books about the ways stress affects us, and how to recover from it so that we can live our healthiest lives.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

In 2000, when I graduated from naturopathic medical school and was finishing my midwifery certification, I went to Manila in the Philippines. I delivered 100 babies in 4 weeks in the community hospital. I really enjoyed getting to know the culture and people and even had a chance to travel around the Philippines. I didn’t know if I would ever be back in the Philippines again in my life, but I knew that I was helping women there to bring their babies into the world safely. Then in 2018, I was invited to go back to Manila by a health food store. I was flown there to train their staff with my approach to stress recovery, to be on radio and TV, and to speak at a large public event. It was such an amazing, surreal moment to be back there. During my presentation, when I told the audience how I had delivered babies there 18 years ago, they all knew about the community hospital and were so excited to hear that I had worked there. I had probably delivered some of them! It was a full-circle moment to be able to go back and share what I’ve learned and teach them my findings.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

It wasn’t so much a mistake as a lesson on how I wanted to operate my business. The first five years in practice, my daughter was young so my mindset was more concentrated on being a doctor while letting someone else run the business. When my daughter was around five-years-old and my marriage was ending, I realized that I was ready to take on being both a business owner and a doctor at the same time. That transition pushed me to meet with a lawyer and incorporate my business and then hire my own bookkeeper and staff to assist with scheduling. I also had to decide what to do about where my office(s) would be located.

While most people just have one single office location, I decided that I wanted to have three locations even if it seemed like a lot. My staff worked virtually while I would rotate between the offices. At that same time, I was offered a full-time position with a successful, well-established company so I had to make a decision of whether I would take this role with benefits or continue with my own practice? One important factor that influenced my decision was knowing that I wanted to represent my own ideas and be under my own business. It was a challenge to go between two different states (New York and Connecticut) and deal with different taxes and different scopes of practice. However, I would say that I wouldn’t have done anything differently. Being in different offices was exciting and challenging.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

We are taught that there is nothing we can do about stress, but “manage” it. We are led to believe that we are supposed to be able to eliminate all stress. The work I do is to help people take a much more compassionate and realistic approach to stress, which is to embrace the fact that we, as humans, actually NEED to be stressed. We need a healthy amount of stress hormones — cortisol and adrenaline — in order to survive and thrive. And the more we put expectations on ourselves to push through or to take on more stress, we are only perpetuating the effects of stress. Instead, we need to shift our perspective on stress to mastery. We need to understand how stress affects us as individuals and give ourselves and our bodies the support we need to recover from stress each day. That is how we will be able to prevent health issues caused by stress, of which 90% of health issues are caused by stress, so that is a huge impact.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

1. Better Sleep Hygiene: There are many ways to improve sleep but today, especially with the push for work-from-home during the pandemic, you may find the distinction between relaxation and work slipping. It’s okay, it happens even without a work from home mandate, but let’s change that. If you have the option, then keep your bedroom a place that is naturally associated with rest and relaxation (not work), and to prioritize getting at least 7.5 hours of sleep each night.
2. Cut Out Sugar: Our blood sugar levels can affect everything from our immunity to our mood and sleep. For example, if you find yourself waking up due to hunger in the middle of the night, you might need to reflect on what you are eating during the day. Avoid heavy carbs and sugar at night, best is to have your last meal at least 2 hours before bed, and make sure each meal contains protein.
3. Identify Inflammation: If you have not yet been tested for food sensitivities (IgA and IgG is what I recommend), now is the time. This will tell you whether there are foods you are eating that are triggering inflammation throughout your body. This test will also give you a better sense of whether leaky gut is present so you can start healing it, which will help decrease inflammation.
4. Drink More Water: Drink a small amount of water — 4 to 6 ounces — every hour or two to help beat dehydration. You can add a pinch of sea salt for electrolytes.
5. Exercise: Exercise provides benefits including stress reduction and increased insulin function to help manage blood sugar levels. Start with small amounts, including core strength. Then gradually increase it based on how you feel and where you are in the stress recovery protocol for your stress type.

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

The movement I have started is to understand the effects of stress on us as individuals, based on your stress type, and the potential to recover from the imbalances caused by stress, also based on your unique stress response. All humans are exposed to stress, more so after coming through the pandemic. We need stress recovery more than ever.

Stress increases infertility, miscarriages, cervical cancer due to HPV, other forms of cancer, autoimmunity, dementia, fatigue, anxiety, depression, and many other health conditions. If we don’t start prioritizing ourselves and outsmarting stress by ensuring that we get adequate anti-stress, then health issues will continue to skyrocket.

I want everyone to know their stress type and how to take better CARE of themselves based on their stress type, using the acronym I developed — C for clean eating, A for adequate sleep, R for recovery activities and E for exercise.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

1. Network: Take advantage of opportunities to meet new people and put your name out there. When I moved from the West Coast to New York and didn’t know anyone, it became crucial to make those connections.
2. Take every opportunity: Even if it seems scary or outside of your comfort zone, push yourself beyond what you think is possible. I had never spoken at a conference or written a book, and even though it seemed like it couldn’t be done, I learned how to and woke up each day following my desire to help more people.
3. Don’t give up: Even when it seems difficult, you are stronger than you think! I took on the challenge of operating three office locations which had me running back and forth between states. But, I knew that was what I wanted to do and I persevered.
4. Listen to your intuition: I listened to my inner self and went against what was intended for my career and said that I wanted to study medicine that uses a natural and preventive approach instead.
5. Market yourself: Understand the importance of a great website and social media. Get your name out there and let others know your capabilities with a strong web presence. During the pandemic I started my own podcast — How Humans Heal — even though I was so afraid I would fail.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Mental health is a topic I talk a lot about! There are millions of people who suffer with anxiety and depression. Suicide rates are soaring, and yet, the conventional medical system is only offering prescription medications, which in some cases help, but in many cases, lead to dependency and worsening side effects. I see that the mental health system is severely lacking in its ability to help people with stress and the effects of stress.

Meanwhile, thousands of research studies and years of clinical experience show there are so many more options available. I experienced so much stress, anxiety and depression over the years myself. Starting back in 2001, I started testing cortisol and neurotransmitter levels and trained myself in amino acid therapy so that I could use clinical nutrition and biochemistry to rebalance neurotransmitter levels. I performed a research study in my practice to identify the 5 common stress patterns (stress types) and developed a protocol to address each individually. This approach has helped thousands of patients with mental health issues, and I hope to help millions more.

What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?

Readers can visit my website at www.doctordoni.com where I post weekly blogs and my podcast How Humans Heal. They can also find me on social media on Facebook at www.facebook.com/drdoniwilson, Twitter at www.twitter.com/glutenfreedoc and Instagram at www.instagram.com/drdoniwilson. I also post videos on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/DoniWilsonND.

Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.