Dr. Doni Wilson is a powerhouse naturopathic doctor, professional midwife, clinical nutritionist, best-selling author of Master Your Stress, Reset Your Health, and an internationally renowned speaker and thought leader in women’s health.
For over 25 years, she has been on the cutting edge of health care, helping women to transform their health naturally. As the creator of the Stress Recovery Protocol®, developed through her own journey overcoming chronic migraines, Dr. Doni has helped thousands of patients break free from health challenges and become resilient to stress.
A true advocate for women’s health, she is dedicated to empowering others to take control of their healing, drawing awareness to the profound impact of stress and trauma on the body.
You can find her blog, podcast How Humans Heal, and transformational programs at DoctorDoni.com.
Dr Ritamarie
HPV, human papillomavirus, is actually in the press a lot, especially when it comes to prevention of cervical cancer. And when we hear about it, we hear it’s so dangerous, and we have to wipe this thing out. And there are vaccines that have been developed, but there's some tentativeness about these vaccines, because of side effects.
We're going to be talking about that today, and really, as to whether the vaccines actually save lives. Is this a life-threatening situation, and what really is causing this persistence of a virus that just keeps maybe staying there and coming back?
I'm super excited to have with us somebody who specializes in this, and not many people do. So I invited Dr. Doni Wilson on to talk to us.
She's a doctor of naturopathy. So she's not into the drug solutions. She's always looking for a way to help people to be empowered, to take charge of their health, and help their body’s natural defenses fight things off.
There's times, and there's anti virals, and whatever drugs, not drugs, herbs, but that's not what we're all about.
Dr. Doni Wilson, I've known you for how many years? A long time, right? Probably 10 years or so. And she's just got a big heart, and she's got a big brain, and she's really out there to try to help us, and help the patients and the clients that we see, to get through these problems that are considered high risk and all without fear, but with empowering their own bodies.
Her work has been dedicated to women to understand how their body works, how stress and trauma and hormones and their immune system, and of course food and microbial balance, shape their vulnerability.
And one of the things we are going to be talking about today, which most people don't talk about, is the microbiome, but not the microbiome in our guts, but the microbiome down in the vaginal area where this virus tends to make its home.
So she's a fierce advocate for women's health. She's a naturopathic doctor, like I said. She hosts a show, podcast called How Humans Healed. I love that name, and she brings decades of experience to helping women to be clear and persistent and help them to clear these viruses that do tend to be persistent.
And I also want to talk about how do people know if they have it? Because it is kind of a silent thing that is not presenting with specific external symptoms.
So welcome. I'm so excited to have you here. I can't wait to get into this with you.
Dr. Doni Wilson (03:43)
Thank you so much, Dr Ritamarie. I'm so glad to be here with you, too. And thank you for sharing this message with everyone.
Dr Ritamarie (03:50)
Absolutely, absolutely. So welcome, welcome, welcome. What is this virus? What is human papillomavirus? And why are people scared enough to create a vaccine that then has some negative side effects and scare people into taking it?
Dr. Doni Wilson (04:05)
Well, at this point in time, we know there's 14 types of HPV that are associated with cancer risk.
And when we talk about HPV, we talk about it as if it's a single virus. There's even over 150 strains. So again, at this point, we know that 14 of those can be associated with cancer risk. A lot of times people don't know it's even 14, because we mostly hear about type 16 and 18. But I like to emphasize that it's more than just 16 and 18 that can be associated with cancer risk. And it's associated with cancer risk not just for women, but also for men.
In the United States, and in most countries around the world, men are not being screened for HPV. So it's usually women who are finding out that they have HPV, because it's become part of the annual, what we call an annual exam, or Pap smear, when women go in for a Pap smear.
20-25 years ago, they didn't always get an HPV test. But today, the majority of women who go in for a Pap smear will be tested for high risk HPV, any of those 14 types.
They should test for all 14, but they don't always report it on the result. So on the test result, it might say just HPV detected and not tell you which of the 14, or it might say 16, 18, and other. So just know that every lab that does the test reports it a little differently. And so sometimes, we don't know exactly which type we're dealing with. And some women have more than one type of HPV that they're testing positive for.
When it comes to my protocol for helping with HPV, I've been helping for over 25 years, so I've seen every different scenario, every case of women of all different ages and all different types of HPV. And what I find is that my protocol works for all of the types. So when it comes down to it for me, as soon as I see high risk HPV positive, I'm going to start taking action. It's not a matter of which type. It's more like, hey, it's one of those high risk types. And my protocol helps with the low risk types as well by the way.
So the low risk types of HPV are what are associated with warts, either plantar warts or genital warts. Those are the low risk types that don't have cancer associated with them.
Dr Ritamarie (06:32)
Okay, so it's good to know that we don't have to differentiate. The only downside of it, they're testing for all of them great. If they're not testing for all of them, and you show up negative, you may not be negative. So are they testing for, when you go for Pap smear and they test, are they testing for all of those 14 types?
Dr. Doni Wilson (06:52)
I would make sure, as women, would encourage you when you go for a Pap smear, ask for the HPV test. I recommend it, because for me, I'd rather know if I'm testing positive so that I can take action. A lot of times we're afraid. We don't want to do a test. I definitely don't recommend for patients to do tests if there's nothing, it's not going to make a difference, right? But in this case, it does make a difference. If you can find out earlier that you were testing positive, then you can take action before before it causes more abnormal cells to develop.
Dr Ritamarie (07:28)
So are they testing for the presence of abnormal cells? Are they actually testing for the presence of viral DNA or whatever?
Dr. Doni Wilson (07:34)
Both. Well, when they do the HPV test now, it's a thank goodness for these improved abilities to test for viral titers, because now when HPV is tested for, and I would say every lab or most all labs, because I don't know all of them, but when I see results, what I'm consistently seeing is that labs are able to do essentially like a titer.
Dr Ritamarie (07:59)
An actual amount, so quantifying it.
Dr. Doni Wilson (08:01)
Well, there is that possibility. Most of them don't give an actual number. They will only say yes or no. When a person is diagnosed with HPV-related cancer, they will often do a quantification, which would be wonderful if we could see that. It would be nice if we could see between 0 and 100 how much of it is there. But what is key is to know that if it tests as positive detected, the RNA is present.
Then we know the virus is present and potentially causing abnormal cells. Whereas when it tests negative, that means that the virus has been cleared. Because in the past with prior versions of HPV testing, it wasn't so clear that the HPV negative really meant negative. But from what I'm seeing now, when I see an HPV test that says negative, we can be more assured that that means actually there's no viral load present. And so that becomes our goal. In my practice, and in my group program, our goal is to get to negative, because negative means that that woman's immune system is now protecting her from HPV, and it has cleared the virus from the system. And so that's what we're looking for now.
The pap smear is where they take a sample of cells from the cervix, and they're looking for the abnormal cells. So the pap smear part of it is where they're looking for abnormal cells. And if they see even slight abnormality, then they're more likely to recommend a colposcopy, which is a biopsy of the cervix to look even closer for abnormal cells.
So I always like to point this out for women to get your test results and understand the test results. One, is the virus positive? Is it detected? Two, are there any abnormal cells and how severe are they?
Dr Ritamarie (09:52)
So you're looking at two things. So the pap smear is looking for abnormal cells, while doing the pap smear, they're testing for the presence of HPV. Is that right?
Dr. Doni Wilson (10:03)
Really, now that we know that the majority of cervical cancer is caused by HPV, 99% of cervical cancer is caused by high-risk HPV, so it's actually starting to flip where now women go in for their exam. They might actually be tested for HPV even before getting a pap smear. It's that much of an association that I like women to know that this test is super sensitive if you're positive. That's when we should go look for abnormal cells
Dr Ritamarie (10:35)
Got it, well that makes sense. So how did you get into this? I mean, we've always been curious, like how do you get a general naturopath that works with women, but how do you get fascinated with and focus on this?
Dr. Doni Wilson (10:47)
Well, I dealt with HPV when I was in my twenties. And so it actually was being in the gynecology office in what women go through, where you just feel alone, and overwhelmed, and confused, and ashamed, and embarrassed, and what's going to happen next. And you're just waiting for what procedure the doctor is going to recommend. And you feel like you can't talk with anybody about it. And you feel really alone.
That actually inspired me to spend more time in the gynecology office, obstetrics, and that's what helped me to know that I was so passionate about women's health and decided that I wanted to become both a naturopathic doctor and a midwife.
I'm also a certified, professional midwife. And so it was my own experience in the gynecology office that originally inspired me and then as a women's health expert, and I trained with Dr. Tori Hudson when I was at Bastyr and did a residency at Bastyr, and so after I graduated I went into practice. Tori would often refer these cases to me, because she knew I was trained by her in helping with these HPV cases and escharotic treatments.
And so over the years, I just saw so many cases. I became like, all the time, seeing case after case after case of abnormal pap smears in HPV. And so when women would come to me and say, as they do today, from women from around the world, and say, there has to be another way, what else can I do? “I don't want to have another biopsy.” “I don't want to have a LEEP procedure.” “I don't want to have a hysterectomy.” “The doctor's telling me that there's nothing else I can do.” And when they're sitting in front of me asking me that question, I feel very accountable for helping to solve that.
And so I just kept after it. I'm like, there has got to be a way that we can help women. At first, honestly, my main goal was to just be able to heal the cervix and reverse abnormal cells, which is absolutely possible. But what I ended up finding is in the process of helping women heal the cervix and get rid of abnormal cells with a natural approach. Also, we started seeing the virus went to negative. And not only did the virus go to negative, Ritamarie, but it stayed negative. So I now have cases that worked with me 15 or 20 years ago where it's still negative.
And so this was the surprising gift of it all was, my gosh, not only are we going for healing the cervix, we're going for a negative HPV that stays negative. And this is what I believe really has the potential to change women's health in this area for all women around the world.
Because we now know we can actually come up against HPV virus and win. We don't have to be afraid of it. Women can get back into control of their health and heal themselves.
Dr Ritamarie (13:52)
Wow, so that brings up a lot of thoughts for me and questions for me, but I want to start with, you talk a lot about the terrain, right? Creating the right terrain. So that's one, but the other part is, does this apply?
If you've created a terrain where HPV is not going to grow, what is that saying about their overall viral terrain and susceptibility to other viruses?
Dr. Doni Wilson (14:16)
Absolutely. And that's exactly it. It's because I have the training as a naturopathic doctor where from the start, I'm looking at the body as interconnected. The vagina and the cervix, even though they seem like they're in this far off place that we don't talk about and don't think about all the time, it's completely interconnected with the whole rest of our body. And so coming at it from that perspective, as well as, not just the physical level, too. I am helping women on an emotional, energetic, spiritual level. And when we look at it from that perspective, women heal faster.
They're getting this virus declared a negative faster and keeping it gone. And so that's what is referred to as this terrain perspective to say, hey, instead of just looking at this as an exposure problem, this is what most often women are told is to think about it as you were exposed to high risk HPV by someone, by having sex, and then that just creates more shame for women or embarrassment or anger.
You were exposed to this virus. It's all your fault. And now you're dealing with this situation, even cervical cancer. And it's putting the focus in that exposure perspective on that philosophy. And instead, what I encourage women, and practitioners, to do is to shift and realize that it's not just about exposure. When it comes down to it, 80% of us will be diagnosed at some point with HPV virus. 80% is not uncommon by age 50.
80% us will have HPV and so it's not a rare occurrence, and it's not just women who have multiple sexual partners. It can be women who have a single sexual partner. And so we realize we're getting exposed to this virus, right? Not everybody gets cervical cancer in the United States there's about 4,000 women who die of cervical cancer every year, which I believe is preventable. Those 4,000 women. Could we prevent them from dying from cervical cancer? I believe in most cases.
And close to 11,000 women are diagnosed with cervical cancer. This is preventable. But it just shows you that everyone who gets exposed to HPV doesn't get the cancer.
So we have to ask the question, why? What's happening in between the exposure and the cancer? And when we start asking why, and what's going on in between, why are certain women more susceptible to this virus? Why are more women susceptible to abnormal cells? When I started digging into those questions, that's when I discovered, this is what we need to be paying attention to.
Dr Ritamarie (17:14)
So let's hear it, let's hear it, because most viral illnesses have been a subject of things for a very long time and in the last five years or so, we've been very focused on viral stuff. But that down there. The virus in the private parts that we're not supposed to talk about, that's not talked about as much except go get your vaccine.
So I do want to talk about what is this process? How do we identify an out-of-balanced terrain? How do we correct that? And, you said there's non-cancer causing HPV. So when you said the 80%, do you mean 80% will have one of those 14 strains? Yes. Okay. Not just all, all encompassing. Oh, wow.
Dr. Doni Wilson (18:02)
Actually the number of women finding out that they test positive is increasing. One, because we're testing for it more.
Number two is because of the pandemic. It increased not just the stress of the pandemic, but also exposure to COVID virus increases risk of HPV virus, right? Because the viral susceptibility goes together.
More and more women are finding out that they test positive, but unfortunately, they're being told in the standard doctor's office, they're being told there's nothing they can do about it, or all they can do is this vaccine, and the vaccine is not 100% protective.
Dr Ritamarie (18:40)
So tell us more about the vaccine, because I've heard horror stories about it. Really dreadful that to me, I think I'd rather have cervical cancer than get the effects of these vaccines. So tell us a little bit more about the safety and efficacy of these vaccines.
Dr. Doni Wilson (18:56)
Well the Gardasil vaccine, the way that what we know of this vaccine at this point in time is, it's covering, now you guys are familiar with me talking about the 14 high risk types, well this vaccine covers only seven. Only half of it is covered by it.
Seven of the high risk and two of the low risk types. And also it's not 100% effective. So a person could have the vaccine, and a lot of times it's portrayed with women walking out thinking, oh, now I don't have to worry about HPV, but it's not true. It's not 100%. It's somewhere maybe between 70 and 80% effective. And again, it's only to certain types.
So I talked to so many women who have had the vaccine, and they still are testing positive for high risk HPV and dealing with the wrath of HPV. And they are like, my gosh, here I was thinking the HPV, the vaccine, was going to protect me from this virus, and not really.
You mentioned, like with many vaccines, what I always encourage people to do is to look up the potential side effects, because there's always the potential side effects from a vaccine, let alone the potential insult to the immune system. The immune system's already under, already compromised, and less likely to protect the person from HPV. And then we put on top of it a vaccine that's more stress on the immune system.
And so I just really encourage women to research, and think about, and know that, you can do the vaccine, but if you already know you're testing positive for high risk HPV, it's likely not going to be enough, especially if you already know you have HPV and abnormal cells.
There's so much more we can do that has way better evidence and effectiveness than that.
Dr Ritamarie (20:56)
I want to hear more about that, because if someone is going, first of all, the vaccine gives people a false sense of protection, right? And then they're just not going to really look at their lifestyle, their terrain, and all that.
So, when someone comes in and says, Hey, I just got diagnosed with HPV. What do I do? What are the first steps you're going to take with that?
Dr. Doni Wilson (21:17)
I encourage women to definitely get their test results and understand their test results. I go through it with them, because a lot of times, the gynecologist doesn't even send them results. So women are in this feeling of being in the dark, and the mystery that only adds to the fear and the worry.
So I really go through with them and help them understand their test results, understand how the virus is a spectrum, right? So this virus, if you're inner defenses are not protecting you, which we can go into that. The microbiome, the immune system, this virus can actually hijack the cells. And as we've alluded to, it tends to go after certain types of cells in the body. It tends to want to go after the cells near the endocervical opening on the cervix. If not there, then it can potentially go to vaginal cells and cause abnormalities. So where? The vulva, there's women who are experiencing abnormal cells due to HPV on the vulva, anal cells can develop, and the head and neck cancers for both men and women, is increasing because of high-risk HPV affecting the oral and sinus area.
The thing is, that's not being tested. I believe that when we go to see the dentist and get our teeth cleaned, we should be tested for high-risk HPV orally, both men and women.
But then to be ethical, I think then if you're testing for it, we need to be giving people solutions, right? If you test positive, here's what you can do to protect yourself. Instead, right now, what's happening is people who are diagnosed with head and neck cancer caused by HPV, they only find out that they have HPV once they're diagnosed with cancer. And so there's no prevention, there's no window to protect yourself. And then it can recur.
So these cancers, even if you have surgery, you do cancer treatment, they're still not addressing the virus. And it can happen again and again. And so it really feels like a trap. Women feel like they got caught in this trap, and they're like, well, what am I going to do now? So that's why, yes. So to me, the first step is understanding all of this and then to understand this perspective on the terrain, to say, it's not that this virus is just going to have all the power to do whatever it wants and cause abnormal cells.
Now you can know that you have the power to address your terrain and change all of that. And so we go through the process of understanding what are the most likely susceptibilities for each person. I've identified eight of the most common susceptibilities to HPV and so I guide them through that and say, which testing do we need to do? And I know you are a fan of testing, too. Let's not just guess where the terrain needs help. Let's test and find out.
Is it that there's a microbiome imbalance vaginally or in the gut? Because we know the gut and vaginal microbiome are completely connected and communicating with each other. So we got to look at the gut health, too. We go, what's happening with digestion? Are you absorbing nutrients? Are there any nutrient deficiencies? Is there leaky gut? Leaky gut leads to not only nutrient deficiencies, but inflammation, which also can cause inflammation in the vagina, and they make you more susceptible to HPV. Again microbiome imbalances.
It's well established in the research that women who have recurrent vaginal yeast and BV are at increased risk of HPV, because the vaginal environment is so disrupted. Now the healthy microbiome is not protecting them, as well as, to look at estrogen and other hormone levels.
What can happen is with estrogen, it can be a susceptibility, whether women have too high of estrogen and maybe not detoxifying it well, right? So we want to do testing that allows us to see that. Is the estrogen too high? Is there high OH-estrogen? How's the detoxification going? Because we can help with that.
Or women who are postmenopausal and have low estrogen vaginally, they also become more susceptible to HPV, because when estrogen is low vaginally, the microbiome drops. And of course, we know women become more susceptible to bladder infections. Well, they also become more susceptible to HPV. And so a lot of times I'm talking to women who are postmenopausal dealing with HPV because of the drop in estrogen combined with also blood sugar issues.
I know you're always saying, right? If blood sugar is fluctuating or too high, right away it increases risk of HPV. There's research on all of these susceptibility factors, but it's just to show you there's so much opportunity to help, right? HPV is just the messenger at that point. The HPV is showing us how many viruses are in here?
Dr Ritamarie (26:12.417)
Something's wrong. Let's fix it. And you mentioned you can test the vaginal microbiome. I want to hear what tests you use for that. But you also said testing the estrogen vaginally. Is there a specific test that you do for that?
Dr. Doni Wilson (26:28.702)
Not specific to the vagina, but just testing whether it's balanced.
Dr Ritamarie (26:48)
Like a Dutch test or something like that, okay.
Dr. Doni Wilson (26:50)
Yes, testing and then just helping women to get on the right hormone replacement therapy, postmenopausal, so that they are including vaginal estrogen, which is often missed. A lot of times women will get HRT, but not the vaginal estrogen.
Please, we really have the research to back it up . For decades I've been helping women with that, but now we have the research to say, absolutely, this is safe to be using vaginal estrogen and protective for women for the rest of their lives. So really urging practitioners to educate women about vaginal estrogen postmenopausal.
And the microbiome testing for vaginal, I usually use Microgen, a company called Microgen. Again, it's PCR analysis of the microbiome. You can do PCR analysis for the gut microbiome, we can do a PCR analysis for the vaginal microbiome. And there's a few different companies that offer it, but I really like Microgen, because their report has helped me help many women to get their vaginal microbiome back on track, so it can protect them from HPV and any other infection.
Dr Ritamarie (28:02)
And are you doing probiotics inserted vaginally like a suppository kind of thing?
Dr. Doni Wilson (28:06)
Yes, we can use vaginal probiotics. There's research to show oral probiotics for women help with the vaginal microbiome. And then yes, now we have, we can use vaginal probiotics, as well as, I have developed vaginal suppositories that are herbal nutrient based formulas that we can use.
And there's several available around the world, because this is again something that women are dealing with all around the world, and researchers have been studying it. So there's different formulas out there, but definitely we can safely use traditional herbal nutrient formulas vaginally to restore a healthy vaginal environment.
We want to drop inflammation. We want to be antiviral. We want to be antioxidant, right? Anticancer, get the microbiome back on track, and we can do that with natural substances.
But I always like to emphasize that it's, yes, I work really hard to help women heal the vaginal environment, but we don't just stop there. We have to look, and in fact, you know me, how much I love to research and focus on how stress and trauma affects us humans. And what I've seen in the research and clinically is that one of the biggest susceptibility factors for women and men dealing with HPV is unresolved or unaddressed stress and trauma.
What happens then is we know the cortisol, our main stress hormone, gets thrown off balance, right? Either too high or too low at various times a day. As soon as cortisol is thrown off, it's going to disrupt the immune system. We would think, we would hope, the immune system is going to work better when we're under stress. But it doesn't. Actually, the immune system works less when we're under stress, and we become more susceptible to all different infections, whether sinus infections, bladder infections, you name it, but including HPV infections.
And so that's just one of the links between stress and trauma, cortisol to HPV. We know this stress and trauma disrupt the digestion, right? We're not going to digest well. We're going to have more leaky gut. We're going to have an imbalanced microbiome. There's more susceptibilities. And so it becomes like a domino effect, Ritamarie.
So when I talk to women, the first thing I ask them is have you been under a lot of stress in the past two to five years? And invariably say yes, whether it's they were going through a divorce or separation, maybe they had a loss of a loved one in their life, maybe they had a crisis in their home, or a pandemic, or you know there's a stressful job, ….
They always are saying to me, yes, I have been under so much stress and not been able to take care of myself, right? Not being able to get the healthy food or rest or exercise. And you and I know if we're not getting those basic needs every day, we're going to become more susceptible to the virus for sure.
Dr Ritamarie (31:20)
To everything. Because your immune system is just shot when you don't support it properly.
A couple of times, you mentioned nutrient imbalances. Are there particular ones that you find other than the standard stuff for the immune system like zinc and vitamin C and A and all that? Are there particular ones that you're seeing?
Dr. Doni Wilson (31:39)
Yes. I do work with C, Zinc, A for women who are dealing with HPV, but it's such a good question. One of the most common that I see that's kind of surprised me, so it might surprise others, is iron deficiency. Iron deficiency is, I feel like as a practitioner, so much more common than we realize. That's why it's so important to do a ferritin level on the blood work, because oftentimes women don't have anemia, but they have a low ferritin, less than 50.
We associate that with fatigue and hair loss, but I encourage you to start thinking about HPV, because what I find is that when women are low in ferritin, they're way more likely to be testing positive for HPV. I think it's because iron is also essential for the immune system. And by the time women are low in iron, they usually have heavy menstrual cycles, so they're bleeding heavily. They probably have an imbalance of estrogen, too, and we need to get their menstrual cycle back on track, so they're not experiencing heavy bleeding anymore. And that's not something that's well addressed in the gynecology office.
So many women go around with heavy bleeding for years and there's so much we can do about that so that they're not becoming depleted in iron.
Another thing is a lot of times women are not getting enough protein, right? If they're not getting protein in their diet, they're probably also not getting enough iron, as well as B vitamins. That's how I pick up on the low ferritin. And I'm like, tell me about your diet. Sometimes they've been thinking they're doing a good thing by following a plant based diet, but with a plant based diet, we have to be so careful to still get enough iron and B vitamins, including folate and B12. And so a lot of it is just helping to identify that it's often missed in standard blood work. So we have to dig deeper and do the right tests.
Dr Ritamarie (33:32)
When you say the terrain, not just the vaginal terrain, but the full body terrain, right? Nutrient balance is toxic. Have you found specific toxic exposures?.
Dr. Doni Wilson (33:44)
Yes. Mold toxins is a really important one to consider. If we do my standard protocol, and the HPV is not going away, that says to me, we got to go look for mold and really I now will ask about mold from day one, because I see it so often that women are being exposed to mold toxins without knowing it and then of course the mold toxins throw off the immune system and make us susceptible to HPV.
So if, again, if you're testing positive for HPV, I'd be thinking is there a mold toxin? I've also seen glyphosate, high glyphosate levels, being involved, as well as, other toxins, as well, but those are probably the most common that I see in terms of toxins. But absolutely, women who I guide through a detox program, they get rid of HPV so much faster, right? Because the toxins deplete our immune system too.
Dr Ritamarie (34:37)
Right. That makes so much sense. So vaginal microbiome, I've heard that there's only really three main organisms as opposed to the thousands that we're seeing in our gut. Tell me more about that.
Dr. Doni Wilson (34:51)
Well, it's really the lactobacillus strains. So you'll hear about L. crispatus a lot and L. iners and L. jensenii, the lactobacillus types that are most protective in the vaginal environment. Now, there's again, a high percentage influence from the gut microbiome. And so a lot of times when I run a microbiome panel for vaginal panel for women, I'll end up seeing a bunch of other, you know, gardnerella, but sometimes we see all kinds of different bacteria vaginally, and it's like where did all this come from, and and I mean some of it, I think is honestly, as women, we just don't learn from a young age. I know I didn't from a young age to protect ourselves.
Not just protect ourselves in terms of condom use. That's a lot of times what people will hear about with HPV, just use a condom. But actually a condom is not even enough, because any genital contact can transfer HPV. So it's not just about condom use. When I say protection, I mean even emotionally, energetically, you know, how are we leaving ourselves vulnerable, because we, as women, we're more likely to put ourselves in sexual relationships or interactions, intimate situations, where we're not realizing this could affect my microbiome, I could get exposed to HPV, and so just kind of like bringing that to the surface.
I do a lot of teaching women how to protect ourselves physically but also emotionally and energetically. I think the more, as women, we realize my body is a priority for me and choosing who I share it with intimately is really important, because it could really affect my health in a big way.
Dr Ritamarie (36:53)
Long-term health. Wow. So we've covered a lot. We've covered the terrain and the vaginal microbiome and nutrient deficiencies and toxicities.
Is there anything we haven't covered that you feel is really important for our audience, especially the practitioners who are the majority of our audience, needs to be really aware of when they're seeing people?
Dr. Doni Wilson (37:13)
I would say, and this gives me goosebumps, it's really so important to me, is that as practitioners that we become more aware of the exposure to abuse and women's susceptibility to HPV. I mean, sometimes people will be a bit dismissive and figure, of course, if there's sexual abuse, or we would maybe anticipate it. But what the research is showing is that it's not just about sexual abuse.
Yes, sexual addiction and sexual abuse can be part of this. Meanwhile, as I'm saying, it's not just about exposure. It's exposure, because it's affecting their terrain.
Say women are exposed to emotional abuse, psychological abuse, whether that was even from childhood that's still increasing their risk of cervical cancer today or adult violence.
The research is showing all of these levels of abuse and toxicity in our human relationships increases risk. And again, it's not just about exposure to the virus, it's exposure to the trauma that's not being addressed well. Women are living in a state of trauma that's imbalancing their immune system and making them susceptible to the virus.
I really want women and practitioners to know that I think we need to be paying attention to this for women.
As practitioners, it's our responsibility to help identify women who might be in abusive or toxic relationships and how this could be playing a role and to help them get the help they need to get out of those toxic relationships, and also to help them recover from this stress and trauma. There's so much we can do as providers, even if it's starts with helping to optimize cortisol levels, but also to use mind-body medicine and so many different other forms that help them to start shifting the impact of stress on their body and their mind, because it's going to help protect them from high-risk HPV virus.
Dr Ritamarie (39:18)
I love your well-rounded approach and looking at it from all different aspects, because I think that a lot of times, at least in the conventional medical world, it's dismissed. Those relationship things. And there's not a lot of time in the encounter. It's just like swab, swab, okay, you're fine. So I really appreciate that perspective, because I think that's what people need and deserve.
And then the last question I have for you, are there markers on the regular tests, quote unquote, regular tests that might show up, like on the blood work.
Dr. Doni Wilson (39:53)
Well, I would definitely be checking blood sugar levels, because, again, if the blood sugar, even if it's not diabetes, even if the hemoglobin A1c is not above a 5.7, but if it's higher for her, or you know she's going through menopause, let's help with the blood sugar levels. That's a great starting place.
I would be also looking at vitamin D. Most practitioners are testing vitamin D, and vitamin D, we know, helps the immune system. So that's something you might already be able to catch on blood work that the insurance covers. Is the vitamin D low?
Also, I would be looking at thyroid function, as well as, just for outright anemia. Although again, they might not show as anemic. It might only show once you check for ferritin. And then for methylation. I also look at methylation so much because of course, methylation is affected by stress and toxins and blood sugar. So I always order a homocysteine and methylmalonic acid in the blood work, because I want to see if their methylation has been impacted, and help optimize that as well.
And of course, for many years, the research was on folic acid. Sometimes people will hear about using folic acid, but now we really know that 40, at least 40% of people, that's probably not going to help them much. We really need to be using methylfolate. And methylfolate does have effectiveness to resolve abnormal cells and help women to grow new healthy cells on the cervix. So methylfolate is a key player and the whole methylation factor needs to be addressed as well.
Dr Ritamarie (41:34)
Well, so a lot of things that we can be looking at, and I really appreciate your time. So tell us a little bit more for people who want to learn more about this, either for themselves or for the clients that they're working with. How do we reach you?
Dr. Doni Wilson (41:49)
Yes, thank you so much. I would love it. My mission is to reduce rates of cervical cancer and other HPV related cancers. So I'm out to just inform and educate as many lay people and practitioners as possible. And you can find my website at doctordoni.com, which is just D-O-C-T-O-R-D-O-N-I.com.
And I've now also created a practitioner certification program in my HPV protocol. So if you are a provider who's seeing women with HPV, or you want to be able to help more women with abnormal pap smears. If you would like to learn exactly my protocol down to the dosing and the exact nutrients and herbs that we use and also how to address the terrain fully, then please know that that's an option as well as to become certified in my HPV protocol so that you can use it in your practice.
To change healthcare in this scenario, in this situation, which really is needed, we're going to need a lot of us who are doing this type of care for women. And so I invite you to reach out to me.
Dr Ritamarie (43:02)
We'll make sure we put that in our show notes.
So check it out in the description below. So thank you so much for being here and sharing your perspective and for really turning your own adversity into insight for yourself and for other people. It's really a great thing, because if it is an overlooked problem that is not an obviously diagnosable problem.
You're doing the testing, and it's good that they are doing the testing on a regular basis, because they weren't doing that 20 years ago.
So thank you so much and thank you all for listening and for being part of this movement to reinvent healthcare and make it such that people actually get the recourse care that they need. That's overall overarching, not just isolated to a particular area of the body and not just isolated to physical or biochemical, but that also encompasses the emotional and energetic aspects of it. So I love that.
And thank you so much for being here and until next time, shine on.
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